Edge of Allegoria review

From the moment you click past the start screen in Edge of Allegoria (reviewed on Nintendo Switch), the game reveals its intentions immediately. The intentionally lackluster display of premise and world-building is loaded with satire and it’s so on the nose will it make it bleed. At a glance, Edge of Allegoria looks like a cutesy, emulated Game Boy title, almost screen-by-screen lifted from the earliest Pokémon games. Dive deeper, though, and what unfolds is a giddy, beefy, adult-themed satire adventure RPG.

Let’s be upfront about it. It may look like the kind of game a father would play with their child to show them the wonders of gaming’s early years. Apart from its nostalgic look, Edge of Allegoria actually plays and feels like a mid-nineties Game Boy game as well, only a very adult one. It happens to be uncompromisingly blunt and, at times, quite vulgar. So, it’s better to keep the young ones away, unless you’re willing to explai themes like sexual extortion, adultery and misuse of power.

South Park

In many ways, Edge of Allegoria tries to walk the same satirical line as South Park. And while South Park can be extremely blunt, it 99% of the time stays in touch with its audience and does not go to dark or to weird for its own sake. this game sometimes falls off that line, trying a little too hard and running out of creative gas. Then again, the freedom it gives itself allows for some genuinely funny moments. Many of the NPC interactions land surprisingly well, balancing sharp writing and boundary-less adolescent humor in just the right way.

Please don’t kill me

With the shock value out of the way, we essentially Edge of Allegoria plays like Pokémon Gold without the Pokémon. You explore the land of Allegoria, unlocking it bit by bit, traveling from town to town with the sole mission of defeating an intentionally miserable evil overlord and their minions.

During your travels, you’ll run into turn-based battles with a wide portfolio of “baddies.” Well,baddies? An elk? A fox? A large chunk of the fights you encounter involve wildlife or fantasy trespassers than in any other game probably would be either part of the decor or an innocent bystander. Which is kind of funny on its own. Basically, you’ll fight just about everything and everyone you come across, from the aforementioned wildlife to goblins, nymphs, and dragons. Good or bad.

Turn-based retro

Combat unfolds through both story-driven and random encounters in a classic turn-based RPG style. You can deploy abilities gained from mastering weapons you buy or find in the world. The visual and mechanical setup of these battles feels directly inspired by early Pokémon titles.

Abilities often center around status effects like bleeding, drowsiness, and poisoning. Some skills can set enemies up with specific vulnerabilities, creating clever damage multipliers that add a touch of tactical depth to the fighting system.

The battles are oddly addictive, partly due to the layered use of status effects, but also thanks to the ridiculous attacks your enemies unleash. Edge of Allegoria aims to make you laugh on every level. The story is absurd, the dialogue even more so, and the NPCs deliver a steady stream of nonsense. Yet it’s the silly enemy attacks that got the most chuckles out of me, for some weird reason. When the jokes land, they really land. Of course, it is for you to find out, but I assure it will at least revoke an emotion, be it a chuckle or disgust.

When the music hurts

What doesn’t land quite as well is the music. The 8-bit chiptune soundtrack loops far too quickly, while at the same time being intrusive and grating like there’s no tomorrow. Even for a tinnitus sufferer like me, it’s downright ear-piercing. The noise was so relentless that my partner had to intervene -on behalf of herself and the kids- to stop “that horrible noise” coming from my Switch 2.

Ambitious, absurd, and very occasionally brilliant

It’s safe to say that Edge of Allegoria’s attempt at an adult-themed, Game Boy-style RPG isn’t a bases-loaded home run. But it’s undeniably unique in its approach. Beneath the crude jokes and 8-bit venier lies a no-frills, surprisingly solid adventure.