Ringlorn Saga

Four hours of very fun dungeon crawling action. This game is like if an Hydlide came out in modern times and I say this with no hint of malice. Everything about this game is old school, from the aesthetic which lloks like came straight from the PC-88 to the classic Bump System combat of early Japanese Action RPGs. Our Hero Gerhard is on a trip to rescue his dad which has gone missing in a nearby nation which has been confined behind a magical barrier, upon entering the land he gets ambushed and when he wakes up in a nearby village has lost his pouch and has to get himself up to speed in order to find his father. You have 3 types of attack: Swipe, Stab and Bashing with all the enemies being weak to one particular type of attack, so you have to manouver your way through them select the correct attack and bump them into a pulp. You don't have to rush it though because after each attack there's a slight cooldown period in order to recharge your attack power and always try to take on the enemies from the back or the side because if you rush them heafirst there's a change that they would likely parry your attack or worse hit you first, and some enemies deal a lot of damage. While we have a story to carry us it's up entirely to us to explore the world, gather clues, talk to everyone in the overworld and figure out how to proceed. The world is just the right size and very easy to navigate so should never end up feeling lost. The game can get a bit grindy at times but honestly if you're feeling the fatigue than all I can give you as an advice is take a break and play in short bursts this game is perfectly tailored for that experience. There's also a fun bonus dungeon where we get to take control of the monsters, starting out as a slime we have to rebuild our strength and we end up taking control of the body of the last enemy we killed. This gets tricky though because every enemy has a specific type of attack so we have to plan our moves better and also get used to the movement of said character we are controlling. This mode is also one life and no continues, you're back to the title screen once you die so might not be for everyone, but if you really get a kick out of the bump system action, than you'll surely gonna have a ton of fun. Highly recommend it to old school action RPG enthusiasts!