Dragonkin: The Banished tackles numerous elements of the action genre, all in a hauntingly beautiful fantasy world. In a world corrupted by dragon blood, Dragonkin: The Banished players can tame Dragonets and upgrade their chosen hero as they seek to defeat the Dragon Lords.
Eko Software learned the importance of Early Access in previous games like Warhammer: Chaosbane, and using that experience, the team has worked diligently on Dragonkin. Of course, there’s nothing quite like the insight gained from Early Access, which is why the team is once again going through the process with Dragonkin. Ahead of the Early Access release on March 6, 2025, Game Rant caught up with Jean-Georges Levieux, Production Director at Eko Software, to learn more. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The World of Dragonkin: The Banished
Q: Can you talk about your approach to exploration?
A: The story is built around what we call Hunts, which invite you to track down the Dragon Lords. These Hunts take you to two types of environments: those with handcrafted level design and those that are randomly generated. In story mode, you will mainly visit handcrafted locations, designed to tell the narrative. Your quest objectives will sometimes be obvious, but other times, we will encourage players to explore these levels more thoroughly to discover what they have to offer.
However, once you reach End Game mode, you will explore procedural levels much more often, but also, depending on your choices, return to story mode locations, where you will possibly discover areas you haven’t visited before.
Q: Within the gloomy world are these pockets of beauty such as waterfalls and vibrant plants. Could you talk more about the striking art style? What made you land on these visuals?
A: It’s true that the world is ravaged by draconic corruption, but we also wanted to create brighter and more colorful areas to offer visual variety to the players. If an entire game is dark, it can sometimes feel like you’re always in the same atmosphere. To achieve this, we take full advantage of what Unreal Engine 5 offers in terms of lighting.
Depending on where you are in your adventure, you might revisit a familiar location that has been completely transformed. That said, make no mistake—you will also venture into much gloomier, darker, and more corrupted places, especially underground.
The Importance of Early Access
Q: What do you expect to learn from early access?
A: When you’ve been developing a game for years, you can sometimes overlook obvious things. You can run playtests before launch, but the pool of testers is always limited, and you need time to process their feedback. We conducted one in December, and we still have things to adjust! That’s exactly what Early Access can—and should—be used for: discovering what we’ve missed, listening to players’ feedback on what works and what doesn’t, and using all that input to improve the game.
Q: You previously worked on Warhammer: Chaosbane. What did you learn from that and what influence has it had on Dragonkin: The Banished?
A: When we developed Chaosbane, we launched a beta just a few weeks before release, and we learned a lot from player feedback. However, for many of them, it was too late to make meaningful changes. The decision to do Early Access for Dragonkin was largely influenced by that experience. Also, when you develop multiple games in the same genre, you naturally refine your expertise and improve. We believe Dragonkin is better than Chaosbane, and everything we learned helped us make it that way.
Dragonkin’s Deep Upgrade System
Q: The Ancestral Grid upgrade system is very deep. What has been your approach to developing it and its relation to each class?
A: The Ancestral Grid is undoubtedly the most important aspect of Dragonkin. Our goal with this game mechanic is to offer an original skill system, far from the traditional skill trees commonly seen in the genre. It is primarily based on Fragments that you can find as loot during battles or as activity rewards. The grid allows you to use these Fragments, enhance them, and upgrade them to customize your skills.
It’s almost impossible for two players to have the same Ancestral Grid once it’s fully filled! Each class has its own skills, and the shape of the grid varies from class to class, but the upgrades and modifiers are shared.
Q: Players are able to tame Dragonets to fight on their side. How many different types are there and what kind of upgrades are there to their abilities?
A: Wyrmlings, as we call them in the game, are an integral part of the Ancestral Grid and, therefore, the skill system. There are four types, each corresponding to an element: Ice, Electricity, Fire, and Poison. From a character-building perspective, they function like class specializations, but players can switch between them at any time by visiting an NPC in their City.
Each Wyrmling has its own abilities, but players don’t activate them directly with a button. Instead, they must strategically place them on their Ancestral Grid so that they trigger them based on their own skill usage. A simple example: the Fire Dragonet can cast its Fireball ability when a compatible character skill hits an enemy.
Dragonkin’s Hub Explained
Q: The hub looks intriguing. How does it affect the game? What kind of upgrades and benefits should players expect?
A: Think of the city as a hub where you can unlock a variety of services and upgrades for all your characters created within that city. As you progress, your city will gain prosperity – in other words, experience – which allows it to level up. With each level, you’ll earn a point to unlock a new feature. These features range from unlocking merchants and craftspeople to direct bonuses for all your characters.
There are also unique additions like the Arsenal, which lets you save character loadouts and switch between them freely. In the future, when we add multiplayer during Early Access, you’ll be able to share and develop your city with friends. Every upgrade also brings visual changes to your city, and you’ll even be able to customize its appearance.
Q: How are interactions with NPCs in the city and the wider world?
A: Most of the NPC can be upgraded multiple times, and every upgrade also visually enhances their shop – or even their entire district. Of course, throughout the story, you’ll encounter additional NPCs who will advance the plot, both in the city and within the game’s levels.
Developing Dragonkin’s Endgame
Q: Warhammer: Chaosbane received a lot of praise for its endgame content. Could you give some details about endgame content in Dragonkin: The Banished?
A: Once you complete the story with at least one character from your city, you’ll gain direct access to the endgame content, regardless of your character’s level. We believe it’s important to respect your time and not force you to replay identical content multiple times for each character. The endgame revolves around a Hunting Board, where you have predefined missions to complete.
However, before long, you’ll be able to create your own Hunts, customizing various parameters to focus on the activities you enjoy the most. You’ll be able to adjust factors like duration, environment type, rewards, and activities. However, the more specific your choices are, the more random debuffs you’ll have to counter during your Hunt.
Q: You already revealed some special ornaments players receive for their armor in the endgame. Could you give more details about them and the effects they have?
A: For the most powerful gears, we’ve added ornaments to each armor piece. Beyond the visual variety, we wanted these ornaments to be an integral part of character building and itemization. You’ll need to visit the Ornamentalist in your city, who, in exchange for materials obtained from combat or exploration, can craft ornaments for each armor type. Equipping an ornament grants Talent Points, which unlock powerful passive abilities that are crucial for your build.
Of course, each ornament available at the Ornamentalist provides points in different Talents, so you’ll need to craft those that best suit your current character. But the ornaments are just a little part of the complete itemization of the game, we have a lot of other game mechanics for you to improve and optimize your gears.
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LIBERATE A RAVAGED WORLD!
In Dragonkin: The Banished, you wander a world corrupted by the blood of dragons that have caused evil creatures to appear. You play as one of four hero classes and set out to hunt and fight draconic monsters. Every enemy is one step closer to your ultimate goal: find and eliminate the Dragon Lords.
FOUR HEROES READY TO HUNT
All the heroes have developed their own skills and combat techniques to fight the dragons. As you progress through the game, you can develop and improve your character, equipment, wyrmling and Ancestral Grid.
• (The Barbarian) The Ice Warrior: Like his father before him, he survived ingesting white dragon blood and acquired powers of ice without losing his humanity. He takes hits like a true barbarian, freezes his enemies and deals huge melee damage with his devastating axe and hammer. The more damage he takes, the more powerful his attacks.
• (The Witch) The Draconic Oracle: Transformed by blood of the blue dragon, she dreams of a world in which dragons and humans can live together. She uses her electric draconic powers to keep enemies at a distance. The Witch often stays away from the melee where she can charge her spells and deal damage from range.
• (The Knight) The Soldier of the Order: Trained in combat since childhood, he is a master of the fire lance and shield. He can resist all draconic corruption thanks to his determination and faith in the Eternal. He is the ideal balance between melee and ranged attacks thanks to his formidable lance, which also spits out flames.
• (The Archer) The Tracker Archer: As the best hunter in her clan, she boasts outstanding skill. Her arsenal includes arrows, daggers, traps and draconic toxic substances. Ideal for ranged combat, she can also create a poisonous area around her to become unreachable.
A VAST RANGE OF BUILDS WITH THE ANCESTRAL GRID
The Ancestral Grid is an innovative mechanic to level up your character and make them a unique fighter. Acquire abilities as combat loot, and place them in the grid next to a wide range of modifiers. Optimize the placement of these elements to define your fighting style and become more powerful. Each hero has their own grid and endless combinations of abilities and modifiers.
A WORLD TO EXPLORE
Fight draconic monsters and learn its story by travelling across the world of Dragonkin.
Volcanic lands, frozen plains, ancient islands, toxic swamps and many other environments. As you hunt you will discover everything the world has to offer. Each region has its own culture, monsters and resources.
A CITY TO DEVELOP DURING YOUR ADVENTURE
In the heart of the mountains, sheltered from dragons and their voices, lies a huge city and bastion of humanity.
This city grows and changes based on your decisions and discoveries. As you progress, decide which area of its development to focus on. Upgrade your buildings and find new inhabitants, equipment and additional services, on your own or with other players. All the heroes in your city can be involved in its development and can unlock new content.
HUNTING AS A TEAM
Embark on the adventure in local co-op with two players or online with up to four players. You can prolong your game experience by connecting to other players’ games and by unlocking random dragon hunts once the story has been completed.
Action RPG
Hack and Slash
Dungeon Crawler
- Developer(s)
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Eko Software
- Early Access Release
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March 6, 2025