The Edge of Allegoria (Switch) Review

Gameplay

Graphics

Audio

Narrative

Summary: A dumb fun Retro RPG with smart mechanics and a sense of humour as salty as South Park.

3.9

Mildly interesting

The Edge of Allegoria is the kind of stupid I can’t help but chuckle at.

A foul-mouthed Game Boy-style RPG packed full of reference humour, crude jokes, and the occasional bit of on-the-nose social commentary for good measure, The Edge of Allegoria doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither should you.

It’s the gaming equivalent of early South Park or Family Guy on a good day. It has something to say, but it won’t get in the way of the protagonist exclaming F@#k a duck! Every time he gets ambushed by a troll, or an angry bunny, for that matter.

You play as an average Joe, called uh… Joe. Along with his faithful hound, Joe lives a simple life, happily fishing in the pond next to his house that he knows has no fish in it. (An apt metaphor for wasting your life if ever there was one.)

After being told he needs to stop wasting his time and make something of himself. Joe leaves on an adventure of self-discovery? aimless adventuring? Because he has nothing better to do? I’m not entirely sure. All I know is that he kills the Goblin King at the behest of the neighbouring village, the Goblins get their revenge (quite rightly) by burning his house down, and soon he is on his way, getting wrapped up in a larger plot to do with ancient evils and a septet of Goddesses.

Not that it matters all that much to Joe as he bumbles from town to town, assaulting the local wildlife, trading their entrails for cash, and then stumbling into the next escapade.

When it’s time for a bit of the old ultra violence, you engage in Pokémon-style battles where Joe is the one doing the fighting; goblins, centaurs, squirrels, Joe will beat anything up the side of the head that crosses his path, with anything that comes to hand, from his trusty fishing rod to the Necronomicon.

Joe can equip two pieces of gear at a time to defend himself with (one weapon and one piece of armour). As you take part in battles, Joe will eventually master his gear, which gives you passive buffs in the case of armour, while weapons give you permanent access to their particular skill (think Pokémon).

What’s great is that these different skills can be equipped and then strung together to form devastating combos, an early combo has Joe use () which doubles the chance your character will bleed (which makes attacks do double damage), then () which makes the enemy bleed (by cutting their ear off), then finishing them off with Hack that does additional damage to bleeding foes and knocks all the but the toughest foes flat on their arse.

The constant quest to add new skills to your repertoire new skills make any grinding you do more enjoyable, since you feel like you’re always working towards something useful other than just levelling up (which is also very helpful) and encourages you to raid every shop, and explore every nook and cranny for those rare trinkets and strange tomes that unlock more devastating skills and combos.

In another neat twist, whenever you die, you’re dragged back to the nearest town by your faithful pooch, and lose all the mastery of any gear you have equipped that hasn’t hit 100% yet. However, on your return, the boss will have dropped a couple of levels, which stops you needing to grind so much to get past a tricky boss. Though I would often do so anyway. Just to sway the odds further in my favour.

Though The Edge of Allegoria has never had an actual Game Boy port, Button Factory Games has constructed a game that feels like it plausibly could have been on Nintendo’s little handheld that could, with clever use of a limited pool of assets to build the world in a way that looks consistent but varied in a similar way to the likes of Pokemon Red/Blue and Links Awakening.

Likewise, the design of the enemies and battle animations is fantastically realised, and the menagerie of woodland creatures and mythological beasts each looks distinct and characterful, while their attack animations are often as risqué as they are devastating. There’s also marvelous use of colour to present the various status effects; bleeding turns everything red, Stiff turns it a stony grey, and being inflicted by madness is a psychedelic feast for the senses.

The cutscenes, which bookend The Edge of Alligoria’s boss fights and major plot moments, are also constructed with beautiful, but appropriate, pixel art reminiscent of some of the best on the Game Boy.

The chiptune soundtrack is also a cacophony of bombastic, catchy earworms with vibes similar to old-school Pokémon and Final Fantasy. It also alters the score in subtle and clever ways when Joe is suffering from different status ailments.

Final Thoughts

The Edge of Allegoria is certainly not for everyone. Its crude humour, penchant for cursing like a sailor, and love of memes from the early 2000s may leave some gamers clutching their pearls.

However, if you’re of a certain age, a certain disposition, and have a certain sense of humour. You’ll find an incredibly well-constructed retro-styled RPG with some fantastic fight mechanics and superb presentation that will keep you chuckling with the sheer stupidity of it all from start to finish.

About the Author

Gareth Newnham

The Edge of Allegoria (Switch) Review