Grade: A-
Light-hearted top down retro indie RPG.
Pillars of dust was a lovely retro top-down 2d RPG. It never, for one second, took itself too seriously. Even between all the jokes, it had a lovely perspective switch between missions. You alternated between playing as Prince Carlton, who was finding his way in the world, and a pauper Gregg who was trying to work their way to the top.
The graphics were completely retro and pixelated, but this was an essential part of the game’s charm.
Hidden nuggets of humor
This hidden gem found a perfect line between drama and jokes and puns. While exploring a dramatic backstory, the main currency in the game was chicken nuggets. Core to the game, chicken nuggets were hidden everywhere in this world. There were sweet nugget rewards for killing monsters. Or, if you were patient and checked every single barrel, statue, and tree, you got a glorious popup and more chicken nuggets added to your inventory. I was personally very motivated to collect all of the nuggets possible.
The surprise gags kept right up to the end. A strange monster appeared wearing a red sickle and a spider costume named Spider-Comrade while exploring a dungeon. It was quite the powerful villain.
Perfectly simple controls
It was nice having simple controls for a change, and there were only a couple of buttons to manage. After a while, though, the turn-based combat did get a bit repetitive. I would get trounced by monsters in the later parts of the game if I deviated even slightly from my best rotation of abilities.
A full campaign world
Even with a bunch of jokes and nonsense occurring in the background, there was a fully fleshed-out campaign world in “Pillars of Dust” that took shape in front of you. The playthrough took 10 hours total. During that time, I felt completely engrossed in by the world that the developers presented and the plight of Alluriga.
Overall, when Playing “Pillars of Dust,” I felt the stress melt away. An RPG game that does not take itself too seriously is a wonderful thing.
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