Last week Zeboyd released Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 on Steam. Being a working guy, I waited until the end of the week to pick it up with the bundled copies of Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World. I don’t think that I could actually be more pleased with a title, especially at this price point. If you’re unfamiliar with the previous games in this franchise, they’re definitely worth a play through. This 3rd installment is a complete departure mechanically and visually, but the incredible writing and witty banter of the characters remains completely intact and is a shining example of why writing is vastly more important than flashy graphics in the RPG genre.
Firstly, let’s hit on the differences between this offering and the previous two. The biggest of these is the absence of the player created character. Your garden implement wielding protagonist will be sorely missed, but is replaced by a couple new entries that are equally well written and provide pointed commentary peppered with poignant comedy. Mechanically, the active battle system (of which I was never the biggest fan) has been replaced by a more evenly paced wait system. No more will you have to worry about timing your block button to an attack while trying to select an item or attack. Thirdly, the graphics have gone from a 3D world to that of a classic 16-bit RPG from the Super Nintendo days.
So what are the highlights of the new game? I’m glad I asked since it might seem really awkward if I was waiting for you to do so. We wouldn’t want this to get awkward would we? Anyway, the game… It hits on all of the tropes of the aforementioned RPG genre while remaining fresh and interesting through talented writing and humor as well as the elimination of the typical grind and resource management aspects. Characters heal to full after every battle and items simply have a known limited use per battle. Awesome, right? I know. Windowed battles, “dungeon” style graphics for indoor sequences, overworld maps, and pixelated graphics are all present and accounted for with appropriate throwback music and sounds effects. Not to give too much of a spoiler, but there is a brief 8-bit JRPG sequence that does an amazing job of poking fun at those old NES titles. The implementation of the job system is great fun allowing each character in the party to equip up to two extra jobs on top of their core job. Sounds complicated, but it’s pretty intuitive once you get started. Besides, not many other games let you turn your character into a dinosaur as a special ability. Character itemization is kept simple and unobtrusive to the core game play feel. No grinding of random battles is required as 1) there aren’t any and 2) the pacing is well timed and feels like it flows exactly as it should.
If you have $5 and several hours to spare, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 is well worth the time and investment. Even more so if you have fond memories of games in this long-neglected and dusty genre. Like killing malevolent gods that want to destroy the world? Why haven’t you bought this yet? Seriously. Here are some more screens.
Spurr of the Moment 