You can’t fool me with your “poorly drawn” rhino barbarians, Heroes Of The Seven Islands - the classic RPG enthusiasm is palpable
Also skunk monks
As much as I’m a sucker for the grimmest and darkest of grimdark fantasy settings, the try-hardness of it all can get a bit grating at times. You could make the same argument at the opposite end of spectrum, of course. Cosy games seem locked in a perpetual arms-race to twee each other into the dirt, chopping their rival’s dog-petting hands off and taking a sparkly tinkle on their pastel corpses. But hand-drawn RPG Heroes Of The Seven Islands feels more authentic than all that. It’s bedroom antifolk by way of chill dungeon synth, by way of an antelope sorcerer named Jean-Pierre.
It’s fun, it’s colorful, and I can bet it took an absolutely bastard-long time to make, despite a somewhat blasé tone towards its own existence. It’s by Rap2h, who's behind free interactive fiction thingy The Secret of Darkwoods, which 99 people are very positive about. That’s not a big number, but it is nice one. Here’s a trailer for Heroes Of The Seven Islands:
It does look to me, so far at least, like the sort of project that’s got me more interested in discovering the hand-drawn interpretations of various fantasy weirdos than actually fighting them. Still, I’m intrigued by the ‘reputation’ system you can spot in the top right corner of the screen, and how this ends up affecting how people treat your rat druids and bird knights. Here’s the story setup, as told by reputable bard Steam:
FURAX THE INDESTRUCTIBLE, fleshless carcass and soulless body, has arrived through an inter-dimensional rift in the colorful, carefree world of Émeyralia, to spread SADNESS and DESPAIR. Nothing seems to be able to stop him: his influence grows daily, many disciples join him and NIGHTMARE CREATURES appear on every continent.
According to the prophecy, only THE ORACLE could defeat him, but he retired centuries ago. To find him, the 7 keys held by the 7 rulers of the 7 islands of the Emerald Archipelago must be gathered. FOUR HEROES, the bravest of the brave, are chosen for this quest. The future of Emeyralia is in their hands.
The game promises hundreds of hand-drawn animations, which is wild, because my hand cramps up if I try to draw a single cat. I had to fill in a form to adopt my actual cat last week, and I think my wrist might still be broken. The combat is “Turn based yet fast”, there’s main and side quests, and it's all scored by “Dungeon Synth Artists”, although no word on the arists in question. You can find the Steam page here, and it’s due out Q1 next year.