VED review

It seems like every month players are treated to a different unique RPG adventure. Whether it's in a massive franchise such as Dragon Age or a completely new IP type Black Myth: Wukongplayers have had a variety of experiences. This month, such an adventure comes in the form of the hand-drawn RPG FIREWOOD. The first game from Lithuanian developer Karaclan, FIREWOOD promises to deliver a magical story for players to sink their teeth into. And while the game's art style can be a sight to behold, almost everything else about the experience falls flat.

FIREWOOD puts players in the shoes of a young hero named Cyrus who discovers that he has powerful magical abilities. Because of this, he is quickly drawn into a wild story that sees him master his abilities, take on all sorts of powerful enemies, and hopefully save the world. All of this adds up to a game that has some exciting combat encounters and a couple of unique mechanics, but the story and writing itself feels mostly lackluster, ultimately making for a pretty forgettable experience.

The world of VED is beautifully unique

As said, FIREWOOD is not all bad. The story may be weak, but the game's aesthetics and combat can be quite exciting. The entire experience is presented through a beautiful hand-drawn art style. Everything looks like it's a painting, with the characters moving and acting like art in a museum. It makes for a truly gorgeous sight that players can get lost staring at for hours on end.

If players get bored of staring at one world, there are actually two completely different worlds with their own unique visuals. One is the seedy and dirty city of Micropolis, filled to the brim with gangs, warring factions and villainous characters. The second appears when Cyrus teleports and is filled with fantastical creatures and magical floating islands. Both do a good job of captivating players, with FIREWOODs battle makes things even better.

VED's combat can be challenging fun

Combat is a standout here, which is good, as players will be fighting a lot of things during their adventure. Arriving on the mysterious floating island world, they must first equip themselves with powerful abilities, which are unlocked by upgrading a cute Troglodyte village. Once satisfied with their charge, they must head out to discover the country's many secrets. To do this, they teleport between the different islands, each with a new threat or scenario to take on.

Some islands have friendly NPCs to encounter, while others have random events that require players to roll a D20. Depending on what they do, they often earn buffs or debuffs during that run through the magical land. Then, if they are brave enough, they can take on one of the many enemies found on these islands. If they can't defeat the threat, they go back to the village and have to do it all over again. But luckily the islands they have already cleared are still clear.

At the start of each combat encounter, players can choose one of three buffs or debuffs to apply to the enemy. Depending on what the buff is, they will be rewarded with more energy, which works as FIREWOODs currency. If they find it too challenging, they can also skip these as they are completely optional. They will lose the bonus energy, but still be awarded the standard amount if they win.

The combat itself is turn-based, but with a few twists. Players must choose their attack, choose where they want to hit the creature, and hope the creature doesn't take them out first. However, instead of just having a set of attacks that they can always choose from, the player's available moves are determined by where Cyrus is standing. The hot bar is divided into four sections, with each section representing a different location on the battlefield. Some attacks move the player, others hold them still, and it's up to them to plan around this.

VED's story and writing leave a lot to be desired

In any story-driven RPG, the story itself has to be exciting. Players don't want to sit through a bland or uninteresting story, they want the dialogue to feel natural and they want the story to make sense. With FIREWOODit feels like Karaclan struggles to deliver on almost all of these fronts. So instead of blowing players away with a great adventure, it mostly falls flat.

The story follows a young boy named Cyrus, who has the power to teleport. When he teleports, he is taken to the magical floating island world. Outside of this world, he must traverse the city of Micropolis and juggle its many factions trying to make their mark on its world. Because of this, every decision the players make is important, and at the end of each chapter they tell you what they chose and decisions they skipped.

It should make for an exciting story, but nothing about it feels natural. The dialogue seems to flow strangely, with it not sounding like how someone would talk. Characters speak in run-on sentences, they end conversations abruptly, there are a lot of exposition dumps, and the script seems like it desperately needs editing. Karaclan has said that the whole thing was translated into English, and while that likely resulted in some of the awkward dialogue, the fact that the whole story is like this dampens the overall experience.

Along with that, FIREWOODThe voice acting is a bit rough. The dialogue probably doesn't help, but many times it feels like a script is being read rather than words being spoken. It can really hold back the game's immersion, and can often be a bit of a pain to listen to. Of course, not every game needs award-winning voice acting, but it would have been nice if these characters were a little stronger.

FIREWOOD is far from a perfect game, but it does have some redeeming qualities. The hand-drawn art style is gorgeous to look at, and shows just how strong this game can be. Also, the combat is often exciting, because if players aren't careful, things can quickly fall apart. However, the story and dialogue hold the experience back significantly. And ultimately, it leads to a pretty lackluster experience overall.

FIREWOOD is available now for PlayStation, PC, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. Game Rant received a PC code for this review.