Everything has its cost, and I’d argue that one of the costs of FromSoftware’s massive success with the Souls series has been King’s Field. I mean, who knows? Maybe it will come back at some point. I suspect that there is just enough overlap between King’s Field and the Souls formula that we’re unlikely to see the former again anytime soon, though. The thing is, for however much the two have in common, there’s quite a bit that they don’t share. If you’re into the particular vibes of King’s Field, you’ve likely got a serious itch waiting to be scratched again. Perhaps you might be interested in Verho – Curse of Faces, a game that is so uninterested in hiding its source of inspiration that it straight-up name-drops it in the shop description.
You play as a traveler in the world of Yariv, a place that is decidedly cursed. It’s a helpfully descriptive curse known as the Curse of Faces. If you show your face to anyone, you die. Everyone enters a life of solitude, a situation that carries on for 264 years until someone gets the bright idea of wearing masks. Inconvenient, but it works. As for why you’re here, it’s to find the source of the curse. Will you destroy the curse and free the land, or will you take its power for yourself? Something tells me the troubled days in Yariv will be continuing for a while. Grab your Mask of choice and get to work!
The Masks each correspond to a different character class, and there’s a good variety on offer. You’re probably going to want to make sure you’re not leaning too hard on magic, since it’s not terribly effective in most cases. Still, it’s nice to have options. Once you’ve done the necessary tutorial stuff and chosen your Mask, you’ll enter Yariv. It’s a bleak place with quite a number of NPCs, none of which seem to be having a great time of things. Some of them will give you side quests to complete, while others are necessary for your progress. None of them are necessarily as well-written as the ones seen in FromSoftware’s games, but an effort has been made to create the necessary desperate atmosphere.
At any rate, you’ve got some first-person action-RPG work ahead of you. It is clunky and rough around almost every edge, and it’s hard to tell what part of that is intentional and what isn’t. My feeling is that much of it is on purpose, as I can’t argue that the various quirks and oddities don’t evoke the feeling of playing King’s Field. Death can come swiftly to the careless, and you can get in just as much trouble from the environment as the enemies at times. Indeed, once you’ve leveled up a bit, you’ll find most of the monsters fairly easy to take care of. They have relatively simple patterns and obvious tells, so unless you let yourself get surrounded, you should be fine. The early going can be a little tough, however. Collision detection is all over the place, and until you can tank a few stupid hits, you’re going to have to play a very careful game of cat and mouse with each enemy.
A lot of the trouble you’ll likely find yourself getting into comes from the nicks and scratches you’ll accumulate as you explore the world trying to complete quests. It’s not always clear what you need to do, and it’s surprisingly easy to overlook things as you make your way around. There’s some real friction here, and not in the way you might be used to. There is no handy map here, nor is there a convenient log to check if you’ve forgotten something important. For some, it is going to be a very familiar friction, and I think that’s who Verho is really meant most for. That doesn’t mean you need happy memories of King’s Field to enjoy this game, but those who come in with those are best equipped to deal with Verho’s eccentricities.
For all the missed sword swings, cheap hits, platforming misses, and forgotten quest details, Verho manages to be a very engaging game thanks to the strength of its world design. It’s a hostile place that feels truly desolate, teetering on total collapse. Its faux-PS1 visuals manage to tell a lot of that story wordlessly, and there are more than enough surprises to keep you looking forward to each new area. Once you figure out how things piece together and start discovering the little secrets tucked here and there, it gets easier to forgive Verho for the bits that don’t work so well. The raw atmosphere of the world of Yariv and the mysteries it contains have a powerful appeal if you’re a certain type of player.
The strong visual style is backed by an equally impressive soundscape. The music is a trusty partner in Verho’s attempts to establish its setting. Whether you’re meandering around dead swamps, shuffling through dank dungeons, or squaring off against a boss, the soundtrack hits almost perfectly. The sound effects are a bit sparse, but they do what they need to do. Overall, the presentation is one of the highlights of Verho. A lot of what makes the game work comes from that aspect, and it’s clear the developers had a solid vision for the feeling they wanted the game to evoke.
Verho – Curse of Faces is very much a game for a certain type of taste. It’s unapologetically old-school in many ways, and that’s going to be catnip for those who love King’s Field and its ilk. It’s not quite as good at nailing all of this as the similarly-intentioned Lunacid, but it’s good enough that it should be on your radar. Those with no particular affinity for King’s Field might still find this game’s world worth exploring. Its near-total disinterest in giving the player a helping hand is quite refreshing in some sense, even if it will likely repel as many as it attracts.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch
Review Copy Provided by CobraTekku Games
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