Arcane Vale is a paid role-playing game that lets you embark on an adventure to find treasures in a dangerous land. This open-world experience from the Dynamic Zero team features a retro pixel art style that still brings to life its massive cast of characters, playable and otherwise. 

There are a lot of things to do and love with Arcane Vale. For starters, it features a good variety of locations for you to explore, all rendered in appealing pixel art. Its combat, however, relies more on RNG instead of being strategic. It shares a lot of similarities with Hero’s Adventure.

Complete your father’s legacy

In a premise reminiscent of Dragon Quest games, Arcane Vale also combines elements of fantasy and coming-of-age, with a bit of drama and comedy thrown in. Seeking to complete your father’s legacy, you set out on a quest to find a long-lost treasure. Unlike most RPGs, it has an open-world map that is available for you to explore. As you defeat monsters, you gain experience and level up your character.

Also, quests work a bit differently in this game. Instead of a fixed series of quests that should be completed in order to progress, you take up quests that you like. Completing tasks lets you curry favor with non-playable characters (NPC), who in return will grant you items and privileges to continue your quest. All these content materials are rendered using colorful and vivid pixel art.

While it’s open-world, there are still a couple of mandatory quests you’ll need to complete. Unfortunately, the distribution of quests among fetching items and actually fighting bosses are largely disproportionate, making it a bit grindy for players looking for action. Additionally, it’s easy to become overpowered in this game, which makes the late-game difficulty scaling out of place. This is made worse by the combat system relying on randomized elements.

A fun pixel adventure

If you’re looking for retro RPG titles of the past, having Arcane Vale is a good start. It has a well-thought-out world, as seen in its different set designs that are both immersive and challenging. You are free to play the game however you see fit, although it can lead to players having overpowered characters and making the rest of the game not as challenging as it should be.