I’ve been playing Flight Rising for quite a while, and wanted to eventually write a review about it. However, since registration is limited to certain days and times, I decided to hold off until I knew there was an upcoming registration window opening. And there is!

Flight Rising will be opening a registration window for new users Monday, April 14th starting at 5:00 server time and ending at 5:00 server time on April 15th. 

Okay, with that out of the way, here comes the review.

Dragon Breeding and So Much More!

What is Flight Rising? I’d be tempted to call it a dragon breeding virtual pet website, but it’s far more than that. Hearkening back to the days of NeoPets, Flight Rising has created a thriving community of dragon lovers, and provides several browser-based games to supplement your shopping sprees.

What all does this site include?

• Several types of dragons to breed. Their traits and color combinations are genetic, so you can mix and match to develop your dream dragon.
• Clothing and vanity items for your dragons to wear.
• Community broken down into Flights (clans), based on element or dragon philosophy. Good for the RP types.
• Daily gathering for food and rare items. Eventually, I hear there will be crafting.
• Collect cute familiars and earn their trust for gold and treasures.
• An auction house for selling items and dragons.
• A battle coliseum where you can develop a team of dragons that gain levels as they take on monsters in a turn-based RPG environment.
• Match your dragons against other players in the coliseum as well.
• A fairground with several types of browser based games that help you earn in-game currency.
• Monthly contests and festivals for each flight.
• Battles for flight dominance to earn perks, such as marketplace discounts.

Let’s not forget the wonderful artwork, much of it lovingly created by NeonDragon.

The Flip Side

Flight Rising has a lot of wonderful concepts and offers a lot for dragon lovers to enjoy. I list all of the above as positive aspects of the site, but a review wouldn’t be complete without some cons to balance it out. While this has been one of the most enjoyable virtual pet games I’ve played, and I support it whole-heartedly, there are some hitches that will probably not bother a newcomer to the site… and certainly shouldn’t turn you away from trying it out.

Website Woes. Flight Rising is popular. In fact, it is so popular that the developers underestimated the kind of traffic the site would receive. The team has done a great job of ironing out the issues that cause crashes and sluggish response times in the beginning. It’s not unusual to see the site have hiccups, however. And the team continues to keep the site closed to new member registration for concern of website load.

Breeding and Economy Woes. For a game that centers around dragon breeding, even well-traited dragons sell for far, far less than the cost of a breed-change scroll. Don’t expect to make money by selling your dragons on the auction house. It’s sad but true. Games and coliseum are the focus of generating revenue, which tends to miff those of us who came here to breed lovely dragons we hoped would be of value.

Slow Breeding Times and Cooldowns. Depending on the breed of dragon, the time between breeding cycles can vary from 15 to 30-something days. And once your dragons breed, obtaining a random number of eggs (which can be one egg if you’re unlucky), it takes another five days of incubating to hatch the eggs. It’s a pretty steep waiting game that may turn some breeders off.

Real Money Transactions. Flight Rising is free to play, but does include real money transactions in the form of purchasing gems. You can earn these gems (very slowly) or sell at the auction house for gems, but the fastest way to get the rarest breed and trait scrolls is to plunk down real money for it. This has never bothered me, but it might bother some folks.

If any of this sounds exciting to you, why not give it a shot? The registration window is only open one day next week, and it’s hard to tell when the next window will open once this is closed. If it seems like something you’d enjoy, feel free to reference me (Aywren) as your referral and friend me once you get your account running!