An enjoyable shift in Social RPGs in recent months has been a growing trend in putting the focus on storytelling. Earlier this year we were pleasantly surprised with the amount of inter-character sequences in Dissidia’s mobile outing from Square Enix, Nintendo has managed to finally give ‘Fire Emblem: Heroes’ a compelling arc with its second chapter, and now we have Sdorica Sunset to add to the list of genuinely interesting narratives.
Galaxy of Pen and Paper sees a return to the series by its original development team, Paradox North after briefly handing over the reins of the franchise to Paradox Interactive (who recently made the original free to play) while they made their Power Rangers tribute Tactical RPG ‘Chroma Squad’. You’ll learn that the developers liked Chroma Squad quite a lot throughout Galaxy of Pen and Paper, largely because the characters in the game keep talking about it.
For many the most fun to be had in any ‘Legend of Zelda’ game is when the hook shot item comes into play. Legend of the Skyfish takes this idea and runs with it, and its developer, Mgaia makes the most of the concept.
In no uncertain terms, the original Lowlander was a massive success in providing a specific kind of tribute to the CRPGs of old it set out to emulate whilst simultaneously refining their control for a new age. Now, Flat Black Films brings us a sequel in Lowlander II: Lowerlander.
Lowlander is the first game to come out of Flat Black Games, a promising one-man indie developer with a love for old-school CRPGs. What do we mean by old-school? Well whereas most developers tend to use Ultima IV as a yard-stick for the start of their roleplaying experiences, Lowlander pays tribute to the significantly earlier Ultima II, the central part of the original Ultima Trilogy.
Erin is a game very much from the mind of one man, Daniel Franka (who kindly provides a video on the making of the title) who has guided much of the game’s content and it’s a master-class in RPG simplicity and old-school computer game beauty. Continue reading
Released by Goblinz Studios, Dungeon Rushers represents a board-game style approach to roleplaying that fuses the turn based combat of ‘Zodiac: Orcanon Odyssey’ with the trappings of ‘Hero Quest’ to produce a not-quite unique, but very enjoyable hybrid title.
Clickers as RPGs are slowly becoming a thing. The grind of your average JRPG can be easily boiled down to a single repetitive action where power-leveling is concerned and it’s this ‘see the numbers go up’ approach that leaves a sense of satisfaction when playing your average title in this relatively new genre.
Designed with a casual audience in mind, Postknight is the latest title to come from Kurechii, (the studio behind Tiny Guardians) and manages to cater to RPG enthusiasts as well as those looking for a lighter bite of game action.
When is a game not a game? When it’s an interactive rulebook/app designed to allow players to gather in real life and recreate the wonder of pen and paper roleplaying together. Role is rulebook, character sheet and bag of dice for the mobile age.
