You have just recently passed away and are now a ghost in the Afterlife World.  But you have unfinished business in the real world so you want to go back.  You hear about a portal to the world of the living, but it’s guarded by the evil ruler of the Afterlife: Dr. Krull.  You must collect eight keys to open the portal in this mix of RPG exploration and…twin stick shooting?  This retro-styled black and white adventure game is available on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

Play control is super simple.  Just move with the control stick and talk to others with the A button.  Through most of the game you’ll talk to wacky characters in towns, sometimes doing fetch quests or scouring the land for hidden letters in each area.  Every so often, you’ll enter a building and must defeat enemies in maze-like areas.  To do this, you’ll aim and shoot with the right stick while avoiding shots from the enemy.  You can also dash to get out of the way quickly.  You can pull up a cell phone menu to view a map and even take selfies if you so wish.

The text is lively and full of fourth wall breaking humor.  But for some reason, and I’m not sure exactly why, but I lost interest after a while.  Maybe it was the repetitive gameplay.  Maybe it was because you do 90 percent talking and only 10 percent shooting in the game.  It’s still an all right game, it just felt like it dragged on to me.  But because of the retro graphics and fun dialogue, fans of games like Undertale may like this one.

Kid Factor:

Restless Soul is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Alcohol and Tobacco Reference and Fantasy Violence.  You do visit a bar, and defeated characters just turn dark and sink into the ground.  I’d be OK with any kid playing this, but good reading skill is a must with all the text.

Tags: Game Reviews