PEGBRJE: Fateful Lore and Monster Pub Chapter 3
Welcome to Monday, probably.
Fateful Lore is a retro RPG made by Fantaseel Interactive, an indie studio stationed out of Argentina and creator of mid-scale titles for multiple platforms. In this case, players are a chosen hero destined to go and stop the three crystals from depowering and letting loose the evil demoness that nearly destroyed the world.
And it’s all exclusively on mobile.
I can’t lie, this is the first title that I’ve reviewed in the bundle that did not have a browser/computer variation, so consider this a milestone for the bundle. So how does this effect the game, if at all?
Well, Fateful Lore is a faithful homage in a way, for it strives to capture the magic of classic RPGs and bring them to a platform that can go anywhere. As such, players utilize the left side of the screen to move via four UI buttons, with an ‘interact’ button created when players get close to objects and people that can create a dialogue box either for descriptions, interactions, or conversations. With these simple controls, players venture forth from the castle in a typical old school adventure to visit a wizard in the town nearby to get specific instructions, leading to an open world in which players can explore. Wandering between towns/castles will cause random encounters to appear, bringing up the combat menu to fight off the attacker. Here players will have the standard attack, items, spells and flee mechanism at their disposal in order to take on the foe, in which the attacks can miss, status effects can be applied, magic is limited by MP and fleeing isn’t always reliable. Defeating the enemy gives gold and experience to which the player hero can level up, buy new equipment and learn new moves.
It all sounds relatively familiar, and yet I found myself drawn to keep playing even when these old school RPGs haven’t really been my cup of tea for some time now as I usually become frustrated with the monotony of random encounters. While that frustration remained, it was the world and exploration itself that kept me going to see what it had in store. The story is the typical hero’s quest to save the world, but there’s a reason why it gets used over and over again; it just works. It streamlines the motivations of the player, keeping things simple while allowing for focus on other aspects to shine like how oddly terrifying the bosses are. The best example is easily the towns that can be visited, for they appear as just safe zones where players can buy items and gain quest knowledge. Yet each town had it’s fair share of cheeky individuals that would make annoyingly hilarious puns while sharing information about their town or who they were, keeping players interested in each place as they go.
I also cannot deny that the mobile aspect of Fateful Lore is why I’m so drawn to it, and why many may wish to try it out — the ability to play a simple title anywhere is quite nice when waiting for the bus or if the internet goes down (which is annoyingly happening a lot in my household). There’s no internet needed, no ads or transactions, just a tiny game that isn’t as tiny as originally thought. If you have a longing to return to a simple land of simple monsters and a young hero going on a quest, then this might be the title for you.
Monster Pub Chapter 3 is the third installment in the series of narrative friendship titles made by Alex Ilitchev, featuring our favourite self-insert shadow monster returning for the third day to the Monster Public House. What will we get up to this time? It’s friendship.
As expected of the ‘final’ chapter, Monster Pub continues where the previous left off with the same mechanics to make friends. Players still can wander around the bar, interacting with individuals and making small talk, or interact with the ‘main’ monsters of the pub to catch up with them on what was discussed on day two. As before, players will respond to each individual’s issues with some choices of their own, which will slightly alter the conversation and how the individual views the player. Even after two chapters, I thought I knew every answer that would get me those sweet +’s, but Pfeffer’s conversation took me for a loop of negative -’s. This wasn’t wasn’t a product of poor writing, more that I made some poor decisions and only realized that in hindsight. Of course, it’s also hard to always predict when a ‘reaction’ will be given from one of the friends, so not worrying about it and just playing as however the player sees fit is always best.
For those back for more cards, the games remain the same. Sandwiches and Samson are both still fantastic games to play, only slowed down slightly if players are attempting to max out the friendship points for each monster. Since it’s a quarter heart per play (collecting the cards), players in games of Sandwiches may find themselves purposefully losing for a bit to max those hearts out and keep the game going. Thankfully those little interactions mentioned in earlier overviews help to keep the spirit alive while playing, and all of those little narrative touches such as the customized card sets for each monster are still as adorable as before.
Monster Pub Chapter Three is exactly what one would expect from an episodic trio of narrative stories; it picks up where the previous left off, continuing the little snippets of stories while adding new elements to them as the player learns more about each individual. It’s a game about making friends and helping them as they grow, regardless of how mundane their problems may be. After all, that’s what friends are for. So if you enjoy cozy titles about friendship, do be sure to check out the other two overviews for the title as this one feels more like an amalgamation of those two; I’m honestly unsure of what else to say about the title that I already didn’t cover without going into too many details about each story. So go back and play the games and make some friends.
