The game at a glance

I have to admit I was pretty impressed with the graphics of this game when I decided to give a go, considering it had been out for quite some time. You’re welcomed into the book of this story, and prompted to make some initial choices to determine how your character should be built. While fairly simple in terms of stat choices (you only choose a +1 in one of the 3 main stats) and when it comes to pick a starter weapon, you are faced with an extremely important choice right from the beginning : you need to choose 4 powers out of 8, which will not change for the rest of the playthrough. Carefully reading the explanations here is crucial, unlike most game where you just pick something to start knowing you can learn the rest later.

Once you’ve made your choices, the story begins and you start reading the pages, occasionally faced with some choices. You eventually come face to face with your fight enemy and the game changes drastically, going from reading a book to a proper turn based RPG screen all in animated 3D. The reason I point that out is because it creates such a contrast between both play phases : you go from the feeling of reading a nice book, just making some choices on the way, to actually playing a regular game during the battle phases. This back and forth between chill fireplace reading atmosphere to fighting your way through more realistic battles is something I really enjoyed.

Feels like a board RPG, plays like a video game

Many elements of this game remind you of board RPGs. From the way the character sheet is make, the way you get to choose your stats in the beginning while the narration comments on them, and the map general look. Even your current location is shown as if it was a token that you move around across the board. Everything looks and feels like you’re playing with a combination of book and board… Until battles occur.

When those start, there is a transition from paper style artwork to 3D model and environment, making everything literally come to life. Paper and ink becomes fully colored graphics, static art becomes animated, and what was written in the book such as a trap harming the enemies has all become reality ! I love the way this transition works, going from the chill and safe atmosphere of the book to a deadly battle requiring your immediate attention.

Also, despite being a turn based battle system, the game manages to keep it active and interesting. First of all, there is an action bar that fills up with time, like the ATB you can find in final fantasy games. Once it’s full, you get to act. The difference is that your bar now starts to deplete and acts like an hourglass : you have until it’s completely empty to perform as many actions as your ressources and cooldowns allow, meaning you can do quite a lot in a single turn. Most actions are gonna demand your attention, as QTEs are required to perform most of them. Even dodging an attack will need to be confirmed by an input, followed by another one if you wish to counter. This makes even turn based battles much more alive in my opinion : it’s not just about taking the right decisions, you also need to be attentive during the battle or you will miss out on some unforeseen opportunities. Being an RPG, RNG will also heavily influence the flow of battles, thanks to critical hits and dodges, from you or the enemy. Every action counts, every fail counts, and in hard mode bad luck can mean defeat. While a bit frustrating, this is part of the essence of classic RPGs, and your job as a player is to fight against the odds to prevail. This keeps me much more interested that just mashing buttons, or commands to be honest.

My favorite bits in this game

There are two obvious things that made me love this game, and the first if the book/board RPG feel it has. When you’re into this kind of atmosphere, you can’t help but feel at home in the interface when you look at the map, the menu, and the book pages. Simply creating a new character is something I love like in any game where I have multiple choices such as Dark Souls for instance. choosing starter gear, starter stats and spells might seem like it’s not much, but it means a lot to any RPG fan.

The second one is of course the battle system, which offers no easy way out. Enemies are much tougher than you, especially in hard mode, your actions, levels and gear upgrades are limited, and it feels like you win battles with a combination of brawn and brain rather than blasting away the opposition after becoming way too powerful Saitama style. I love games that keep me on my toes and make me think rather than just farming for power.