• Price: $9.99 USD (currently on sale for $1.99 until March 4th)
• Developer: Valiant Game Studio
• Publisher: RedDeerGames
• Release Date: February 11, 2022

I adore games that explore history with a twist, so I was intrigued by the concept of fantasy races living in the Jazz Age in the 1920’s. Appropriately, the game features an original soundtrack with jazz and swing music! Fantasy, history, and music together all tend to make me a happy gamer.

The game opens with a cartoonish silent film, and then the snazzy, jazzy soundtrack begins to play. You play as Brialynne, a lauded dwarven heroine, whose house is full of mementos from past heroics, as well as items belonging to her deceased wife, who passed away more than 300 years ago.

In your room, you can change your clothes, move around art pieces, clean things up, and more. It felt a little difficult to accurately target the items I wanted to examine. When I was able to select something, small text boxes popped up in front of the item I was looking at. Throughout my playthrough, I had a lot of trouble choosing the right person or item when I wanted to select them. It did get a bit irksome after a while.

You have a cat friend in your house who can talk. They can follow you around if you’d like, and you can also pet them if you ask nicely. There’s also an adorable hedgehog you can pet and have follow you! You also own chickens, and can feed them so you can gather their eggs! As you travel around, there are many options for animal companions.

As you enter the living room, you discover that your treasured axe has been stolen! 😱 You must ask your neighbors if they saw or heard anything. After gathering clues, you must analyze them to decide what happened using your journal. One of the loading screens indicates that you can see what all you’ve done so far on the “Done” page of your journal, and that some of your decisions will make it so that other tasks cannot be completed in that playthrough. You can’t reach 100% completion in one playthrough, which could be a pro or con depending on your preferences. Personally, I love replayability, so I’m excited to see where multiple playthroughs take me.

Traveling to the town of Duberdon by boat, I got the impression that Brialynne hasn’t left her island in quite some time – seemingly since her wife’s passing? She’s shocked to see goblins and orcs in town without opposition. You have to go through immigration, and I was impressed that the developers put so much dialogue with most of the people in line there. There’s a decent amount of background information provided there.

I ended up going around Duberdon and completing a lot of side quests to help people before even trying to find Brialynne’s missing axe; you have a to-do list in your journal but it unfortunately doesn’t always tell you in detail where you need to go, or who/what you need to find.

While some people may not love completing side quests, here they serve to help you immerse yourself in the world of Pendula. Brialynne hasn’t left her island in centuries, so she’s just as clueless as we are about the current state of things. You’ll encounter a lot of discussion about the racial issues going on in Duberdon.

Goblins are frequently seen as thieves, and orcs are also seen as lesser beings. Dwarves seem to be somewhat accepted, and elves are the most accepted out of the non-human races. Humans now dominate society in Pendula. Even some goblins, who have managed to climb higher on the social ladder, discriminate against their own race and do not permit them in stores. Orcs have separate schools where they can use their own curriculum, but they are not funded by the government – unlike the main university. Many orcs are seen protesting for a more inclusive and relevant curriculum in the state funded education system. Brialynne apparently killed a major figure in either goblin or orc history, and so there may be some tension if you give goblins and orcs her real name.

The developers put in a lot of effort to build a world, including a lot of history and culture – as well as different languages. Pamphlets and graffiti around Duberdon are written in the orc and goblin languages. I tried to find out if the written forms were based on real languages but online translation scans didn’t come up with anything. I’d love to know how they came up with their languages!

Mirroring the Prohibition era in the United States (1920’s through 1933), Duberdon has banned dwarven ale, but there are speakeasies that still sell it. Some speakeasies sell the dwarven ale more openly due to the owners bribing the police to look the other way.

When I went to the Police Station, none of the officers – including the chief – seemed terribly inclined to help me find Brialynne’s axe. A police presence could be seen in the harbor (where orcs and goblins work), the rundown Old Town (with mostly goblin residents), and in the industrial district (orcs and goblins again). Any time orcs or goblins protest their treatment – or there’s a situation in the areas they frequent, the police appear on the scene.

What was interesting to me was that despite the racial tensions in Duberdon, different genders seemed more accepted. I was informed that elves had three genders: male, female, and “omni,” where “they/them” pronouns were used. I definitely appreciate the inclusiveness regarding gender and orientations here. Other races seem to accept the elven genders, but if a dwarf attempted to express their gender differently, it wouldn’t go over well. Interracial marriage was also seen as more taboo.

As I explored these deep issues in Duberdon, I ended up befriending some of the people I met. There are also options to enter a relationship with someone. I thought it was a nice idea, but it felt a bit too shallow as a feature. You only get to ask them very brief questions about who they are, then you can go on a date or two. There wasn’t much progression or depth there.

Speaking of issues I had with the game, I did not like that we could not save unless we chose “save and quit.” I like to save a lot when I play a game in case there are technical problems. For example, there was a point where I completed a quest that involved me bringing a cat to someone in a department store. When I talked to the person again, the dialogue box was out of place, and my character kind of froze. I couldn’t open my bag, map, or journal, and could only open the start menu. I left the area but still could not open those three menu options. Only by closing the game and restarting was I able to fix the issue. Thankfully, it seems like there is some form of auto-save, because when I had to exit the game completely, I thankfully returned to where I’d been in the game. I didn’t lose my progress from several hours of play.

The game seems to have three different potential endings for you to choose. It felt a little abrupt for me. I had traveled around the city of Duberdon, learning about the current political and racial issues while also helping people as I tried to find the stolen axe. When I met with the person who triggered the ending, I was surprised to discover the culprit, and their explanation for their actions was interesting. I wish that we were able to explore what the person suggested we do, but it seemed like that was it.

Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? Overall, despite my irritation with the controls for interactions, I enjoyed Pendula Swing’s alternative fantasy version of the 1920’s. The amount of world building – with different holidays and cultural elements for each race – was incredibly impressive. However, we don’t get to see if anything changes in the education system, labor force, or voting system. I liked where the game seemed to be heading, but I don’t think they went as deep as they could have. The above map of Pendula shows how vast the world is, so perhaps there is a chance for additional games set in Pendula in the future. 7/10