Erannorth Renaissance

I wish it had been made more clear early on that this game was so AI dependent. All of the art is clearly AI and some even have the basic builds on disorienting or disjointed armor sets and clothing. Like for some, bandoliers disappear into jackets in odd ways, armor straps randomly appear and disappear, and all characters you meet look like one of three models with minor variations to clothing. As for as the clearly oft generative story goes, it suffers from repetition, strange descriptors and just straight up off moments. It's full of classic AI interface issues, like descriptions in groups of three, and pointless prose "There was an echo here of times long past, reaching from the past to exist today" type stuff. It's not just that I am anti-AI (I am), but there was no quality check of any type, really, that happened here. It feels like once the wheels were rolling, they just let the game go. Those impressed with this game, I feel like, don't realize that you could log into ChatGPT or Claude or the like and get the same banal experience. If you're going to spend money, spend it on a game with storytelling that has actual heart. This game could've been something really special, but developers clearly cut corners. Even if you like AI gameplay experiences, there is so much work that needed to be done for quality control that the game just lacks.

My opinion about the Erannorth Renaissance is that it is a good proof of concept, but not a good game. The character building is great, and the combat make it shine even more. The relationships system feels like a missed opportunity, as a lot of other concepts in the game it feels good in theory, but not really fulfilling in practice. The world is not very original but it is not necessarily a fault, the fantasy classics help to feel at home fast while there is enough to discover and explore. But the real issue comes from the npcs and stories, they feel shallow, as other have mentioned the writing is sloppy (too much reliance on AI? translation?) which is, for a game that put so much emphasis on narration, really bad. I can not rate a game for what it could be, only what it is, it doesn't matter if this game has potential if it's not used. The previous Erannorth tried to put some weight on modding, and I believe maybe a grand total of 3 people actually created anything, and it had an absurd amount of actual content before; so I'm not expecting mods to fill the world with interesting living characters. Most people want to have fun right of the bat, not get a new job of creating a game by themselves. And modders need a good lore basis (and players) to build upon, that's what makes the difference between skyrim and starfield despite the fact that they pretty much share the exact same systems.

Hello, I truly loved the previous games from Spyridon Thalassinos. Previous games based in Erannorth were great because of the wide and imaginative builds that you could make. You could use cards from several backgrounds, build a character in one or several of many paths and races, which gave the games huge replayability and was a character builder's dream. There was original art (or so it seemed) and a simple yet complex map which was easy to explore but necessitated some thought to explore. Stories were to the point. Sadly, the development team decided to stray away from their strengths in this new installment. There is less freedom, at least it is less reachable from the start, with less races and backgrounds. However, exploring new territories for a game dev company is fine. What really impacted my view of the game was the heavy and noticeable use of AI to generate the art and the story. AI art has its niche, however all the portraits of males and females, as beautiful as they were, felt like they were all out of the same mold. They felt impersonal, with varying degrees of detail and style. All the females looked voluptuous and perfect, all the men chiseled and scultpural. The storyline and the neverending texts felt very standard, without originality, and the characters had marked differences in personalities. The text stories were looong, without lyrical beauty or interesting concepts to hook the reader. I felt like I had to slog through lots of information to end with a lackadaisical storyline. Finally, the romance scenes also felt quite out of reality from the approach (forgetting the video game aspect) For example (SPOILER AHEAD) [spoiler] romancing a woman whose mother was killed in the very same house the night before, then having our way with her in that same house was quite unrealistic and slightly sociopathic even for a fantasy setting. [/spoiler] The game has potential, if it is added to with content, character choices, equipment, paths to take, it can become quite good. Right now it feels a bit empty. Mods might bring a great relief. In the end, even if the game has potential, it felt rushed and given to an AI to be developped. I would rather see a card based game like the previous installments were the strengths of Spyridon Thalassinos truly shine. EDIT: Dev has answered. I think the dev is missing (or deflecting) the core of the criticism. Pointing out that “it was my choice” doesn’t really address the issue, because every “choice” in a game is, by definition, authored and permitted by the designer. Players don’t invent possibilities, they explore the boundaries that are coded. If a scenario allows - and narratively frames - an interaction like that immediately after a traumatic event, then that’s not a reflection of player morality, it’s a reflection of narrative design. Especially when the emotional tone and consequences feel disconnected or underdeveloped, which was my actual point. *In other words: I didn’t create the situation, I encountered what was written.* More broadly, my critique wasn’t about the existence of choice, but about coherence, tone, and depth. When writing (AI-assisted or not) produces large volumes of text without strong emotional grounding or distinct character voice, the result can feel hollow — regardless of how many branching paths exist. Most of the storyline is AI slop for days, fluff without direction, meaning and unecessary. Just to waste extra time for teh player. As for the portraits: quantity isn’t the same as identity. Having hundreds of images matters less if they converge toward the same aesthetic “ideal” and lack memorable individuality. I understand the constraints of solo development, and I respect the ambition. But invoking player responsibility to deflect structural critique feels a bit like blaming the reader for the book. That said, I do see the potential — which is why I wrote the review in the first place

I generally support small developers to use AI, it is impossible for small developer to commission hundreds of artwork. The problem is not Ai but how you use it, the first 4 female characters i met in this game are basically identically quadruplets, with different hair color. Also the disturbing choice of clothes for adventure, showing off cleavage. EVERY ONE of them are showing off cleavage, regardless of their career. For waitress, sure cleavage is reasonable, but "female assassin with mask and hoodie" showing off her cleavage?? Developer really need to get their aptitude under control, or else the game is becoming a Japanese hentai game. Many texts are also generated by AI, the problem is, the AI are giving way too many information, in the end, it is impossible to tell if its AI rambling or clue for the quest. The game does have a interesting turn of a event, but it is burried by mountains of AI rambling. And now i finished the game. ugh AI is heavily used in BOTH artwork and writing, i thought the developer used AI to put the game in a better place but. No, how do i put this, the journal has a "side quest" entry, but there is exactly ONE side quest in my human play though. Considering the developer already used AI to cheat most descriptions and dialogue, this is just wayyyy below average. The game is pretty much empty with one main story, and the rest is filled by AI rambling that have next to no meaning. As for the main story, it is interesting, but way to short, My human path, is roughly 2 hours with 30k words and 95% of them are AI shxxx. Also ONE side quest. And, i have generally no control over the story, it end abruptly where i expect it to expand. I read the spoil guide on the vampire path to spare me the pain to read AI shxxx again, might be bit longer. But i cant summon any more willpower to read more senseless Ai description. How npc, whispers for no good reason, a mixture of angry and sadness and joy and desperation, inviting uninviting light/room/stair/trees, oh fear the shadow, watch the shadow. AI senseless shxxx. I am not against using AI, but this is bad, 95% of them have no real meaning, serve no real purpose but to fill the empty world with something. And all those AI portraits, its quite interesting, the male portraits has some degree of variety, But the female portraits are ALL THE SAME, same white girl face in her 20s with different hair/eye color. Cleanly a strictly tailored fantasy by the developer's other end of his head. Not saying the only female model in this game doesnt look good, but hundreds of them with same faces? Thats not disturbing?? Oh yes, it seems the player (both genders) must romance a female character to play the vampire path. and in vampire path the player can only save female companion(who tried to kill the player) but not male companions. Well, who would guess that? No real writing, no quality check on AI writing. Repetitive AI art works guided by pants. One way story with 2 paths, one of them is short enough to be a demo, the other path is probably also guided by pants. Below average among heavy AI games.

The game offers an intricate character advancement with lots of synergies and I guess a lot of freedom? That's all the good I can say about it, though. On the negative, the intricate system is awfully dense, almost oblique and wants to be studied in depth before you even start playing. Every other level you get a skill point to put into one of 20 skills. Those only help with the occasional skill check. Mostly they unlock access to perks. The perks will give passive bonuses and add new abilities in combat but many are locked in tiered perk chains or require two skills and you only get a perk every other other level and you also need to spend them on weapon skills to be able to wield higher level weapons. So, to sum up: the character system makes you want a lot, but makes it a chore to figure out how to get it and a slog to actually get there. Then there's the godawful use of AI. There's so many character portraits that all look pretty much the same, as if they just jumped out of a fantasy romance novel's cover. The writing, likewise, is uninspired and uninteresting. But the lack of good portraits is actually bad for gameplay, as combat uses hexagon portraits and if there's some generic dude on it, you won't know, if that is a ranger, a mage, a thief, a warrior or whatever until you right click each and every one to check them out. The combat feedback is also horribly bad makes it an utterly joyless affair, made only worse by horrible randomness. Early game enemies (starting from the second fight) will have abilities with high crit chance that can kill a party member in one hit and that has happened to me several times. It wants to be strategic but never feels that way, as movement is highly limited and range as well (ranged combat is exactly range 2 or range 2-3 for most attacks) and the AP system feels underused since most abilities won't fit, as you almost spent 2 out of 4 every turn to move up to 2 hexes to be in range and after that abilities with 3 or 4 AP are unusable and abilities with 1 AP not worth losing the standard 2 AP attack. And general usability is meh at best. Unlocking perks with new abilities means you have to go to your inventory and equip the new button which is easy to forget. All loot is put into party stash which nobody tells you, and the button to open it is in a row with the many filter buttons in your inventory and easy to overlook. Also, it is super unclear when you are allowed to access it. Not after the battle is won and you are still on the battlefield. Also usually not in story beats after the battle. Very annoying. This was very disappointing after playing the much better predecessor Erannorth Chronicles.

i was having a really good time with the game, i got really into the story and then BAM! it just ends and sure it says you can continue, but if you do that there is nothing to do, the story is over, like wtf? i wish i knew that before i bought the game, you get super into the story and then it just ends that path and you gotta start over, im not sure if more is gonna be added to the story? idk man, i wouldnt have bought if i knew it was just abunch of paths that just end once you get into it.

This game is underrated - recent reviews on this are 'mixed' which I think is bonkers and I believe some of that is because certain types of people are butthurt about the use of AI. Don't buy into that. This is a good game. It's not the most intuitive game at first, it doesn't play like most other rpgs. As far as I know you're using the same map every time. Reputation with towns and regions is just cosmetic atm. It doesn't matter how many bandits you kill or how friendly you are to non-companions -you're still going to get overcharged like hell by a towns merchants. The story - it was alright but nothing that sticks out. However, in terms of how I feel an adventurer life should be, where you're just one person and you kind of meet other random people and convince them to accompany you, and you can build relationships with them of varying types, and they can get killed... THAT experience... this is the best game I've ever played for that. That aspect could be deeper but this is being developed by one dude. And even then I can only think of one or two other games that are trying to do what this game is trying to do and neither of them do it as well as this does. Full price? Yeah, I wouldn't have felt cheated paying $20 for this. It's not EA but I hope the dev keeps working on this and building on this concept he has.

This game is just fun to play. I don't remember the last game that I felt that about. Why? 1 - '90s RPG feel to it - I'm old. So what? Fun is fun. 2 - Choices really do 100% matter. Even if you choose to not care about your choices at all, or even reload & cancel those choices you had made but didn't like the result of. Each one of those choices still actually somewhat matter to your party run. 3 - Party building is fun. Complicated. So many possible combinations of skillsets and weaponsets that you can try to leverage together. I'm still finding new combos that I didn't know about before. 4 - It gives me the "What if?" syndrome - What if I had done this, that, the other thing, then, back there, that other time? That equals replayability. 5 - Good music. Honestly, really good. The less-than-good? 1. Some of the text doesn't fit the story. I suppose that happens when text is created without context. (I've never been in a cabin with a plush carpet - but apparently I've been sadly missing out on that experience.) Most complaints about AI text are pointless - It's not text message garble, it's at least spelled correctly, sorry if that doesn't seem "real" to you. Might not always fit as I said, but I can mostly overlook that. 2. I feel that the 'normal' recruits could use some shaking up. I know they all have their uses, but I'd prefer if the tavern NPCs could rotate randomly, to see what possible recruit might show up each time. 3. Possibly the freedom of combinations is too much for me. I haven't yet learned how to put together a really effective party for the long term. About level 8-11 I find I can't decide what skills to invest in. I have the skill reset mod (haven't used it), but I still hoard my points because I find I'm not sure what to invest them in for each character each run.

This game is something that should be used as an example of responsible use of AI, to supplement human artists and developers rather than replace them. AI was used to refine dialogue because the sole dev is not a native English speaker. The dialogue was written by humans and translated by AI. The art was made by AI and refined by human artists. This is how AI should be used - as a tool for people to achieve more, not as a replacement for people. The game has a lot of replayability, though I strongly suggest not rushing the main quest, as there is not really any more scripted content after that's finished. The mechanics are well fleshed out, but a few of the design choices deserve more explanation, such as which skills your NPC companions can't really use most of the time. the game has a deep amount of customization for a game of it's type, and also supports modding. The pervasive use of AI is clear, and at times jarring, but considering the entire game is the product of a single individual, it's clear they put a metric truckload of effort into it - this is also not the Dev's first game, it seems to be the culmination of what they learned on previous titles. So, it's not a blatant money grab or anything, it's more a labor of love, using AI to accomplish things a non-wealthy individual could never accomplish alone.

2 hours of story and nothing new since I got it a year ago