Battle for Esturia

Very intuitive, simple to get started and play rpg in the vein of classics like Ultima and Dragon Warrior. In fact, if I had to describe it in a sentence that's what I'd say: mix the tactical combat, look, and vibe/worldbuilding of Ultima, but with the streamlined and action-heavy adventure of Dragon Warrior on the NES. Not for everyone, but if you're curious give it a shot.

December 28, 2024 and I just completed Battle for Esturia which I purchased back in June of 2021. I have a habit of beefing up my game collection during Steam sales and a large number of them either get tossed to the side after purchase because I have others I also want to look at or I completely forget about them. In this games case, it was a combination of the two. Well, over three years later and I am on a retro-looking RPG kick and deciding to give this game another look. Honestly the old style graphics don't bother me at all and hold a certain charm as they take me back to my C64 days. Back then game play ruled because you could only do so much with the limited graphics. For some reason I was thinking this was a rogue-like game - random maps, no saving, death is permanent, etc. I think it's because the developers other game The Sargosian Abyss IS a rogue-like game. The Battle for Esturia, however is a full fledged story based game on a static world. Perfect. A beginning, a middle and an ending which I have to admit sucked me into several prolonged gaming sessions to get through it. While visually it looks simple and the game play seems to be simple as well, after lev…

A short and snappy Gold Box/Ultima-adjacent adventure. The mechanics and level design are fairly simple and the story is nothing to note, but it plays quickly and doesn't overstay its welcome. Be aware that this is a heavily combat-focused game. Enemies don't respawn, but probably 75% of screens feature a combat encounter, and there isn't a whole lot more to the game. A significant annoyance for me is the fact that ONLY mouse control is supported. There are no gamepad or keyboard controls at all, so if you need one of those, you should probably skip this one. You also can't choose your name or gender, which is a rather odd limitation for an RPG with 1-bit sprites where neither of those things make any difference to the story.

Fun game!

A nice turn-based game with graphics that are very reminiscent of old-school games.

Interesting game, really liked the old school graphics with clear UI and turn-based combat. Difficulty is a bit unforgiving, but you can continue at the previous screen so not much time is lost when dying.