Sojourner Demo

Every RPG has the potential to be a memorable experience, especially if the story and the characters are nicely designed. It takes a bit of effort to come up with original ideas at this point, however, especially when it comes to the fantasy genre. Even so, a bit of humor can go a long way when it is well-executed, and the retro gimmick is somehow still popular.

Sojourner is a top-down RPG with retro graphics and classic gameplay mechanics, in which you get to explore a fantasy world full of dangers and funny situations. The game is more of a parody than a serious RPG, but the tales are very enjoyable, and there’s a fair bit of challenge in there too. Hence, there’s a lot of fun to be had if you lower your expectations a little bit in some regards.

To begin with, the game presents you with a short quiz designed to pick a class for you, but it is also possible to customize everything about your character. In fact, you can create an entire part and pick from a total of ten classes, each one of which has its own advantages and drawbacks. As far as the actual story, don’t expect an awful lot plot-wise, but the quests are pretty engaging most of the time.

The combat system is straightforward as well, not to mention simple. The fights take place in turns, and you get to choose whether your characters attack, defend or use special items to come out victorious. Every enemy has different abilities and weaknesses, so you can get quite a bit of satisfaction out of the combat, even if none of the elements are original.

Lastly, the retro graphics can be a bit too much sometimes, because even if the color palette is limited to 16 bits, it should still be possible to create some nice artwork. In the case of Sojourner, everything is as simple as it gets, since the environments are nothing but a succession of repetitive tiles and the occasional structure. Not much can be said about the music either, but at least it’s not horrible.

In the end, Sojourner could have done a lot more with the elements at its disposal, but the experience can be a bit too disappointing sometimes. Even so, the humor definitely helps, and the story is pretty engaging as well.