Forsaken Realms: Vahrin's Call - Review After 100%

[00:08] This time bringing you my review after 100% for Foresaken Realms of Varin's Call. A fun sort of silly little RPG. If anything, that takes a lot from Fable graphical fidelity. It makes up with honestly just being fun these days. But

[00:24] usual stuff out of the way, I review games after 100% all the time to set me platform. And while that does include the achievements, it also includes a lot covering everything I go over. And my Steam profile is public and linked down

[00:39] particular game, I also need to inform you that I received a review key from the developer, Titan Rock, uh roughly 2 weeks or so ago. And while I've already made a first impressions video for this because the embargo lifted a while ago,

[00:53] the game itself releases today. Now, as 100% go, this one isn't too bad. It's a relatively small game. The whole thing took me about 25ish hours, with the thing that required like the most uh concentrated effort, if you will, being

[01:07] a collectible for these gnomes you can find around and destroy. But the cool guys and you complete the side quest associated with it, you'll actually get an item called the Kickstarter, which while it is equipped, actually reveals

[01:20] and everything, which makes everything else a lot easier. And yet, I do also want to give a shout out to their community manager who pointed me in the questions, which allowed me to get the last couple things knocked out, which is

[01:34] not like a day or two later. But either way, thanks Robin. And now on with the rest of the review. So, as I mentioned, this game is uh silly. It's got a good bit of humor in there. It's fun to

[01:47] explore and mess around with the various combat options. And while it's not the most uh beautiful looking game, let's say, I think their stylized realism hearkens back to some RPGs like Fable, which it is clearly inspired by, which

[02:00] lot of the way this game has been marketed about having a like grim dark fantasy world. And while that's not untrue by any means, it actually does have a wider bit of lore that is a bit depressing at times and the main story

[02:14] plays it pretty straight. The rest of the game has like a really fun bit of again humor and interactions and the combat on top of that, allowing you to approach it in multiple different ways, even if it's not entirely necessary

[02:26] thanks to the game's difficulty, but you can mess around with traps and throwing potions, cheesing enemies the oldfashioned way, etc. Uh, and overall the gameplay experience for this one is just fun, even if there are some

[02:38] movement for me personally. But all in all, it was a pretty good experience annoyances, even if it doesn't exactly hit the heights of the best of the making this cared about it, and I think that goes a long way these days. Now,

[02:54] technical state. Now, this one is a little bit interesting because when they it was crashing a good bit and then over the course of about two weeks, they were actively patching it and it got significantly better and I wasn't really

[03:08] dealing with any problems at all towards the end of it. And so, my hope is that that's how it will be for everybody else on release, but do know there is me personally, it seems like they patched all the issues I was having in

[03:21] terms of like crashing and general performance issues. Now, another thing I do kind of want to squeeze in right here is that the movement system in particular can be a little awkward at times, especially around jumping in

[03:33] particular. The game seems to like calculate your uh momentum, if you will, as you are moving in any given direction and your jump is kind of based on that. But the exact geometry of the worlds you are messing around with and how sort of

[03:45] fiddly the controls around sprinting can be ultimately means that sometimes it's like it shouldn't be. and it gets a little annoying over the course of the entire game and I needed to mention that in here somewhere, but it's not big

[03:58] enough of a problem to like stop you from playing or anything. Next up, let's talk difficulty for this one. So, this is an interesting game to talk about difficulty with because it is not really trying to be a hardcore game by any

[04:11] difficulty settings. On the lowest difficulty, you just straight up can't die. Like, enemies don't seem to be able to kill you. But the catch there is that well that might help you get through some bosses or something if you say have

[04:24] accessibility needs or anything like that. It's also uh not a game that it just kick you back to your last checkpoint with all of your progress saved. So you don't lose anything if you die. Not experience, not collectibles,

[04:38] anything like that. if you've picked it up and then die to a boss or an enemy or you just get kicked back to the last like checkpoint called a soul shrine and that's pretty much it. So, there are difficulty options if you're looking to

[04:51] individual enemies are, but with again how the game is, it's clearly not a game that's trying to be super challenging. So, keep that in mind. Next up, when you fire up a new game, we do have a cosmetic character creation. I'll be

[05:05] honest again, the visuals of this game outside of like general stylized realism in the environment and everything is fine. Uh the individual character models are where it probably looks the worst. And so the cosmetic character creation

[05:17] is really not exactly, I would say, a big selling point of this title, but you can make and adjust your character as you please. And if you go into the like hiding helmet and everything like that in case you actually want to see

[05:30] the character you make over the course of the game. But for me, uh, it's not up, let's talk story setup and my thoughts on it. So, whereas I mentioned the rest of this game is, uh, honestly kind of leaning into humor much more

[05:44] and everything, that's not really the case for the story. The story plays it pretty straight. And within that story, we play the role of a mercenary come to the city of Varin, looking for employment as a mercenary, of course, to

[05:57] help with the recent troubles here. Not all that long ago, the city of Varin was beset by these insectlike pests that they were effectively at war with. And while they ultimately pushed these things back, it came at great cost.

[06:10] Their king died, they're still reeling from the conflict itself. And this has become pretty fertile ground for other problems to pop up within, which is where the mercenary work comes in. In particular, there are bandits

[06:22] taken over parts of the town that you'll have to fight off, things like that. And expect, over the course of the main story, you get kind of roped into some conspiracies and some other goings on as you choose to apply your trade as a

[06:37] mercenary. Now, overall, I would say the main story is okay. It's not terrible or anything, but it's relatively short, and I think the best bits of this game personally are where it is funny, whether intentionally or not. And so,

[06:51] going to remember this one for the story specifically. but it's hardly the worst that. Next up, let's talk progression system. So, this is where the game gets particularly interesting because the game uses a classless character leveling

[07:06] system comprised of levels, skills, techniques that you'll learn from those skills or potentially skill books and then gear, which has its own progression and upgrades alongside upgrading your magic and your potions, etc. based on

[07:20] your skill level. So, there's a good bit of progression to go over, but at a basic level, you will be leveling up up to a maximum of 80. It looks like I got to 80 and I just stopped leveling, so I assume that's the maximum. But outside

[07:32] of your main character level, when you level up, you gain skill points. You can spend those skill points on your skills, but the catch here is that the skills level up individually on their own as you use them. They level up to a maximum

[07:46] of 16, it appears. And while you will unlock uh skills and techniques to actually apply your points to within these individual bits of like weapon types, magic, etc., some of those are only available by finding skill books.

[07:59] will then unlock it as a skill. And then provided you have the appropriate skill level, you can also then actually use it. Now, you can respspec at any time simply by deactivating these. And otherwise, it's just the skills you've

[08:12] actually made use of in order to max them out. Your skills themselves are basically your uh individual actual weapon types, be that dual wielding, sword and board, two-handed weapons, a bow, etc. Then you've got your four

[08:26] magic types, fire, ice, earth, and alteration. Each of these has five individual spells you can find out and about, letting you play a pure mage if basically stuff like your defensive options, your armor, as well as traps

[08:40] and alchemy. Now, your magic, provided you've actually found the spells, if those spells you found, you can then upgrade the magic itself to make it stronger. And if you increase alchemy, you can also then upgrade your potions,

[08:54] essentially combining a bunch of effects based on materials you found out and a bunch of unique stuff. So, you'll have some healing potions by default, but you could upgrade those via alchemy to heal you. Also, restore stamina, which is

[09:07] only really used for blocking to be honest, or uh cure different status effects that might get inflicted. There is one status effect called soul burning your ability to heal, which is annoying. So, you might want a potion that cures

[09:19] that. You can also even get a potion that increases your experience gain for there's a lot of fun stuff you can do with alchemy, but probably the thing I upgrades actually allows you to throw potions as well. So, not only can you do

[09:33] a bunch of stuff for yourself, but you can also via this throw mechanic inflict debuffs on enemies as well. A similar situation for traps. So, there are a and learn how to make. And if you actually invest in the trap skill and

[09:48] traps as well. They have their own little progression path. And so the game of different options in that regard. And that's before we even start talking about gear. So gear does have weight and depending on your armor stat determines

[10:02] how good you are at actually using it, which can affect things like your dodge. And you can upgrade all of this gear and weaponry and stuff you pick up as well, it stronger. Though there are very

[10:14] gear. And so I wouldn't invest too unless you are just like really locked equipment. But that's kind of what we're looking at progressionwise. And so let's

[10:26] move on a little bit to the gameplay and world section. So Vin's Call here is made up of a series of interconnected zones or areas to explore. I wouldn't as they aren't exactly that big. But if you've played something like the

[10:41] actually get the gist of it here, even if they're a little bigger than that as well. Along these zones, you can also find fast travel points, which are you can walk up to and then fast travel to places you have been, which is how

[10:55] you can get back and forth between the larger distances as you move through an available by progressing the main plot or progressing individual side quests that give you access to just other areas to run around in and explore, but you

[11:08] can always go back to places even after the main story is over. The world remains completely explorable. I don't think anything is truly missable outside of a single achievement, but that is missable right at the very beginning of

[11:20] new playthrough and just get that immediately. So, other than that, you can explore as your heart desires, I suppose. And to make that a little easier, your main collectibles, not like everything, you can pick up the main

[11:33] stuff, which is the treasure chest, the skill books, as well as the gnomes in a given area will be displayed on the map there. And that's if you want to even bother with some of that before you get the Kickstarter thing from getting all

[11:45] of the gnomes, which will show you where all of them are. Anyway, beyond that, the main thing you're going to do is uh side quests and of course fighting the various enemies, which is going to lead you to exploration and various boss

[11:57] fights, etc. Now, the main story part of it is relatively straightforward. You usually see you moving through the game's various dungeon-like areas that end in a boss. You kill that boss, get sent to the next area, etc. Where the

[12:11] game is at its best is exploration and side quests. In my opinion, this is to explore. There's a lot of side quests to find and they have just littered loot loot to upgrade all your stuff if you want to, which itself has a really good

[12:26] sort of gameplay feedback loop to it. And that combined with the game's really funny moments is uh again just where the game is at its best. Like there, just to give a few examples, was a quest where I got blackout drunk and had to fight a

[12:39] bunch of rats that I had been sent down to a basement to kill old school RPG style. That quest was hilarious. Uh there's a guy who gives you a bunch of hunt quests across the game who is looking for a fearless hunter who can

[12:52] ravenous beasts. And unfortunately, he you, which was funny. While shaking down a local butcher to pay their debts, you may well uncover some uh nastiness in terms of what they were actually selling

[13:05] There's just a ton of like really humorous moments that I think exploring the world and doing those side quests really puts a good spotlight on. and for me. But beyond that, it is relatively simple. I do also just want

[13:20] to point out that the game has basically one sort of hub area for you and that is the South Veil Hamlet. While we are in the city of Aren's Call because of all the troubles going on, and you will occasionally meet NPCs in other areas,

[13:33] the South Hamlet is the main area you're actually going to go to to do like all of your upgrades and just sort of in town business. So, don't expect a lot of settlements to run around and enjoy. just as a heads up. So that then brings

[13:46] us to combat. Combat is an interesting one in this sense because it is uh I would say fun for what it is, but it's also certainly not like the best in the genre or anything. A lot of it's a little clunky and weird at times, but

[14:00] thanks to the wide variety of both weapon types, magic, traps, alchemy, you can do some fun stuff with it if you lean into it because you can decide board, which makes it easier to block, of course, or you could go with other

[14:14] one-handed weapons, hammers, axes, etc. You could dual wield if you wanted to. There is a ranged option, which is uh really easy to cheese some enemies with. There's also magic. So, uh, magic requires a bit more of an investment

[14:28] than I wanted to spend on it, but you can do some fun stuff. Fire, ice, and would expect, but there's also an alteration bit of magic, which is things like healing or later on with a quest that is very missable, by the way. You

[14:42] can pick up a spell called transmogriphy and turn enemies into objects, that kind that will add effects to like your weapon, etc. So, you can play it as more of like a support battle mage type of role if you please. And then, as I've

[14:55] already outlined, you can also drop traps and throw potions at enemies if you want to lean into that direction as well. And things like the stun trap can regardless of what route you choose or what weapon you are messing around with,

[15:08] you'll probably want to know about primary and secondary attacks. Primary However, there is a secondary attack, which is usually where your weapon advance in a weapon skill, you'll gain access to other techniques which are

[15:23] effectively combos you can unleash which can be useful in certain situations. Now, I will say the combat is so like relatively straightforward that much like all the other options, you don't really need to lean into these, but

[15:35] they're there if you want to. And I did actually find some of the uh techniques pretty helpful because it has like a bleed effect and it's very possible and relatively easy to use that bleed effect to say weaken an enemy and then kind of

[15:49] just run around while it bleeds to death. So there's that. But uh that's combat. Not a terribly complicated system. And then that does in fact bring us to the Steam Deck portion. So the developers of this game are a sevenman

[16:04] probably because of that that they did not do any like testing specifically for the Steam Deck. But having played it on that platform for myself, I would say it's probably going to get a rating of playable as is unless it gets some

[16:17] updates. For starters, some of the UI menus etc have very very small text and Steam is a real stickler about that in particular. And on top of that, while it is playable in terms of how well it runs, the frame rate leaves a bit to be

[16:30] desired even with the settings pretty much entirely on low. And even then, stuttering and stuff. So, if anything, I would say this game is in fact playable there. Like, you can definitely do it, but it's also not like the best

[16:43] does have controller support, which is never a given for a smaller game like this. So, that's nice to see. But from there, let's move on to positives, negatives, and then wrap this thing up. So, on the positive side of things,

[16:57] mainly the sense of humor, the fun I had running around, exploring, just messing finding different options to complete quests, discovering little hidden areas tucked away, which usually has some form of loot, be that a treasure chest, a

[17:11] skill book, etc. And there's just like a really good gameplay feedback loop there of you running around, exploring, having a few laughs, going back to town, and doing it again. Nonetheless, there were some negatives. As I mentioned, uh

[17:25] visually not the best game in the world, but in particular, the character models look very, very rough at times, like noticeably worse than the rest of it in dealbreaker for me if you've seen the games I play. I will say though, the

[17:40] most frustrating thing was really the movement of this game. like there is just a sort of oddity to actually like moving around and jumping and there is a I would say almost platforming element to certain areas exploration and so it's

[17:52] not like this is easily avoided but that in particular really did just kind of feel bad compared to playing the rest of it which was unfortunate and if I'm being like super nitpicky I also think there's some adjustments on the timing

[18:06] in terms of attacks with two-handed weapons that could be made or stuff like feeling off and it being hard to like turn directions, especially in combat sometimes. And then there are occasional frustrations with trying to like aim

[18:20] that the game just doesn't want to that kind of thing. So, a lot of little nitpicks if you want to go down that route. But ultimately, that brings me to my conclusion. While uh Forsaken Realms

[18:33] Vronin Call is hardly a pinnacle of the genre or anything, it is honestly more than anything else just kind of fun and funny at that, which was uh plenty enough for me in particular. And so if you want to beat your enemies to death

[18:47] with a frying pan, turn giant yetis into buckets, and then maybe after all that's done, see about this main quest nonsense, then Vin's Call might well be up your alley. And at that it is uh planning to release for $35 US, which is

[19:01] about where I would put it. Personally, I would have preferred it be at 30, but that's a nitpick at best. And I am okay for recommending it at that price. So, I'm going to give this game a buy. If you do wind up checking it out for

[19:13] 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 wisdom and have an amazing day. Okay.