Caves of Lore review - "An epic homage to old-school RPGs"

• Engaging turn-based combat
• Beautiful pixelated environments
• Immersive, entertaining quests

A game for fans of old-school RPGs, Caves of Lore is a pixelated turn-based RPG full of adventure, exploration and combat. You’ll gather a party of adventurers and journey through the dangerous cavern on a quest to understand the Calamity, the strange fog that has caused people to forget everything.

You begin the game in a peaceful land when suddenly you find yourself in a dark cavern. Remembering little of your life before, including your own name, you venture forth into the unknown. You'll soon cross paths with a dog who will become your constant companion. You'll also find a mysterious codex on a corpse, which you feel compelled to take.

As you wind your way through the dank cave, you'll soon meet Merewen, a young woman who doesn't remember anything except that she was looking for a book, and Rycard, a man looking to defeat monsters. With your companions in tow, you’ll battle enemies, explore the Caves of Lore, and even find sanctuary in Kalindraur. There, you'll learn of the Calamity, a terrible event that brought about a strange fog and caused most people to forget who they were.

The Team

When creating your character, you'll allocate stat points and choose two abilities. While this is standard for RPGs, the abilities you can choose from are not limited by class or stat levels, which is a nice change. For instance, for my abilities, I choose Distraction, a rogue-like ability that lets you distract an enemy before attacking, and Cascade, which causes a single cast spell to do splash damage. As you level up, you can purchase more abilities for you and your companions.

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You’ll also be able to purchase traits such as Summoner, which gives summoned creatures more health and mana, or Axe Proficiency, which lets you deal three bonus damage when wielding an axe. Additionally, you’ll allocate skill points as you progress, increasing your awareness, evasion, and ability to heal team members, among other skills. The multiple ways you can improve your character and their party add depth to the game while allowing you to customize each party member to fit your playstyle.

Combat

Caves of Lore delivers engaging turn-based combat. Each turn consists of a move and an attack. You can move the current party member to any of the highlighted tiles before attacking. You'll need to be in range of an enemy to attack, so choose your movements based on who you aim to attack next. While simplistic and easy to master, combat still provides a fun challenge.

As you explore the world of Caves of Lore, you'll battle everything from rats and gelatinous cubes to evil mages and sentient trees. The game’s wide variety of enemies keeps battles interesting during long gaming sessions.

To learn new spells, you’ll need to equip a spell book. There are various spell books throughout the game that contain different spells. When first equipping a spell book, you'll only have access to one or two spells. But as you master said spells, you'll unlock new ones, and the game does feature some pretty cool ones. For instance, you can crack the earth beneath an enemy, cause damage with the Crevice spell, or send a swarm of bats to assault a foe using Bat Swarm.

Quests

Caves of Lore also features quite a few side quests. Whether collecting snail meat for a food connoisseur, locating a rare plan, or battling living trees, each quest is an engaging experience. While some quests feel familiar, such as the age-old RPG standby of killing some rats, the game’s gorgeous graphics and simplistic yet challenging combat mean you’ll still have a blast.

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• The Longing mobile review

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Unlike many RPGs, Caves of Lore doesn't do much hand-holding. You may know what area to head to to find a particular enemy or item, but the game doesn't guide you there. Instead, Caves of Lore promotes exploration. While some may find the lack of guidance frustrating, it's just another way the game pays homage to the RPGs of old.

Movement

Caves of Lore caters to players with various control preferences. You can tap on the screen to move to a location or use the virtual joystick in the corner. Being able to seamlessly switch between the control options is refreshing. Occasionally, however, the game will register you placing your finger on the joystick as tapping to move. Luckily, it's easy to get your character moving in the right direction quickly.

Caves of Lore is a charming old-school mobile RPG with a lot of heart, along with engaging strategic turn-based combat, interesting characters and beautiful environments to explore. Featuring classic RPG mechanics, lovable NPCs with witty dialogue, and intensely fun turn-based combat, Caves of Lore is a diamond in the rough that will satisfy any old-school RPG fan.