The Simple Balance First Impressions

Developed by Kai Niklas/deCode GmbH

Story

In the demo we play the game from the perspective of a character simply named “The Boy”. The story begins with The Boy working as a simple deckhand for a merchant ship. But it isn’t long before The Boy is wrapped up in the politics and realities of this dark fantasy world. In The Simple Balance the lands are overrun by supernatural forces known as “The Undead”, and the only force capable of holding them off is the shady government known as “The Order”. These forces all combine in pushing The Boy on a journey to become a hero. The story in The Simple Balance is an emotional one that made me care for and relate to the characters. Especially The Boy and The Captain. And while the demo only gave a bit of the story away I found myself excited for what’s coming next. Another interesting feature of the story is that there are player choices in the game that will affect the outcome of the story later on.

Gameplay

The Simple Balance is a grid based tactical rpg in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre. What I loved most about this demo was just how well thought out and expansive the gameplay was. One of the most important parts in any tactical rpg is the map, and The Simple Balance has great level design that plays a big role in the gameplay. For example, more damage is dealt when a unit has the high ground, and standing behind a tree or obstacle hides the line of sight, effectively lowering a unit's hit rate. I had a lot of fun using my surroundings and developing strategies in this game. I also really enjoyed the skill learning system. The game has a plethora of skills each unit can learn, ranging from attacking twice in one turn, to summoning dragons. Using skills in the game feels so fun and powerful. Before each match the player is able to equip different skills and weapons in order to perfectly tailor each unit for that specific battle situation. I had a lot of fun playing The Simple Balance.

Sound

To put it simply this game sounds amazing. It has the kind of music that you would purchase the soundtrack for. The opening cutscene for the game was so beautiful and the music definitely added to it. There were more songs than what I expected from a demo and they were all good. Especially the heart pumping battle music. It is apparent that a lot of hard work was put into the sound of this game.

Impressions

I had a lot of fun playing this game. I streamed my playthrough live on Twitch and it seemed that my audience was engaged as well. I attribute that to the engaging story, beautiful visuals, powerful skills, and good music. The demo was very fun to play and I recommend all fans of tactical RPGs to give it a try. There will be a link at the bottom of this post where you can find more information about The Simple Balance as well as download the demo.

gameplayhe Simple Balance | Twitter, Instagra