Revenant Saga (PlayStation 4) Review

Revenant Saga, so named because there are demonic forces known as Revenants threatening the world as Albert knows it, is a lot of things. It is a throwback not only to 16-bit RPGs, but also low polygon RPGs of the mid to late 90s. As such, it has a fairly typical story ark, compared to many of its peers. Boy becomes over powered after trying to save a girl and leads a small group into battle against a much more malicious force.

Revenant Saga isn't going to wow anyone with the basics. It features a turn-based battle system, much like RPG fans of the 90s and 2000s are accustomed to. The dialogue is actually pretty well written, and there are even a few light chuckles in there. The story does have a tendency to get dark in a way that many stories of that era wouldn't have dared tried, but it doesn't become too dark to be fun anymore. It's also nice that the story isn't brought up often enough that cutscenes start to become burdensome, though.

As you explore the world, all the characters appear as 16-bit sprites, with full character images present when they speak. Again, it's nothing that is going to be wholly new or impressive, despite how well designed the sprites are and how nice they are to look at. In fact, exploring outside of battle is fairly irritating as the controls don't work very well. For instance, if the player wants to open a chest, they have to stand in front of it and select X. This is fairly par for the course, but falters when you discover that Albert will often walk right past things, or in the wrong direction if the player uses the control stick. The issue of the wrong direction disappears when using the D-ad, but Albert still has a tendency to stop walking well after letting go of the button.

The battles, however, are weird, and in the best possible way. The characters look really bad, even by the standards of the era they are mimicking. However, it comes off as somewhat charming. The visual cues could be likened to the RPG equivalent of a child's artwork on the fridge. For anyone doubting this game because of its 3D artwork, put faith in the fact that it feels like it's perfect for the game after seeing it for the first few times, and it's easy to fall in love with.

Battles play out through random encounters, and they seem to serve their purpose. The issue here is that they tend to be a little boring. Your characters can use battle skills instead of attacking; however, many of them require they transform to use them. Transforming could have easily been called "adding clothes," because that's all it really does. In fact, transforming has some very negative effects on what the player can do. These negative effects severely outweigh the benefits of transforming a lot of the time, and it makes the whole situation feel like a moot point.

All in all, though, this is a RPG. If you've ever played one, then this is all pretty par for the course. There's nothing that really sets it apart. There are side quests, the main story, and really that's about it. The couple of additions to the battle system are, for lack of a better word, underwhelming, and while the story is good enough to justify purchasing this title, there's little else that could draw you in.