Robothorium

Genre: Turn-Based RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Indie Gems Bundle – JRPG Edition, along with Dungeon Rushers)

Robothorium is a Turn-Based RPG that has players controlling an Artificial Intelligence directing a robotic uprising against oppressive human masters. This game was released in 2018 on PC and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2019.

Robothorium makes use of simple 2D artwork for its robotic characters and their robot, human, and cyborg enemies, as well as the futuristic backgrounds of the various facilities you’re raiding. The characters are sparsely animated in the “paper doll” style, and there’s not much going on here to talk about. It works, but only just. This is paired with an electronica soundtrack that does a good job fitting the game’s themes.

Speaking of those themes, I will say that putting players in the role of directing a robotic uprising and giving them various ethical decisions to make in how they go about that uprising, each with an aligned faction, is one of the best parts of this game. It’s really inspired to have players consider the implications of whether they’re leading a Martin Luther King-style “peace and equality when possible” movement, or a Malcolm X-style “repay violence with violence” revolution… though I will say I don’t think the game takes this far enough – no matter which route you take when making story choices, you’ll still be fighting countless enemies regardless.

However, none of this, absolutely none of it, justifies the absolutely insane loading times this game has. I’m talking “pause for five seconds every time you press the menu button” sorta’ loading times. How did anyone think that was acceptable in this day in age? What’s more, how does this even happen in a game that uses extremely unimpressive 2D graphics? For that matter, just what is in this game that justifies its 1.5GB file size? Whatever’s going on here, there has definitely been a serious lack of optimization.

Beyond this, the game does a poor job providing information to the player. Even comparing two weapons to see their different stats is a pain. You have to manually press a button to directly compare them, and even then, you’re only given icons of the affected stats, not a listing of just what those stats are.

This sloppy design extends to the game’s use of optional touchscreen controls, which this game does have and I commend it for doing so… but there’s no way to highlight an ability to see what it does without activating it, save for turning back to the traditional gamepad controls. In which case… why not just stick with the gamepad controls in the first place.

Because of these sorts of problems, Robothorium’s excellent topic matter and delicious ethical quandaries are lost under a tedious, frustrating, clunky, poorly-designed game. Between all the waiting for loading and the fruitless searching for pertinent information, I found myself quickly exasperated by this game, and I can only recommend it to players who have an extreme fondness for the topic matter and an extremely high level of patience.

tl;dr – Robothorium is a Turn-Based RPG where players direct a robotic uprising, and while this game’s topic matter and ethical dilemmas are ripe with potential, that potential is spoiled by horribly excessive loading screens, terrible interface issues, and poorly-conveyed information vital to effectively playing an RPG. This game is far too frustrating to be enjoyable.

Grade: D+

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