Game: Reaper Tale Of a Pale Swordsman
Genre: Platform action RPG
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam and mobile)
Developer|Publisher: Hexage
Age Rating:EU 12+| US Teen
Price: $5.99 |£4.99 |€5,99
Release Date: 26th September 2019
Review code kindly provided by Hexage
War broke out between the industrious Imperium and the savage magic welding tribes of Wilderness. Demons and carrions have returned to the land. Proudly the Wilderlings fought back against the Imperial’s war machine using their fierce sorcery.
After many years of war both tribes grew weary and the war turned into a stalemate with the Imperials defending the areas they had claimed as their own and only the most hardened of Wilderlings continue to fight…..all are unaware of what is to come.
A pale swordsman awakens
Deep in a cave in the Wilderness a mysterious man awakens, he is the Reaper. A pale swordsman, death on two legs with a whopping big sword. The Reaper doesn’t care why the tribes are fighting and everyone is fair game to the Reaper (seems like a nice chap!)
As the player you take control of the Reaper in this Action/ RPG by developers Hexage. You move across the overworld map from point to point on a linear path. Take on quests from the locals to earn gold and experience and deal death with that big sword.
The Reaper in Combat
The combat takes place on a side scrolling battle area with a set amount of enemies to beat with a few obstacles in the way your goal is to kill everything in sight and make it to the glowing portal which appears once all enemies are dispatched.
The Reaper automatically chops at enemies with his sword once he gets close enough to an enemy. In turn this generates Skulls of Rage indicated by the glowing row of skulls at the top of the screen. Skulls allow the Reaper to preform devastating special attack’s such as Uppercut which makes the Reaper swipe upwards with his sword or Earthquake a swipe downwards while in the air.
Various enemies fill the stage and most of them fire some sort of projectile at the Reaper which you have to dodge. Sometimes though there are so many projectiles on screen that they can be hard to get out of the way of them all.
If the Reaper loses all his health indicated by the heart at the bottom of the screen, you are sent back to the map to try again.
Surrounded by beautiful scenery while chopping away
Combat is engaging and fun with colourful back drops on each stage and upbeat music to match. I did find that some of the enemies and obstacles colour matched that of the back ground, therefore making it a bit difficult to distinguish them sometimes.
Experience you earn after making it to the end of a level is used on skill cards, out of a choice of three cards you are shown you get to pick one. The skill cards can allow the Reaper to execute a special move or increase his chances of blocking an attack among others. There are over 30 unique and tiered skills to chose from to upgrade your Reaper.
Will you choose sides in the war?
As you move through the levels taking on quests, which are usually of the go kill a particular enemy kind, on completing a quest your reward is gold. Gold can be spent in the shop upgrading a wide variety of weapons and accessories for the Reaper.
You also have the choice to play all sides of the warring fractions which adds the option of being able to re-play the game.
You control the game via the Joy-con’s with the Reaper preforming sword moves with a press of the button or rush to the side by pressing the L or R shoulder button depending on which way you want to move. I didn’t have any problems with the controls as they worked well. You can use touchscreen on the world map but not during combat.
Conclusion
Reaper Tale Of a Pale Swordsman is a very enjoyable game, though the levels of combat remind me more of a beat em up style of game with a few RPG elements tacked on.
It can be a bit of a grind at times when you have to replay a level over and over if you lost all your health and the quest can sometimes feel like a chore. That’s not to say it isn’t an enjoyable and fun, the combat certainly makes up for some slight complaints about the grind and quests.
My verdict: I like it!
