Video Game Fables – Review (PC)

Video Game Fables – Review (PC)

Ok. Hear me out. What if someone took the classic RPG genre, spin around the perspective in the likes of Wreck-it Ralph, filled it with satire, and laugh-out-loud humor, and have a unique leveling system…and make it fun? Round of applause for Matt Sharp everyone. No seriously, I haven’t had this much fun playing a game in a very long time. Matt is the solo indie developer for Video Game Fables. I was lucky enough to chat with him through email when he so graciously gave us a key to review Video Game Fables, he was fantastic and it is an honor that we were allowed to be able to review this game.

The premise of Video Game Fables is that the game takes place in an old abandoned RPG that hasn’t had a player come to control the hero in literally decades. This is where my previous Wreck-It Ralph thought comes in. All of the characters and NPCs are still alive doing their day-to-day stuff just waiting for the game to pick back up again…but it doesn’t. Video Game Fables starts off following the annoyed, impatient princess Aru in a scene that just sets the whole comical satire off and it doesn’t end. She then meets up with Nate (an NPC who really wants to be a hero) and Tator, the villain’s son. I really don’t want to ruin the story or how it flows because damn if that isn’t half of the ride in Video Game Fables.

The humor doesn’t stop with the story, you have the annoyed clock you use as a save point. You have enemies fantastically named ‘Grassp’, which is grass with a white glove attached, or ‘Donot’ who is a donut with teeth and a “Ghostbusters” ‘no’ line through it. Every enemy is unique and will take some strategy to dispatch these beautifully named enemies. But Jason, how does it play?? Don’t worry my baby Bird Bro, I’m getting there.

Video Game Fables is a turn-based strategy RPG. You encounter enemies both on the world map and in dungeons. You don’t see the enemies on the world map, but after walking a while you will see a colored dust cloud that chases you around. You can outrun it, but why when you need that sweet sweet XP. If the story and humor weren’t enough, this is where the game makes its own mark. Like most RPGs, you gain XP after battles. In other games, you reach a certain XP level and your character will level up and become stronger. In Video Game Fables, XP is much more precious. Not only do you need XP to level, which you do manually. Yes, you can choose what level your party will be at if you have enough XP. But, you can also lower your party’s level. But why? You also need XP to equip weapons, the better the weapons, the more XP is needed. You also need XP for your spells/skills, you unlock spell/skill slots with XP. This is an absolutely brilliant way of making the RPG system work for YOU. However you want to play, you can do it. It was a blast to play around with this XP system and I hope we see more of it in the future.

The battle system is simple but advanced all in the same package. You have your basic attacks that will get stronger as you level your party and weapons. Then you have your spells and skills your party can use. When you use a spell or skill, there is a timeline up on top to see when your turn will then happen in case you are trying to defeat an enemy before they take their next turn or see if maybe you should heal before then. One of the biggest parts of the battle system is Crit. It is what you think it is, having a Crit allows you to hit harder. But how you get it is completely well done and builds depth in the system. You can gain Crits from simply attacking, you will get notified if you get one. Once you have a Crit you can use it with a regular attack to do more damage, you can use a spell or skill to do more damage or have a greater effect. You can see the tooltips on how the Crit will change your spell or skill will be affected. Lastly, some spells or skills can only be used when you have a Crit. You also can’t store a Crit, it will be used on your next attack. The whole battle system was a treat to play with. I can’t say enough about it. Bravo.

Every area (I hate calling them dungeons, but I don’t have a better word for it), is as unique as the enemies you encounter. Though not overly complicated, they are oddly memorable. From transversing a mini-game that has an upside-down world and you need to switch back and forth to get new pathways to get to the end, to have a boss battle where you need to attack the environment like some Paper Mario battles. Nothing felt rehashed or boring after playing. Besides the humor and story, it was one of the reasons the replayability is great, you want to see what else you’re going to find.

In the end, Video Game Fables is truly a one-of-a-kind gaming experience that in a few minutes could make you snort with laughter, then in the next be in awe of the dynamic gameplay. It’s funny, it’s smart, and it’s absolutely worth your time. If you are a fan of RPGs and don’t even need to be retro-styled RPGs, do yourself a favor and check out Video Game Fables.

Check out Video Game Fables on Steam here! There’s even a demo!

Note: GameOctane received a digital code from the publisher for the purpose of reviewing this game. Any code or product intended for review is distributed to the team to review and stream for our audience. All opinions therein are from the author alone.

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