Dinoblade is an action RPG soulslike where you play as a dinosaur wielding a giant sword and stop a meteor from wiping out your species. Learn more about the game's story, gameplay, release date, our first impressions review, and more
Everything We Know About Dinoblade
Dinoblade Plot
Dinoblade follows a hardened dinosaur wielding a massive sword on a desperate quest to prevent the extinction of its species. Like an epic adventure, you'll journey across vast prehistoric lands teeming with life and danger, eventually uncovering the mysteries behind the impending catastrophe while facing dinosaur enemies armed with their own unique melee weapons.
Dinoblade Gameplay
Dinoblade's gameplay draws inspiration from popular action RPGs, particularly FromSoftware's soulslike titles such as Elden Ring and Dark Souls. Wielding a massive sword, you'll battle a wide variety of formidable enemies that are just as skilled as you are. As you face increasingly powerful foes, you'll need to learn their attack patterns and capitalize on openings to land devastating strikes.
Other mechanics include parry-focused combat à la Sekiro and Lies of P. You'll also be able to summon the souls of other dinosaurs to gain an advantage in battle, while upgrading your character's stats through a progression system similar to those found in traditional soulslike games.
Dinoblade Release Date
Dinoblade was released on PC via Steam on July 24, 2026.
Dinoblade Review (First Impressions)
This Spinosaurus Can Throw Hands
There never seems to be an end to the wave of soulslike games arriving every year. What FromSoftware popularized and refined has inspired countless developers to put their own spin on the genre, giving us standout titles like Lies of P and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, each with its own unique take on the formula.
Dinoblade is, on the surface, another soulslike in an increasingly crowded genre. What makes it stand out, however, is its premise of a Spinosaurus wielding a massive sword. But how did this idea even come to be?
It all started when Jean Nguyen, a senior animator at Sucker Punch Productions who worked on Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yotei, posted a short animation of a Spinosaurus wielding a giant sword four years ago. The clip was originally meant as a fun animation exercise, but it quickly went viral across social media, particularly on X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit. Fans couldn't get enough of the bizarre concept and encouraged Nguyen to turn it into a real game. What began as a meme eventually evolved into a serious indie project, and thus Dinoblade was born.
What's even crazier is that Dinoblade works. Its easy-to-grasp melee combat and serviceable parry system, clearly inspired by the genre's best, make its absurd premise surprisingly enjoyable. Translated into the soulslike formula, this sword-wielding Spinosaurus has a surprising amount of confidence behind it, and my first few hours with the game had me grinning from ear to ear thanks to its bonkers concept. The foundation is undeniably solid, but the longer I played, the more apparent it became that this is a game that needs more time in the oven before it can truly become an apex predator of the genre.
Jurassic Park… Souls?
No matter how you look at it, Dinoblade's concept is undeniably ridiculous. But considering the current indie scene, where developers continue to embrace delightfully bizarre ideas like the shonen-inspired platforming adventure Denshattack! or the hilarious labor force of robots working at the end of the world in FixForce, a dinosaur wielding a giant sword hardly feels out of place anymore.
For starters, Dinoblade takes place in an alternate version of Earth, where fantasy elements are layered on top of prehistoric history. Here, dinosaurs have embraced the art of the blade like anime protagonists instead of relying solely on their claws and teeth. Like cavemen discovering fire for the first time, the invention of weapons transforms these prehistoric creatures into hardened warriors capable of parrying, dodging, and pulling off pirouettes like it's second nature.
Things quickly take a turn for the worse when an impending meteor threatens to wipe their species from existence. That's where you come in.
As a sword-wielding Spinosaurus, or John Spinosaurus (as I'd like to call my character), you're tasked with preventing the extinction of your kind before it's too late. You'll journey through dank forests, wide-open glades, and ominous woodlands, each packed with dangerous foes eager to test your skills.
There’s really not much to take away from Dinoblade's plot, and that's admittedly disappointing. I expected it to lean further into its absurd premise, especially since there's a noticeable lack of NPCs to flesh out the world and share their perspectives on the impending extinction. Instead, the game is more focused on charging sword-first into a gauntlet of dinosaurs, each wielding their own unique weapons, in a world on the brink of destruction. Much like its contemporaries, the story takes a back seat as you're thrown into sprawling prehistoric landscapes with just a sprinkle of fantasy along the way.
Parry This, You Cretacean
Dinoblade is a soulslike, and its inspirations are evident in nearly everything it does. Estus Flask-style healing, bonfire-like checkpoints, and suspiciously obvious boss arenas are all here.
The thing about Dinoblade's gameplay is just how much it borrows from FromSoftware's catalog of soulslikes. The familiar Light and Heavy attacks are here, constantly forcing you to decide whether to commit to another swing or resist the temptation to get greedy during a boss fight that may have already taken you hours to overcome. The genre's staple dodge mechanic also makes an appearance. While dodging doesn't come with any slow-motion effects or flashy flourishes, it's just as essential, giving you the precise invincibility frames needed to avoid enemy attacks and stay alive.
Then there's the parry mechanic, which I think is the strongest part of Dinoblade's combat system. Much like Lies of P and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, you can parry almost every attack thrown your way. In fact, the game actively encourages it, as bosses have a stagger meter that fills with every successful parry. Once it's full, you can unleash a devastating attack that deals massive damage. Sure, learning enemy patterns and movesets are still essential, but the benefits of simply mastering the parry system makes tougher boss encounters manageable beyond the traditional dodge-and-strike routine we’re all familiar with.
During my first few hours, I relied heavily on parrying, but more often than not, it became frustrating because there were plenty of moments when I couldn't understand why some of my parries failed to register, even though my timing was spot on. While the satisfying clink and clang of metal makes every successful parry rewarding, Dinoblade's lack of visual feedback often makes combat harder to read, especially against smaller dinosaurs that are easily obscured by your hulking Spinosaurus.
To make matters worse, smaller enemies have very few attack telegraphs, making their swings difficult to anticipate. Bosses at least signal their unblockable attacks with a distinct red glint, but regular enemies don't offer the same clarity. As a result, I found myself getting swarmed far more often than I expected, which brought back memories of repeatedly getting ganked in Dark Souls' infamous Undead Burg.
More Than Just Tooth and Blade
Secondary gameplay mechanics are also present in Dinoblade, such as the ability to summon the souls of defeated bosses during combat. These summons give you a bit of breathing room while providing unique boons that can turn the tide of battle. They're especially useful for players who tend to rely too heavily on a single mechanic. My personal favorite is the Axe summon, which boosts stamina recovery. It’s especially useful when I've exhausted myself from excessive dodging and missed perfect parries, making it a reliable lifeline during longer fights. You'll also unlock a variety of other summons throughout the adventure by defeating bosses, giving you plenty of options to tailor your playstyle.
There's also Dinoblade's skill tree, which I found a bit underwhelming. While many of the skills deal huge damage against bosses and regular enemies (with one flashy attack even reminiscent of Vergil's Judgment Cut from Devil May Cry), several take so long to execute that they leave you wide open to incoming attacks. It's a classic high-risk, high-reward tradeoff, but I rarely found myself using them because of how vulnerable they made me feel. The one exception was the skill that grants you a second chance by reviving you after death, which proved far more practical than the offensive abilities I unlocked during my time with the game.
Right now, I haven't fully explored these gameplay systems yet, but they already feel more optional than essential. If you're the type of player who enjoys relying on magic, summons, and special abilities in soulslikes, then these mechanics will probably be right up your alley. Personally, I found myself sticking to the core combat mechanics for most of my playthrough.
Held Back by Prehistoric Jank
At first, I considered Dinoblade’s jank part of the charm, but the further I pushed through its boss fights, the more the bugs and glitches became impossible to overlook. What initially felt like harmless rough edges gradually turned into issues that undermined the overall experience.
Combat, while hilariously over-the-top and undeniably fun, also becomes more frustrating than it should be. Against smaller enemies, my hulking Spinosaurus often blocks my view of their attacks, making it difficult to read their movements and react accordingly. This is largely due to the camera when using the lock-on system. While it generally serves its purpose, it has a habit of aggressively recentering itself, even during fights against tiny enemies, making it harder to keep track of their attacks. The issue becomes even more noticeable during certain boss fights, such as the Ankylosaurus Tank, who wields a tiny hammer that's frequently obscured as the camera snaps back behind your character.
That encounter alone accounted for my first 10 deaths. Call it a skill issue if you want, but I genuinely couldn't see what the boss was doing. A simple quality-of-life feature, such as the character silhouette system used in Monster Hunter Wilds, would go a long way toward making these encounters feel fairer without changing the game's difficulty.
Unlike traditional soulslikes, there's no level-up threshold that requires you to accumulate a certain amount of experience before resting at a bonfire. Instead, as long as you have enough SP, you can freely invest it into any stat you want, whether it's Strength, Health, Resonance, or Stamina.
Your overall level only increases by defeating enemies, while your individual stats are upgraded using SP collected from items scattered throughout the prehistoric world. On paper, it's an interesting way to separate character level from stat progression, but in practice, it opens the door to major balance issues. Since these SP items respawn, players can simply farm them over and over, dramatically boosting their stats and trivializing much of the game's intended difficulty.
Then there's the game's performance, which could easily push away interested players. While I can forgive Dinoblade for some of its jank and technical shortcomings given its low-budget indie roots, there are moments when the performance becomes so abysmal that the game is nigh unplayable. This was especially noticeable during the boss named Speed, which is a burning Velociraptor. When the action ramps up, my frame rate frequently dropped from the low 30s into the low 20s, making an already demanding soulslike feel frustratingly sluggish and far less responsive.
It's strange because my GPU exceeds the minimum requirements, yet it struggled during that particular fight. Whether the issue stemmed from my hardware or the game itself, it turned an already demanding encounter into a far more frustrating experience than it should have been. Outside of that encounter, though, the game was mostly smooth sailing, even with my graphics set between Medium and High.
Full of Potential, But Needs More Time to Evolve
Overall, Dinoblade does a great job of capturing what makes soulslikes so appealing while putting its own absurd spin on the genre. Nearly every hallmark of the genre is here, from its challenging combat to its rewarding progression, even if its level design and enemy variety leave room for improvement. But, in its current state, the game still feels unfinished, with severe jank, bugs, and barebones UI that often get in the way of what could have been a genuinely great and delightfully silly experience.
If these issues are addressed in future updates, Dinoblade has every chance to become something special. It's a shame because the game has solid foundations for a soulslike, but those strengths are overshadowed by so many technical issues that become increasingly frustrating the deeper you get into the adventure.
As of now, I'm not calling Dinoblade a bad game. It's clearly a labor of love and the result of years of support from fans who rallied behind what started as a funny animation concept. That passion shines through, but it's also a game that still needs more polish. With additional fixes and updates, it could appeal to a much wider audience without players having to worry about the technical hiccups that currently hold it back.
Game8 Reviews
You may also like...
Dinoblade Product Information
 |
|
| Title | DINOBLADE |
|---|---|
| Release Date | July 24, 2026 |
| Developer | Team Spino LLC |
| Publisher | Team Spino LLC, Boltray Games |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | Action-RPG, Soulslike |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Dinoblade Official Website |
Dinoblade propone un'idea originale che unisce l'azione di un gioco di ruolo all'ambientazione preistorica. Il protagonista è un dinosauro guerriero armato di una gigantesca spada, impegnato in una missione disperata per salvare la propria specie dall'estinzione. Lungo il viaggio, il giocatore esplora territori vasti e ricchi di creature preistoriche, affrontando combattimenti impegnativi e scoprendo i segreti che si celano dietro l'imminente catastrofe. Uno degli aspetti più interessanti del gi