Roadwarden

Roadwarden is a text-based RPG with elements of adventure games and visual novels. It was developed by an independent team Moral Anxiety Studio and published by Assemble Entertainment.

Plot

Roadwarden takes us on a journey to the fantastic universe. We take on the role of one of the rangers who traverse the wild corners of the world and take care of safety on the roads. One day we are hired by a merchant guild, which sends us to a mysterious peninsula. Our task is to explore the region and gain information that will allow the merchants to expand their sphere of influence. We can choose the purpose of our work, once we start, by ourselves. It does not matter whether it will be wealth or, for example, great fame.

Game mechanics

In Roadwarden, the screen is vertically divided into three parts. The first from the left shows in isometric view the locations visited by our character. The second, the widest one, contains text descriptions of places and situations in which our ranger finds himself, a transcript of his conversations, as well as options related to making various choices; we're talking about different dialogues and decisions regarding what the hero has to do at a given moment. The third part of the screen contains the game's menu, clock and character statistics.

We traverse the vast world and get to know its inhabitants. In addition to the tasks pushing forward the plot, there are numerous side missions waiting for you to complete. It's worth remembering that the clock is constantly ticking and the quests don't wait indefinitely until we graciously decide to help them. In addition, the game includes puzzles, and some of them require us to enter simple commands by ourselves; simple survival elements have also been implemented here.

As we progress, we develop our character in the direction we choose, both in terms of his profession (a ranger can be a warrior, a mage or a scholar) and personality (by interacting with NPCs in an appropriate way, the character can be perceived as friendly, funny, sensitive, distant or scary).

Technical aspects

Roadwarden features simple graphics. The monochromatic illustrations are enriched with a sepia effect. The whole was realized in pixel art technique.