Neo Retro Preview- Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled (DS)

The DS certainly has no shortage in the RPG department, but the anticipation of waiting for some of the bigger DS titles has been killing me lately. I've really had to fight against my inner impulse buyer and keep in mind that I'm on a tight budget right now. However, while checking over Joystiq's DS release list for this week (Destructoid really needs to do something like that), something caught my eye.



I thought to myself "Black Sigil? What the heck is that?". It certainly sounded like an RPG, but I'd never heard of it. So! I decided to do some research.

It turns out that Black Sigil is indeed an RPG, but not just any RPG. It's a low-budget game created by first-time game makers Studio Archcraft. The underdog story of it's development reminds me of the ill-fated Game Boy Color RPG, Mythri. It was originally developed for the Game Boy Advance, but has now been moved over to the DS for obvious reasons. The story involves a main character who lacks the ability to use magic, unlike everyone else in his world. Because of this he is distrusted and ridiculed by just about everyone. Especially since the last person they knew who couldn't use magic became an evil, power-hungry war lord.



The game boasts vivid environments that create a realistic yet imaginative landscape with 40 to 50+ hours of game play and tons of side-quests. As well as the ability to strategically customize a 3 person party from up to 8 unique characters, and the addition of 100+ different physical and magical skills/combos, 100+ different weapons, and 200+ different pieces of armor. Quite an accomplishment for a small, first-time developer.

RPGamer.com certainly seemed impressed with it and stated that the entire style of the game, from the graphics to music, feels like a Super Nintendo RPG. After watching the an early trailer of Black Sigil, I'd have to agree. The graphics, while simple have an amazing amount of detail to them and the music sounds great. The battle system is apparently very reminiscent of Chrono Trigger as well, which is fine by me!



I've become very excited for this game and if it truly is being released tomorrow, it certainly hasn't been getting very much press attention. However, the game's website says that it's being released in April and other sites say that it's not coming out until next week, so who knows. Either way, Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled looks like it has the potential to be a great game and I thought that I would just try and get it some more attention. I've always been a sucker for small-time and indie game developers and I would hate to see a game that's obviously had so much time and energy poured into it simply flop due to lack of publicity.

Please take the time to watch the trailer below. I wouldn't ask you to go out and buy it without reading a review or two first, but I feel like this game at least deserves some consideration.