Rollers of the Realm

Rollers of the Realm is a new RPG by way of pinball game from Phantom Compass, and published by Atlus Games. Each party member (you collect them as you go through the storyline) has its own unique abilities (rogue, healer, knight, dog, etc.) and you can buy upgrades for them (armor, weapons, spells, etc.) as you gain gold. The layouts of the tables have optional quests, should you choose to do them) and you absolutely need to pay attention to some of the flipper setups in order to get your characters into some hard to reach places. So far it's really fun, and the trades off between keyboard and controller on the fly - which brings me to the next part: You'll want to play this with a keyboard. Things like finessing the ball (the K and S keys) and swapping characters (the space bar) are not automatically mapped to a controller (in this case, a basic X360 controller). But that little thing shouldn't deter you from picking it up. Yeah, a lot of people are probably going to nitpick on the voice acting (it's not Oscar material by any means, but it's also not venturing into Baten Kaitos or Arc Rise Fantasia territory, either), but for the concept of of an RPG played out via pinball, it's definitely worth picking up.

Rollers of the Realm is available on Steam.

Whisper of a Rose

Yesterday, I had a chance to play a few hours of Whisper of a Rose, the latest release from RosePortalGames. While many people seem to shy away from RPGMaker games, Whisper of a Rose starts of with a deep story. Society has pretty much prioritized science and technology, which has marginalized a lot of people.

The story centers around Melrose - a young student who deals with the verbal abuse of her peers at school, and who deals with an abusive relationship with her parents that often goes beyond the verbal. Melrose - perhaps to cope with her reality - has an extremely vivid imagination (what would have been called a "fantasy prone personality" not but a decade ago), and often finds herself lost in her daydreams, which seem all too real.

Melrose eventually happens upon a gadget called the iDream, which will allow her to escape - if only temporarily (in theory) - into her world of dreams , where she is a powerful warrior. In her dream world, Melrose is greeted by her Godmother (who looks surprisingly similar to the Fairy Godmother in Disney's version of Cinderella), who informs her of the desperate state of the Dream World, and what Melrose must do to save it. Of course, that interaction is cut short when her Godmother is attacked by an evil entity that manifests itself as a clown (what better archetype for a dreamworld antagonist?), and Melrose finds herself alone, save for the beings and creatures she must rally to take back the only haven in her mind that allows her peace from the outside world.

I don't hate RPGMaker games. They are great for people who want to revisit the great 16-bit era of the 1990s. However, what sets Whisper of a Rose apart from other RPGMaker games is that the assets in the game are not taken from stock. Everything has a wonderful hand-drawn feel to it, and the inhabitants of the game are much more fully animated than in other games of this kind. Combat it satisfying, and complete with special skills, magic, and summons.

Unless the game really deviates from its initial presentation, Whisper of a Rose guarantees 25+ hours of gameplay (if you skip over all of the side quests and optional material), and I highly recommend it. You can get whisper of a rose directly from roseportalgames.com (with a free 1 hour demo), or you can get it on Steam, where it comes complete with achievements and trading cards.

Lords of Xulilma

Lords of Xulima is a new indie game from Numantian Games, which embraces the classic gameplay style of Baldur's Gate, with a little bit of Wizardry-esque turn-based combat. The premise of the game game is that you are the one chosen by the gods to restore balance to the world.

Lords of Xulima has the isometric view we've come to enjoy from the genre. Combat is easy to grasp, you can harvest things for crafting, and there is an in-game journal to keep track of your quests (and there is a LOT to do in the game).The voice acting is great, there's crafting, and you can save the game pretty much anywhere (which is great for people who have real-world responsibilities and can't devote hours upon hours to each gaming session). You also have to keep track of the food your party is carrying - which I think is a neat mechanic for games of this nature.

In the past few months alone, we've seen fantastic RPGs like Divinity: Original Sin and Wasteland 2 hit the market, along with revamped classics like Icewind Dale and the Baldur's Gate franchise. In a world of first-person shooters and sidecrollers (both of which I enjoy wholeheartedly), it's great to see some developers keeping the classic RPG genre alive and fresh with games like Lords of Xulima. Do yourselves a favor and check it out today!

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