Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms proven role of a role-playing game between modernity and the past

Some games make you wait. Perhaps on the way from conception to market, they find thousands of unexpected events slowing them down. But in the end, when they do, they spark all the curiosity they put on you at the moment of the announcement. With this spirit Tried Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms One of the most promising Italian projects of recent years, by development studio Gamera Interactive, is finally available in Early Access.

Moonstone

The starting point of Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms is Moonstone. Gamera Interactive has never kept its existence a secret. Inspired by the old classic for the Amiga when it comes to the game structure which is actually very similar. At the start of the adventure, you can choose to play alone or compete with other heroes in search of the magical artifacts needed to stop Alaloth, a demon intent on destroying the world. All of this means more heroes running around the overall map performing quests and collecting items from time to time having to challenge each other to loot. What exactly happened on the Moonstone? The rest of the game, especially the action stages, work differently, but the starting point is definitely not the classic role-playing games from Obsidian Entertainment or BioWare.

L’aim Therefore, the task of the player is to visit numerous places on the map, some of which can be used immediately, others will be unlocked by solving quests or killing enemies, collecting resources, finding travel companions and other necessary activities to prepare to face the final boss.

To be honest, even character development It is very reminiscent of the old name of the Amiga: much drier and more necessary than modern role-playing games, it provides no real improvement (although to a limited extent), but provides selective specialization. passive and active skills, divided into several menus. Basically, you can choose what type of character it will be, without class or trait restrictions. So if you want to create a pure warrior, just choose certain skills like powerful blows or jump attacks, if you want to mix combat and magic, you can make a mixed choice by adding various spells to the menu.

In that sense it seems like Alaloth really should be. repeated several times With the agility to try everything, spend hours curating individual aspects of the character rather than confronting them once. The entire design of the game seems to have been thought through with this philosophy in mind.

Towns and villages

for example cities and villages they are not very large and can be visited in a few minutes, but for a game like Alaloth this is not a disadvantage, as it allows quick passes to go to the shopkeepers and talk to the characters to obtain or solve quests, and then return. The focus of the game is to go and beat the enemies. Let’s just say it’s all pretty compressed, which isn’t bad considering its gaming focus. These are transitional stages that serve to resettle and relax rather than to invite exploration.

Basically everything is at hand. Then you arrive at a place, check the bulletin board to see if there are new missions, talk to people with an icon in their head (depends on their function), repair equipment, create new ones. enchanted, the savings spent, perhaps one lays in the local inn to regain health and embark on an adventure. It should be noted that every urban area can be visited day and night.

Doing this not only gets you in the habit of seeing different lighting, it also lets you access different missions and talk to characters that are only available at certain times. in this sense The maps are very well used. and they manage to offer a lot in a small space, while being diverse and interesting at the same time. After refueling, you return to the main map to search for the next adventure. You may decide to pursue a certain mission or go blind, facing the dangers that come.

like soft souls

The most important stages of the game are the action stages, where you face off against areas full of enemies. Basicallyaim There’s definitely a high difficulty between beating everyone and collecting treasures scattered around the map, but saying and doing that healing potions are scarce, at least in the early hours of the game, i.e. when equipment is weak. and controller skill still leaves much to be desired. Consider that during missions it is not possible to access inventory or use objects found around, so preparation is very important (so much so that before each dangerous area there is a rest area where final adjustments can be made).

this battle system pretty classic, but with a twist like soul that doesn’t hurt. Therefore, you should replace quick attacks with powerful ones when trying to dodge or dodge the blows of enemies (in the latter case, but if you do not have a perfect shield, you still risk taking a lot of damage). In reality, in order to master everything, you need to develop the right instinct to dodge or dodge at the last moment in order to take advantage of the enemy’s openings for our attacks.

Overall, it works really well even in the presence of multiple enemies, be it rogues, undead or overweight lizards. Of course, it’s also important to take good care of your equipment, have it repaired by a blacksmith when it’s worn out, or buy it again when you’ve saved enough money so you don’t end up badly in battle.

The difficulty curve of Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms is very steep at first, after a few hours of gameplay it gets smoother, missions that seemed practically impossible turn into a health march and large groups of enemies meeting on maps. they are no longer afraid. From time to time we will have to face the gods as well. Managernaturally more dangerous than the basic enemies and equipped with much more painful and insidious techniques, but once one has mastered the art of escaping it is not insurmountable.

Graphics and cleaning

Talking about graphic and the visual style, we loved Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms. As mentioned, the individual maps are pretty small, but the variety is huge, and the places you visit all look different and very well designed, whether they’re rural villages or coastal cities, impregnable castles or dark forests, and they’re menacing. Even the characters are well rendered, although they are framed from a distance (as is normal for the genre). Especially for those who love fantasy, it’s really enjoyable to just navigate the game world with the clarity of recent softenings, especially the classic Dungeons & Dragons atmospheres, reminiscent of the genre as it was imagined in the 80s and 90s.

In terms of general cleanliness, Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms still contains a few bug.

But that’s normal, because it’s still in early access. It should also be said that Gamera is updating it with great care and clearing the most serious bugs reported by users. For the rest, the game is practically complete and can be played safely, so much so that we managed to get to the end without facing major problems, forcing us to say that it’s cleaner than many games already. It was published in full and took months to fix.