• Price: $6.99 USD (currently on sale for $2.79 until November 6th)
• Developer: Retreaux Games
• Publisher: Something Classic
• Release Date: October 16, 2023

A review code was kindly provided by Something Classic on behalf of Retreaux Games. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

While games today often include convenient quality-of-life features and provide experiences with beautifully detailed 3D characters and environments, there are still times that I find myself returning to the older games in my collection. There’s something rather comforting about replaying the games from our childhood, and sometimes playing modern retro-style games can satisfy that urge. Right as the chiptune theme starts to play on the main menu of Pillars of Dust, I instantly felt that sense of nostalgia.

This 8-bit style RPG has two main characters with connected storylines, but you experience their stories separately at first. You get to choose which character you want to play as first, and you can play that character’s chapters back-to-back or alternate between both characters’ stories.

Carlton is a prince who longs for adventure and knowledge, while the orphaned Gregg wants to know about his mysterious past. A key theme of the game is exploration. At the beginning of each chapter, you’re given 3 goals to meet: collecting stat-increasing orbs, secrets, and “nuggets” (the game’s currency).

As you walk around each town and dungeon, investigate every nook and cranny to discover these hidden items. Check every pot and bookshelf, and be on the lookout for hidden paths! You earn rewards for completing each individual goal, but also for completing all 3. Another character (“Rick Cotta”) asks you to find cheese for him in exchange for rewards as well. So you’ve gotta get “gouda” at checking your surroundings. 😉🧀

Before leaving town, it’s best to prepare your character for battle. You only get one other character in your party, and you have to hire them from the guild. These characters don’t have any dialogue, but they’re helpful additions to the party. It’s fun to experiment with each character’s abilities.

Carlton and Gregg start out with their own abilities, but for them to use any other skills you have to buy/find equippable spells or single-use spell books. As for equipment, they made things simple by only having one equipment slot for Carlton and Gregg, and none for your guild member.

Once you’ve finished shopping and left town, you’ll see enemies on the map. They’re pretty aggressive about chasing you around! Battles are turn-based with an Active Time Battle system. A unit can only act when their timer fills up.

I wouldn’t say that the combat is overly difficult, but you do need to keep an eye on the skull icon on the bottom right; if it hits zero, the enemies become stronger. Then the skull count starts again, and if it reaches zero in the next phase they get even stronger. Thankfully, you can go all out with your abilities, as your HP and AP are fully restored at the end of each battle. Your characters don’t level up – so there’s no grinding involved – but it seems like stats randomly increase after some battles.

I really liked the character designs for the humans and the enemies; I can see the way they took inspiration from the classics in both the art and soundtrack. The puzzle and dungeon designs were clever enough, but not so difficult that players would need to look up a walkthrough. If you just search everything, you should be able to find most of the game’s secrets on your own.

The writing was somewhat “hit or miss” for me, although a lot of the puns and jokes landed. I enjoyed the many references to video games, movies, and literature. I was disappointed to see that a lot of the book titles were duplicates – even if they were right next to each other. When a big part of the game involves searching these bookshelves, it’s a shame that so many of them were the same. I also think that they may have relied on pots too much for hiding items instead of using additional hidden paths.

The story ended up being a little predictable, but overall I’d say that Pillars of Dust is a nice, relatively short RPG that evokes a sense of nostalgia for the games of the past. With a blend of retro and modern features, I appreciated the streamlined battle system and exploration in the game. It took me just under 11 hours to achieve 92% completion; perhaps I’ll give it another go to leave that record in the…dust. 😉