Fantasy is a wide world to explore, and most franchises you see today come packed with tons of cutscenes, complex gameplay mechanics, and screen after screen of visual candy that you can customize to your liking. We often forget that RPGs were born from text, and it was the stellar writing that kept this genre alive for years to come. Today, we have a lot of fantasy RPGs with the likes of Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt topping the charts. No doubt these are excellent titles, but the good old text-based RPGs still have their charm even today. Assemble Entertainment and Moral Anxiety Studio released their text-based RPG Roadwarden on PCs a few years ago, and now it has made its way to Nintendo Switch as well. This is our review of the Nintendo Switch release of Roadwarden, in which we experience a branching narrative and establish new routes in uncharted lands.
Roadwarden is set in a world that we simply know as the peninsula. It has a lot of small and big towns with names, but most of the area remains uncharted. After the previous Roadwarden goes missing on an assignment, we step into our big-boy shoes and take on this precarious role. The game begins after we arrive at a camp, and it offers a brief tutorial on how the game works. Since this is a text-based RPG, naturally, there is a lot of reading, but the game makes it very easy to get comfortable with different mechanics.
The first camp not only serves as a tutorial, but it also incorporates your character builder. As you interact with NPCs and answer their questions, you can choose your class, background, your religious affiliation, and even your horse’s name. This happens in between the dialogue, so it feels very natural. There are no menus in the game, so most of the tasks are performed through dialogue. Very few things will pop out on a screen for you like merchants. Sometimes you will see icons for dialogue that set your tone for the reply, but they are incorporated in the dialogue as well, so very few things will come in the way of your test-based adventure.
The game’s UI is split into four screens. The left section shows us an illustration of our current location. If we are in a camp, it will show us a camp. If we are inside an inn, it will show us the inside of an inn. While there are no animations or small details on these illustrations, the game gives you the freedom to make yourself comfortable in these illustrations and make up your own little stories by imagining your own position in it and the NPCs you are currently interacting with. However, the game does update these illustrations if something happens in the world. For example, the time change turns them darker or lighter, and in one of the earlier scenes, the illustrations changed to show a fire outside the camp, which was initially not there. Neat.
The middle two sections are dedicated to the text. Whether it is the game detailing the scene or your dialogue with the NPCs. Everything is painted in text form in the middle of the screen. You make choices here, and you see their results here. The right side of the screen is dedicated to different useful mechanics like Inventory, Map, and also your character’s stats like hunger, rest, armor, etc. Combined, it all forms a very unique experience, especially if you are accustomed to playing text-based RPGs. Roadwarden has one of the most unique UIs that you can find. It is easier to read, manage, and look at. The required information is at your fingertips, literally, because of Switch’s touch screen.
You have all the options that you need for your journey, like Quick Save, Quick Load, Journal, and even an Archive that has your recent chats with different people if you want to check them again. You can use the console’s touchscreen and the control for playing the game. It depends on your personal preference. You also get a pause menu where you can find some information about the world you are exploring. You can learn about the monsters, people, and the towns and villages you visit. Some information is available right from the start, but your journal gets updated with additional information as you explore the vivid and dangerous world around you.
While it is not obvious, you do get to create a custom character, and later you can build on its foundations to develop a character and world that suits your will according to your own choices. You will be astonished at the world-building that takes place around you, and everything is presented in text. There are some basic mechanics that you need to watch out for, like your character’s well-being. Everything is shown in the right section of the screen, and you have to take good care of your Roadwarden. Different needs like Vitality, Nourishment, Armor, and Appearance affect the gameplay actively. If you do not look presentable, people will notice and comment.
Similarly, eating properly cooked meals will keep you in good shape, and if your vitality is low, you will not be able to perform certain tough tasks in the game. Different vendors will sell you items, and you will need to use them to complete your journey. If you choose Normal difficulty or anything above, you have to watch out for time as well. However, if you want to take it slow and experience everything at your pace, there is an Easy difficulty that removes this time constraint altogether, but we recommend that you try the timed mode at least once because that is really where the game shines.
As you explore the world of Roadwarden, you will arrive at different locations and meet different people. Everyone will have some sort of expectation from you, and if you love completing everything in the game, you may end up with quests that will not fit into your timetable. These quests will range everything from collecting, fetching, or combat. There is plenty of fighting in the game, both with humans and monsters, and they feel just as brutal as in any live-action RPG. You will need to manage your armor, weapons, and food if you want to survive until the very end.
Sacrifice is a big word when it comes to Roadwarden. Or you could call it opportunity cost. The time you spend in Roadwarden pursuing one quest could be spent pursuing something else. Nearly every decision you make in the game will sacrifice another bit of an equally amazing story or narrative bit. With only 30/40 days to complete a playthrough, you are on a tight edge because even the smallest tasks in the game require time, and you have to manage it in order to complete your main quest. You will feel quite a decent amount of stress, but is it not called a role-playing game? Are you not supposed to role-play a Roadwarden?
Most modern RPGs take this word very casually, and they give you plenty of options and opportunities to avail everything that the game has to offer. But Roadwarden is just like your real life. You make one decision, you sacrifice another. You buy one thing, you sacrifice another. You help one town or man, you skip another, and the list keeps on going. You cannot achieve everything in a single playthrough of Roadwarden, no matter how hard you try, because not only does the narrative deviate at so many points, but there is also the time constraint. The time keeps ticking, and you have to prioritize your goals in the game.
While there are so many good things about Roadwarden, we do have one reservation, exclusively about its Nintendo Switch version, and that is its laggy UI. This is very annoying if you are using the controls because you have to press the same key multiple times to complete an action. Moving around the selection is slow, and sometimes you are lost as to where it is. Sometimes, if the dialogue is big, the text appears slowly on the screen, and it does not feel very smooth. This is much better when using the touch screen of the console, but this is very prominent while using the Switch’s controls. Roadwarden is not generally visual-heavy, so this should be patched soon, but given the fact that it has been out now for 2 weeks already, and it is still there, we may have to experience it like this.
Roadwarden is the perfect example of how good writing can make or break a game. It shows that you do not need to design overly clever and complex game mechanics to deliver a good experience. With a simple UI, some cool details thrown in the mix, and writing as strong as Roadwarden’s, you can have the perfect RPG. Coupled with an audio design as good as writing, Roadwarden has every element of immersing you into its atmospheric and beautiful world. We did not want to spoil the story too much in this review, so do yourself some justice and jump into Roadwarden as soon as you get a chance.
Related News:
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Final Verdict:
Roadwarden deserves a perfect score, but the Nintendo Switch version is not well-optimized for the console. The UI feels a little clunky, and there is a weird lag, whether you are using the touchscreen or the controls for playing the game. Still, if you ignore its laggy UI, Roadwarden is the definition of a true RPG. It shows that you do not need fancy visuals and a 100 GB game size to deliver the true experience of an RPG. The stellar writing and the immersive visuals, although simple, will get you hooked right from the first five minutes, and it makes it very hard to put the console down. At the Nintendo Switch, Roadwarden feels right at home because you can take it everywhere you go, and it will keep you engaged for hours to come. If you own a Nintendo Switch and you love RPGs, no matter what type, Roadwarden should be on your list and installed on your console at all times. It will not disappoint you in any capacity.
Final Score: 9.0/10
Disclaimer: A Nintendo Switch review copy of Roadwarden was provided to us by PR Hound on behalf of the publisher. Our Review Policy.
