Goblin Slayer Another Adventurer: Nightmare Feast (Switch)

Powah Dunk | November 25, 2024 | Review | No Comments

Goblin Slayer is a Light Novel/Manga/Anime franchise that dates back to 2016, while married in controversy it seems that the one genre of media it hasn’t gotten into was video games, that was until the confusingly named Goblin Slayer Another Adventurer: Nightmare Feast released on Steam in Japan with a promised English translation to follow, thanks to Red Art Games we are getting a look at the title and seeing if it was worth the wait and if it carries the same amount of controversy the franchise does.

Goblin Slayer Another Adventurer: Nightmare Feast is marketed as a Strategy RPG which drew me in, I love a good bit of tactics and roleplay gaming so this seemed like quite an easy win for me, sadly what seems to have been lost in the advertising campaign is that it’s actually more of a Visual Novel with a SRPG battle system thrown in for good measure.

Now i’ll be upfront, I know nothing about the Goblin Slayer franchise and it was only after taking this review on that I decided to delve into it and find that it has quite a hard hitting first episode along the lines of Berserk and is generally considered quite a dark tale, good stuff I thought as I hit the start button and took on the role of Guild Master, a plucky young girl who has just taken over an Adventurer’s Guild, hoping to become the premiere guild by any means necessary.

What followed that was around 30 to 40 minutes of static images and text as the story started to unravel in front of me as Guild Master hires the talents of a Vampire lady who seems to excel in providing the player with the required amounts of Fan Service to make you question what exactly it is you’re playing and yes this is a game based on a franchise where it has a r**e scene within the first 20 minutes involving Goblins.

The story does feature quirky characters like the aforementioned Vampire and a Priest Polar bear but I feel the presentation as a Visual Novel absolutely killed whatever interest I had in the narrative before the first battle, for what I understand this is a “gaiden” and not tied to the main story of the series and while the titular character does appear they don’t really impact the story of this game.

You would likely get ALOT more from the story if you were a fan of the franchise and this was likely my undoing, I’ll admit I really dislike the Visual Novel genre so that was a factor but the story just wasn’t presented in a way that I feel newcomers could really get into if they wanted to, it feels more like it’s a way to appease fans of the series and no-one else, something that seems to be a theme throughout this title.

As mentioned the other side of this Goblin Slayer coin is that the game has SRPG battles, think games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre and the like and you’ll have the best idea of what to expect, for better or worse though the game doesn’t really do anything any other game in the genre doesn’t already do, opting for the safe rather than sorry approach to the combat instead.

Goblin Slayer Another Adventurer: Nightmare Feast presents players with a traditional grid based SRPG combat system but with what seems like the largest maps in the genre that take absolutely forever to get through and two features that feel unique to the game but ultimately aren’t quite the game changers that are needed to make this game stand out as anything other than a tie-in title.

At the start of every mission you can play traps around the stage in hopes you can trick the many beasties and monsters of the franchise into running into them and causing damage or death to them in hopes of ending the battle quicker but there is also a system called Fate and Chance, these are powerful abilities that can turn the tide of battle in an instant such as nullifying damage or turning your team into powerhouses, if the dice allow it otherwise you use your chance if you roll low enough, it’s a novel idea and really comes in clutch on the higher difficulties as the game can be quite brutal when it wants.

While I didn’t hate the combat it did feel quite standard and almost prehistoric considering we have titles like Fire Emblem: Three Houses and the like nowadays that have done wonders for the SRPG genre making them feel much faster and still retain that deep tactical spirit, here Goblin Slayer Another Adventurer: Nightmare Feast manages to put together a perfectly serviceable combat system that doesn’t do anything to stand out but is far from an egregious mess, it’s just a little rough around the edges.

It’s hard for me to recommend Goblin Slayer Another Adventurer: Nightmare Feast to anyone other than either hardcore fans of the franchise or someone who has run the SRPG well dry on the Nintendo Switch, it’s a fine game but it doesn’t do anything than serve fans of the franchise which again is fine but if like me you aren’t familiar with it nor are you Visual Novel minded it’s quite a hard pill to swallow.

For those of you who are physical collectors on Nintendo Switch and judging by X and B.Sky you all are! Red Art Games has the following exclusive physicals on offer for you to add this to your collection.

Standard Edition: https://www.redartgames.com/games/754-goblin-slayer-another-adventurer-nightmare-feast-nintendo-switch.html