The Edge of Allegoria Preview: I Suck At Fishing
Looking for an adventure game that encourages you to fu*k stuff up just because? A game where being a badass is a prerequisite and violence is required? Welcome to The Edge of Allegoria.
The Edge of Allegoria from Developer Button Factory Games is a retro-inspired RPG where “a bunch of shit happens.” The land of Allegoria is full of creatures of all shapes and sizes. You may have woken up planning to have a simple day of fishing but hell, you never catch anything anyways. Now, you’re an adventurer and that means taking down wildlife (those raccoons, rabbits, and deer had it coming) and baddies, harvesting their parts and selling them to earn money and get more gear.
The more you explore the land, the more your character will level up and be able to take on more powerful beasts. While I only encountered a handful of creatures during the game’s current demo, the full game will feature more than 143 unique enemies each with their own set of moves. Some of the enemies' special moves will have adverse effects on your character. For example, I encountered one enemy that gave my main character bloodlust which caused me to bleed for a few turns and the entire screen changed from green hues to red hues. Other exciting things can also happen when you consume certain items. Eating a mushroom, for example, made me have some really trippy hallucinations during battle.
Underneath all of the violence, mushroom tripping and existential dread, The Edge of Allegoria features an intriguing story. Who is the mysterious dark entity haunting the land? Why does the goblin king hate humans so much? And who the heck destroyed your house? These are all questions you’ll find yourself wondering the more you explore and piece together this story. And if you aren’t able to piece things together, who cares! At least you got to beat up some monsters with your fishing pole.
The Edge of Allegoria looks like it jumped right off of the Gameboy Advance. With retro pixel art, familiar RPG battle mechanics and a good ole simplistic traversal controls, this game feels familiar but far from your typical retro RPG. Add in some NPC’s with bad potty mouths and this might just be the retro RPG of your dreams.
Preview by Becca Smith