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Black Book RPG

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Black Book RPG is an interesting mix of classic adventure gameplay, role-playing decision making, and turn-based deck building combat,

Pros

• Intriguing russian folklore story

• Captivating varied art-style

• Endless game mode aside from the main story

• Choices matter## Cons

-Slow pacing

-Flat combat presentation

Black Book is a witchcraft-themed role-playing adventure game that puts players in a dark and mystical world inspired by Russian folklore. Developed by Morteshka and published by HypeTrain Digital, the game features an Intriguing story, a beautiful art style, and adventure RPG mechanics.

An Intriguing russian folklore story

The game follows the story of Vasilisa, a young sorceress who embarks on a journey to uncover the secrets of the Black Book — an ancient tome of immense power — to revive a loved one. Set in a fictional version of 19th century Russia, the game combines elements of mythology, history, and folklore to create a rich magical world that players will find captivating and engrossing.

The whole premise is dark and moody, with the central themes being that of Demons and Witches, but it isn’t presented as a horror or scary element. In fact, Vasilisa faces these demons in a lighthearted manner, with her calm soothing voice and somewhat innocent demeanor standing out.

A page-based combat system

Black Book features a card-based combat system. Or rather, “page-based”. As wielder of the Black Book, Vasilisa collects magically ever changing pages and comes up with her own line-up to battle demons. Players collect these pages which represent spells and abilities and use them strategically in battles against supernatural creatures.

Each card has its own unique effects and can be upgraded or combined with other cards to create more powerful combinations. Like focusing on solo or group damage, damage over time, defense, heal, and other buffs and debuffs.

The combat system is intuitive and easy to learn, yet offers plenty of depth and strategy for players to explore. As far as the translation to the touchscreen controls, it works well for the most part, but I found the card selection system tedious, because the card’s attributes are hidden below the screen, and you need to “peek” into each one to see the effects.

In addition to combat, the game also features role-play decision making, puzzles, and exploration elements. Players must solve puzzles to progress through the story, and they can choose to visit certain locations in the mini-map, deviate from the main ques, and explore the world to find additional items and secrets.

In some locations, a player will be presented with different choices, some having a good, neutral, or bad effect. Such as losing health, or gaining an item. The game overall strikes a good balance between combat, role-playing, puzzles, and exploration, ensuring that players always have something interesting to do.

Your choices matter

As for the narrative, it is well-written and engaging, and is told with full quality voice acting – which is a nice touch to the overall “folklore or children story” feel. The game is heavily influenced by Russian culture, and players will encounter a variety of mythical creatures and supernatural phenomena throughout their journey. The game also features multiple outcomes and endings, based on the player’s choices and actions, adding replay value and encouraging players to explore different paths and outcomes.

Captivating varied art-style

The game’s art style is also worth mentioning. The hand-drawn looking characters are beautiful and detailed, with a dark and moody atmosphere that perfectly captures the game’s supernatural themes. The art style is switching back and forth between Another World-esque paint-like visuals for the 3D world, with more traditional 2D cartoonish visuals for the character dialogues. The game also features a fitting soundtrack that adds to the atmosphere and helps to create a sense of foreboding and uneasiness.

The game offers four difficulty options with the second being the “normal” difficulty, so players can choose a level that suits their skill level and play style and will have little problems in advancing the story and focusing enjoyment over challenge.

Aside from the main campaign, an endless mode is also available that puts players in an overworld semi-linear map where they are free to choose their own starting point and branch out from there, meeting different characters, making dialogue decisions, and battling monsters.

However, Black Book can be slow at times, with long periods of explanation and dialogue inserted between combat and exploration sequences. The narrative can only do so much to keep players interested, and even with the various choices that you can make, it may not be enough for some. Also, the combat isn’t as flashy as anime-inspired games with turn-based combat, so players might find the presentation underwhelming.

Conclusion

Black Book is a fantastic game that offers a fresh perspective and insight to Russian folklore. With its captivating story, beautiful art style, and adventure RPG card-centric gameplay, the game is sure to appeal to fans of classic adventure and role-playing games. While it can be slow-paced at times,I would still highly recommend trying out Black Book, especially since it is free to try on mobile, with the tutorial chapter and endless game mode free to play.

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Originally posted on TapTap.