Aveyond 4 is the latest game by RPG Maker veterans, Amaranth Games. It’s also the latest entry in their Aveyond series, which is probably the series they’re best known for. In Aveyond 4 you play as Boyle, a retired villain who has found himself in a cursed marriage contract with a witch, and lives with other retired villains on an island far away from the rest of the Aveyond world. I you thought that fantasy rpgs can’t be unique anymore, Aveyond 4 is about to prove you wrong!
Gold is always encouraged, even Boyle agrees.
One of the biggest improvements you’ll notice about Aveyond 4 is just how sleek it looks compared to both previous games in the series and most other rm games. The presentation in the game is top-notch with colourful tiles, excellent mapping and well put together menus/ui elements. There’s also nice detailed character portraits and busts which do a great job of showing emotion.
I would argue though, that the biggest strength of this game is it’s sense of humour. It’s a great treat to find an RM Game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and actually manages to be funny about it too. Often you’ll find games of this type force their humour too much and I think the person who wrote the dialogue did an excellent job here. This also blends in well with the kooky setting, early on in the game you’ll be asked by your wife to be if you’ll get mirwood from trees in the nearby forest. Some of these trees will fight you, some will need to be tricked and another will need a favour in exchange for the Mirwood. It’s simple things like this that make what should be a simple fetch quest, turn into something much more meaningful.
Sometimes you have to use force on those meddlesome trees!
The best way to sum up Aveyond 4 is to say that it’s very charming; it does have a good battle system, solid music/sound design (I might be slightly biased there since some of my tracks are in there too ;)) and great graphics, but the charm of the game is what I’d say is it’s strongest feature. I can confidently say that if you enjoy fantasy rpgs and have a good sense of humour, you’ll enjoy this one.
Aveyond 4 is available on steam here!