DROD RPG: Tendry's Tale Demo

Although the role-playing genre is rather flexible by nature, it still follows some rules when it comes to gameplay and storytelling techniques. However, interesting combinations can yield impressive results as well, as long as the rules that are broken are replaced by ingenious new mechanics, which take your mind off the things that are missing.

DROD RPG: Tendry's Tale is pretty unique when it comes to gameplay, but the rest of the game is strange as well. Hence, instead of playing with a party and choosing the desired character in the beginning, you start with a pre-made warrior and you must use him alone to navigate the tricky environments. Not only that, but you can stop and ponder at any time, since nothing really happens in real-time anyway.

As far as the background story is concerned, you play as a warrior by the name of Tendry, who’s a member of the Stalwart Army and he must make his way up from the dungeons deep underground. Along the way, you must deal with a variety of dangers, as well as improve your skills and try to solve the unique puzzles you stumble into whenever you make it to a new level.

Just like in every other RPG, the main goal is to become more powerful and find treasure, which in this case is littered all around the immense dungeon. Naturally, better weapons and armors are available as well, which make it easier for you to kill the enemy creatures and resist their attacks. However, your wits are still the most important stat, because you can avoid battles in order to save your hitpoints.

The technical aspect is not as strong as it could be, especially when you consider the year the game was released, but you can certainly get over it as long as you are having fun. Hence, the top-down perspective and the simple textures should not have too much of an impact on the overall experience, since you’ll pay most of the attention to the puzzles and the combat anyway.

Even if DROD RPG: Tendry's Tale can get rather repetitive after a while, it can still be a riveting adventure, as long as you remember to take a break once in a while. Thus, except for the bad graphics and the even worse voice acting, the game should be a blast to complete, especially if you enjoy a challenge.