Saturday Casual Gaming 220: Firestone Idle RPG

It's a beautiful day outside, though it poured all night long. I had a very poor night's sleep, so forgive me if I'm completely incomprehensible, please. That being said, allow me to introduce the newest offering from Holyday Studios: Firestone: Idle RPG.

Holyday Studios has a few different games I've played (and enjoyed!) in the past, so when I saw that they had a new RPG out, I had to try it. Bear in mind that I found this via Kongregate, and since it was only published on May 10th, I don't know how many other places you'd be able to find this game when you're reading this!

Firestone is in its Beta stage, and as far as that goes, I'd say it's a fairly polished game. Like Holyday City Reloaded before it, Firestone is an idle game, but this time, instead of building up resources to gain money, you're building up character levels and going on quests and getting money and killing monster and fighting bosses and...

You get the picture.

This is a fairly standard fantasy story: bad things are happening, but you're an attractive white dude, so you're going to fix it. You have a fairy companion, and as you beat different area bosses, you end up with various warriors to fight alongside you. I currently have a magenta-armored murder-maiden named Talia, my fairy friend, and Burt the braid-bearded ranger. I'm moving along in levels and such, but it's a pretty in-depth game, and I have a sleepy-dumb, so I am not going to be able to accurately describe what exactly this game involves, as far as mechanics.

Thankfully, the game is pretty decent at walking you through things to do, and the goddess of war is your guide for a bit at the start. I'm still not 100% sure where everything is, or what each button does, but for the most part, I'm managing alright.

Your main character (Attractive White Protagonist) gains ranks when you beat daily challenges (and maybe also when you do map-based quests?), which gets you various perks. Your warriors can be placed in various formations and leveled up and equipped. Your Guardian (the fairy) can be leveled up to give you more firepower per click against enemies.

This is a pretty standard battle screen in the early game.

How do you fight foes? Well, until you pick up Talia, you click. A lot. Your fairy shoots magic (the pale streak on the image) at your foes to damage them. When they die, you get coins! You save up your money and spend it on upgrades, which make it easier to kill your foes. Honestly, I've had some real fun figuring out ways to quickly dispatch enemies, leveling up Talia & Burt & my fairy, and clicking around to figure out what to do when.

This is a pretty game, guys. Look at those colors! Yes, so far it's been fairly generic fantasy setting, but that's kind of what I'm looking for in an idle game. If it's too distracting in the background, I can get lost and not know what I'm doing. Simplicity is really key here.

I'm pretty pleased that the music is largely horn-and-string based with some simple drums. Piping flute tones would have been a little overwhelming, though I have to say, the music has more of a military/wargame vibe than a fantasy one. It's very well composed, though, so I have no complaints (and technically, most RPGs are war games at their core, telling you to go to locations and kill enemies, just like in a war simulator). The sound effects are fairly simple, too, whiffing sounds as your weapons go through the air, choppy sounds when you hit an enemy or they hit you, faint whooshing sounds when your fairy shoots magic, and clinking coins being added to your slowly-growing war chest.

I enjoyed starting this game, so I think if you like idle games & RPGs, you will too! Give Firestone a try - it's about a week old and it's already a very complete game!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC