Star Citizen fans and backers have expressed frustration and worry lately with yet another delay for the latest alpha update. There is palpable anxiety that it may never come out in the near future. However, to keep things in perspective then they just need to check out the RPG game Grimoire: Herald of the Winged Exemplar to realize that things are not so bad in comparison. Development for Grimoire started all the way back in 1997. Back then CRT screens and beige boxes were the norm. Obviously, the game did not take 20 continuous years to develop, it has retro 20-year old style graphics after all. It instead faced several failed efforts including an IndieGogo campaign back in 2013.
Authentic Retro RPG Game Experience
Grimoire is an homage to classic retro RPG game experiences such as Wizardry and Might & Magic. Even the official screenshots show a 4:3 aspect ratio instead of a 16:9 widescreen for high-definition displays. Naturally, the system requirements are not steep. It requires any Windows operating system from Windows XP to Windows 10 and only requires the built-in Windows graphics drivers. Even the storage space requirement is a scant 100 MB, with a memory requirement of 256 MB of RAM.
For £29.99 (down to £26.99 with discount until August 11), users get 600 hours of RPG gameplay and the following:
- Lush Colorful 2D Hand Drawn Artwork
- Retro style MIDI music and 8 bit sound effects
- 244+ Maps in the game to explore!
- Turn-Based strategic combat
- Multiple Beginnings, Multiple Endings
- 144 context sensitive magic spells
- 14 races, 15 professions, 50 skills
- 64 intelligent NPCs with 8000+ Words in Vocabulary
- Full Sentence Communication with NPCs
- 240+ monsters each with special powers and defenses
- 1000+ items, Carry Containers, Global Party Inventory
- 30 conditions, from Confusion to Disease & Lycanthropy
- Automapping, Autowalking, Autohealing
- Global Map Atlas With Position Marker
- Quest Journal, Hint Prompting, Help Facility, Mini-Quests
- Complex LockPicking Interfaces for Doors & Chests
- Challenging Puzzles and Rich Interactive Dungeons
- Browsable Character Library for up to 100 characters
- Up to 12 Commented Postage Stamped Savegames
- Multi-themed GUI and customizable screen layouts
There were reportedly many bugs on launch, but since the game is only 100MB, it was easy enough to patch within the first 120 minutes of release. There are several more bugs to work out however, as some users with extremely high-end hardware on Windows 10 are complaining. Most recommend playing the game on Windows 7 or with compatibility mode for now.
