Locked in Battle
Mystic Dragon may look to be a pushover, with weak imagery, but when it comes to the gameplay and the RTP rate, you’ll find it comes into its own and has a nasty bite. The brand is no stranger to delivering tough scenarios for its gamers to overcome, but no doubt the focus needed to defeat the mighty dragon will still come as a shock.
Volatility wise, it’s on the high scale, with wins realistically happening every five rounds or less, making this a taxing game with low rewards. Easy money won’t be found here; you’ll have to work for your prize, as any true knight in shining armour would.
Two Paths, One Choice
You will come to a fork in the road during your playthrough with Mystic Dragon, when a victory is finally made against the enemy; your choice will be one of two double or nothing features. No matter which you choose, the level of risk will be the same, and the amount you can hope to win is too.
The card game will open up a brand new window on top of the grid, while the ladder game will reveal a black and orange ladder from the control panel. The mechanics are simple: guess correctly and double your earnings, get it wrong and you die (okay, you just lose the money). Fortunately, you have a get out of jail free card that allows users to cash half of their winnings, to avoid losing everything altogether. We suggest you use it, unless you’re okay with getting burnt along your journey.
The Nature of the Beast
The actual dragon of the title is a gold creature, who becomes animated when part of a combination, winning or not. But what won’t activate without a win is the rewards he brings. Users can get 15 rounds if they secure between three and five matches of the tile along a winline. Furthermore, any wins made during this time will have a x3 multiplier placed onto them, further plumping up that sack of coins you’ve collected along the way.
It’s a short-lived round in truth, and we never discovered whether the round could be retriggered in the game (it never happened to us), but it’s a welcomed detour from the grind of the traditional paytable.
Sadly however, that’s the full extent of the mini levels found in Mystic Dragon, which means the variance is minute. The only element that comes close to another feature is the wild that doubles funds, but that doesn’t take you away from the base game, and so it isn’t seen as a true bonus round.
A Worthy Attempt
Those used to playing with Merkur will be more than aware of the lengths the brand have gone to in trying to create an enticing and user friendly slot machine. That being said, the lack of depth provided here obviously means that interacting with Mystic Dragon becomes limited – it’s a short burst activity, designed for a quick game and then to be done away with. We’d like to be able to say that this goes against the brand’s ethic, but a lot of their other games function in such a way… Maybe only play if you’re certain you can deal with average details across the board.
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