Forsaken Realms: Vahrin's Call

[h1]A Fable-Flavoured Gem That Needs a Bit More Polish[/h1] [b]TL;DR:[/b] A charming, funny, Fable-inspired RPG with great exploration and playstyle variety, let down by clunky combat feedback, a placeholder-feeling UI, and a broken dodge roll. Feels unfinished, but the bones of something great are here. Perhaps worth your time on a much lower price tag. [b]I really want to like this game.[/b] It has all the hallmarks of a great classic RPG, and it's genuinely impressive that something this ambitious has come from such a small dev team. I love supporting small indie developers with my wallet when I feel a game deserves it, and Vahrin's Call has a lot going for it that makes it easy to root for. The world building is there, the story is solid, and the visuals suit the high fantasy setting well (perhaps slightly dated, but not every game needs to be photo-realistic). It has all the main attractions of a good RPG: plenty of items and gear to loot, and plenty of ways to actually play the game, whether that's weapons, bow, magic, or alchemy. [h2]What the Game Gets Right[/h2] [list] [*] Focus on exploration and story, like any great RPG should [*] Rewards exploration [*] Visuals suit the high fantasy setting [*] Lots of playstyles and customization [*] Lots of items and different bits of gear [*] Fun and casual experience [*] Doesn't take itself too seriously [*] Does humour very well [*] Feels like a piece of fan art of Fable or other old-school classic RPGs [/list] [h2]Where It Falls Short[/h2] Unfortunately, Vahrin's Call falls just short of the bar. It's so close to being fun and engaging, but it's held back by a mixture of a few main problems. Any one of these on its own wouldn't be a deal breaker for an indie game like this, but together they make the game feel unfinished — which I'll come back to. [b]The UI[/b] — The inventory, skills tab, journal, the whole UI is a text wall, with chevron drop-downs for sub-text. The menu needs a complete overhaul. Right now it feels like a placeholder while the real menu is still in development. [b]Combat (Melee)[/b] — Swinging your melee weapon at enemies feels almost identical to swinging at thin air. There's no substance to making contact with an enemy. The original Fable handled this extremely well — on impact, your weapon would stop mid-swing for just a fraction of a second, which gave the hit real weight. Something similar here would help immensely. [b]Combat (Magic)[/b] — I'll confess I've only used the fire spell so far, but it suffers from the same problem as melee: not enough substance on impact. The sound design is a little sloppy too, which may honestly be the main culprit. I can't speak for the other spells. [b]Movement[/b] — Very floaty overall, though this is my smallest concern with one exception: rolling/dodging. There is a dodge mechanic in the game... apparently. When you try to roll out of the way of an attack, you basically just roll on the spot, and the attack still hits you. If you're going to have a dodge mechanic, please make sure it's actually a viable way to escape damage. The rest of the movement is still floaty, but not too bad — it's most noticeable during combat rolls and when walking up or down hills, where you literally hover above the ground. [b]Full Release[/b] — This ties back to the game feeling unfinished. It's not in a state you'd expect from a full release; it has the jank and rough edges you'd expect from an alpha, maybe a beta. [h2]Final Verdict[/h2] This game could still be wonderful with just a little more work. None of my main issues feel like major, game-changing hurdles. With a bit more polish, this could genuinely be a gem. I'll be keeping an eye on it to see if these issues get resolved, and I'll come back in a heartbeat if they are.

Like many others i chose not to listen to the neg reviews and was sadly dissapointed with the over all quality of the game, it was so bad i had eye strain after a few minutes, blurry textures, stutter, feet clipping etc..refunded.

Looked interesting from the trailers but it's just not really. Character "creator" is nothing special, lackluster Character designs look dull Clunky, impactless feeling combat Couple of interesting control that feel neat (e.g. pressing the lantern button puts it on your back, holding it turns it off, though I think this should be swapped or let it be swapped) Animations are alright for the most part but there's a bunch that just look half assed (that dodge is just... oof) Horrendous dysfunctional UI (miss me with that inventory, holy...) Annoying handholding (yellow piss paint + white bird ♥♥♥♥ paint) The world just feels bland and not very interactive Looting feels lackluster Exploration feels kind of pointless and uninteresting (point above makes this worse) The story seems boring and things-just-happen Sound design is hit or miss Music is okay but mostly just kind of forgettable Voice acting is pretty decent for the most part, sometimes awful Dialogue is serviceable I guess, sometimes awful cringe 75% of NPCs are women for no reason Nonsensical forced diversity We still doing this asinine "Body Types" bs too? Bro... Just stop already... You're thrown into the world with no explanation of what's going on, or why you're there, or who you are, or pretty much anything at all. You get some text exposition dump at the start and then a camera fly-by in some random foresty area. Sure I skipped the text dump and maybe that had some explanation (probably nothing meaningful) but it could've been a short cutscene instead, this is just lazy. I'm not starting off a game with reading exposition. First impressions are pretty bad. "65% Mixed" is about right.

Это не Gothic, не Souls like, не Fable, и не Blade Of Darkness. Это дешевое унылое поделие. Очень слабая боевка: - Нет никакого импакта - Враги просто бегут на тебя сломя голову и умирают от закликивания на 1 кнопку - Не умеют блокировать(даже щиты им нужны просто для косметики) - Не умеют уворачиваться - Кажется, что противники не обладают вообще никаким чувством самосохранения - На максимальном уровне сложности бои - это просто фейсролл - Самый сложный бой - первый босс с мечом в прологе - В итоге никакого челленджа(может стоило сделать просто беззубый квест?) Ролеплей: - Нет выбора в диалогах - Прокачивается все подряд, перебрасывается на лету - Какого-то заметного эффекта от прокачки не чувствуется, всё одно - просто тыкаешь в кнопку удара и изредка блока Сюжет и диалоги: - Главный герой не умеет говорить, ведь ему дали возможность выбора пола и по 2 голоса для каждого, поэтому озвучивать не нужно ничего - Скучные, пресные диалоги - Сюжет не цепляет - Повестка! Кругом одни сильные и независимые бабы, которые решают судьбы мира, ЛГБТ и ТД Эквип и крафт: + Алхимия сделана интересно, но всё в итоге складывается к паре-тройке нужных бутылок и примитивной линейке прокачки - Вещи выпадают только белые, дальше качаешь сам, но вот с определением, какая из них при прокачке даст больший эффект иногда возникает вопрос, потому что приходится сравнивать белую с цветной - Сами предметы отличаются градацией тиров между собой как 47,5 \ 50 \ 51 урона или, если это броня, 0,5 \ 0,6 \ 0.61 брони - Из лута - кругом мешочки и рюкзачки, в которых содержится куча мусора, у которого даже нет отдельной иконки в инвентаре, но каждый отдельный мусор - это строчка инвентаря(тысячи их!) при этом нужно еще в каждый мешок попасть мышкой Графика начала 2010 годов, но значительно более требовательна к железу. С трудом заставил себя пройти первую главу...

I decided to give it a chance, but in thruth it looks different than the trailer, like weathered down... graphics are really outdated. I could tolerate it but if you add low quality models, jankiness in general, especially annoying for picking up things, and some bugs, it isn't fun for me, not at this point. When I was playing it felt like it was in beta estate, this game isn't ready for full release... not at this price tag, even considering this was created by a small team of 7 through 10 years; maybe it's too ambitious. In my opinion it was basically a suicide to launch this in this state. Especially since I could play Tainted Grail for almost the same regional price or Gothic 1 remake for the global price tag. I will refund for now and wait what happens in the future...

Action/RPG my ass, Action/Looter is what it actually is. I haven't seen a game with more hidden (and not so much) lootable crap everywhere that also [i]respawns[/i] every time you revisit the location. Unique loot doesn't respawn, but all random trash and plants do, which makes my inner loot goblin want to collect it all over again. With all that I ended the game with 176k coins. I spent some of them to upgrade the nice weapons I have, but don't really use. Otherwise it's a fine game, and a short one if you don't check every corner. Main story is pretty weak though, most of the lore is found in scattered letters and the curent events are explained by the few NPCs that accompany your advancements. The game itself is a mix of a lite souls-like (for its combat system) and TES: Oblivion-style levelling system (level what you're using). The game isn't actually hard, the combat system is pretty simple. I did die to some bosses a few times, but it takes only a short time to figure out a strategy to beat them. The dodge timing feels prety inconsistent at times though, not sure if it's a me issue or it's actually weird. I played with a greatsword and some magic, mostly heals and weapon buffs. I still don't understand why weapon buffs don't apply when you hit enemies with wrapon techniques, only basic attacks apply effects. Lame. Same for [i]all[/i] bosses being immune to freeze status effect, but vulnerable to burn. Can't complain I guess, burn is good against them. Bosses in general aren't hard, as I already said, but some of them are giga annoying [spoiler]like the final boss, ugh[/spoiler]. Overall I enjoyed the game so I'm rating it good.

I never write reviews, but felt I needed to for this game. This is a very enjoyable game. You can see the love and work that this Indie developer put into it. I really hope they make another game. The ending was very special. It's not a AAA game, but that's what makes it a good, fun game.

I really wanted to like this game. Story was decent. Graphics made me think of fable. my biggest gripe it combat. The combat is so clunky.