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Genre: Indie, RPG
Developer: TALEROCK
Publisher: Asterion Games
Release Date: Mar 26, 2019
Edited by Thorstag
Grimshade is a steampunk fantasy JRPG 90’s style type game featuring a turn-based combat system. Join the war as Alastar, the protagonist, with his Ether gauntlet accompanied with his friends to save the city of Brann. These memorable characters include: Kiba with the ability to have light and dark magic as well to buff and cure his allies, Charlie the badass badger with a sniper rifle, and last but not least Ruby the princess of the thieves. Group everyone together, and you have a badass team that will show no mercy on the battlefield here.
What is unique about the system itself is there is really no leveling system for the characters. Instead, you have to craft your way or get better gear to unlock the potential in each character to make them stronger and to face harder enemies. Usually, when you think of a JRPG style game especially a turn-based combat game, you would think that your character would gain levels. Not for Grimshade in the slightest, this came as a shock to me. I come from a long line of RPG games and never seen this before.
The art style of the game is astonishing! Everything hand-drawn in a steampunk theme. When it comes to the characters, buildings, and or the background, the artist went above and beyond here, everything looks great. They chose a theme, and they rocked it. The only thing here that could have used some work, again this is me being picky at this point, is the face on some of the characters. Not going to lie they could use a face-lift on some.
For the keyboard and mouse functionality, it worked, nothing too crazy here. It has simple mechanics, did not need the whole bells and whistles here — basic click and hold, the arrow to move your character to another location. Fighting is pretty basic, put your characters on a grid, just wait your turn click an ability, and click an enemy. This game mechanic is pretty standard for the style of game, especially when you’re basing off the 90s style.
In general, Grimshade is very story rich there is a lot of reading, involved so be prepared to read. Even during the storyline, they added a hint box to read, so it’s constant reading. If you’re into mind-numbing video games where you just want to run and gun this may not be the game for you. The story goes in great detail about what’s happening in the city of Brann. All though being that its story rich the storyline did not hold my interest enough.
The music itself is a perfect fit for the art design. Listening to it while playing the game I felt relaxed. The music sucked me in to play the game more just to listen to the soundtrack. The ambiance was a very subtle fit, and it did the game justice. With the birds chirping and hearing the subtle knocks here and there I’m genuinely lost for words on this one. Everything up to this point with the sound effects, music, and ambiance perfect, very well done! I find myself listening to the music outside the game, just because it’s so relaxing especially in the city of Brann.
Final thoughts for the game, Grimshade being that it’s inspired from the 90’s style JRPG type games. I feel that it’s well done overall, to try to come back and compete with RPGs of the current era it’s hard. That would be comparing two different things which would make it unfair. What I am saying is to take Grimshade for what it is. If you enjoyed the RPG style games from back in the day, then this game is it. What more can I say? It has the art style, the music, the ambiance, plus its steampunk theme. The story for me did not sustain the need to finish off this game; I did enjoy it for its other amazing qualities.
Pros:
- Great soundtrack
- Amazing Art
- Price Point
Cons:
- Story
Wagzal (WolvesGamingDen) Gives Grimshade a Drastik Measure of 9.0 out of 10 (90)
The price point of this game at the time of this review is $19.99 on Steam which I think is an excellent price point for this game. Like I mentioned before take the game for what it is even though it did not hold my interest as far as the story that’s just me. I did enjoy the other aspects of this game which made the game extremely enjoyable to me in those regards. Who knows? Maybe this game would be the game for you in All its GLORY! I would say check this game out and let me know what you think of it?