Game: Armed Emeth
Genre: RPG, Adventure, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Pc, Mobile, Xbox and PS4)
Developer|Publisher: Hit-Point | KEMCO
Age Rating: EU 7+ | US Everyone
Price: US $14.99 | UK £13.49 | EU € 14,99
Release Date: September 2nd, 2021
Review code provided with many thanks to KEMCO
A World of Golems and Bounties
Armed Emeth is a traditional turn-based RPG. You begin the game playing as Valess, a bounty hunter doing his best to scrounge some money together with petty jobs in a desert wasteland. Then one day an unusual living golem named Lock walks into town requiring Valess’ help to take on a very profitable bounty.
What starts as a story of two unlikely allies turns into a tale with various twists and turns leading to a plot much bigger and more grand in scale than taking on simple bounties. I found myself getting quite sucked into the plot of this game. While the themes are familiar, the characters in the game are interesting and the universe created feels quite unique.
Turn-Based Combat
Combat is that of a traditional turn-based RPG. As you navigate around dungeons or the world map you will enter random encounters where you need to defeat the enemy or run away, but success here is not guaranteed. Battles themselves feel by the numbers where each character has various attacks and skills.
There is not a lot new here that you haven’t seen in other RPGs. You can also choose to put encounters into auto-battle mode. This comes in pretty handy when your characters are levelled up sufficiently and you just want to sip your coffee. It’s not so effective against boss fights where you may need to put a little more thought into your strategy.
Golems Included
The unique feature of the game is the golems. These are machines you find around the world that your human characters can enter. These golems can then be customized. You can upgrade their skill points provided you have enough money, choose weapons, cores and various other perks.
Creating a deadly machine to send into battle is the biggest stand out of the game and is highly enjoyable. A niggle I had with this is I usually spent a long time customizing a golem only to find a new more powerful golem to upgrade making all that hard work on the prior golem go to waste.
The game does a good job of making your next objective clear with a handy journal on the menu. A glance at the area map will also show up where secret items may be hidden in town saving you tedious time tapping on various crates and vases.
But, aside from pursuing the main story, you can hunt for various bounties scattered around the world in order to gain more money and items for your character and golems. Most of these bounties are quite well hidden, some found in fixed locations others are discovered by random encounters.
Pixel Graphics
Graphically this is a typical pixel style top-down RPG. The characters are detailed and the wasteland is brought to life. But this is very much another run of the mill RPG Maker looking game. Not a bad thing but it does mean the game doesn’t quite get its own unique look.
What does stand out is the very impressive score, with a hard and gritty feel that nicely suits the tone of the game. Beats that are tense but memorable when heading into battle and exploring the dungeon. But also tone down to a more chilled feeling when entering a town. The music easily held my attention and I would happily have this on in the background while writing up other reviews.
Niggles
There are some niggles worth reporting. The main one for me is the game’s very inconsistent difficulty. It was quite common for me to enter areas of the map randomly encountering enemies that were far too powerful for me to take on. This is commonplace for older RPGs but feels like this could have been modernized here. Make sure you save regularly because if you fall in battle you only get the choice to retry that same fight or return to the title screen. The good news is you can save absolutely anywhere.
Combat itself also just feels a bit too bare-bones. This felt like a game where I have to grind away at encounters for a while in order to level up to take on a powerful bounty or boss. This might work for gamers looking for a more simple experience. Those looking for more depth and tactics may feel a little disappointed. This game also features two paid pieces of DLC, one that triples experience gained and one that lets you switch off random encounters. They don’t cost much but feel like they should have just been included in the main game.
Conclusion – Armed and Entertaining
Armed Emeth on the surface looks like another pixel turn-based RPG. But while not the biggest looker, this title has many features going for it to make it stand out from the crowd. A compelling story and world with interesting golem customization and a memorable soundtrack. The combat lacks some depth and the difficulty feels a little all over the place at times. But if you need a good RPG to sink some time into Armed Emeth is well worth your time. This is a wasteland full of surprises.
Final Verdict: I Like It
