Genre: Action platformer
Developer: Independent
Publisher: Independent

Anyone familiar with the MSX classic "Maze of Galious" will immediately recognize the "Lode Runner"-like platform-and-ladder setup. The overarching structure of the world, however, is more like "Symphony of the Night", with different themed areas that can only be reached in certain orders. Well-animated baddies chase the player with varying degrees of vigor across the unfortunately basic looking stages, which almost look as though they were pre-rendered in a 1990s-era DOS art package! It's a distinctive look for sure, and humorous character portraits brighten up a user interface that is decidedly CRPG in appearance, replete with grid-based inventories and hot item bars.

The voice acting in Unepic is fabulous; from "Daniel", the protagonist, to the evil, forced companion "Zera", to the positively hilarious Yoda-parody "Yogurt", the vocal work and editing rivals the immortal "Star Control 2", albeit the writing in this instance isn't as strong as the aforementioned classic. Just make sure to select the game's censored mode-- the uncensored version's constant cussing simply does not make the Atlantic voyage from Barcelona intact. As for music, what's there is fairly memorable, even if it doesn't stray far from the safety of Western fantasy lore. Daniel's footsteps also provide the player with a constant companion, and interestingly start to become the game's signature trait after a time!

Unepic's overall structure borrows greatly from other "Metroidvanias", although in this case the initial castle portion of the game drags on for too long. The sewer section's introduction is a grateful change of pace, and the game's combat begins to flesh out around that time too, introducing new types of magic, which compliment a variety of weapon types, and even a targeting system! The bosses aren't all that interesting to combat despite their large scale, and the game's various side quests feel tacked on and unnecessary, although they do appear only infrequently.

Take "Symphony of the Night", turn it into a Western CRPG, and you've got Unepic; the idiosyncratic Japanese-style, anime-inspired art and rich, melodic soundtrack is replaced with the typical grays and browns of Western games, while the music heads for the predictable Tolkein-esque fantasy route. But on the flip side of that equation, CRPGs have always been much more rich in terms of weapons and mechanics than their counterparts from the land of the rising sun, and Unepic is no slouch in that department. All in all, Unepic is not a classic-- but its quirky sense of humor and "Wonder Boy in Baldur's Gate World" mishmash lends it a quality that one simply can't find in any other game!