VED Review

It seems like every month players are introduced to another unique RPG adventure. Whether it's in a massive franchise with a following or not. dragon age Or a new IP like this: Black Myth: WukongPlayers enjoyed a variety of experiences. This month, one of those adventures comes in the form of a hand-drawn RPG. VED. The first game from Lithuanian developer Karaclan, VED We promise to deliver a story full of magic that will keep players immersed. And while the game's art style may be a sight to behold, almost everything else about the experience falls flat.

VED Players take on the role of a young hero named Cyrus, who discovers that he has powerful magical abilities. Because of this, he quickly becomes embroiled in a wild tale of mastering his abilities, fighting off all sorts of powerful enemies, and hopefully saving the world. All of this results in a game that has some thrilling combat and some unique mechanics, but the actual story and writing mostly feels lackluster, ultimately making it a forgettable experience.

The world of VED is beautiful and unique

Come to think of it, VED It's not all bad. The story may be lackluster, but the game's aesthetics and combat can be quite thrilling. The entire experience is presented through a beautiful hand-drawn art style. Everything looks like a painting and the characters move and act like pieces of art in a museum. It creates a truly amazing sight that players can get lost staring at for hours.

If players get bored looking at one world, there are actually two completely different worlds with their own unique visuals. One is Micropolis, a dirty and gritty city filled with gangs, warring factions and evil-looking characters. The other appears whenever Cyrus teleports and is filled with fantastical creatures and magical floating islands. Both play a big role in captivating players. VEDThe battle of makes things even better.

Combat in VED can be fun

The combat is prominent here. This is a good thing because players will fight a lot of things during their adventure. When you arrive on the mysterious floating island world, you'll first need to equip yourself with powerful abilities that are unlocked by upgrading your cute troglodyte village. Once you're satisfied with your loadout, it's time to head out to discover the many secrets of this land. To do this, they teleport between various islands, each with a new threat or scenario to engage with.

Some islands have friendly NPCs to meet, while others have random events that require players to roll a D20. Depending on what they do, they often gain buffs or debuffs while running through the magical lands. Then, if they're brave enough, they can take on one of the many enemies scattered across the island. If you can't defeat the threat, you'll have to return to town and start over. But fortunately, the islands they had already colonized still remain vivid.

At the start of each battle, players can choose one of three buffs or debuffs to apply to their enemies. Depending on what the buff is, you'll be rewarded with more energy. VEDis the currency of . If you think it will be too difficult, you can skip it as it is entirely optional. They lose bonus energy, but are still rewarded the standard amount if they win.

The combat itself is turn-based, but with a slight twist. Players must choose their attack, choose where to attack the creature, and hope that the creature doesn't take them out first. However, instead of always having a series of attacks to choose from, the moves available to the player are determined by where Cyrus is standing. The hot bar is divided into four sections, each representing a different point on the battlefield. Some attacks move the player, others keep the player still, and it's up to the player to plan for them.

VED's stories and writing raise a lot of expectations.

In a story-driven RPG, the actual story needs to be interesting. Players don't want to hear bland or uninteresting stories, they want dialogue to feel natural, and they want the narrative to make sense. with VEDKaraclan seems to be struggling to convey almost every aspect. So instead of surprising players with a fantastic adventure, it mostly fails.

The story follows a young boy named Cyrus who has the ability to teleport. Teleportation takes him to a magical floating island world. Outside of this world, he must juggle many forces as he traverses the city of Micropolis and leaves his mark on the world. Because of this, every decision counts for the player, and the end of each chapter tells you which decisions were made and which were skipped.

It should make for an interesting story, but nothing about it feels natural. The dialogue seems to flow strangely, and it doesn't sound like anyone is speaking. Characters speak in run-on sentences, dialogue ends abruptly, there are a lot of exposition dumps, and the script seems to be in desperate need of editing. Karaclan said the entire story has been translated into English, which has the potential to make the dialogue awkward, but the fact that the entire story is like this undermines the overall experience.

with him, VEDThe voice acting is a bit rough. Dialogue may not be helpful, but it often feels like you're reading a script rather than speaking. This can disrupt your immersion in the game, and can sometimes be a bit annoying to hear. Of course, not every game needs award-winning voice actors, but it would have been nice if these characters were a little stronger.

VED It's far from a perfect game, but it has some strengths. The hand-drawn art style is great to look at and shows just how powerful this game is. Plus, the battles are often thrilling. Because if players aren't careful, things can quickly fall apart. However, the story and dialogue detract significantly from the experience. And ultimately leads to a very lackluster experience overall.

VED Now available on PlayStation, PC, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. Game Rant was provided a PC code for this review.