A half-hour with FDG Entertainment's Slayin has convinced me that the action role-playing games I enjoyed as a much younger man were woefully inefficient.
Imagine all the things I might have accomplished if I hadn't spent hour after hour traveling expansive maps, poking things with my pixel sword in order to gain the power to poke more powerful things. The time wasted wading through dialog or checking for more powerful equipment at the local village store could have been applied to much more productive pursuits. Why, I might be a doctor right now — an official one, and not just a guy that printed up his own doctor business cards at Fedex Kinkos.
But no, that time is gone and I'm just writer boy standing in front of an audience girl (many of you are male, but collectively), suggesting she might have a good time playing Slayin, an entire action RPG on one half of a screen.
There's not much to say about the game that you won't see in this video.
You move left and right, pointing your sword in the direction of monsters. You jump to avoid them (or at least your starter character does) or hit high-flying enemies. Occasionally a shopkeeper appears, letting you pop in for a quick upgrade before wading back into the action. Regular boss fights happen.
When you die you are dead, left with nothing but fond memories of your former glory and accumulated currency, used for unlocking new characters, controller skins and tombstones to share with your friends.
Now I wouldn't trade a grand action RPG like Secret of Mana or The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for Slayin. It's not a replacement; it's a supplement, a means for gamers without the time to relive the classics to get the sensation of playing without the time investment. These days, with minutes at a premium, I really appreciate the condensed experience.
In closing, this right here.
Slayin
- Genre: Endless Action RPG
- Developer: FDG Entertainment
- Platform: iOS
- Price: $.99