
[Reviewer's note: I suppose an explanation is in order for why a game released in June is being reviewed in October. To be honest, I bought the game upon release to review it, but I became seriously depressed after playing through the first half. It wasn't until about a week ago that I could bear to pick it up again and finally finish it. Read on to find out what kind of game can drive a man to depression.]
Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled is a desperate attempt to hearken back to the ‘glory days’ of the SNES era RPGs. Almost every facet of the game, from programming to art to game design, was worked on by three people who probably think back to the mid 90′s with wistful, romantic nostalgia.
It comes through plainly in the game, which seems to be a Frankenstein-esque fusion of Chrono Trigger‘s gameplay and Final Fantasy 6‘s general story progression. After all, if you take cues from the two best RPGs of the best RPG era ever, what could possibly go wrong? Right?
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