And of course I don’t mean financial cost as we all know the power of Steam sales. Seriously though, Blackguards has some strong positives to it, but within a few hours, including completely restarting once to change my character’s Profession and my overall strategy, I found the grind of Blackguards to outweigh the reward. SRPGs have to walk a fine line in that regard — challenge players, newcomers and veterans alike, otherwise the experience is frustrating or disappointing because it lacks a sense of accomplishment. Go too far, though, and you’re in the same boat.
Blackguards has 190 or so battle scenes, none of which are random (although some are optional), and after surviving them, you’re like to feel a sense of achievement. Too many times, though, I struggled with the randomness of the combat. Perhaps true to The Dark Eye tabletop game (which I know nothing about, unfortunately), the success of each combat action — be it the swing of a sword or the casting of spell — does feel like a roll of the dice despite indicators on screen that suggest a percentage of success. In other words, while you may see that you have an 85% chance to land that next strike, it might miss, or take off far less damage than anticipated, and worst-yet, this puzzling occurrence can happen two or three times in a row.
So, I’ll be honest, after having put in two or three hours on Normal, and realizing that I was hitting a brick wall, I restarted from the top — on Easy. The troubles with the randomness of the battle system still remain, and I still find the game to be on the wrong side of the challenge vs reward/fun equation, but it’s far more bearable than playing on Normal. It’s absolutely worth pointing out too, that, for all the bad “luck” I experience with those random misses and things on the offensive side, there is a good, yet not equally balanced, amount of times when my characters execute a successful dodge, or maybe a normal hit does a little more damage than typically rated for. So the pendulum of the randomness swings both ways, but the odds are clearly stacked against you. It’s not Demons Souls difficult, but it’s still hard, and, more importantly, not as satisfying as something like a Demon’s Souls.
Starting (or restarting) Blackguards begins with a visit to the character creation screen. Character creation does have anywhere near the depth that you may have come to expect from a Skyrim or Dragon’s Dogma, but it’s sufficient. On a single screen, players name their character, select a gender, choose from one of five pre-set appearances, and also choose a Profession. The Professions include Warrior, Mage, and Hunter, three pretty typical character classes that have the anticipated strengths and weaknesses. I prefer to play as a Mage, but, on my first go ’round it was panning out, so I switched to a Hunter, a class that excels at ranged attacks but can also handle some melee encounters, too. Anyway, character creation complete, an opening cutscene reveals that your character is suspected of having killed Princess Elanor, and you’re sent to prison because of it. A stout and stubborn Dwarf Naurim helps set you free and the escape is on. You’ll quickly encounter a Mage, Zurbaran, and the trio begin a journey to figure out just what is going on with your character’s life and to crush a lot of evil in the process. Eventually, you can have up to five characters in your party, each with their own Character Sheet and equip-able items and weapons. Some battles pit all of your characters against one tough boss-type or against numerous lesser enemies like Crypt Lice.
The story can branch, and that’s one the game’s stronger points is that there indeed multiple story paths and endings. Perhaps a good and bad thing within that design is that it’s difficult to know which direction your decisions may be taking you, but some of the twists in the story go a long way to making the often frustrating battles more bearable. Fortunately, you can save your game at anytime, except during battles, and you’ll notice auto-saves dropping in at fairly regular intervals. But with so much content — five chapters and roughly forty hours are purported to be included here, and 190 or so total battles — I think it’s a (patchable) shame that you’ll spend a considerable amount of your time restarting battles ad nauseam.
In between battles sees players talking with NPCs in small “town-like” settings whereby you can speak with various folks of different trades. Trainers can help you increase certain Talents for a price, Merchants will buy and sell most anything to you, Healers will instantly fix your crew, and so on. There are side quests you can pick up, and the world map and Quest Log make it easy to keep track of what you need to do and what you’ve optionally taken on. You can also re-visit some previously explored areas, too. I would add that too that I like that there aren’t really any random battles; each battle you encounter, while you can’t really know what to expect, is one that is sort of ingrained in the story and is meant to be “meaningful.” So you’ll head into a new room or area from the map, and there is a pre-determined batch of foes awaiting you, which ultimately I prefer to random, often interruptive battles. Environmental objects and hazards, which can be either a huge help or problem for you depending on your strategy and how you use your character’s turns, are routinely present and spice up the battles.
It’s important to take advantage of those times you are in a town area or otherwise able to stock up goods because you’ll obviously need them to survive. Money, even on Easy, is somewhat hard to come by, meaning you’ll have to buy and sell smartly and take on side quests without losing too many potions or having to heal afterwards, which is good. Spending your AP, or Adventure Points, on Talents and core abilities and skills, such as increasing Vitality or the power of a fireball spell or the duration of a protective wall spell, etc., is pretty big deal too. There are dozens of these character attributes available, but comparatively few points. Perhaps my lack of creativity is to blame, but for all of the various weapons and spells available, a lot of them didn’t seem practical to upgrade and use.
I found myself further specializing the characters’ Professions rather than trying to “cross train” them much. This led to a Mage who could really dish out damage, you know, when he could cast and hit with a spell, and who could heal nicely, but who was very vulnerable to close encounters. And a Hunter who was awesome at range but couldn’t cast a spell to save his life. There is a lot of strategy involved, I just wish their were a little more balance between all that planning and strategy and what actually, typically, happens once in battle.
Regarding the presentation, Blackguards does well for itself, but it’s not likely to blow you away. I thought a lot of the music was nicely done, and most of the voice-acting is, too. Backgrounds, including those in battle and otherwise, are good and have appreciable detail. There are some clipping issues, like during battle with some of the path-finding of characters as they move across the hexagonal tiles, but these aren’t a big deal. Of lesser importance is the, well, amateurish appearance of the game’s start and pause menu; and something about the fonts used in the Inventory and Character Sheets seemed a little bit off, making the text look a little out of place. Overall, like the game itself, the presentation has a lot going for it, but there are just some quirks and a lack of polish in areas that is unavoidable.
With that, let’s get to the summary…
