Vanaris Tactics

In this original RPG adventure, players are tasked with bringing refugees escaping their occupied motherland to safety. You play Morgana, a young lady with an intense personality. She is leading her brother, Nigel and nephew, Adrien. As you travel, you’ll be meeting other people in similar situations as you.

Tactical turn-based fighting game

The game uses a classic turn-based method for combat. Each character you travel with on the road to safety has their own story to tell along with their own unique abilities. As you gain more members and explore the world, you’ll gain new options with which to fight. The game offers 15 story rich encounters with other people on the road, all of which will help you in some way on your journey.

Along with these 15 story encounters, there’s also a generous number of boss fights and other optional encounters. Battles feel like a budget version of Final Fantasy Tactics and could be greatly improved with a little more finesse. At this point it is essentially a button masher as far as the tactics go.

Pixelized Graphics

The graphics in the game are well drawn, with a moody, urgent style that matches the storyline. The art carries the story very well, while also bringing nostalgia for similarly styled 90s games such as The Secret of Monkey Island. The backgrounds are extremely well done in pixel art, and even include small animations such as trees blowing in the wind. It’s a nice touch that adds to the atmosphere of the game.

Needs some finessing to combat

Combat in the game is very simple. Mobs should be approached from the side or the back for the best chance of hitting them with a weapon. Long range weapons need to be used from farther away. They can’t hit a mob up close. Unfortunately, the game gets a little disorganized here. Slots for equipment include a weapon, a ring and a glove space. This is a relatively small amount of equipment for an RPG game and could use being expanded. Fighting is also very simple and is mainly ‘click until it dies’ rather than any real strategy.

Fortunately, resistances and attributes are a fairly broad category, which gives more variety between each team member. At this time, only the demo is available, so it’s likely these categories as well as strategy in general will be improved before the major release of the game.

Pros:

• Complex storyline
• Cute graphics
• Lots of mini-stories to play through

Cons:

• Limited equipment slots
• Combat lacks real strategy