Rocwood Academy
released on Dec 13, 2019
Rocwood Academy is a text-base choice-matters adventure game set in the wizard world hidden inside US society early 1900s. In the role of a first-year student, player is going to make friends, study wizardry and uncover the mystery beneath the school-back garden.
Reviews View More
Fun! I had pretty low expectations for this, and was pleasantly surprised. It's a bit of a mix between a classic visual novel and the Reigns formula of tile-based decisions.
Very simple on the face of it. But the story is neat enough and intriguing. It does what any wizard school story should: take the familiar tropes from more popular media, digest it, and give you something in the same vein but with unique twists here and there.
You can definitely tell this was made on a budget. But despite that limitation, it worked out well. There's even limited voice-acting, and although it's a bit flat, it was still a welcome surprise. The art is nice, the character designs are great, and most importantly, the story is fun and engaging.
There are a few branching paths as well, with little bits of story-segments locked behind them (I did not personally explore them). The game additionally features a battling mini-game. Throughout the game, depending on what classes you attend and the interactions you have, you can earn spells and items, which you use in these battles. The battles don't affect the main plot in any way, and it's just a cute little card game; a bit inconsequential but a simple, nice diversion from all the reading.
The climax of the story is brooding and sets up a future game, which is probably the only downside to this game. Although the narrative of this particular game does feel complete - ending after your first year of school - and the climax does feel complete and like a full package, if you wanted a bigger story that sees you going on to graduation or expanding on the lore, you're not going to get it here unless the developers decide to make a sequel. Which, unfortunately, seems unlikely at the time of writing.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a shot! This was a good 2 hours of neat worldbuilding and fun reading. Given that there are so few magic-school stories, especially in games, if you really like that genre, this is definitely up your alley. If you're looking for something a bit more dense though, perhaps it's not for you.
Very simple on the face of it. But the story is neat enough and intriguing. It does what any wizard school story should: take the familiar tropes from more popular media, digest it, and give you something in the same vein but with unique twists here and there.
You can definitely tell this was made on a budget. But despite that limitation, it worked out well. There's even limited voice-acting, and although it's a bit flat, it was still a welcome surprise. The art is nice, the character designs are great, and most importantly, the story is fun and engaging.
There are a few branching paths as well, with little bits of story-segments locked behind them (I did not personally explore them). The game additionally features a battling mini-game. Throughout the game, depending on what classes you attend and the interactions you have, you can earn spells and items, which you use in these battles. The battles don't affect the main plot in any way, and it's just a cute little card game; a bit inconsequential but a simple, nice diversion from all the reading.
The climax of the story is brooding and sets up a future game, which is probably the only downside to this game. Although the narrative of this particular game does feel complete - ending after your first year of school - and the climax does feel complete and like a full package, if you wanted a bigger story that sees you going on to graduation or expanding on the lore, you're not going to get it here unless the developers decide to make a sequel. Which, unfortunately, seems unlikely at the time of writing.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a shot! This was a good 2 hours of neat worldbuilding and fun reading. Given that there are so few magic-school stories, especially in games, if you really like that genre, this is definitely up your alley. If you're looking for something a bit more dense though, perhaps it's not for you.