Sacred Fire: A Role Playing Game

This concept is one I waited for years to appear in triple A titles, and then one Indie developer invents it "single handedly". (well, Kudos also to his team) Since this game is in development, there are of course a few balance bugs and the game is far from feature complete, but nothing is gamebreaking. It is incredibly fun to play already in this early stage. The character and especially the faces are beautiful high resolution artwork and you start to see facial expressions, although they might still be placeholder art for the final characters to some degree, as some of them appear a little wooden and rigid in some scenes. Also the sceneries are well painted and arranged and appear believable but also are still a bit wooden (no pun intended, since most of it actually plays in the forest). I think the facial expressions as reactions to your decisions and the "kill scenes" (soldier characters are just flipped to side to indicate they are taken down) still need an "animation pass" (explanation below). Since this game is pretty much a "click to see the next image with branching dialog options and dice rolls", just like classic pen and paper RPGs, it works astoundingly well with only few still images cleverly composed using backdrop, characters and foreground. However, I wish there was a bit more dynamic and character placement variety in longer scenes and some more intermediate steps in fast paced scenes, although you can clearly see that the artwork of this game is clearly the task which takes up most of the development time. I am eager to see more of it.

First things first: I love this game. It seems that this rpg encompasses the drive of a visual novel with the big 5 model known in psychology. Character traits and experience form how much resilience one develops against fear and anger, portaing the ambiguity of actions in a fresh and unique way. Changing your path takes effort in form of motivation points, which are hard to come by as this first act progresses. A big part is the involvement of luck, since there are constant dice rolls in the background. The only time I thought this game to be frustrating was when I was unable to perform the way I would have liked to. But that only emphasizes how quickly it becomes enticing. If you're looking for a new take on being a leader and something with a lot more realism to it I can absolutely recommend this game. In addition to the fantastic gameplay it offers lovely and detailed characters, interesting choices and a lot of insight one might not expect from a game. 4/5 Stars due to bugs (early access stuff, nothing gamebreaking) and the early stage of the game. When the other acts keep up with this quality wise it'll be 5/5 easy.

Sacred Fire: a game quite spontaneously and on accident. As an avid D&D player, I had no idea how much I would treasure my experience! Many games that style themselves as a 'choices matter' RPG experience seem entirely watered down when compared to Sacred Fire. Unlike viewing a list of four or so social options with an NPC and choosing one most fitting of your roleplay style and without (much) significant consequence, Sacred Fire allows for freedom in decision making across the board (not only what your character says but also how they feel, what they're thinking, how they act, etc.) Fit with a unique leveling system, dice rolls (which one can find joy in with both successes & failures,) and a simple but unique story (although really the story comes from you, the player, and the decisions you make,) this game contains the genre of an RPG spectacularly well. As of this review, with the game in version 2.5.3, it took me just under four hours to complete the available content, which I believe is the first act of the game. I am so very happy with my purchase and am looking forward to additional updates & playing the new content. Some things I hope to see in the future: Clearer representations of how upgrade points will change your stats in-game without having to click back to the various character menus to see how the values would change. Limited uses of the "Back" button to avoid the temptation of re-rolling failed ability checks. More voice acting (although I am very happy with the limited voice acting there currently is.) Additional cosmetic options for character creation to increase the player's connection with their character (including visual representations for item upgrades in game like shields, hair styles, etc.) After playing Disco Elysium, I didn't think I'd find another game striving for such heavy RPG elements, however this one has so SO much promise and look forward to tracking its progress. To the dev, THANK YOU! <3

I had previously played it on Steam. When I found out it was an GOG - which imo is the superior platform - I had no qualms about buying it again here. Not only because I love this game to death, but also due to my good experience with the active developer behind this masterpiece of a game. Words would not be able to properly describe how good Sacred Fire is. It is a well done, well polished game made with love; which is severely lacking nowadays. And for the asking price, it is simply a steal. Buy it, i'd insist.