Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 13/Mar 03:56

Baladins – Review

The subject of today’s review, Baladins, is actually a game that came out way back in 2024 on Steam. We sadly missed this cute-looking D&D-style title the first time around, but we’re making up for that today with the recent PlayStation and Switch release of the game. This accessible choose-your-own-adventure title has garnered some success on PC, and we were dying to dive into the experience with a friend or two, filling up our adorable party. For the most part, we were heavily entertained. Story In Baladins, you’ll be playing as one of the titular Baladins who work for the guild. The guild has assigned you the difficult task of making sure the yearly festival goes as planned, as there are currently quite a few things that still need to be sorted out in six weeks. You, and potentially other Baladins, get to work immediately, albeit with a few detours and a few sidequests you may want to tackle along the way. When everything finally seems to be in order (or at least, almost in order), the festival gets disrupted by an ancient dragon, Colobra. Colobra isn’t pleased with how everything has been going, and he demands enough food to be satiated. As you cannot fulfill his request, he sends you back six weeks in the past to ensure you do better next time. You luckily retain your memories, and so do the other Baladins, but you’ll still have to find a way to get out of this mess. The story progresses at a steady pace, and you’ll come across many interesting characters along your travels. Graphics Graphically Baladins is an extremely cute-looking game. You’ll be thrown in a cutesy D&D-like universe, with unique characters, colorful outfits, and detailed backdrops, all in a Paper Mario-esque style, while still retaining its own identity. We loved progressing through the story, as we’d encounter new quirky characters and new areas, which were all simply a delight to behold. The menus are created in the same style, are easy to navigate, and there simply isn’t too much clutter on your screen. If we really had to nitpick, we could argue that the overworld overview isn’t always the best, and some characters could perhaps be a bit more animated. Sound While the sound design isn’t necessarily bad, we felt it was rather underwhelming when looking at the other aspects of the game. Baladins is dialogue-heavy with quirky characters, but there is sadly no voice acting. Having voices for the cute cast would have been amazing here, as it would have made the experience even more charming. Other than that, we don’t really have that many complaints. Gameplay Baladins is an accessible choose-your-own-adventure type of game that shares a lot of similarities with a D&D-like story. All players choose a character at the beginning of the game, and you’ll be thrown right into the adventure after that. You’ll have to explore an ever-growing world by using your movement points to reach new places. Doing things will cost action points, and you can complete quests, talk to NPCs, buy and sell items, perform jobs for rewards, and even level your stats. It’s all pretty straightforward and very accessible for younger players as well. Baladins also allows you to choose a lot of different options to complete quests, creating a lot of replay value in the process. This means that you can easily start a new adventure with other players, and you might unlock quite a few new dialogue options and quest endings. The game has no real combat at all. You will encounter enemies, and you can, of course, react in different ways, but everything in the game is based on skill checks, as it would be in a D&D game. This means you can do different dice rolls that correspond to a chosen stat (or chosen stats) and you’ll get bonuses from said stat(s). When you roll high enough, you’ll successfully progress; if not, you might need to level up specific stats first, or you might need some backup from another player. When two players are in the same area, their stats will be combined when performing skill checks. We noticed the game was quite a lot easier with other players in tow, as players can even teleport to each other when needed. Keep in mind, as the game works with a time loop system, all stats and all items (but one) will be reset when you enter the next time loop. The game will also allow you to pick different characters for subsequent time loops. We quite enjoyed the gameplay loop here, and the game luckily does not make you restart completely, as you can pick starting zones in the next time loop, depending on which ones you have already unlocked. Conclusion Baladins is a very entertaining and captivating accessible D&D-like experience that truly shines when playing with other players. The world of Gatherac managed to intrigue us thanks to the many silly NPCs, each with their own personalities and issues they needed help with. The presentation was the icing on the cake, even though the sound design was perhaps a bit undercooked. Nonetheless, the overall gameplay loop and the time loop shtick managed to remain entertaining throughout the entire experience, and with different options for so many of the quests, there is also a lot of replay value. We will certainly pick this one up again in the future.