Miles Halter
9/15/20
Do you enjoy Open World maps with dinky enemies? Do you like adorable villagers who give you quests despite the fact that you’re a stranger? Do you enjoy slashing everything in your path? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then WeakWood Throne may be for you!
At first glance, this game looked like it was not going to do anything for me, but to my surprise this basic and repetitive game sucked me in immediately. There is no waiting around in this game. You get thrown into the world, you pick up a stick, and you start hack’n and slash’n. Before you know it, you will come across a village and accept a quest, and from there it progresses fairly quickly.
Now, I am not going to sit here and tell you that the low price does not reflect this game’s quality, because it does. This game is really fun if you just want a basic and quick action RPG. However, the game does leave a lot to be desired. For example, where the heck is a map!? Developing a map for this game would have been a breeze—I am sure there will be a future online walkthrough with a thorough map—but it is almost unacceptable to not put a map in a game like this. I assure you that you will find yourself stuck in an unfamiliar spot and running away from harm.
Combat and Weapons
The combat in this game is basic, but this allows for a system that is easy to understand.
You have three primary skills in the game: Strength, Dexterity, and Magic. Due to a lack of a tutorial, it’s not immediately apparent that you have these skills. However, due to the game’s simple menu system, this is not a problem. What is a problem is making decisions as to what you want to spend your skills points on. In WeakWood Throne, you gain two skill points for every gained level, and you may spend these skill points on Strength, Dexterity, Max knowledge, Max Health, and Max Mana. In order to really make use of one of your three primary skills (Strength, Dexterity, and Max Mana), you will likely have to focus all of your skill points on a single one of these. The skill point system could work well in this game if you were awarded more skill points per level, or if you could gain skill points through other means such as questing.
Critiques
As for the biggest flaw with the game’s combat, that would have to be the hit detection. It’s not necessarily weak, but it does lack awareness. You could probably get used to the below‑par hit detection if you weren’t constantly running away from your powerful foes, but instead you find yourself observing your enemy’s movements for 15 seconds so that you can get in a single hit before you are forced to run away again.
WeakWood Throne has a simple plot revolving around a new king that ends up wreaking havoc on the small kingdom. You end up going around the kingdom and helping out villagers with quests that are usually based on addressing harm done due to the king’s actions. The villagers are honestly quite funny, but the only villagers that will talk to you are the ones who give quests or the ones that sell you weapons and items. Some of the quests are somewhat hard to complete due to the fact that you do not have a map, but as you explore, you will generally complete them by accident. As for shopping, items are very limited in quantity. As for a smaller critique, the game does not show you your gold as you shop. This is another lacking feature that I consider to be relatively unacceptable.
Graphically speaking the game is nothing to write home about, but the character models are kind of adorable. The enemies are basic, and none of them use interesting attacks. Exploring the map is fun for a bit, especially since you just happen to have a skateboard, but once you get lost you’ll find yourself spending 10 minutes searching for the nearest village. As for the audio, you will find yourself walking in silence for much of the game. If the game is not silent, you are treated to somewhat pretty, albeit cookie cutter compositions.
WeakWood Throne’s basic control scheme and plot is catered more toward a casual audience, but due to the game’s flaws the game is fairly difficult. The simple controls make you assume that the game’s difficulty level will be somewhat low, but the poor hit detection will have you on the floor crying.
Overall, if you want a casual, inexpensive RPG where you needn’t worry about an extravagant plot or an intricate combat system, then I’d suggest you buy WeakWood Throne. However, if you don’t enjoy budget titles that lack basic standards such as a map or decent hit detection, then I suggest you look into other games.