The Romance of Forgotten Kingdom

The first role-playing game from Mirinae Software, which had previously created mainly various arcade games (including the scrolling shooter series The Day).

The background of the plot is as follows: Hong Gildong, a character in a literary work of the XVI-XVII centuries, settled on an isolated island of the land of Yuldo, successfully ruled and passed the throne to his son Seong Dogun, who gave birth to the crown prince. The latter, studying under the guidance of his mentor Bupjung, grew up with the son of one of the ministers, Park Joongmoon, and Han Mihong, the daughter of noble parents. Later, Jungmun went to study, and the prince and Mihon became engaged. Everything changed one day when someone named Jeokdae Ma'in attacked the royal palace and occupied the country. The crown prince disappeared, and Song Do-gun and Pubjun were banished to a desert island. A few months later, Jungmun returns to Yurdo, and Song Do-gun dies. Pubjun follows his master's last order and returns to the lands terrorized by Chogdae Ma'in in search of the lost prince. However, the playable characters are Yu Jin Sun and Hong Seyong. The latter has lost his memory, and the former decides to help regain it.

The gameplay resembles console jRPGs, although the locations are interconnected, and there is no division into separate locations and a global map. Dialogues with NPCs are optional, as they do not contain important information for progressing through the story. Skirmishes with enemies are random, and the combat system is semi-turn-based and reminiscent of ATB (Active Time Battle) from Final Fantasy IV: there is a gauge that is constantly filling up, and the character is able to perform one or another action when it reaches the minimum mark. This gives interesting opportunities for tactics: you can deliver quick but weak blows - or, after waiting a little longer, make one, but strong. For winning, you get money, experience and - sometimes - items.

Stats that are varieties of habitual strength, defense, agility, and so on, increase automatically as you level up. Some of the opponents are made either with an eye to folklore, or are characteristic of East Asian games with a national flavor - such as living idols, soldiers in appropriate uniforms, mythological creatures; The latter will meet more than once in the form of bosses. The interface is iconic, so knowledge of the language is not required in battles.

The graphics in the projection with a top view are made at a good level and are pleasing to the eye; It is worth noting the visual unity of the style of different objects and graphic elements. The music also sounds good, although it can get boring due to frequent random skirmishes.

In general, it is a well-made representative of the genre that is interesting to play. Fortunately, thanks to the fan translation into English, much more people will potentially be able to get acquainted with this thing than with the average South Korean RPG.

Review by: Gamerun