VED from Karaclan and Fulqrum Publishing is a story-driven, fantasy turn-based RPG with a hand-drawn presentation. Learn more in our VED review!
VED from Karaclan and Fulqrum Publishing is a story-driven, turn-based RPG with a hand-drawn presentation. You’ll be taking on the role of Cyrus, a young 23-year-old hero who is trying to find a new life for himself. You’ll be living in Micropolis, a small city that hides more than meets the eye. Cyrus soon discovers he has a peculiar teleportation ability, as well as an affinity for the magic world. As you move from floating island to floating island in the magic world, you’ll get to meet peculiar creatures and battle against deadly foes who can destroy you if you’re not careful.
If you want to focus on the game’s story, you can activate the Story Mode difficulty from the options menu. Doing this will make your hero much stronger so that you can easily defeat enemies. You’ll be moving between the world of magic and the human world by using the Altars of the Ancients. You will be able to return to the world of magic at some points. Do know that each portal can only be used a single time. If you reactivate an already-used portal, then the hero will be sent back to the starting island.
The choices you make along the way will have an effect on how the story unravels. On top of that, you won’t be able to make every choice you want right away since some of them will be tied to a skill check. Key actions for a story battle will be highlighted in yellow and will, therefore, be more difficult to achieve. Successfully completing all key actions will lead to victory in battle. If you successfully complete additional actions, then the overall difficulty for other action checks will be lowered by 2 points. If you fail, it will be increased by 2 points!
How are checks for dexterity, magic, and strength solved? The trait parameter is added to a d20 die roll, and the final number is the value against which the check is made. On top of that, for battles in the magical world, dexterity adds a bonus to sword damage, mafic adds a bonus to the power of spells, and strength provides a bonus to health. To increase a single trait point, you’ll need to gain 3 experience points. Your hero will gain a single experience point for a trait for each action performed during a story battle or event, regardless of success or failure.
At the start of each round of combat, there will be a chance to activate one of the previously imposed blessings or curses. This power of this effect will remain for a single round, but the blessings and curses themselves will have an endless effect and can only be removed if you manage to find an Altar of Purification. An example of a curse could be Weakness, which will halve health and shield.
Turn-based combat will have you trying to outsmart your opponent as you make the most of the abilities at your disposal and try to stay one step ahead. Each action that you perform will move your hero around the screen. This can also be used to prepare for an incoming attack so that there’s a higher chance for your enemy to miss. Depending on your hero’s position, it could have a chance to land a critical hit. To win, deplete the enemy’s red health bar while keeping in mind any purple health bars, which will be for additional limbs or minions. Each action that you perform in combat will also have a cost for you to consider. You’ll need to have enough Action Points (AP) at your disposal to be able to use the abilities you want to. There’s also the option of pressing the L2 button to finish a round and save any unspent AP so that you can use them during your next turn. The maximum available AP per round is 4.
As you win battles and defeat enemies, you’ll collect energy. This can be spent on buildings that will grant you access to new abilities. These will be split into dexterity, magic, fury, defense, concentration, and healing. An example of this is the Windmill, which will unlock the Dash ability under the dexterity section. Dash will deal some damage to your enemy while your hero moves two squares to the left. Build the Dawn Lotus under the healing section to unlock the Healing ability. Healing is a very important ability since it will restore between 5-40 health points to the hero, which will be a must during some combat scenarios. Another example is the Security Outpost under the defense section, which will unlock Protective Field. When you use Protective Field, the hero will gain 25 armor points.
While meeting new characters, be sure to pay attention to the answers you give during each interaction. Key characters will have 3 different relationship parameters with you: respect, friendliness, and fear. Said parameters will change based on each character’s reaction to your actions. Depending on how your relationship unravels with each key character, you could end up finding yourself locked out of some choices. Play your cards right, and you’ll be able to choose from additional choices down the road. On top of all that, you’ll also have to use Recoins to make some choices. Recoins can be earned as you progress through VED and will be an important resource.
And now, let’s talk about the game’s trophies! This release features a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy for you to try to add to your collection. The list is split into 16 Bronze trophies, 9 Silver trophies, and 6 Gold trophies for you to work on. What will you need to do for that shiny Platinum? You’ll have to activate 15 portals, complete 10 events in the magic world, build all buildings, get 10 blessings, get 10 curses, apply level 3 Stress on an enemy and level 3 Fury on yourself, accumulate 1,000 Recoins, and complete the story. Yes, there are other objectives to complete, but I won’t be spoiling them here!
VED is a story-driven, turn-based RPG with a hand-drawn presentation. You’ll be taking on the role of Cyrus, a young 23-year-old hero who is trying to find a new life for himself. You’ll be living in Micropolis, a small city that hides more than meets the eye. Cyrus soon discovers he has a peculiar teleportation ability, as well as an affinity for the magic world. As you move from floating island to floating island in the magic world, you’ll get to meet peculiar creatures and battle against deadly foes who can destroy you if you’re not careful. The choices you make along the way will have an effect on how the story unravels, allowing you to eventually reach one of the potential endings. VED launches today on PlayStation 5 with a $24.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This VED review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Fulqrum Publishing.
