---
title: 'Forsaken Realms: Vahrin''s Call - First Impressions'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=ebzmcYytK1Y'
video_id: 'ebzmcYytK1Y'
date: 2026-07-23
duration_sec: 553
channel: 'Mortismal Gaming'
---

# Forsaken Realms: Vahrin's Call - First Impressions

> Source: [Forsaken Realms: Vahrin's Call - First Impressions](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ebzmcYytK1Y)

## Summary

This video provides first impressions of Forsaken Realms of Varen's Call, an indie RPG from developer Titan Rock. The game draws inspiration from titles like Fable and features a classless progression system, exploration, and a humorous tone. The reviewer notes that while the visuals are underwhelming, the game offers enjoyable gameplay and a lighthearted experience.

### Key Points

- **Game Overview** [00:07] — Forsaken Realms of Varen's Call is an indie RPG from developer Titan Rock, inspired by games like Fable. The reviewer received early access and plans a full review near the release date.
- **Initial Surprise** [00:57] — The reviewer did not expect much but was pleasantly surprised by the fun and humor, despite underwhelming visuals. The game is not a hardcore RPG but offers enjoyable moments.
- **Story Setup** [01:36] — The game is set in the city of Varen, which is dealing with insect-like beasts and a dead king. The player is a mercenary hired to help, eventually getting involved in the larger narrative.
- **Classless Progression System** [02:15] — The game features a classless progression system where skills improve through use, skill points are earned by leveling, and skill books are found to unlock new abilities. Skills include weapon types, magic, alchemy, and traps.
- **Crafting and Upgrades** [03:07] — Crafting and upgrading are tied to skill perks. For example, increasing magic skills allows upgrading spells, and alchemy perks enable better potions and traps.
- **Combat System** [04:01] — Combat involves button combos for weapons, but feels floaty. The main draw is the variety of approaches, including ranged options and traps. The reviewer notes it's not visceral but interesting for an indie game.
- **Exploration and Questing** [04:28] — The game is divided into zones for exploration, with chests, skill books, and collectibles like garden gnomes. Quests include humorous moments, such as a butcher luring the player into a murder basement.
- **Humor and Tone** [05:44] — The game has a lighthearted, silly tone, with memorable dialogue and quests. An example is a hunter who settles for the player as a 'fantastic hunter' because no one else is available.
- **Exploration Enjoyment** [06:10] — Exploration is fun due to dense, packed areas that make the player feel like they are always discovering something new.
- **Limitations and Concerns** [06:38] — The reviewer questions whether combat evolves beyond floaty mechanics and if perks feel impactful. Death has no penalty, with respawn at soul shrines and enemies respawning.
- **Overall Impression** [07:31] — The game feels like a lighter, fun RPG similar to the original Fable, despite more serious marketing. It releases in 5 days at $35, and the reviewer plans a full review.

### Conclusion

Forsaken Realms of Varen's Call offers a lighthearted, humorous RPG experience with a classless progression system and dense exploration. While combat feels floaty and visuals are underwhelming, the game's fun tone and variety make it a promising indie title at its $35 price point.

## Transcript

this time bringing you my first impressions for Forsaken Realms of Varen's Call, an indie RPG from developer Titan Rock, who is also publishing it. And this game has been on my radar for a little bit, namely
because of the things that it is clearly inspired by, such as Fable. But before we dive too far into that, I do need to inform you that uh this game actually releases in about five or so days on the 27th, and thus I'm able to bring you
this video because I was given early access to it via Titan Rock, which is how I'm able to bring you this video. Now, my understanding is the review embargo is lifting right now. Um I've had it in my hands for about a week, but
I've only played it for a few hours due to some scheduling stuff on my end, but I do plan to fully review it, hopefully right around the game's actual release date. But with that said, let's talk about the rest of this. Now, I will be
perfectly honest with you guys, I did not go in uh to this game expecting anything grand, and I will say it surprised me in the sense that even just a few hours in, you can tell there's a good bit of fun to be had, even if it's
not the most like die-hard RPG out there. There's a pretty good sense of humor, and I think that's especially important given that the visuals are, let's all be honest, a little underwhelming. Um in particular, I would
particularly great, but everything else is, I think, serviceable given that it's an indie title. But first, let's start with a basic story setup. So, this game with a basic story setup. So, this game centers around the city of Varen, a city
that has been dealing with some troubles lately. In particular, they were beset by these insect-like beasts, and after a pretty big battle with them, their king lies dead. And at this point, the city is mainly just trying to hire
completely falling apart, which is where you come in. You are, in fact, one of those mercenaries that takes up that call and heads to Varen here in order to hopefully make some gold and discover some other purpose along the way as
you're obviously going to get roped into the larger narrative from there. Now, I wanted to because that's about as far as I am into it. In order to actually fight coming into contact with, you get to engage with the game's classless
progression system, which is going to see you both leveling by doing. That is to say getting better with certain types of skills as you use them, but also doing things like earning skill points by leveling up as well as picking up
skill books to actually spend those skill points on. So, you have a handful of skills pretty much all divided by your typical stuff, various weapon types, some magic types, and a few other things like alchemy and traps. Each one
of these uh decides basically how much you can do with them in the general them, they each have perks. You will still be leveling up and it is here where you'll be spending your skill points. However, in order to unlock some
books for a handful of them that are otherwise not available. The skill books seem to just kind of be laying around. far, we've obviously got equipment and stuff to change out with that. The other
cool to me is that from there, it's really all about like crafting and upgrading various things you might not expect because for instance, by uh increasing your magic skills and getting the uh like talents or perks in those,
it enables you to uh actually upgrade your magic and make it stronger and that way you can cast better spells as your magical aptitude goes up. And the same you are at it and the more of those perks you pick up, the more you can
craft and improve those things, allowing you to make potions that do all sorts of potions if you lean into it, the ability to set all sorts of traps and sort of dominate the battlefield that way. And I will say all of that does seem
especially necessary because otherwise the uh main combat system seems to just be like a series of various button combos for weapons and given the nature of the game, it's a little floaty and I think really the main draw here is how
many things you can engage with to sort of mess around and approach combat the ranged options, things like that. But again, none of it feels like super visceral as you could probably tell on screen. But again, given that this is an
indie developer and I believe their first game, pretty interesting stuff overall. But while there is plenty of combat to be had, the rest of the game I would say comes down to you exploration and questing. So, the game is divided up
into a bunch of different zones that you can run around in. So, like for instance, the little village you come to called Southville Hamlet first up is its own little zone and then just south of that you have Forest's Edge, that kind
its own exploreable thing. And within those zones there's a good bit to get up to. Exploration does the usual things like exploring to find various chests for your equipment without necessarily
skill books that I mentioned, but there's also other stuff that leans into that sense of humor that I mentioned. For instance, one of the I guess you could call it a collectible are these garden gnomes you need to destroy in
order to help one particular guy out which is very reminiscent of Fable as I mentioned. And then there's a super early quest where you have to collect a debt from a guy who happens to be the butcher in town. And as he lures you
into his murder basement, he is in fact chopping up basically everything to sell have to fight your way out of that situation. And there's just a lot of like little memorable stuff like that that draws you in more than you might
initially think, which I think is looking to be the main draw of this. Not so much that it's like an incredible RPG or it's doing like incredibly innovative stuff, but mostly that it's just kind of fun. It's a little silly and it seems
like an RPG that's good for uh the mood a little bit. Um in fact, one of my come across this hunter in the woods take care of all these beasts that have been popping up, and he talks about how
he's going to need some incredible hunter with fantastic skills, but obviously there's no one like that to be found. So, he has to settle for you. Just little stuff like that. On top of that, another thing I've been pleasantly
surprised with is how fun it is to explore the individual areas thanks to about everywhere, but also they've really packed a lot of stuff into these dense little areas. They kind of makes it feel like you're always discovering
which I think obviously goes a pretty long way for a game like this. Now, I will say um as you could probably see on screen, there are plenty of limitations worth mentioning. Um in particular, as I move to review this title, something I'm
going to be keeping in mind is does combat evolve or does it stay relatively floaty the whole way through? Do the combos that you unlock via the various like perks and stuff you pick up actually feel impactful or can you get
through by just swinging your weapon any which way? Especially because this game doesn't really have a penalty for death like at all. So, as you move around, you'll hit these little checkpoints called soul shrines. Soul as in the sun
in this case, by the way. But if you die, you just respawn at those shrines and the enemies pop back up, but you don't lose anything and you don't lose progress. It saves all the time. So, like you don't have to reload and redo
most, you'll have to kill a few enemies again, but that will just continue to and you'll level up as you go. So, while the game does have difficulty settings, given that and the overall sense of humor, I get the impression that despite
the way some of the marketing is for it, which seems to be a little more serious, um everything I'm getting from this impression-wise is just like a lighter sort of fun RPG in the vein of something like that original Fable as an example.
So, if that is of interest to you, you may well want to continue to keep an eye on this the way that I am, but again, as I mentioned, this game releases in full here in about 5 days. I currently need to finish up what I am actually working
on, which should be another day or two. My hope is to be completely done with it time you're hearing this, but not when I'm recording it. And once that's done, I'm going to turn my attention to this and try to get this done relatively
quickly so I can get this out around the official release date, which should then put us right around the upcoming release of Beast of Reincarnation. But that's kind of what we're looking at here. Overall, first impressions-wise, it's
just kind of funny to me and enjoyable enough for what it is. And if the seems like a pretty good time at its release price of $35. But obviously, I'll go a little more in-depth come review time. But as for this particular
video, that should in fact do it. So, certainly hope you enjoyed it. Let me in the comment section below, which of course means to like, comment, subscribe, all that YouTube jazz. But regardless of any of that, truly, just
thank you so much for watching. I really do appreciate it. May you wander in do appreciate it. May you wander in wisdom and have an amazing day.