Everyone knows that every good story begins with “Once upon a Spacetime.” Well, maybe not, but that is how any good Space story should begin and games should be no exception, especially one that combines RPG aspects with medieval folklore and fantasy, which is exactly what the developers over at Spiritus Games aim to do with Fabular: Once Upon A Spacetime.
You are the King’s youngest son and the Realm’s last hope after the dreaded League of Black Knights steals the sun and imprisons it, leaving the world cloaked only in darkness and despair.
Choosing a spaceship is your first priority before beginning your journey to save the world. You have three to choose from at the beginning of the game and you will find the types akin to those you would find in most traditional RPGs. You have the warrior, or the Knight class, which is your “tank” and focuses on mass power with heavy armor and melee weapons. You also have your thief or the Assassin class which is driven by speed, with fast attacks and quick cool downs. Lastly, there is the Alchemist class, which is essentially like a techno-mage tactician. However; additional classes could potentially be unlocked with more time spent within the game.
The Starmap will be your key to exploration. You will travel from node to node (Each with a different biome associated with it), encountering text-based special events and encounters at each turn. Be mindful of your decisions as resources and friends are crucial to your long-term survival. It also consumes fuel to travel along the Starmap so strategic navigation and planning to defeat the Black Knight of each Realm is critical.
Battles are still the heart and soul of most games, even RPSs and the same can be said of Fabular. The battles are top-down and you use whatever skills and equipment you have to try to take down the enemies. The developers tried to make enough of a variety as far as builds go so that everyone can enjoy the game, no matter their style of play.
Through battles, you will gain loot, usually in the form of items, resources or currency, which you can then use to barter for other resources and to upgrade your ship as active skills can only take you so far without any equipment to back yourself up. I think my favorite part about the loot is that you can gain Fabular objects, which are largely based on folktales and fairy tales and do have countless effects dependent upon the object itself.
The developers plan to pack so much into this game; map hazards that are based on the environment of the game, countless enemies. It seems that literally every decision you make will have an outcome directly stemmed from that decision. If you want a game that forces you to use your brain, then Fabular might just be the game for you.