Developer: waterxmelon
Publisher: Drageus Games S.A., Atriagames
Platform: PC, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Weakwood Throne – Review
Making a game that states its quality in its name is quite a great way to make fun of quality control. We are not going to beat around the bush, the game isn’t great and doesn’t offer anything for those looking for a challenge. We recommend that you only read this if you’re looking for a game for a younger child, as it would only be suitable for such an audience. Nonetheless, we tried out this fairly weak game and still tried to write up our findings, even with its limited content.
Story
In Weakwood Throne you just get dropped on a remote island with your little boat, you find a stick and get attacked by strange creatures. There is virtually no real story present in the game next to you washing up on a shore. There are some NPCs in a neighboring town but as you have zero interaction with them it is just letting your fantasy get the better of you to just imagine what you are doing there. Even though the graphical prowess of the game leaves a lot to be desired, it would have been nice to at least have a bit more meat in the story department, as it would certainly give you a reason to press on.
Graphics
The visuals are pretty simplistic and cartoonish. Assets get repeated over and over again, so it’s good to see something new from time to time. Because it’s so repetitive, you will get lost quite easily if you randomly close the game. When exploring, you will notice that the animations are rather simplistic, which isn’t bad, but combat can feel really cheap thanks to this. Again, some more polishing would have been nice in this department, as these tiny indie titles can earn a lot of attention with either their story value or their aesthetics.
Sound
In the game, you notice that there are some corners cut at the quality control. The really stale background song will sometimes play, sometimes not, but the thing looping way too short could lead to some frustration. There are no voiced characters and there aren’t many sound effects either. It feels like there was only a small bit of budget left for a tiny sound-loop and that the developers were aiming on making it catchy for potential players. Sadly, it’s not.
Gameplay
Weakwood Throne is an adventure game where you play as a skateboarding kid on a sandy beach that got washed up on his little raft. You don’t know who you are or what you are doing there, you just find a stick and must use it to fend off enemies. Combat is sloppy, as the hit detection isn’t always that great, and enemies just prefer to body slam you to deal massive amounts of damage. Fighting is really mundane and while you can find better weapons, the way there is a grindy one. You must level up to wield slightly stronger weapons, but as combat is fatiguing it can be a really boring task.
Once you make it into the village you will notice that there are a lot of people there. Sadly you won’t be able to interact with them or read any signs. This just makes the game feel more and more hollow and as you finally find someone to give you a quest, you feel like just giving up. There are a few different enemies in the game and they all have different tactics. If you don’t learn their patterns then they will make minced meat out of you rather soon. It’s all just a basic repetitive grind and it feels like there is no real purpose or point to the game.
Conclusion
The game isn’t that interesting to keep you engaged for long as the lower production quality and sloppy controls will make exploration a chore rather than an adventure. The maps are boring and the gameplay is really repetitive. The emptiness of it all will make you forget about this title quicker than the bad burger you ate at a truck stop. We feel like this is the first project of a single developer, or a small asset-drop title to tread the waters of actually publishing a game. There are some appealing traits here for children, but even they might need a bit of structure and incentive to make this actually a fun experience.
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