Developer: Back to Basics Gaming
Publisher: Back to Basics Gaming
Platform: PC
Terra Incognita ~ Chapter One: The Descendant – Preview
With al the modern consoles and the amazing graphics, we tend to forget that it all started with mere pixel-like looking characters. Some of the developers want to revive this retro style and Terra Incognita ~ Chapter One: The Descendant is such a game. Will it be satisfying enough though?
Terra Incognita ~ Chapter One: The Descendant is a 16/32-bit RPG that will take you on a journey in Terra. You start the game with a short intro movie, explaining what is happening at the moment. It seems that the world of Terra is slowly falling into chaos. There is a royal family that has been ruling the world but something strange is happening. A seed of corruption has been planted, but the outcome of this isn’t known yet. The Gods of Caelum want to keep the peace and if things get too nasty, they send a ‘descendant’. This is where the game starts. You are Alexis, but you forgot who and where you are. Thank the Gods that you are found by a young lad named Leon. He is kind enough to guide you to his house and give you something to eat. Things will change quickly and it will be the start of a great adventure.
The retro style of the game is superb but there are some modern touches as well. The graphics are, as expected, 16/32-bit but there are some extra elements added as well, like bushes in the forest or the details on houses. The characters have quite some details as well. They are quite colourful and stand out against the environment. It has to be said, there are some downsides as well. The sprites that are used, have quite some big edges and you get stuck quite a lot, when you actually should be able to. This gets quite annoying because this happens quite frequently.
Sound wise, the game has both music and sound effects implemented. The music really fits the game, as it has that retro feeling and takes you back to the good old days. The soundtrack changes when you enter a battle, giving you that more pumped up vibe. There aren’t that much sound effects implemented, but you will have a nice cling during fighting and such.
You might wonder how the game will function, but it is like any other old-school RPG. Something is amiss and you need to fix it by solving mysteries. This means that you will need to run around, find the next step in the quest and help people in need. As you might have guessed, this will inquire you to fight enemies and bosses. It would be quite hard if you had to do this on your own, but you can take fighting buddies with you. Every character has their specific gear and ways to attack. When you fight enemies, you gain experience and this will give you extra abilities at times. Every character can use Magia and a special set of skills. Using both of these ability sets will cost mana though and quite a lot, so you need to be careful when using these. If things get too messy and you don’t see how this will end well, you can always run away.
The gameplay works fine but it is hard to trigger certain events, which you need to advance in the game. This should be fixed, because it is quite annoying if you run around and all of the sudden, the place that you have crossed 500 times is finally triggering the next part. This is also something that is the case when you want to talk to people. Another thing are the conversations. Some sentences don’t really make sense or two sentences are pasted together. As a last remark, it would be really nice if you were able to alt+tab when the game is in full screen. This isn’t available at the time being.
Next to that, the developer really listens to the remarks of the testers. There were a lot of requests to implement a sprint button and hooray, it has happened! You can now dash around swiftly.
Conclusion
If you’re really into retro classic RPG’s, this game is something to look forward to. Terra Incognita has some authentic but modernized graphics and great music. We didn’t get the chance to see a lot of the storyline but the things we have witnessed, is a good start of a superb story. We truly hope that we can play the rest of the game soon!
Terra Incognita ~ Chapter One: The Descendant - Preview,
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