It’s not often that a party-based RPG sparks the level of curiosity and wonder that Effulgence_RPG manages to espouse. It’s not the hardest game in the world, it’s not the deepest or longest either, but I have never (and potentially will never again) had an experience like it. Strange special weapons, interesting mechanics and an entire game made only with recoloured ASCII characters make it one of the most memorable and respectable entries into the “solo dev” category of indie games ever.
It’s hard to know where to begin with Effulgence_RPG, or how much to even say. First off I would like to measure expectations, as some of the negative reviews I have seen point to the length and confusing nature of the game. The game is short, my 100% playthrough took five and a half hours. For the asking price, you might think that sounds steep. I’d remind you that Marvel’s Wolverine is £60 for about 15 hours…
By no means is Effulgence_RPG going to become your next time-sink party-building narrative adventure, but over the course of your five-hour playthrough you’ll be able to think of very little else, it’s just so damned interesting. Despite a lack of “proper” difficulty and the potential to confuse some players with its controls and layout, the game itself is well worth playing for anyone even a little curious.
The most unique mechanics in Effulgence_RPG
The general game flow sees you take your party from location to location on a planetary map. Some of these are combat encounters while others are healing stations, NPC interactions, shops and even a few minigames dotted about.
It’s in combat that its most unique mechanics pop up, though. For example, how it handles turn order. Rather than it being divided into turns and rounds, there’s one constant timeline. Your position on it is based on your PING, and the same goes for enemies. This means that if you’re 60 PING lower than an enemy, you could do a 50 PING action and still have another turn, as your PING is still lower. However, while you’re only 10 PING below an enemy, you have to consider how much PING your action will take. You don’t want to send 100 PING on firing a big blaster just to then have the enemy gain multiple turns as you shoot past their current PING level.
In addition to shooting, you can also have some party members focus on aiming or adding AoE to their explosives. This adds PING to them but results in a devastating attack later. Balancing resources and PING is the core of the combat, but if it all sounds complicated don’t worry, the game doesn’t really set out to mince you up and spit you out.
One of the tools at your disposal is the HACK. Pressing “H” will recolour the screen and let you HACK. Words will be highlighted around the screen and a rule will be given. For example if you see the word “RePLy” and the rule stated is “Screen = SSccrreeeenn” then you need to type “RReePPLLyy” to HACK. Each level has its own rule, and each word has its own effect. These HACK options don’t take any PING to use, so you can get bonuses like ammo refills, heals and even equalising enemy health all without losing your position on the timeline.
Effulgence_RPG marries artstyle and gameplay beautifully
Everything is ASCII, all the time, and it makes the world seem alive in a way that’s hard to pinpoint. You’ll look at an enemy and see a harpy, or a helicopter, or a dragon…but then you’ll look closer. Every wing, tooth, eye and blade is made of ASCII characters that, with some concentration, you can pick out. None of the characters are resized or manipulated in any way, they are only ever recoloured or moved but never transformed. Not only does this create engaging, rabbit-hole visuals that you can get lost in, but it also informs two important parts of the gameplay.
Firstly, enemies shatter when defeated and you hoover up all their characters to “print” new equipment from them. New blasters, bombs and medical supplies are added to your print queue, and you build up an armoury over time.
Secondly, there’s the Glyph Bomb. Potentially my favourite mechanic in the game, the Glyph Bomb is a weapon you can deploy once per battle that presents a grid, into which you can type. You can select the colour of your input in a list at the bottom of the bomb interface, and then when you type the glyphs will be that colour. Why does all this matter to a bomb? Because the more glyphs you type into the Glyph Bomb menu that match an enemy on the screen, the more damage it does when you detonate it! This encourages you to really scour the enemies’ designs and populate your glyph bomb with as many exact matches as possible, recreating the ASCII face of a dragon or spamming “+++++++++” to match the propeller of a plane.
This marrying of style and substance, of presentation and interaction, is exactly what makes unique games work so well. It’s not just “a party based RPG but everything is ASCII”. The “everything is ASCII” part actually affects how the game plays, and shapes the experience.
The music absolutely slaps
While you’re shattering ASCII entities and exploring this strange world you’re treated to an absolutely glorious soundtrack. Composed and arranged by one person (seemingly the only other person to work on the game apart from the developer themselves), the OST is charming, on-theme and just a joy to listen to. You’ll hear the same tracks a few times as different areas do share a soundtrack, but in general there’s enough variety and enough energy to keep the score interesting throughout.
Oh, it’s also free:
The amount of times I lost myself bobbing back and forth in my chair as I cycled weapons to the beat, completely skipping the item I was cycling to and having to go around again…it’s a testament to how good the OST really is.
Effulgence_RPG won’t be your game of the year, but it should be one of them
For all the clunky controls and lack of tutorials, Effulgence_RPG still stands as one of the best party-based experiences I’ve played from such a small team. I did care about printing certain weapons, finding NPCs and fulfilling their quests, trying out new items and typing away in the Glyph Bomb menu to get the maximum amount of damage. At every turn I was engaged and most importantly — I was having fun.
Effulgence_RPG is out now on PC
