For Love of Family
Act None has released the sequel to their debut game Eldrum: Untold under the title Eldrum: Red Tide. Both games are fantasy RPGs and the studio is standing out from the crowd thanks to their use of old-school Choose Your Own Adventure immersive text.
While Eldrum: Untold is the story of survivors in a wilderness, Eldrum: Red Tide follows the life of a simple soldier in the middle of an all-out war in his home city. The game truly starts at the end, with the player waking up in an infirmary and, after a myriad of choices, eventually wondering how it all ended up like this.
“This” being a burning city, with wounded and broken soldiers in devastating pain. All of this is happening while the player attempts to remember what happened to their family. The decisions made in the future (really the past) is what determines what happens to not only the player and their family but the ruined city itself.
Visual Novel
Eldrum: Red Tide follows the same structure that most visual novel games do. Players are shown some of the game’s narrative after which choices are presented in front of an illustration. Every single choice made determines the plot and future outcome of the story. There are consequences to each action and even each inaction. this is what drives the stakes and propels the conflict. While the studio does guide the overarching narrative, the story of Eldrum: Red Tide is mainly in the hands of the player.
It’s this kind of setup that gives Eldrum the feel of an old-style RPG, paring down the genre until it is almost indistinguishable from an RPG board game. The game’s story is written by player choices and because of this, no two gameplays are identical.
Closed Doors and Open Windows
Armor and weapons can be found and equipped, a necessary feature since there are battles depending on your choices. The player is just a simple soldier running on both instinct and luck. Both of those can fail at any given moment if the player is unprepared.
Unfortunately, you can write yourself into a corner depending on which options you pick. When this happens, the previous options come back up and players must somewhat retrace their steps. I say retrace lightly since this doesn’t undo your previous selections and erase that bit of the story. It’s the player reconsidering their options and retaking steps. This can be a little annoying, especially if it happens often since there’s no automatic rerouting with options.
AI Art
The 2D illustrations that serve as the backdrop for the text-based narrative have a dreamy feel to them and a majority of them, if not all, are AI-generated art. Eldrum isn’t the first game to rely on AI-generated art and it doesn’t seem like it will be the last. Indie TTRPGs and other game studios have been incorporating AI art into different phases of production, as an assistant for preproduction or in the final product.
Looking to the Past
Eldrum: Red Tide is definitely for players who love a good old-school RPG and who also don’t mind the genre having a bit of an update. It’s heavy on text which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea nor are there a large number of illustrations as in some other visual novels. However, players looking to enjoy an engaging story should give Eldrum: Red Tide a chance.
