Elder Scrolls-Like RPG Ravensword: Shadowlands Launches On Switch This Week

Were they even trying? Like, for a game like this the combat actually needs to be exciting.

Currently the trailer makes it look like you can backpedal against a dragon while holding A to shoot it in the face, and actually win.

'It's like Elder Scrolls has the Big Mac, but we've got the Big Mick. They've got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They're buns have sesame seeds. My buns have no seeds'.

I recently played through Ghost of a Tale and found that rather Elder Scrollsy. Much more focused than open world, but it's so charming. Really gorgeous game.

@Lordplops MacDougals

@Blizzia to be fair, I've lost count of how often this has described my Skyrim fights.😅 I've yet to unlock dragons, though.

@KonoRobinMaskDa676 because we're the same fandom who keeps bitching about freemiums and their "predatory" gacha policies?

@nhSnork Well aside from mods, Skyrim isn't exactly a stellar game on its own either haha - the base game itself was never anything special imo, but mods essentially made the game fun, pretty and cool (which in my book is the same as simply making a new game because the game we got wasn't very good).

Probs not a popular opinion to think the base game is bad, but here I am

@Blizzia Gotta agree lol After just playing the witcher 3 and even dragon's dogma in some respects vanilla Skyrim is a bit pants.

I remember downloading this back when the OUYA (yeah, I had one) launched.

It was kind of a mess, and had micro payments for potions built right in to your inventory.

I got rid of it quickly, but I'm a little curious to see what six more years will do to a game, and the thoughts going into its delivery.

Shouldn't have bothered bringing this over, when there is a better game in KOTOR 2 to port over.

It was a nice game for my iPad, but I won't buy it on Switch, sorry

Looks like a game I would of played round 2001-2003 range.

@Lordplops Elderscrolls has soul gems, we've got soul glo.

Looks like a N64 game with better textures. I bet it runs at sub 30fps.

This was okay on mobile years ago. Went back to it to check it out recently. Didn't age well.

When skyrim is available why get this? At least it's less than 10 dollars.

The price alone tells you that this game is garbage.

So we're calling any medieval high fantasy games "elder scrolls-like" are we?

What is this, Chinese bootleg Skyrim? No thanks.

Is this a paid ad?

@Lordplops Get outta here before I break that camera!!!

@GrailUK Ghost of a Tale is an EPIC game! I love it! I need to replay that, again!

This would have been a good trailer in 2000:

Ultima IX: Ascension Remastered - Now on the Nintendo 64!!

For the young'uns.

Looks more Morrowind than Skyrim!
I remember playing it’s predecessor Ravensword: The Fallen King, which wasn’t too bad for an early tablet game. Looking at the reviews for the mobile Shadowlands, I can’t see the ports getting more than a 6/10 at best

Yeah, I have played similarly unpolished games back in the day and I never have stuck around for long. I think I will be giving this one a hard pass, even for that low price.

@Lone_Beagle Yeah, it's so well done. I'm surprised NLife hasn't reviewed it. 10/10 in my book. Loved every minute.

Them: Fulfill your destiny.
Me: My destiny is to not buy your game.
Them: ..... 😢
Me: 😆

This looks kinda terrible. I'm assuming it was a small team with high ambitions, but could they really not find someone to make their game look good?

Graphics-wise, rather than Skyrim it sits somewhere between Daggerfall (1996) and Morrowind (2002). Not a good look if it's not done as an intentional aesthetic (and it doesn't seem to be).

@rjejr I remember thinking Ultima IX was so cool, but it was literally the first full 3D CRPG I'd ever played. Apparently it was terrible?

I remember being impressed with the first elder scrolls knock off they did for mobile. I thought imagine what they could do if the made this for a console...ten years later...never mind.

@rjejr Still have this game on my backlog. I know it is not as great as IV (which I have for the Master System) or Ultima VII, but still.

Regarding the topic, I would probably give this game a go. I am a sucker for old school exploring.

I'll be interested to see what the gameplay is like, being a gamer since the 90s I don't really care much about graphics. Indie developers can often make a greater game than AAA companies despite their low budget for things like graphics.

@Lordplops Best comment here! All right people, let's all go home now. Work is over!

I have a feeling I'm going to buy the game before reading reviews, then quickly be reminded why I should reviews first. Oh well, at least it's cheap.

Guys, I know this doesn't sound like it can be good, but I completed this game on my mobile phone and it is an awesome game. It's a mini Elder Scrolls game. It has a great atmosphere and a nice world to explore. Definitely get this one if you like action RPGs! I've also played the other games in the series and they're all great.

Ravensword: The Fallen King
Ravensword: Shadowlands
Aralon: Sword and Shadow
Aralon: Forge and Flame

These are all good Elder Scrolls clones, but much shorter. The gameplay is good and the locations are all beautiful. Very immersive. They were all released on mobile and the controls were uncannily good! On Switch they'll certainly be better. I can't wait to delve into Shadowlands again!

@KonoRobinMaskDa676 It's $6.99 on mobile. It's not free. Calm down.

@Blizzia Skyrim was never a good game. The Elder Scroll series in general has always had bad combat, clunky controls, uninspired gameplay systems.. it just also has ambitious world design, deep lore and a hell of a lot to do. This is also probably an unpopular opinion, but Elder Scrolls Online was the first time gameplay was really any fun in the series. Unless you like archery. The bow mechanics aren't too bad before then.

"Elder Scrolls-Like"? Which one? Morrowind?? This looks horribly antiquated.... I should hope they're not charging the full new game price for it. $10-20, maybe. MAYBE.

@nhSnork "because we're the same fandom who keeps bitching about freemiums and their "predatory" gacha policies?"

Considering there was a report that came out in the last week that looked at a number of studies and concluded that loot boxes are linked to gambling, and unlike gambling, lootboxes are unregulated and available to children, I think the bitching is justified.

@ElfRings It's a port of a $6.99 mobile game. And it's $6.99 on Switch. It's not a terrible game. I played a beta of it some years back and for the asking price it's not bad.

@ElfRings said $6.99. i see a game for that price & i ignore it. Games are always priced more than they're worth, IMHO, so when a publisher thinks that's all they can get for it... there's a reason.

@shaneoh To be fair, when I first played it on iPad like 5+ years ago I thought it was like Skyrim, having never played it before and also not being aware of the other games. After playing most of TES games, I can say it's more like Oblivion than anything else. The story/areas are pretty linear and when you finish the main quest there's nothing to do.

Guys and Gals, this is Ratalaika games, a budget publisher. The end.

Oooh, I remember how highly anticipated Ravensword: The Fallen King was at its initial time of release. It was one of the biggest mobile RPGs at the time, iirc. I never did play Shadowlands, and I doubt it’s held up that well, but I’ll give it a play. It’s got me feeling nostalgic.

@GrailUK I've been wanting to play that game! Glad to read that it's good!

@Barbara001 You will love it!

@GrailUK
I will check that one out. Thanks

@Thaliard I've never played any of the Ultima games, but I've seen so many ads and read so much about them during the 90's I always remember them. Whether they were good or bad I have no idea. 😁

Doesn't look THAT bad...I might check it out. I love me some Elder Scrolls. Wouldn't mind an Oblivion port for the switch...

Since you can play Skyrim, Dragon's Dogma, The Witcher 3, and Kingdoms of Amalur on Switch already, I don't really see much point for a cheap knock-off. I'm willing to give every game a chance, but one look at the Steam reviews for this game are rather... unkind.

This game was trash, even on OUYA (I had that console, in its short life it had some good games. Ravensword isn't one of them).

Skyrim is a cheap alternative for Skyrim. This game looks pretty jakey.

@Blizzia
The combat in the Elder Scrolls series is abysmal, so apparently the combat in these games doesn't need to be good. Surprisingly, though, the combat in Ravensword wasn't bad on mobile.

@aozgolo
Ravensword is good for people who don't have the time to delve into a huge game like Skyrim or The Witcher III. It did get some positive reviews after certain issues were patched. Check out the Youtube review by PG Archive.

@TheWingedAvenger Hm well it'd be pretty weird if they'd made it worse when porting it, and it (the combat) looks REALLY bad, so my guess is that it's pretty bad.

I can't tell if this is asset flip shovelware or if someone just really likes Morrowind.

I have actually played this and a couple other Crescent Moon games on mobile - (well, tablet) - and they are really good. They won't set the world on fire, but for the price you get a decent enough RPG that clips along at a reasonable pace and doesn't outstay its welcome.
Crescent Moon do these really well and this is a great example of what they do, so rather than bitching about it you could either just pay a very minimal fee and get a few hours of entirely reasonable playtime, or move on...

@KonoRobinMaskDa676 this game is $6.99 on the Play store...

@Richnj do any of these "lootbox are gambling" studies and reports sound any less idiotic than last time I checked? Because it doesn't even take a "study", just basic acquaintance with general gacha mechanics, to tell the difference. But hey, the Ignoble Prize exists for a reason.😏

@nhSnork Well I'm not acquainted, what's the difference?

@Richnj in gambling, you bet money and either get more money in return or lose what you bet. There's nothing but money to put in and nothing but money to take out. And no gambling loss will get you any "consolation pennies" from the casino to save up for another try.

Gachas are a randomized game mechanic that's tied entirely into the game progress, offers nothing to monetize (real life trading is purely a fandom gig, not endorsed by publishers and mercilessly satirized in fiction like Welcome to NHK), always offers in-game ways to gradually grind up the required currency (the few completely paywalled items are either "golden Wii" bragging right rewards or demoted to progressively more accessible tiers over time, sometimes all the way down to anniversary login giveaways😆) and have their entire pools yield something game-related - whenever you don't pull what you want, you pull a different item for collection purposes and/or duplicates to use as currency or enhancement fodder. You either spend money to spend less time on game routines or spend more time on game routines to spend less/no money. And this is what fanheads like to dramatize even though several generations of candy crushers would be the last people expected to lament game routines - as would older RPG nerds like myself. I've already compared paying money to skip the grind to ordering a pizza and then paying the delivery guy to eat it in front of you.😄

Those who aren't fond of this type of gameplay and feel gated from the content they don't like to grind up over weeks/months/years are simply not in the market for this stuff and sanely expected to seek their entertainment elsewhere. Those who have nothing better to do with their money or nothing to control their impulses with can whale themselves into poverty for all the [slightly] saner people (including sociopaths like myself) care.

Minors - not mentioned in your comment here but a favourite fanbrained buzzword on the matter in general - aren't supposed to feature in this kind of discussion altogether because they're not entitled to make electronic transactions and all of their "gift money" spendings are supposedly monitored by responsible legal guardians (which is why all the counterarguments orbiting parental negligence and whining about how hard it is to parent children while tamagochiing their physical welfare can be shoved, the farther up the better). For any publisher out there, the only possible expectation from an underage audience is some occasionally effective skirt-tugging directed at a legitimate money spender. But if THAT ever escalates to the point of causing casino flashbacks, we're back to the topic of whether someone is raising a child or a living tamagochi.

@nhSnork I feel like I'm seeing some general misunderstandings or naivety in your post.

Gambling is more than just its mechanics, the mechanics are built up around the psychology of "parting a fool from their money". It's this psychology that lootboxes and gambling share, as you so point out.

"Those who have nothing better to do with their money or nothing to control their impulses with can whale themselves into poverty for all the [slightly] saner people (including sociopaths like myself) care."

And even on this level, you are wrong. At least in my opinion on morals and ethics and my own understanding of the psychology of people. I think we do have a duty to others, especially those that are vulnerable, and the people that are targeted by gambling and lootboxes are the vulnerable. This is where addiction comes in. And why only 5% of players fund over 50% of the lootbox market. They literally can't help themselves. Even if they can see, understand, and hate the damage that doing an activity has on their lives, they won't stop. The activity has triggered something in their brain and taken control. And to not see a problem or care about it, is to be callous at best.

"Minors - not mentioned in your comment here but a favourite fanbrained buzzword on the matter in general - aren't supposed to feature in this kind of discussion"

But they do, and there's a reason they do. Kids are more easily manipulated. It's why we don't allow certain ads to be played at certain times. Why us 80s kids have a ridiculous fetish with Transformers, He-man, Power Rangers, etc, and their toys. And that goes double for Nintendo, and all its IPs. It's why Fortnite is a money making powerhouse and is targeted towards teenagers. It's why Lego mario started calling out for Luigi before they announced the lego Luigi toy. Which actually takes me in to this.

"For any publisher out there, the only possible expectation from an underage audience is some occasionally effective skirt-tugging directed at a legitimate money spender"

Oh no, they know full well that all the marketing in the world would not get a parent to hand over money for some digital content, but you get a child, the little darling that you've raised and loved since the moment you saw their face to ask for something, the parent will hand it over. You love that kid, you want them to be happy at all costs, and all they want right now is to wear a dope hat on that new game all the kids are talking about, you'd feel bad for not giving up a little money. But then it's a little money every month, and you never realise it, but you end up spending a couple hundred on that game every year. You've not been a negligent parent, you've been trying to parent in a world where you and your kids are bombarded by ads.

(I take it you're not a parent?)

And you know what happens to those kids when they hit 18?, same thing that happened to us 80s kids. After an entire childhood of conditioning, you're ready to fall for all the same trappings that the other whales did.

@nhSnork

"You either spend money to spend less time on game routines or spend more time on game routines to spend less/no money."

These grinds are accidental, or just a thing that exists, or what the dev found most fun. They are created to be that way to hook players and encourage spending

A company like EA has literally researched in to ways to use game mechanics to manipulate players in to spending more time and money in a game, to literally get them addicted, and have also directly marketed their Fifa microtransactions to child through Argos.

To believe that is all just innocent and accidental, is hugely naive.

At the very least, maybe you'd agree that if children aren't intended to be targeted through microtransactions, that all games featuring micros like Fortnite and Fifa, should not have a teen rating, but should be rated 18+?