The Nameless: Slay Dragon

Written by Eric Hauter on 8/29/2025 for SWI  

Looking for new games to play on my Nintendo Switch 2, the pickings have been a little slim. As Nintendo seems to be maintaining a pretty tight hold on Switch 2-specific releases, I’ve been happily playing new and old titles built for the original Switch and enjoying the way they look and feel on the new system. Even a game like The Nameless: Slay Dragon, which relies far more on storytelling and character building than graphical acumen, feels great on the system.

I came into The Nameless: Slay Dragon expecting a straightforward, maybe even derivative, fantasy RPG. I was surprised to find a meticulously crafted game that feels more like a tabletop D&D campaign than a Square Enix title, an unexpected plot twist that frankly knocked my socks off. The storytelling is top-tier, and there are so many new RPG gameplay mechanics that I don’t really know where to start.

Solo developer The Nameless Epic has set up a pretty cool world for the player to navigate. Dragons have destroyed much of civilization, sending the tattered remains of humanity behind the walls of the one remaining city. Outlying villages are in constant danger of being decimated, and anyone wandering the countryside is risking their skin not only from the proliferation of dragons, but also from the general threat of wandering monsters.

At the beginning of the game, our nameless (get it?) hero arrives at the city gates, the last survivor of a dragon attack that wiped out his town. Now single-minded in his desire to slay dragons, he sets out on a quest for revenge. He is soon accompanied by a small party, which includes a thief, a mage, and a cleric. Over time, they bond together as a team, secrets are revealed, and dragons are indeed slain.

So, that all sounds overly familiar, right? What sets The Nameless: Slay Dragon apart is the way it delivers its story and gameplay, which is absolutely wild. Players navigate the world map via a little cursor, navigating from waypoint to waypoint. When you get where you want to go, you click the button and narrative text explains to you what happens, much like a Dungeon Master in a D&D game would start telling you about your surroundings and circumstances. Choices the player makes have incredible impact on the story; some outcomes are minor, while some are huge swings that change everything. This visual novel dynamic is shockingly good at keeping the player involved in the story, as the game ends up feeling like a choose-your-own-adventure book with a robust turn-based battle system.

Having the world set up with this system of waypoints offers some very unique opportunities. Some waypoints are clearly set up for grinding; you can just click them over and over again to fight the same battle. Likewise, there are some that can be used for gathering herbs and other materials—pass a check, and you can just stand there all day picking flowers if you want. 

You eventually run out of energy (there is a fatigue meter that rises with every action), but the open-ended nature of the game world allows you to simply drag your cursor all the way across the map to a rest point, refresh yourself, and instantly return to what you were doing. Any point you’ve already explored in the game can be returned to in the blink of an eye. Hell, you can even bop down directly to the deepest part of past dungeons if you want, bypassing all the stops along the way. It’s the ultimate in fast travel.

All of these gathering/fighting/exploration activities are tied to the progression system, and they all help unlock new skills and traits that push your characters forward. You get experience points for pretty much anything you do—even running away from overpowered foes. Getting your head around the progression system can be a bit of a chore, but a handy Help menu cleared a lot of the confusion up for me. There is almost too much here to go into, but if you have any trouble, I recommend looking up a guide.

Essentially, each character can earn a number of different bonuses that develop your party. Something is always pinging, advancing, and growing stronger. Your characters have perks, your skills have perks, and there is an entire job system that allows you to mix and match skills. It’s deep beyond deep. I found that it was best to just jump in feet first and allow the game to carry me through things for the first few hours.

I do want to shout out specifically to The Nameless: Slay Dragon’s crafting system, which is a hoot. You gain recipes that say things like “Hat: One fur, and one jewel.” Then you can mix stuff from your inventory that meets the criteria into the recipe. The higher value stuff you add, the sweeter the outcome. It’s more or less an analogue to Zelda’s cooking system, where you throw a bunch of stuff into a pot and hope for the best. It’s a lot of fun.

I only have one gripe about The Nameless: Slay Dragon, and it’s a small one. For a game that is this reliant on reading, the font size is very, very small, especially in handheld mode. I’m playing on a Switch 2, so I imagine the issue is further exacerbated when playing on an old-school Switch. This feels like the sort of game that will appeal to a slightly older audience. Have some pity on our ancient eyes, The Nameless Epic. The inventory could also use a makeover—it’s pretty tough to find what you are looking for among all the gear, trinkets, and bobbles you accumulate.

And this is a game that I’ve really been enjoying in handheld mode. My family has been working through the tryout episodes of America’s Got Talent in the evening, which only takes about 20% of my attention. I’m perfectly content to lounge on the sofa in the same room, falling into this story of heroes and dragons while dance troops cavort on the television. It’s a great portable game, and one you can look away from and come back to as much as needed. There is very little going on here visually. All of the actions are conveyed with text against static backgrounds. Animation is rare, but somehow the game retains it's sense of liveliness. 

The Nameless: Slay Dragon is an unexpected delight. It both challenges with its gameplay and relaxes like a good book. Indie in every sense of the word, this game shows what can be accomplished when the focus is on story and character instead of bells and whistles. While it may not have the looks and polish of a AAA game, it does have something many of those games are lacking: a beating heart.