haunted by their old adventures. One of my warriors,
infected by a gorgon seed, returned with a crust of stone
still marking her face and a prosthetic replacing the leg
she lost in a fight against overwhelming odds.
You can also choose to forget certain characters,
ensuring they’ll never return. Or if you don’t preserve
their latest iteration at the end of a campaign, you can
render that story non-canon, reverting them to a prior
self. It’s up to you whether your characters grow and
change, or revert to an iconic version.
One of my legacy heroes toppled
out of a tapestry depicting myths and
legends in the middle of a later game.
Her memories were jumbled and she
seemed unconvinced this new crop of
heroes were any more real than others
she claimed to have encountered in
the lost years between. I’ve never
played a videogame that so perfectly
emulates the feeling of bringing an old
D&D character to a new table where your previous
adventures stop seeming valid and you find your
backstory clashing with the world you’re in and the group
dynamic moulding it.
Surprisingly, the other innovative RPG I played in 2021
was based on a Skyrim mod from 2015. The Forgotten City
kept only a few bits of the parent game that worked – the
archery most blatantly, but the NPC scheduling was also a
hint of Elder Scrolls DNA. The difference is, when guards
say things you’ve heard before in Whiterun it’s goofy,
where in The Forgotten City it played to the theme.
The Forgotten City was about being caught in a
timeloop. You’re yanked through the ages to a cursed
Roman settlement where punishment for any crime
results in everyone’s death. To lift the curse, each time
that happens you’re yanked back again to restart the day,
hoping this time you’ll anticipate and prevent the crime.CITY SLICKER
While a layer of Skyrim was visible in its foundations like
the burnt level of strata beneath London, The Forgotten
City ditched traditional RPG craft. No stats, minimal
distinctions between classes – archaeologists get insights
into objects they examine, outlaws get
increased sprint speed – and no XP.
Instead, you improved from loop to
loop by learning. You solved a
sidequest to get life-saving medicine
to someone in need, then set up a
convenient way of delivering it to
them each day. You weren’t
empowered because numbers went
up, but because you transformed into
Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, always in the right place
at the right time, a living Rube Goldberg machine walking
a path you’d set up perfectly.
The Forgotten City and Wildermyth shared some
themes. They’re games about deciding what to keep from
what’s gone before, and using that to write a new future.
RPGs may seem like they’re stuck in a rut, but with luck
they’ll learn from it and there will be a more balanced
spread. Re-releases and retro celebrations alongside RPGs
that make the genre feel unfamiliar again – whether by
finding unexpected gaps to fill, or figuring out which old
ideas can be forgotten and replaced with new ones.
Jody MacgregorPEN PALS Just who’s writing all these love letters, anyway?
ENCASED
A love letter to the wasteland survivalism
and paranoia of the first two Fallout
games and STALK ER.MONSTER CROWN
A love letter to monster trainers/
breeding programs like the Pokémon and
Dragon Quest Monsters series.SOLASTA: CROWN OF THE
MAGISTER
A love letter to Neverwinter Nights and
every teenager’s first D&D campaign.EASTWARD
A love letter to Studio Ghibli movies and
anime-esque console JRPGs like
Earthbound and The Legend of Zelda.FAR LEFT: (^) Isometric
RPGs are definitely
back from the dead.
LEFT: (^) My Wildermyth
heroes have been
through some stuff.
GAMES THAT WILL
INEVITABLY BE
DESCRIBED AS
‘LOVE LETTERS’
NEWS | OPINION | DEVELOPMENT