The RPG video game review -

The RPG is an indie video game, developed by Dionysus Acroreites and published by
Catoptric Game, known for titles like Pile Up and Ominus Stew.

When I started up the game, I was very sceptical. I entered a very cartoonish, meme-like world that didn’t impress me initially; however, I didn’t want to judge the game by its graphics in the first 15 seconds. Sometimes simplicity surprises us with well-thought-out stories.

I was not disappointed.

The RPG, heavily inspired by Skyrim, incorporates all the favourite elements of the genre in a funny, parody-like, joyful game, making the artistic style the perfect choice.

The story

You start as a prisoner, and you wake up in a wagon with two other travellers while being transferred to a village. You learn instantly that you were trying to enter this island without permission. That’s all you know.

After a few seconds, a small cutscene takes place. The glitchy dragon destroys the bridge you are crossing, causing all of you to fall into the river. Next thing you know, you wake up at the village’s infirmary. And true to the RPG character, the game is offering you a humble yet sufficient character customization screen.

Inside the infirmary, you get to interact with NPCs for the first time, and you are introduced to the environment. You also learn the basic controls in a very intuitive and natural way. Huge plus points to that.

The world

Imagine a fantasy world with dragons, warriors, and monsters, enriched with bureaucracy and humorous dialogues. Bureaucracy, because, besides learning how to fight and upgrading your equipment, you will be talking with clerics who demand documents from you before they can let you proceed or before you can unlock other quests. As if having dragons or monsters chasing you was not enough.

The tutorial

Once you exit the infirmary’s office, you are officially in the village, and you are ready to begin your own adventure.

The main villain in the island is a glitchy dragon and you are guided toward the dungeon it resides. This is your tutorial stage, where you go through a basic dungeon round and you meet the dragon again. This time, the dragon only wants to talk, and it lets you know that it has a secret to share with you if you visit its lair in the lowest level of this dungeon. Totally trustworthy, right?

The village

Outside the dungeon, in the village, there is a market area which is as simple yet as efficient as it can be. On one side, you have the Pawnshop where you can sell your loot, and on the other side, there is a vending machine where you can upgrade your equipment.

The highlight of this game is the loot and inventory management. There is no inventory, so everything you gather appears as loot on your screen interface, which you can sell all at once in exchange for golden coins.

This is extremely efficient, as you don’t have to go through any slots in your backpack, as usual in other RPGs, where you must check carefully which are the valuable items and which are not.

The fear is real in these situations because who hasn’t kept an item in their backpack in case they will need it 10 quests from now, three areas ahead, only ending up not needing the item as they have acquired five better ones.

Then there is no merchant in sight to get rid of said item, so you end up carrying so many unnecessary items that take up valuable space in your backpack.

The RPG doesn’t mess with backpacks and slots. This is simple: you loot, you sell. I love that.

Game mechanics

Progressing feels very easy and smooth, and I found myself thinking, “one more quest, just one more.”

You need, however, to pay attention to health and stamina as you fight, which regenerate fast, though. But it can become a problem in an intense fight. So the RPG has all the basic elements of a good RPG.

As you level up, you get skill points you can use on different skills, like faster stamina restoration or dealing more damage on each attack.

You can get new quests by talking to other NPCs. There are no question marks or exclamation marks on top of their heads, but you can start a conversation with everyone, and who knows where it will lead you.

There is much more to The RPG, like portals, keys that open secret doors, heavy metal, a very cool king, and your very own fan that is always happy to follow you around and help you kill monsters.

I didn’t expect I would enjoy The RPG that much, but it proved to be a wonderful surprise, perfect for hardcore but also lite RPG fans of the genre.

Reviewed on PC