Origin Of Destiny

JRPGs are not as big as they once were, but the genre is still being kept alive by a dedicated community of indie developers. Hence, there’s always a new game out there to keep you busy, even if most of them are not that impressive from any point of view. On top of it all, they usually feature a pretty simple story as well, which means that it’s all about the endless grinding.

Origin Of Destiny is a top-down JRPG designed in RPG Maker, so it should feel very familiar to those of you who have experience with the genre. However, this one features a few more gameplay mechanics and a couple of new ideas, which is always a welcomed sight. Granted, the story and the general character progression are not very complex in this case either, which is a bit of a bummer.

Thus, the main story is about two close friends who get separated by the powers of darkness, namely Sophie and Mike. Your first task is to reunite them by helping them escape from their prison cells, but things get more complicated later on when you also have to defeat a great villain. The writing is not great either, which means that you’ll be fighting boredom whenever a dialog sequence comes up.

As in every other JRPG, combat is a very important aspect, and this happens to be the case with Origin Of Destiny as well. While the confrontations are turn-based, there are other ways to spend your time as well, such as by playing a game of cards. You can collect them along the way and play against other characters, although the mechanics are pretty straightforward and resemble Tic-Tac-Toe more than anything else.

Other than that, you can also come across all sorts of powerful items to equip your character with, including armors and various weapons. Potions and power-ups are included as well, and they all seem to have a use during the gameplay. As for the graphics, the top-down perspective doesn’t allow for too much detail anyway, but the level design is pretty barren and repetitive most of the time.

Even if Origin Of Destiny is an indie production that lacks the manpower to include massive amounts of content and artwork, a bit of originality doesn’t require a full team of experts. Hence, the game is pretty much the same as every other JRPG on the market, plus a CCG mini-game.