Featuring a field that may or may not belong to a king.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewmini/76602/verho-curse-of-faces-switch-review-mini
Verho - Curse of Faces is a first-person, action RPG heavily inspired by FromSoftware’s King’s Field series. Its tone is dark, its graphics crunchy, and its puzzles oftentimes vague. But there is something uniquely charming about this setting if you have the patience for it.
Set in a world where a curse causes anyone who sees the face of another person to instantly die, civilizations have adopted masks as a key part of their society. At the start of the game you’ll choose a mask that best represents you which will also assign your starting stats. Weapons require certain strength and dexterity skills, and magic requires intelligence. I went for a fairly balanced approach but you’re able to lean into whichever playstyle you prefer.
Verho feels very accurate to its inspiration, and this is both a strength and a weakness. The positives are that the world is incredibly enthralling to explore. Discovering new areas, stumbling into the item I needed to solve a puzzle elsewhere in the world, conquering a hidden optional boss, it all felt great. On the other hand, hit detection in combat can be frustratingly unclear and without a map or any sort of quest log, I regularly forgot what it was I was looking for.
For instance, I found a character who had been wounded and had asked me to bring him something. When I came back to keep playing the following day I couldn’t remember what he had asked me for so I went back to talk to him again, and his follow up dialogue didn’t reiterate the request. Without any sort of log I was left just bringing him anything I found in the hopes that it might be what he had asked for. This is a game that you’ll arguably want to keep your own personal quest log for. Once I realized that I enjoyed connecting the dots. But it does make the game somewhat clunky if you don’t have a notebook handy.
Once you click with what Verho is going for it can be pretty incredible. But it is very unapologetic in its dogmatic adherence to mid-90’s first-person-rpg mechanics. Even with a fair amount of nostalgia for the style that Verho is aiming for, it can be hard not to feel like some light modernization would help smooth over the rough edges. But if you’re willing to keep a notebook handy, are willing to grind through some occasionally awkward combat, and maybe draw your own map, Verho offers an experience that is otherwise largely lost to time.
