Drova: Forsaken Kin review

Hearing Drova: Forsaken Kin described as a “Gothic-inspired pixel art RPG” had me wondering how well those systems would translate to a top-down adventure game but the end result had me quietly impressed.

Drova captures the atmosphere of Gothic in a number of ways, most notably in giving you a relatively compact but surprisingly full world to explore, and refusing to hold your hand through any of it. And when I say “compact” world, I don’t mean small. I just mean that it’s not procedural and isn’t intended to go on forever. You’ll revisit many areas multiple times, and your actions will affect the world and the people in it.

It’s set in a vaguely Celtic-slash-Slavic land where every day is a hardship. After witnessing the druids in your village sneaking off with a magical red crystal, you up and decide to be a protagonist, following them into the deep, dark forests. When things go south, you’re left entrusted with the crystal and trapped in the dark, magical land of Drova. All you have to do is take the crystal to the city of Nemeton and you’ll be able to go home. Maybe.

Unfortunately, Drova: Forsaken Kin flies the old school colours in a number of ways. Chiefly among them is the lack of signposting. Your map is deliberately rubbish, and if you want to mark locations or points of interest you’ll need to buy ink from a vendor. The overarching narrative is malleable to a point, as actions you perform and quests you complete for the various factions (and once you start down a path, it locks you in) will subtly alter the way NPCs react to you and what you’ll find in certain areas. Like Gothic, you’ll need to find special NPCs to teach you new skills and abilities, and the wrong faction standing can mess that up.

One thing Drova doesn’t do is waste real estate. If you can get somewhere, there’s probably a reason to get there. Corpses, boxes, bags, loose items on the ground; there’s plenty of reason to explore everywhere in Drova. A robust crafting system means you’ll want to squirrel everything away, including meat and berries you find that can be cooked at camp fires.

Skills and XP are tied directly to combat for the most part. As you level up and use certain weapons more than others, you’ll gain a kind of proficiency in them and unlock new skills. Most skills like spells have a metre you’ll need to fill by attacking enemies, while others have a cool down. Ranged weapons such as bows make you “pull back” the string to line up two lines before releasing to hit a target.

CHECK IT OUT: Gord is a grim-dark Slavic settlement sim | Review

Melee is more straightforward though not easy. Enemies hit hard, and as you can switch freely between two different weapon loadouts, it pays to be prepared for any encounter. Enemies don’t display levels, and you won’t know if something is much higher than you until it’s picking you out of its teeth. It’s mostly timing based, too, as you have a dodge roll for avoiding damage but need to time your blows with your opponent’s. Combat feels meaty and responsive, but it is incredibly tough. Thankfully you won’t be heavily punished for losses as you just respawn at the last safe place.

Despite having no spoken dialogue outside the intro, and a fairly basic character creator, Drova: Forsaken Kin absolutely bubbles with atmosphere. The dreary, grimdark pixel art, haunting music and general sense of being utterly alone in a hostile world combine to create a memorable RPG experience that feels new while also evoking classic games like the aforementioned Gothic.

The lack of maps and quest markers might be a deal breaker for some (I admit I missed them at times) but that just encourages you to take your time and soak it in. On the surface some of the systems appear quite rudimentary, too, but you kind of get out what you put in in terms of how much you buy into the world. Topping out between 30 and 40 hours depending on how much you want to explore and uncover, Drova: Forsaken Kin is a deep experience that feels enjoyable whether you’re jumping in for an hour, or five.