I realize I may be a little too biased to rate properly RPG timethe new RPG from studio DeskWorks and aniplex. It’s not because it’s steeped in JRPG knowledge or because so much of its iconography brings dragon quest in my head – I see way too much of myself in Kenta. I was never a wiz kid with cardboard, plastic straws and sketches like him, but I know what it’s like to share wild, sprawling worlds with your friends after school. Twenty years ago I was the kid with the notebook. I never dreamed of getting into game design, but I still had piles of pages I couldn’t wait to share with my friends as soon as the bell rang. It’s rare to find a game that really captures that spirit of creativity that could only come from a kid, and DeskWorks really hit the mark.
Somewhat similar to Retro Game Challenge on the DS, RPG time has two layers. On the upper level you play as yourself, and your best friend Kenta (10 years) runs to your desk every day after the bell rings to show you his own made-up RPG: The Legend of Wright. Through a combination of tabletop role-playing, interactions with real toys and lots of ambitious crafting with simple buttons and lights, Kenta guides you through the adventure of a silent hero named Wright on his journey to save Princess Lay from the evil demon lord Dethgawd. At the deeper level, you control Wright in the game-within-a-game, with Kenta acting as an energetic storyteller and dungeon master. Kenta constantly changes hats as he pronounces the other characters. Kenta controls all aspects of the game as he guides you through obstacles and battles and unlocks new areas of the game (i.e. the desk) as the game progresses. God only knows how he lugs so many props in his backpack, bless his heart.
The game’s overall interface isn’t exactly photo-realistic, with some cartoonish bits of cardboard buttons, paper cutouts stapled to straws, and painted rocks to simulate the many new props and dioramas Kenta puts out for you. It would have been interesting to see these parts in photorealistic props, but it’s charming nonetheless to see Kenta ‘tempering a sword’ by sharpening a pencil in a decorated sharpener.
Everything is accounted for: your menu is arranged with beadwork to look like a 8-bit menu; the music is completely diegetic and Kenta’s mp3 player consists of his favorite songs from his favorite games; your health meter is a recycled tape measure. Cutscenes can be either a fanciful kamishibai sequence, or a fold-out strip on straws. And the actual ‘game’ is Kenta’s notebook in which each stage, battle, map and room is an elaborate sketch made by Kenta’s hands.
Kenta has a good, unique style, with each character simple and archetypal in their design, yet recognizable. Wright is a watered-down dragon quest main character, because that’s what he should be. Princess Lay is a beautiful blonde princess, because she should be. Keep going, and so on. And just when you think you know how something works, Kenta brings in a new mechanic. Flipbook animations. Changing cards hidden under post-it notes. Clear and redraw cards to introduce new threats.
Nevertheless, it never feels like a wild game of Calvinball where the rules are randomly changed to suit you, but rather like an extended game where you are constantly presented with new obstacles and tools. Even when you start the game, you are immediately sent to a minigame where you have to sharpen a pencil or play with a toy with Kenta before you get to the ‘title screen’ (ie, Kenta puts the notebook on your desk).
The title RPG time is a bit of a misnomer, because Kenta’s favorite games are also shooters and horror games: many sequences include off-the-wall genre changes like Wright jumping into a tank and a simple Zelda-like dungeon or having to find your way through a maze. Combat is fully scripted, more akin to interactive puzzles than raw attrition: While ostensibly turn-based, players must pay attention to the enemy and the area they’re in to figure out the enemy’s weak spot.
Even interacting with the game is creative; while combat and navigation can be done with the controllers, you can also touch the Switch’s screen to interact with things. It’s a lot of fun using some of the drawing pages or literally “drawing” your sword strokes in combat. It’s also easy to just tap the on-screen buttons for things like accessing your food items or taking on an enemy in a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots (long story) match.
That said, it can be a bit confusing with controllers; in many cases, your instinct is to press “A” to access things, but then you just come out of a menu. Or you can try using the analog stick to move Wright on its own only to find that he only moves when you use the D-Pad. These little mix-ups aren’t too bad, but because of all the little gimmicks the game gives you when you switch from search mode to moving to accessing your food items, it’s easy to press and force the A button once too many times. you to spend a few extra seconds trying to access the menu.
The movement in the game is also quite slow: Wright takes time to slog through maps when you move, and given that some areas need to be tracked back a bit, this can make exploration take more time than it should . A simple “Run” button would have been very useful here.
But the result of all this is still an incredibly charming game and a great ode to a child’s imagination. Maybe you weren’t Kenta. Perhaps you didn’t have a friend with whom you shared your own personal world and weaved miles of yarns that you explored together. But I was, and it was special to see that in this game. Each page is a new adventure, dripping with love and caring from a child bursting at the seams with how much he wants to share with his friends. There are many Kentas in the world, if only they could all come and have their stories told this way.
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