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.
When it comes to RogueLikes it’s safe to say that the average player is spoilt for choice on mobile devices as the genre has been going through something of a revival this past few years. Already having thrown his hat into the ring once with ‘Microgue’, Jason Pickering self-publishes that charming Ms Spell.
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.
Divisive no matter the format, Agarest has seen release on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, a PC port over steam and mobile devices and has either been hailed as wonderful or horrible depending on the player’s standpoint on its design decisions. Regardless, it stands as the first part in a trilogy of games that takes the formula first seen in ‘Phantasy Star III’ and turns it from a novel innovation into a central mechanic.
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.
