A Kobold Story : Trenchcoat Adventurer

This game is clearly a labour of love, both of silly kobolds and of classic dungeon crawler games. It makes me laugh and it makes me plan. The whimsy is in plain sight. Colourful, cheerful hand-drawn art makes everything look like a children's storybook. Item descriptions reflect the kobolds' simple and wide-eyed world view. And of course, the protagonist is literally three kobolds in a trenchcoat! This could have been just a gimmick, but it actually introduces some interesting resource-management challenges. If Bawtom gets knocked out, you can't dodge attacks or run away. Meedul is responsible for defending against hits, while Topp takes care of attacking and magic. (Yes, those are their actual names.) They're also three mouths to feed, and every step you take makes them hungrier, so it's a constant quest to keep them fed. The gameplay reminds me of the 1987 classic [i]Dungeon Master[/i] with its block-based pseudo-3D view and the aforementioned resource management. It's turn-based, unlike with [i]Dungeon Master[/i], so you have time to plan. Loot is randomized, which can be a blessing and a curse. It can be annoying to fight through piles of enemies for the key to a chest that, when opened, just holds a single copper coin. But when you find gear, it's always a delight to read. There are plenty of items! They could have had just one type of item for each sort of buff you can get, but there are lots of lovingly described bits of gear that make the place feel like a world and not just a dungeon. And of course, if you don't need a piece of gear you can feed it to your kobolds. There are still some early access bugs to be worked out, but I still recommend trying out [i]Trenchcoat Adventurer[/i]. It's cheerful, challenging, and fun.

This game is so freaking cute, I love the art style. 0 AI nonsense, all handdrawn, it's so charming. Tonnes of cheeky little references to other beloved fantasy IPs. 12/10.

You ever see a game and just know you're going to love it? Well that's "A Kobold Story" for me! The art style sold me instantly with it's charming and colorful story book aesthetic. What I'm even happier about is how that style is preserved in tone with the gameplay, the music, how the story is told, and even the flavor text of the notes and items you find! I was worried about the limited inventory space, as you only have nine items plus your currently worn equipment, but honestly the limitation adds a very fun layer of inventory management! Deciding what items you should keep for when you [i]really[/i] need them, which ones to hold onto for swapping to different damage types or magics, all while traversing a tricky dungeon, finding new loot, and battling enemies is very engaging and leaves you unable to really hold onto or get attached to one item for too long...! Also the Kobolds are all wonderful and I love them! I love their silly but fitting names, how each one has their own unique look, how underdog and scrappy they are with those blank, head empty stares yet becoming so expressive based on their status! I say again, they're all wonderful! Really just a lovely experience, made by some clearly passionate devs! Fully recommended if you enjoy first person dungeon crawlers, lighthearted and charming writing, and of course kobolds!

Super cute dungeon crawler! Customizable difficulty settings so the fun can be had no matter how good of an adventurer you are.

The kind of game where all the mechanics are simplistic but the fun and charm and whimsy is *perfect*. Never before has a video game solved the too much trash problem by letting you eat it!

If I had a nickel for every crayon aesthetic game where you play as fantasy reptiles I'd have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice.

The lead developer of this game was kind enough to provide me a copy for review and play on my stream, so here's my review: It's not a blisteringly complex game with three layers of deep customization. It's not a stat-crunching dungeon crawler or spreadsheet simulator. It's not even particularly deep, mechanically! What Trenchcoat Adventurer does very well doesn't lean on any of those things. It is instantly charming, as lighthearted as it is light to play, and a game that takes a classic TTRPG joke and expands it into a wholesome and entertaining story. The story is told through a combination of delightful storybook intermissions and bright and clean art (in CrayonVision!), and the gameplay loop is simple and satisfying, evoking classic dungeon crawlers like Dungeon Master or Eye of the Beholder, without requiring a huge time commitment to really bite into. tl;dr There are way, way worse ways you could spend ten bucks. This is absolutely a game I have come back to more than once, even off-stream.

This game, absolute perfection. Before anything, just the fact that in this game you get to play as 3 kobolds in a trenchcoat is already a big win in my book, it is such a rare thing to have! Gameplay is simple, you move around, you loot things, you bonk monsters, you loot more things, you inventory manage by eating everything and you try to win the dungeon run! The artstyle is absolutely charming, the crayon drawings for everything is so fun to look at! The art direction is very clever and funny as well! There are story told through environments, there are funny monsters, cool looking monsters and recently added spooooky monsters! They recently added custom difficulty options, so you can change difficulty to your liking and have a good time with game :} If you like a dungeon crawling experience that is a lot less stressful and fun to look at and play, I definitely HIGHLY recommend A Kobold Story: Trenchcoat Adventurer!

The quick: Do you like dungeon crawlers. Do you like roguelites? Do you like Kobolds and cute charming personality oozing from every pore of a game? If yes, buy this game. If no, what's wrong with you? The Long: First impressions mean a lot, and the thing that grabs you first is the adorable, consistent, crayon-esque art style and incredibly cute character design. The story is extremely simple, and very endearing. It follows three kobolds on a quest for treasure to buy the tastiest snacks ever! Thus you are thrust into the nearby dungeon, a single trenchcoated adventurer containing three kobolds: Topp, Meedul, and Bawtom. Each of them has their own purpose in the team, and losing them means you lose access to magic, melee, or evasive capabilities. Fortunately, it doesn't take much to get a kobold up and running, just need to eat something! And boy howdy can these little guys eat. You dont have to just watch your hp in this game, each of your three 'bolds has a hunger bar, and they will need to be fed regularly as you explore. Hilariously, most of the things you'll be feeding them are not food. You'll be tossing ducklings, snails, apples, picks, wooden swords, potato bags, dwarven picks, homework, and literal crocs (yes, the shoe.) Every item has cute descriptions, and a line from each of the kobolds about their thoughts on the item itself. The game has plenty of humor, and charm. Especially if you turn on arachnophobia mode, That gave me a good chuckle. It's got randomized elements, chests have randomized loot, certain enemies are randomized in whether they spawn or not. but that's nice because if you do end up tanking a run, you can start over from the floor start and potentially get the items you need to break through. of course, you can go for the true roguelike experience and force yourself to start from the beginning if you die, but the game doesn't force you to. I played on default difficulty which feels challenging but fair, and has options for if you want an easier or harder experience. It doesn't really break the mold in terms of the dungeon crawler genre, but it is very much worth your time for the effort and personality put into it. The music is simple but catchy and fun. the combat isn't terribly complex but still entertaining. It's a genuinely good game with a lot of heart and deserves a chance to win you over. I highly reccommend you pick this up and try it. You too can be three kobolds in a trenchcoat.

Cutesy graphics conceal a surprisingly challenging resource limited DRPG. Items are randomized and use of a single auto-save slot prevents cheesing anything other than level starts. Almost a traditional roguelike in challenge. You can easily dead-end a save if you play through all chapters in a row and have to restart. The only form of meta-progression appears to be unlocking chapter starts (1-6 so far) Lovely DRPG that can be played in short sessions and respects the player's time.