Indie Impressions - Voyage to Farland

Voyage to Farland

Now Available, also on Steam Greenlight

by Peculiar Games

Voyage to Farland is a cute and simple coffee-break roguelike more akin to classic Japanese dungeon-crawlers of the 90s than what most genre enthusiasts today are probably used to, being a big fan of the older entries in the Mystery Dungeon series of games I had to pick it up and give it a shot. I have to admit the simple look had me misled, as I didn't expect to sink as much time into the game as I did on my initial playthrough.

A talking crow rouses me from my sleep, Peculiar indeed.

 We find our wandering hero in the woods deep in sleep, apparently traveling alone in a quest to find his lost sister. A questionably talkative crow harkens to our young hero in his slumber, pushing him to awake and continue his journey in motivation for the scraps of food left behind by our human protagonist. When you start the game you have the choice of either jumping right into the starting town that acts as your hub to the main overworld and it's increasingly harder dungeons or playing a quick tutorial. The tutorial covers all the basics on on how the inventory, combat, and movement of the traditional Mystery Dungeon formula of roguelikes used here works, while managing to be a fun introduction to the game in general and is recommended for the starting loot you'll get from completing it.

Staking my loot claim in the Dark Forest

Voyage to Farland is a roguelike that will feel very familiar with people who have previously enjoyed the classic style of straight-forward turn-based combat and randomized dungeon-delving of the 90's, the controls are basic and the inventory system is fun as well as easy to use and read. This however does not keep the game from being very difficult, as any roguelike should be with the standard of permanent death and loss of items. From the town where your home and warehouse useful for storing goods are located, you travel north past the caves where you start your randomly generated journey into the forests.

Better equipped I delve into the dangerous Twilight Temple

 The enemies while very simple in-game obviously have a lot of ambition in their design based on the concept art in the banner title, and have a uniquely cute yet creepy look I haven't seen the likes of since probably Dungeons of Dredmore. The way many of the monsters interact with you really caught me by surprise being tossed into the air and flung into walls left and right constantly, adding some pretty deep strategy to how you approach each foe. While very basic on aesthetics I still find Farland oddly cute and pleasing to look at, almost as much so as it is to play.

You can buy Voyage of Farland now for a paltry $2.99 and get a lot of content for your value at multiple places as well as vote it on Greenlight to help it get on Steam, purchasing the game also gets you an Android copy which is fantastic since this is the perfect game to pick-up-and-play for quick sessions.