Originally released in 2017 on mobile, the RPG Caravan Stories is now out as a free-to-play anime on PlayStation 4. Bringing the hallmarks of mobile gaming to the PlayStation community, Caravan Stories acts as a straight port of its mobile version. Like other mobiles games, Caravan Stories focuses on lowering barriers of entrance at the expense of captivating gameplay. Ultimately, the game serves as a clear proof to the idea that there exists a sizable lacuna between the fundamental mechanics of games created for mobile and those constructed for consoles.
At the crux of Caravan Stories is the fact that the game is meant to play itself. Gone is the necessity to invest time honing skills; instead, a system that focuses on giving players the greatest amount of rewards and “victories” in the quickest amount of time finds its home in Caravan Stories. The game accomplishes this by proudly featuring the ability to autoplay missions, which takes control out of the player’s hand. Players can watch as their protagonists traverse between missions, fight monsters, and talk with non-playable-characters and not have to do anything but click buttons to progress dialogue.
While this idea, found predominantly in mobile RPGs, could be intriguing on PlayStation if implemented alongside superb graphics, captivating music, and adept storytelling, it fails spectacularly when instantiated in Caravan Stories. From as early on as the game’s opening menu, it’s clear that the developers didn’t make the most of its new platform, The game’s fantasy music, which plays in the background, also feels soullessly bland and generic, and its controls are sluggish; panning the camera around the screen can take an inordinate amount of time and navigating its menus take several unintuitive clicks
Caravan Stories‘ combat system also fails to provide anything of value to the game as a whole. Players have little influence on fights’ outcomes, and the most agency they are given is the ability to move their characters around the battlefield. However, characters will fight enemies of their own volition, so even the small act of manipulating protagonists while engaging in combat effectively constitutes a wasted effort.
In terms of worldbuilding, the cities found within the world of Caravan Stories can appear to be very sparse. Unlike the bustling metropolises found in similar anime-style games like Dragon Quest XI, the cities populated within Caravan Stories house only a handful of NPCs and buildings. Furthermore, enemies in wild areas outside of the safety of villages can’t even attack characters on their sojourns; players can walk straight through foes without triggering combat.
Additionally, after players progress to a certain point in the game, Caravan Stories utilizes a action point/stamina system that limits the number of battles a given character can partake of. As stamina regenerates after certain amounts of time, players may potentially be forced to stop playing the game and wait until their characters’ regains stamina. This same principles applies when upgrading the player’s caravan, which serves as a sort of in-game hub. All of these pauses can, of course, be overridden should players decide to pay real money and engage in Caravan Stories’ microtransactions.
Even though porting a game meant to be played on mobile to the PlayStation 4 is an intriguing idea, the notion was not done justice in Caravan Stories. While the game is certainly playable, it lacks endearing traits that would make it stand out in a genre that’s becoming increasingly oversaturated.
Check Out the Caravan Stories Trailer:
For more information, please visit the official website.
I'm a recent graduate of Columbia University. Gaming has been a passion of mine my entire life; I enjoy everything from RPGs and FPSs to stealth and narrative-driven games. I love the deeply immersive quality that good video games inherently possess, and am looking forward to highlighting games worthy of acclaim. When I'm not studying or reading, you can catch me playing games like Uncharted, Dishonored, The Witcher 3, and Far Cry.
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