Review SEE

It seems like every month players get another unique RPG adventure. Whether it's a huge franchise like The Age of the Dragon or a brand new IP like Black Myth: Wukongplayers enjoyed a wide variety of experiences. This month, one of those adventures comes in the form of a hand-drawn role-playing game SEE. The first game from Lithuanian developers Karaclan, SEE promises to deliver a story full of magic that players can sink their teeth into. And while the game's art style may be a sight to behold, almost everything else about the experience falls flat.

SEE puts players in the shoes of a young hero named Cyrus who discovers he possesses powerful magical abilities. Because of this, he is soon drawn into a crazy story that sees him master his abilities, face all sorts of powerful enemies, and hopefully save the world. All of this leads to a game that has some exciting combat encounters and a couple of unique mechanics, but the actual story and writing feels mostly lackluster, which ultimately makes the experience rather forgettable.

The world of VED is wonderfully unique

Having said that, SEE it's not all bad. The story may be lackluster, but the game's aesthetics and combat can be quite thrilling. The entire experience is presented through a beautiful hand-drawn art style. Everything looks like a painting, with the characters moving and behaving like works of art in a museum. It's such a wonderful sight that players could get lost staring at it for hours on end.

If players get bored staring at one world, there are actually two completely different worlds with their own unique visuals. One is the dirty, gritty city of Micropolis, filled to the brim with gangs, warring factions, and evil-looking characters. The other appears whenever Cyrus teleports and is filled with fantastical creatures and magical floating islands. Both do a great job of captivating players, with SEEThe combat makes things even better.

VED combat can be a lot of fun

The combat here is amazing, which is a good thing, as players will be fighting a lot of things throughout their adventure. When they arrive in the mysterious world of the floating island, they must first equip themselves with powerful abilities, which can be unlocked by improving a friendly troglodyte village. Once satisfied with their equipment, they will have to set off to discover the many secrets of this land. To do this, they teleport between various islands, each with a new threat or scenario to participate in.

Some islands have friendly NPCs to encounter, while others have random events that require players to roll a D20. Depending on what they do, they often gain buffs or debuffs while racing through the magical land. So, if they are brave enough, they can face one of the many enemies that dot these islands. If they fail to defeat the threat, they return to the village and have to do it all over again. But fortunately, the islands they have already cleared remain free.

At the start of each combat encounter, players can select one of three buffs or debuffs to apply to the enemy. Depending on the upgrade, they will be rewarded with more energy, which acts as SEEthe currency. If they think it will be too much work, they can also skip them because they are completely optional. They will lose the bonus energy, but will still be rewarded the standard amount if they win.

The combat itself is turn-based, but with some twists. Players must select their attack, choose where they want to hit the creature, and hope the creature doesn't take them out first. However, instead of just having a series of attacks to choose from, the player's available moves are determined by Cyrus' position. The hot bar is divided into four parts, each representing a different point on the battlefield. Some attacks move the player, others keep them in place, and it's up to them to plan for the problem.

VED's story and writing leave a lot to be desired

In any story-driven RPG, the actual story needs to be exciting. Players don't want to see a bland or uninteresting story, they want the dialogue to feel natural and the narrative to make sense. With SEEKaraclan appears to be struggling to deliver on almost all of these fronts. So instead of wowing players with a fantastic adventure, it mostly fails.

The story follows a young boy named Cyrus, who has the power to teleport. When he teleports, he is taken to the magical world of the floating island. Out of this world, he must traverse the city of Micropolis and juggle its many factions trying to make their mark on his world. Because of this, every decision players make matters, with the end of each chapter telling them what they chose and the decisions they skipped.

This should make for an intriguing story, but nothing about it feels natural. The dialogue seems to flow strangely, and it doesn't sound like how anyone would speak. The characters speak in repetitive phrases, they end conversations abruptly, there are a lot of exposition dumps, and the script seems in desperate need of tweaking. Karaclan said the entire story was translated into English, and while that probably resulted in some awkward dialogue, the fact that the entire story is like that dampens the overall experience.

Along with that, SEE's voice acting is a bit rough. The dialogue probably doesn't help, but many times it feels like a script is being read rather than the words being spoken. This can really put a damper on immersion in the game and can often become a little irritating to listen to. Of course, not every game needs award-winning voice actors, but it would have been nice if these characters were a little stronger.

SEE it's far from a perfect game, but it has some redeeming qualities. The hand-drawn art style is gorgeous to look at, demonstrating just how strong this game can be. Additionally, combat is often exciting, because if players aren't careful, things can quickly fall apart. However, the story and dialogue significantly slow down the experience. And in the end, the result is a rather mediocre experience.

SEE is now available for PlayStation, PC, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. Game Rant was provided a PC code for this review.