If you asked me to describe Drova – Forsaken Kin with one word it would be “deep”, since it aptly describes many elements of the game. As the maiden title from Just2D, a six person indie studio out of Germany, it is astonishing how much there is to do and see in its beautiful, Celtic inspired world. After an engrossing 30 plus hour playthrough, with a story shaped by my choices and finishing with one of multiple endings, I am left to wonder what other stories are yet to be told, secrets to be found, and consequences to be faced. I think it is safe to say that Drova – Forsaken Kin has a great deal to offer, and nearly all of it is absolutely brilliant!
Drova – Forsaken Kin is a 2D isometric perspective reminiscent of titles like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale with a mixed pixel art aesthetic. With the appearance of a classic, lost to time cRPG, the dev team have not made it a secret where they drew inspiration, citing games like Skyrim and the Gothic series as influences. But Drova isn’t just some patchwork facsimile; certain game design choices have been made to give Drova – Forsaken Kin its own identity. Those decisions have shaped the world, narrative, and gameplay of Drova to culminate in a fantastic and absorbing experience.
I want to mention this upfront and then get on with the real meat of this review. During my playthrough I experienced several bugs of varying severity. From things as small as misplaced hit detection points making invisible walls in caves or incorrect tileset, to in-game cutscenes getting stuck and needing a full game restart. Thankfully I was able to finish a full playthrough for this review, and I sent a report of these bugs to the developers. They responded quickly saying that all of these were on a list of fixes in a patch that has since been added, which gives me confidence that the team at Just2D will continue to support their game and improve the player experience. Now, on with the review!
Getting Started
The game starts with a simple character creator followed by a brief cutscene setting up the premise. While living a life of toil and hardship, scouts from your village bring back a glowing red gemstone. You overhear the druids whispering about legends catching a few words, among them the name of the Otherworld, Drova.
Once in control of my character, I followed a pair of druids from my village who had taken the gem into the woods at night. This works as a natural tutorial explaining movement, basic combat and the investigation system that is used to track footprints and discover objects and clues.
After traversing the mists of the forest I find the druids, one dead and the other surrounded by spirits that attacked them. Grabbing the red gem and weapons the druid and I press on, fighting back ghosts in order to reach the cross roads and use the gemstone to call upon something called a Divinity; our only chance to escape the mists and reach Drova. Once the ritual is underway a smoky apparition of a giant boar appears, and the druid and I collapse. I come to in a different looking crossroads with a trail of blood leading to the dying druid. I guess we made it to Drova because they hand me the red gem and tell me to take it to Nemeton, a settlement in the Otherworld. Transported to a mythical land and trying to make sense of everything I had just seen and heard, this is where my epic journey through the lands of Drova began.
Decisions, Decisions
One of the key elements of Drova – Forsaken Kin is how your choices shape and change the world and stories around you, creating a unique narrative that ends in one of several endings. I’ll avoid talking about spoilers from my playthrough, but it is interesting and exciting to know that the course of events that I experienced is likely to be very different from someone else’s. Each decision made had consequences and I did not always know how would play out, each time I made such a choice my curiosity to see the other path grew stronger.
For example, early on you learn of another faction that has splintered from Nemeton, known as the Remnants, and your first major decision is to team up with one of these two groups. In a state of tenuous peace, I spent time with both factions learning who they were and what each group stood for. I eventually chose to join Nemeton as I was originally instructed, and immediately began to wonder what my journey would have been like if I had sided with the Remnants.
This could only be achieved with succinct yet entertaining writing across a lot of different, often intersecting and branching questlines, as well as dozens of NPCs whose relationships with you will change over the course of your playthrough. I had a growing investment in the game, not just because of the literal time I had spent playing it, but because I felt like everything I did mattered. I never thought that over the course of my playthrough I would take time to reflect on what had just happened, even catching myself in a classic “are we the bad guys?” moment.
As a final strange testament to the strength of the writing, I was not happy with the ending I got. It was handled very well and a solid conclusion to my story, but I was disappointed because I felt it was a “bad” ending. Now my goal is to start a second playthrough and find the path to my “good” ending, and enjoy a different journey along the way.
World Building
The world of Drova is diverse and beautiful, with detailed pixel art creating rich environments from foggy marshes and dense woodland, to overgrown ruins and shadowy caverns. With a general “low fantasy” feel, there are pockets of mysticism and creativity that caught me off-guard in the best way. The team at Just2D does a great deal with a lot less than most other CRPGs of this style, using creative map and level design to maximise every inch of the world. I can’t count the number of times I was travelling back through an area and I stumbled across a hidden cave entrance or obscured path.
There is a discreet and complimentary soundtrack of Celtic inspired music that plays throughout, with different area and battle themes. None of the pieces really stuck with me, but were a great accompaniment to my heroic adventure. Beast growls, cries of pain, whooshes of flame, and the clang of metal ring out during battle, with the sound of your own footsteps, bird song and other noises of nature fill out the game’s soundscape.
It’s a Big, Wild, World
Exploration is a big part of Drova – Forsaken Kin, with gameplay reinforcing a more realistic approach that is both tough but rewarding. There are no on screen markers or compass to lead you, no hovering icons above NPCs heads, and no golden trail to follow. You have a journal that tracks your quests and holds any documents you find, and you can buy or find maps of certain areas, including a world map. I made it a priority to grab these to help navigate and familiarise myself with the world, and picked up some ink to place custom markers for points of interest, or areas to avoid.
From the moment you arrive in Drova your main goals for survival and progress are to find or trade for better gear and items, gather resources for various types of crafting, and defeat enemies and complete quests to to earn experience to level up.
Reach and Flexibility
There are no classes in Drova – Forsaken Kin, and you are free to build your character how you like through your skill trees. In another design choice that reinforces the more realistic nature the dev team wanted to create, when you level up you earn a number of Learning Points or LP. You then use LP with certain NPCs who can increase your strength, dexterity or mind to improve your physical damage, critical hit rate and magic damage respectively. Some of these NPCs will also be able to teach you weapon specific boosts and abilities in your skill trees, as well as skills including animal skinning, potion making, blacksmithing and prospecting among others.
Weapons, armour and trinkets can be found or traded for with coin or other items based on their value, as well as resources and recipes to use for crafting. Food can be cooked for passive healing and buffs, and certain salves and potions can be made for healing and more powerful buffs. After all, the lands of Drova are not all safe and not everyone will be friendly, or remain so.
Combat is slower and more purposeful, each action needing to play out before the next. Combos can be built with timed hits, whilst heavy attacks and dodges use up your stamina that recharges after a brief period. Timing and awareness of your surroundings is paramount, and running away from a difficult encounter is sometimes the right choice. There are a good amount of accessibility options to help with combat as well as other aspects of the game, even a “story mode” for easier combat. I appreciated having a little arrow at the feet of my character that showed which way I was attacking, and hit detection is on point.
From the beginning you have access to all weapon types, from swords and axes to bows and daggers, and I quickly settled on the sword and shield with a big two-handed axe as my secondary. Focus is the resource that you generate from attacking enemies (and lose when taking damage) and then use for your abilities and magic.
As much as it makes sense how magic is handled in Drova – Forsaken Kin, I felt it wasn’t viable until a good 15 or so hours into my playthrough. Until reaching a certain point magic can only be used if you have a scroll of the spell you want equipped to your ability wheel, which will be used up when the spell is cast. Spell scrolls are rare to find and costly to buy, especially when I was saving up for better weapons and armour, gradual but permanent improvements. With no real stealth mechanic or combat options, it felt a little constricting as far as my options were concerned. Later, it was great fun to mix spells into my combat style, but only after several barriers had fallen away.
The dev team did not want level-scaling, meaning that a foe that might be too tough for you now would be more manageable later after leveling up and improving your gear. Enemies also stay dead and do not respawn, even decaying as the story progresses. These particular choices and subtle details help to reinforce the realism at the heart of the Drova – Forsaken Kin.
Along with other humans who wield the same weapons, armour, abilities and magic as you, there is aggressive wildlife, wandering fae spirits, and mythical monsters populating the lands. Large stones daubed with red runes stand on the side of safe routes to remind players that beyond the path lies danger. Drova – Forsaken Kin has solid enemy variety, with new ones added as you advance the story, but I think there was lack of a “wow factor” when it comes to the boss encounters. I had about five real big fights during my playthrough and only two of the boss designs were memorable to me. Most of these fights were on my own, but when I did get the chance to fight with allies it felt amazing and certainly improved what were often drawn out fights of attrition.
Final Thoughts
Drova – Forsaken Kin is a fully realised, living world where you shape who you are as well as the world around you, a story that you can write again and again based on your decisions. The few flaws and bugs the game has are far outweighed by the cohesive nature of the game’s world and it’s mechanics. If you are a fan of cRPGs and similar games you must pick up Drova – Forsaken Kin.
Drova – Forsaken Kin was reviewed on PlayStation 5. Gamer Social Club was given a code for the purpose of this review. Drova – Forsaken Kin releases on Tuesday 15th October for the PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4 & 5.
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