Secrets of Grindea (2024)

With the final release of version 1.0 after nearly a decade, I finally decided to pick this game up and give it a go. For the review it might be worth noting I only played single player story mode, and did not grind for the "true ending."

This game is really charming, and if you don't care to grind all the secrets then the entire story can be beaten in under 20 hours. The gameplay is not really breaking any barriers here. It is heavily inspired by other top down action rrpgs like Crosscode and obviously Zelda. But I do really enjoy the combat regardless. You can spec into any ability in the game since there are no classes, and this really opens up a ton of interesting build options and I'm sure would add a lot for replayability. It's also just smooth and feels great to play.

The story is again nothing out of this world. It is mostly filled with many rpg tropes. But that is not to say it's bad at all. I actually also really enjoyed the story and the characters, even if sometimes the characters were extremely obvious stereotypes/parodies of character types. But yeah, it's a fairly straight forward collect the artifacts to save the world story and despite that it did enough to keep me invested the entire time.

Going off the name of the game, you would probably assume there is quite a lot of grinding in this game. And while, yes, that is at the core of the game and even the in game world is kind of built around the concept, it is not at all a requirement to beat the story. For example, probably the main grinding component of the game is in the form of collecting "cards" for every monster type in the game which all give unique permanent passive buffs to your character. Every time you kill any mob in the game they have a small chance of dropping this card, but can sometimes take several hundred kills to get it. There are 35 total in the game, so it could probably double your playtime at least to grind these. But they are not so rare that it is ridiculous either. I got 6 in my playthrough without ever specifically going out of my way to get them. There are also ways to increase your odds through things like potions, and there is supposedly a pity system where I think every 100 kills the chance for that mob type doubles. There are also other secret items to collect through puzzles, crafting, etc.

Overall, it is a very fun little classic style RPG that openly wears its influences on its sleeve (no really, there are literally NPCs that are just characters from other games that inspired them.) They didn't reinvent the wheel, but does every game really need to try to? The story is a nice length that doesn't ask too much of you while still taking you on an enjoyable adventure. The combat is well polished and can offer some unique variety. There is even an arcade mode I have yet to try that is essentially a roguelike version of the game that can offer an entirely new experience of a fresh character every run with different challenges to face. Oh yeah, and there is co-op in this game if that floats your boat.

Very good little indie game. Well worth the $13 it is right now to give it a shot. 7/10.