Cutest Indie of the Year? | Baladins

Are you looking for a game that blends the feeling of a tabletop role-playing game with the style of an adorable life sim? Then Baladins by Seed By Seed is just for you! Take control of a Baladin and adventure around the small world to unite people.

This brand-new indie adventure centers around the idea of a time-eating dragon sending you into this never-ending cycle every six turns. After ruining the annual festival, you are tasked with figuring out how to break this time loop while feeding the Colobra all your goodies at the end of each cycle.

Each cycle will allow you to move your Baladin around a board, you will have a specific amount of movement points and action points. Repeat this six times and that is one round of the time loop, you will be sent to face the Colobra (time dragon) and this is where you can pick a single item to carry over to your next run. Losing all your items might sound daunting if you want to tackle all the quests (with multiple endings) but with the short loops and each Baladin holding their own item, it’s not nearly as bad as you’d think. During my playthrough, I spent each time loop tackling a single quest line, which is the best way to go about the quests. In each time loop, you can only move about 24 spaces (on average). So, don’t overdo things only to end up devastated when you get two rare random encounter items… and have to feed one to the dragon.

This game is character-driven all the way. Meeting all the characters and helping them better their lives and relationships is fulfilling. Yes, there are reminders to defeat the Colobra in each loop, but that takes a backseat once you open up the world. You will certainly get absorbed in the many stories you hear, and discovering the multiple endings will become your main goal.

One thing that worried me when getting into the game was that it would begin to feel repetitive. I fear boredom in games because of my short attention span, but this game knows how to keep your attention. All aspects mix to create a perfect “just one more loop” type of game. The art style was probably the first thing to grab your attention. The brilliant combination of a round, 3D environment, and paper cutouts for the characters makes a memorable game (inside a box, you’re literally in a tabletop game). Connect the gorgeous visuals with the awesome audio design and you can just sit there and stare at your screen. The background music is perfect for a D&D-style adventure. Each Baladin also has its unique sounds when moving spaces. This is a small detail but is the ultimate show of how much love went into making this game.

Since this is an overlook of the game to try and get you to try it out, I am avoiding spoilers, but I will say that finishing this game and rolling credits is such an amazing feeling. You feel like you have helped so many people. Having both positive and negative quest endings teaches you so much. The humor in this game is top notch and I have been recommending it to all my friends. I played it solo (as I do most of my games), but I have been recommending couples try out the multiplayer because the idea of solving puzzles with friends sounds like a great evening.

If you have a free weekend and want to try out a new D&D board game, try picking up Baladins on Steam. I rolled credits in about 18 hours and it was so addicting that I was thinking of puzzle solutions even when I wasn’t playing. So, please at least add this game to your Steam Wishlist if it sounds like your type of game.