Word Realms
| Word Realms | |
|---|---|
 The Word Realms logo. | |
| Developer(s) | Asymmetric Publications |
| Publisher(s) | Asymmetric Publications |
| Designer(s) | Zack "Jick" Johnson Kevin Simmons |
| Platform(s) | Linux, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | 21 May 2013 |
| Genre(s) | role-playing game, puzzle game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Word Realms (abbreviated WR) is a single-player role-playing game designed by Asymmetric Publications, including lead designer Zack "Jick" Johnson and designer Kevin Simmons. The game was released in 2013.[1]
Gameplay
While WR contains many different sub-games, the main gameplay mechanism consists of battles between the player character and a computer-controlled non-player character (NPC). Unlike some RPGs—notably Kingdom of Loathing by the same publisher—the player character's HP and MP start at full with every new battle. Battles consist of the player and the NPC taking turns spelling a word, each using letters from their own set of letters. Both the player character and NPC can use active and passive skills in a battle to affect change the balance of power. The player character can also use consumable items, like scrolls and potions. A player winning a battle is often rewarded with gold and/or items, and sometimes may acquire character improvements in the form of new skills or stat increases.
The main plot (see below) also necessitates completing some mini-games found in the player's Dream Jar. Each mini-game has a different gameplay mechanism, sometimes similar to battles, and sometimes with some twists or restrictions that make it quite different. There is also a different sort of mini-game in the form of a mystery that can be solved in a series of conversations in the village pub. Solving said mystery results in a player being awarded a particular Achievement, one of many that can be obtained by performing various feats in the game, perhaps another game in itself.
After the main plot has been completed, the game is extended by opening up an area on the main map called The Ring, in which players can challenge increasingly difficult computer-generated opponents. When The Ring is unlocked for the first time, it becomes available for all current and future player characters, as well. A player defeating five Ring opponents in a row is awarded a special computer-generated item whose power is proportional to the difficulty of the opponents. By the end of the main plot the player's character may have sufficient abilities to win battles in The Fight Club, an area in the village pub with a series of unique opponents; however, this area is available from the beginning of the game.[2][3][4][5]
Plot
The storyline follows a character whose name, gender, general appearance, and player class the player determines at the beginning of the game. The main plot begins with the player character waking up in a bush, and centres around the nearby Village of Glavethile, in a region whose inhabitants are suffering terrible nightmares from the renewed activity of the previously subdued Lord Nightmare. The player character soon learns how to capture dreams, which allows the player character to wake two of the village inhabitants who were stuck in their nightmares, and to help a third to find, awaken, and rescue his daughter, who is among a few of the characters in the game who are being experimented upon by Lord Nightmare's allies. The player character eventually, after defeating the Who Witch and Ambassador Gorg in whichever order the player chooses, obtains the key to Lord Nightmare's Castle and is able to fight Lord Nightmare directly. Depending on the outcome of that fight, either the game will end with Lord Nightmare's defeat, or the player character wakes up in a bush outside a nightmare version of the Village of Glavethile. At that point the player character is stuck fighting nightmare versions of previously non-combatant characters before a second fight with Lord Nightmare in the village's clock tower, which ends the game with the clock tower exploding and the player character leaving town, and possibly committing suicide. The exact version of the final ending, as with many conversations in the game, partly depends on a player's kindness, which is affected by their various conversational selections throughout the game.