Now Playing: Drakan - The Ancient Gate

 Time for a good old fashioned western RPG.

The cover has this weird painted style I can't quite describe.

 So, there I was kickin' butt and taking names, feeling emboldened I took the Inquisitor sidequest, found the dungeon, was forced to save(It seems like you are FORCED to save the game in order to progress, fun! The game wouldn't load the next area until I accepted to save my file) and then... came across trolls. Each magic spell would take out a fourth of my HP, but it didn't matter, I'd close in on them, run in circles right next to them and slash them to death. But eventually they outnumbered and murdered me. A cruel reminder that Western RPGs are open ended, but they also allow you to get to areas way sooner than your level would allow.

 I've played very little, but I'm enjoying it a great deal. The character models certainly are... old, the female mage is ridiculously top-heavy and other characters look weird, but Rynn's animations are alright. The combat is a bit clunky, like you have to time the parry so that you predict an attack rather than react to it, but as a whole it's alright.

 As for my story with Drakan, I remember reading about the first game on PC Gaming magazines, but I never got to play it. Eventually I learned about the PS2 game, but for whatever reason I wasn't too interested on it... something that would change come present day. And here I am, playing Drakan and enjoying it.