Yaga [Xbox]
An action-RPG developed by Breadcrumbs Interactive; Yaga tells the story of Ivan, the unluckiest man in the village. When the Baba Yaga - a ferocious supernatural being in the form of a hideous old woman that hails from Slavic folklore - curses the evil Tzar, informing him that an unlucky man will be there when he loses his throne, he does everything he can to find out who that man is, before testing Ivan to find a way to ultimately banish him from the village - giving him task after task to prove his worth, or be out.
You’ll be given key quests from the Tzar, but there are plenty of things you can do to help out the citizens of the village, too. These can often be done for free or for a price, but any choices you make will have an impact on Ivan’s character. The more you chat to people, the more Ivan’s personality grows, leaning in any of the four different directions. There’s Righteous, Greedy, Foolish and Aggressive, (as well as a neutral fifth option) and your responses to other characters and choices made will alter how much of each trait you have. Ivan’s luck (or lack thereof) is affected by certain dialogue decisions too (ones that go against his dominant personality trait), as well as the use of magic items and by weapons breaking.
As told at the beginning of the game, Ivan is missing an arm after an eventful meeting with Likho, an evil witch. So in its place, Ivan is able to install various weapons and tools to help him on his quest, such as a shield or a grappling hook. Being a blacksmith, Ivan has the ability to forge weapons and tools at home at his Anvil, as well as upgrade them using better materials and added Enhancements and Runes. The Anvil itself can also be upgraded, which definitely benefits you in the long run. Weapons can be damaged and will eventually break, requiring you to keep making more, or repair the ones you have. As you progress, you’ll gain further tools that can be utilised to access other areas of the map, as well as blocked-off chests.
At your village you can speak to other villagers to help them out, or you can visit merchants to buy useful things. You can purchase Talismans to change things up somewhat, such as a Chicken Leg to increase your movement speed, or a Black Cat Tail that can negate some damage by giving you bad luck instead. You can also visit Omida to purchase Blessings to give certain buffs, or have her remove Bad Luck (at a cost).
The art style is really well done, with interesting character designs that play on many aspects of the folklore. Enemies are well designed too, with a variety of creepy appearances, and these have different fighting styles, including some with shields that can be grappled away to make them vulnerable. The environment designs are gorgeous, with a very painterly aesthetic. The score is fantastic too, with some really unique and well-suited tracks playing as you travel the vast world, done by Romanian hiphop group Subcarpati. The story is told through lots of Ivan’s narration as well as dialogue between characters - I really like how most of this is done via rhyme, as this - along with plenty of humour in the words themselves - make for a darkly comedic tale. The voice acting is great, and really reminiscent of games like Fable, which always works well with some dry humour.
Sadly the combat is slightly lacklustre, consisting of a basic attack and a stronger one that can also be used to throw Ivan’s hammer like a boomerang. It’s not bad, but it definitely feels a bit basic and this combined with Ivan’s movement, which is frustratingly slow causing you to take frequent unnecessary hits when trying to get some distance between you and a bunch of enemies. Luckily, he has a decent dodge roll - which uses energy so you’ll have to let this replenish every so often - so this can help to give you a little boost when trying to get out of the way. The lack of a proper map is one of my main gripes with Yaga, as it is so easy to get lost in certain areas due to the similar appearance as you walk around. Using the minimap helps if you remember which way you came from and you’re just trying to backtrack - but if you’re looking to get anywhere specific it takes a bit of wandering in the general direction you think you need to go and simply hoping for the best. There is a fast travel system, done by hopping onto big stone ovens - yes, you read that right - so this helps to cut down the amount of time spent getting from place to place.
Priced at £20.99 on the Xbox Store, Yaga gives you around 8 hours of playtime, but with six different endings available to be unlocked there’s plenty to get you back in for another run. It does become a bit of a chore trying to get through all of the endings, so doing so is not for the faint of heart. It has an interesting premise and engaging story that will pull you right in, despite the somewhat repetitive gameplay, and overall we did enjoy the time we spent with Yaga.
In the end, we decided to give Yaga the Collecting Asylum rating of 7/10.
Have you played Yaga yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Versus Evil for the Yaga Xbox review code!
