![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() So you don’t get to wander as a specific avatar through deadly polygonal ruins here, you don’t get to clamber over ancient crates or put keys in locks, instead you tap the touch screen to walk to the evocatively-named “Walk In Reverie” or “Cross Of Atonement”, little footsteps on the map tracing your three person party’s path through sodden passageways, corpse dumping grounds, and all sorts of other tainted places long abandoned to the Dark. They’re full of equipment cards, dice, surprisingly well made figures, and delicious snippets of flavour text – just like Crimson Shroud. The real world equivalents of Crimson Shroud’s game design get a lot of play in my house they’re a sort of halfway house between traditional pen and paper RPGs and board games, just as capable of taking players on multi-scenario campaigns through trap-filled dusty tombs as they are making small teams fight giant fire-breathing dragons or creepy liches, and all without the need for anyone to worry about learning how to convincingly play the part of a halfling mage who burned all their hair off with a critical fail fireball spell roll two months back. A good RPG doesn’t need to be sixty-plus hours long and have motion captured cutscenes backed up by a dozen CDs worth of orchestral soundtrack, a good RPG needs to tell an entertaining story, to offer meaningful chances to actually play a role, to engage players with its satisfying battle system, or do whatever else it decides it needs to do to adequately tackle the genre.Ī good RPG needs to be an RPG/adventure/board game hybrid like Crimson Shroud. Which brings me onto another point: If we want to enjoy the many varied fruits a more adventurous and less focus-tested industry could bring then we have to allow for the existence of (and, where finances allow, buy) games that fall into categories other than “AAA” and “indie”. More games in all genres would benefit from being just enough of whatever they needed to be rather than spreading their content too thinly until they cover whatever they “should”. Raw length has nothing to do with the “value” or the quality of the entertainment on offer in this or any other game, and as the credits rolled I only felt that the content within had been perfectly judged, enough to tell the story it wanted to tell without rushing anything that deserved dwelling on – there’s still plenty of time for talk of forgotten kings and family ties, for reminiscing about old adventures and revenge a cursed lifetime in the making – Crimson Shroud “simply” used six hours of gameplay to tell six hours of story. There is a temptation here to point out how “short” this adventure is as a sort of warning to any prospective customers – it took me a little over six hours to clear on my first attempt (an New Game+ mode is unlocked after the ending’s run its course, complete with its own alternative conclusion as well as a few new extras) – but that is, I feel, to miss the point. For arguably the first time ever it feels like you’re playing a Matsuno-driven title that isn’t riddled with major plot threads left unfinished (I should note here that unfinished plot threads are a completely different kettle of fish to “not spelling every single thing out to the player”) or that you’re exploring the remains of an innovative idea the development team ran out of time to pursue to its fullest Crimson Shroud is a title that views its restrictions as a chance to explore new possibilities rather than straining against them in a futile quest to make a “real” game. This sharp focus, slight encouragement of professional competitiveness (nobody wants to make the worst game in the set), and clearly finite pool of resources bleeds into every facet of Crimson Shroud, improving the game in all the ways we’re told these limitations shouldn’t. Looking for something in particular? Search for: Click here to be taken to a random article! Archives ArchivesĬrimson Shroud owes its existence to Level 5’s “Guild” initiative an unusual idea to give three famous game developers and one comedian a modest budget and then let them create whatever they wished for the 3DS in any theme and in any style, the end result a joyously unpredictable collection bundled together as Guild 01, bursting with creativity. ![]()
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