Goken Review – A good old action-packed RPG

Seeking to bring back everything that was right about RPG gaming in an action-packed open world, Goken is now available on Steam. Thanks to GIANTY Inc., we are lucky to be able to try out the game so here is our Goken review.

Introduction

The game tells the story about Edge (name changeable), a swordsman who wields the 5 swords forged by God himself. Edge brought peace and order to the world, but one day, his blade turn against the Gods for reasons unknown. As the result, he was sealed away by Ozone (one of the Gods) at the top of a mountain – Swords Peak.

After 5,000 years, he was released by a young girl from the nearby mountain village – Cardina. Together with the help of the young girl and the others, he embarks on his journey to recover the swords.

Gameplay

Its combat is pretty simple, it only uses 2 primary attack buttons where you can assign different weapons to it for different combo. However, you will have only 1 weapon at the beginning hours so you may want to progress the story faster for another weapon. You can perform 3 hit attacks (using stamina) with a chance of a special attack on the third hit.

As you progress, you will face different monsters, bosses and situation that requires a different way to approach. When you got your main and secondary weapon in hand, you will be to swap them freely during the battle to match your strategy.

Every weapon is upgradeable, but collecting the materials required is not an easy task (we will talk about this later). You can also use up a portion of your stamina to dash (or dodge) to avoid attacks or use it more wisely – to travel faster on the huge map.

Since it is an RPG, of course you can upgrade your character. As you level up, you will obtain “Ink” where you can use them to get tattoos. According to how you make your tattoos, it will have a unique design and different bonus on character stats (you won’t be able to see it on your character tho). There is some special “Ink” with a bigger bonus too, and they are only obtainable through exploring or purchase.

Graphics and Audio

The art style is stunning with Japanese anime style of backdrop and good looking 3D models. Every area is detailed and having their distinct look. There are weather changes too, which is awesome as you could experience the different scenes such as snowy mountains and rainy lush woods.

For the audio, each area and each boss fight is having their unique soundtrack and it impressed me. However the sound effects are quite of uncoordinated, some of them seem to be having a much larger volume compared to the others (especially when you go near the waterfront).

Pros

Graphics are good, its soundtrack is extraordinarily great. Aside from the main story, you can explore the open world all you want and even continue to travel around after the main story ends.

Its combat is simple yet challenging, as there are different monsters and bosses that have their unique way to attack, you will need to find different ways to encounter them. Not to mention the creative Tattoo system where you can customize it with your style.

Cons

The material drop rate in Goken is undoubtedly one of its downsides. You will need to grind an area for a long period in order to collect all the materials required (to upgrade weapons). But for the bright side, you will level up and eventually become over-powered. Materials are purchasable from the stores too, however it is expensive and limited.

Also, you will need to travel around a lot in Goken but the character movement is a bit slow. This makes me feel the urge to dash my way to the destination and thus, I am always having low stamina for fights. I get lost quite frequently in the huge map too as there is no clear instruction on where to go next.

Aside from the minor balancing issue, Goken is actually worth to spend your time even just on exploring and experience the beautiful sceneries. It is a game where I think every ARPG fans would be enjoying it. Goken is now available on Steam for RM31 (or $19.99).

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