Sometimes, you just feel that a game clicks with you for several reasons: the playstyle, the look, sound design, … and “Yaga” was that type of game that sparked my interests immediately. Yaga is all about a weaponsmith named Ivan with only one hand and his trusted hammer. The one-handed blacksmith with bad-luck running through his veins must perform difficult tasks for the Tzar and all under the eyes of Baba Yaga, a mysterious witch.
Yaga is set in a world that’s formed by ancient Pagan beliefs and Slavic folklore. It’s a 2D half top-down hack-n-slash type of game where you take on ancient monsters from the Slavic folklore with a hammer and other tools that are forged by Ivan himself. This can go from a teleporting hammer to a grappling hook to get those enemies closeby. With all of the items you receive as rewards or find in the different areas, you’ll be able to forge a strong weapon that could help you against those ancient beasts. Not only are you able to equip tools and weapons with different purposes or stats, but you’ll also have the opportunity to equip talismans or other magical items that’ll help you along the way.
By progressing through the main quests, you’ll discover different areas. Different areas mean different monsters en secrets to uncover. Along the way, you’ll find other points of interest that may give you some additional quests. By accepting these quests, you’ll often get to decide whether you would help this quest giver of not and you can even decide to handle this quest “positively” or “negatively”. Whatever you decide, it will alter the course your heading. Each choice or action will influence the endings or even the missions outcome. Each map is also randomly generated which heightens the level of replayability as no map will be the same as before. There’s also a day and night cycle that alters the monsters that spawn. After the completion of the main quest on a certain map, the map will be open for you to explore. By exploring the area, you’ll find side quests and even mini-bosses.
Like I’ve mentioned before, Ivan has “bad luck” running through his veins. With each action he performs, the “Bad Luck”-meter will shift. The moment that the meter has been filled up, Bad Luck strikes and your equipped weapon breaks. Hopefully, you’ll have some spare crafted weapons in your inventory because otherwise, it’s just Ivan’s trusted companion, his hammer. His hammer does a decent amount of damage and cannot break, however, this damage without any bonuses might give you a disadvantage over your enemies. Keep an eye on this meter as best as you can and try to influence it in a positive way.
Breadcrumbs did a fantastic job by creating this new world in hand-drawn 2D artwork. This type of setting uses an interesting palette of colors which makes up for some beautiful looking environments. The sound design suits the game as well, as it sounds like an adventurous Hip-Hop kind of style. The game will launch fall 2019, so they do have some time to polish the game before release. From what I’ve seen, I think it’s a game that should be on any action-RPG lover’s radar.
