Nine Parchments

With a stronger connection to the world and a more rewarding progression system, Nine Parchments could have been more than a fleeting arcade fancy. If you can find it on sale (which it has hosted many times since launch) and can wrangle up three other people, it's a decent party game that will fill a single afternoon.

If you're planning to venture into the magical world of Nine Parchments, heed my words: It's tedious to go it alone. Take friends. Maybe wear some fireproof gloves.

Nine Parchments is a game with an awful lot of potential; the combat is fun, the multiplayer co-op works a treat, and the gorgeous art creates a visually impressive world to explore. Repetition in the format and layout of levels - and the incredibly strange decision to delete your save data when wanting to switching between single player and co-op games - are unfortunate shortcomings, however. If you love your co-op adventure-type games, and especially if you like the sound of the light RPG elements, you may well get a good time from this game – just keep our warnings in mind.

Nine Parchments is a difficult game to recommend as it's a very average approach to a genre that has existed for some time now. While it's visually appealing scenes are impressive enough to pique the interest of potential players, it's stale gameplay and painfully slow leveling system lack the fresh and creative experience that you'd expect to find here. Amongst a sea of games on Steam and the other digital stores, Frozenbyte have failed to include features that retain players' attention in the long-term. There are no puzzles to solve, no secret areas to explore and no worthwhile loot to discover. Enemy encounters quickly feel tiresome and monotonous, with successful fights boiling down to whether or not you can identify an enemy by its colour. If you're looking for a co-op dungeon-crawler with solid mechanics and a unique design, maybe pick up one of the popular favourites rather than this new title.

Some design choices are also questionable, but in the end, I found the overall package contained a decent amount of content and had some fun collecting new spells and unlocks with some people online.

Nine Parchments' playable ambition falls short of the artistic one, but it's a remarkable title and a must for dungeon crawler lovers.

Nine Parchments might not be the most complex experience, but it's certainly an enjoyable time.

Graphically, the game holds up well with the odd occassional screen tear when water physics come on screen. However in regards to magical spells flying around on screen, the frame rate is pretty stable and doesn’t affect any enjoyment of the game.

Nine Parchments features great gameplay and environments but the world feels limited.

A game lovingly made by a studio with big ambition that, for the most part, succeeds. Single player and a lack of story are its downfall, but, none of that matters when you are adventuring with your friends and writing your own story!