Yaengard

Prepare yourself for Yaengard, a turn-based party role playing game that has been inspired by some of the classic table top games of the past. In this game, you will create an adventuring party that forms to take on an evil that controls the land. Throughout the game, these adventurers will adapt and evolve through their choices and actions, until they are barely the same person at the end of it all. An incredible amount of care has been given to make sure that the players freedoms remain a top priority from start to finish. If that sounds interesting to you, gear up and let’s take a deeper look.

Gameplay

Yaengard is a turn-based party role playing game, meaning you will be forming a party of adventurers who must battle their way through the world to defeat the evil baroness. The gameplay is pretty straightforward and mostly revolves around exploration, combat and social encounters, and, thankfully, it remains clear throughout that an equal amount of attention has been paid to each of those things.

Character evolution plays an enormous part in this game and I couldn’t be happier about it. It isn’t as cut and dry as “here is the adventure, follow it.” It has a much more fluid approach, where you are able to adjust your characters as the story progresses. Situations arise throughout your adventure, and it its up to you to determine how your characters react to those things.

I have found that there are two main ways to play this. One is inspired from tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, where you do what’s called min-maxing. When your character levels up or purchases items or things like that, you pour all of your efforts into a single skill or trait so that they become very strong in it. If you have a party of multiple people, you can make each one very powerful in a single thing which allows you to take on most enemies and situations quite efficiently.

The game handles a bit like Darkest Dungeon, but lacks the stylized visuals. There are a lot of cool mechanics and functions that you discover while playing. It keeps the combat fresh and interesting.

Visuals

The visuals of Yaengard are slightly simpler than many games. It looks a lot closer to titles like For The King than other, higher budget games. That’s not to say it looks bad. It has a very classic Runescape feel and you can’t really knock it. It feels nice to play and the color palette and visuals make it a brighter, cheerier game in general.

Story

The story starts off with three peasants who decide that the corrupt baroness who rules their homeland needs to be stopped. The party must then travel, fight and grow until they can take her head on. One of the best bits about this is the freedom you are offered as the story progresses. You find yourself in situations where you may have to make the hard call every now and again. Its fluid, and you do not have to stay as the good guy to complete the game. Will you depose the evil baroness, or simply replace her?

Pros

• Great gameplay mechanics
• Interesting story

Cons

• Lackluster visuals