(Imagine me talking in a cowboy voice) Howdy Partner! Have you ever wondered what the old west would have been like if magic was real and rampaging cows murdered people? Well the folks down at Asylummetric have got you covered with their wonderfully wacky West of Loathing.

The Story

You play as the son/daughter of a farmer. Your family are simple folk, tilling the land and doing god’s work out on the prairie. But the tilling life ain’t the life for you. You’ve got dreams, ambitions and the open road calls out to you as you set your sights out west, where a man can make a name for himself. However, western life ain’t easy, especially since the cows came home and started ranksacking settlements and farms. Nevertheless, you want to be somebody and you’re not gonna let some demonic cow get in the way of your dreams.

The Game

(Back to normal Adam voice) West of Loathing has been on my radar since its Steam release back in 2017. From youtube series I’d seen of the game, I was completely charmed by the game’s hilarious writing and its unusual minimalistic stick-figure art style. It was actually one of the games I wished for back on my very first post on Switch Indie Fix, so naturally I was ecstatic when Nintendo announced the game would be coming to the Switch earlier this year.

The game is a turn based RPG based in a fictional land called Loathing, which is a parody of the American west. As you leave your home you’re given the choice of one of three classes, the Snake Oiler, the Cow Puncher or the Beanslinger. Each class is tied to a specific stat, which can be upgraded with experience points throughout the game. I chose Snake Oiler, as it was a ranged class (I guess like a support class in other RPGs) and because you got to throw snakes at people. After choosing my class and packing up my snakes to hit the road, I was quickly thrown into my first fight.

Combat is based on old JRPG mechanics. It’s turn-based and grid based with the player having an attack phase followed by the varied AI baddies. During your attack phase the player can attack, use special moves with AP points or use items. The player also has a companion or ‘pardner’ which they can control. I had Gary the Goblin, whose Gary-Fu attack was amazing at knocking out enemies. Furthermore, the combat has the typical RPG tropes of poisoning an enemy or making them bleed. Basically, think of any turn-based JRPG’s combat system and the most basic features of it are West of Loathing’s combat system.

After killing bad guys and completing quests you’re rewarded XP. The game is extremely generous with handing out XP, even in some cases for flushing a toilet or shovelling up poop from the street. XP is then used to upgrade your unusually named, but very traditional RPG stats. The main three are Muscle (strength), Mystically (Mana) and Moxie (dexterity). I poured most of my points into Moxie as it upgraded the damage dealt with my pistol. As any RPG worth its salt should have, West of Loathing also has a lot of cool loot to find. Gear (as it’s called in the game) increases your damage and armour whilst also making your character look a little cooler and unique to you.

Combat and levelling in West of Loathing are extremely simple, leading some reviewers and players to label the game as ‘baby’s first RPG’. However, I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. I didn’t have to spend hours and hours pouring over my stats debating where I should invest my XP like you have to do in games like Dark Souls. Nor did I have to grind through enemies to level up my character to beat a hard boss. The game made it very clear and obvious where you should invest your XP to make your class stronger. There are of course some exceptions to the simplicity. For example, your stomach and liver stat effects the amount of buffs your character can have at one time. As buffs are all linked to food and alcohol, the bigger the stomach and liver, the more buffs your character can have. This feature was more original than the other traditional RPG tropes the game’s mechanics are founded on and was one I really enjoyed. Nevertheless, though the RPG mechanics are basic, it lets the player get on with what I think is the best part of the game: the story.

Honestly, main story is a little generic, however what shines are the side quests: they are fantastic! They are so varied with such interesting and humorous premises that I could not help but get side tracked by them. There are side quests where you have to do table-top historical battle reenactments. There’s one where you have to fight your way through a giant cactus and one where you visit a haunted pickle factory. Each quest was memorable. Therefore, every time my character unlocked a new location on the map, I’d go there straight away to see what interesting story was waiting for me!

West of Loathing is the perfect example of an RPG with no busy work. Each of the side quests were fun to do. Even ones that were a basic fetch quest were a pleasure because the writing and premise around the quest were so good! Furthermore, even the random encounters were varied. I didn’t have the same one twice throughout my 6 hours of gameplay. Plus, they were always skiable, so if you were in a hurry to do something in the game they wouldn’t slow you down.

With West of Loathing Asylummetric have made a stream lined RPG. There was no grinding and no annoying busy work. For some RPG fans this might be a bad thing, as the fun part about RPGs (especially JRPGs) is spending hours and hours in the game, grinding, levelling up your character and getting to know every corner of the game’s world. For me, those factors aren’t so appealing as I don’t have time to play 100 hour RPGs (unfortunately), so I really enjoyed Asylummetric’s approach to the game.

Art Music and Writing.

Without a doubt the best thing about West of Loathing is its writing. It has to be one of the funniest games on the Switch and it amazes me that the whole game is text based. Therefore, even though the jokes are delivered in writing, they still managed to hit every time. The best example of this is whenever you walk into a bar and check out the spitoon.

The artwork is completely different to any game I’ve seen before and though it is very minimalistic, it still looks great. I especially like that the look of your character changes depending on the gear you’re wearing.

Finally, the music’s western tone fits the game perfectly, plus the combat music makes you feel a little on edge during the battle, even when you’re not really in any danger. The sound design is great, especially the pinging noise your gun makes when it fires.

Problems

The only problem I had with West of Loathing was that I thought it was too easy. There was no real challenge in the game at all. Perhaps it was because I did nearly all of the side quests before the main story and was therefore over levelled, or perhaps the game was just way too easy because it’s a ‘baby’s first’ RPG. Either way, a little bit more challenge would have been welcomed to spice up the game.

Conclusion

West of Loathing lived up to all my hopes on the Nintendo Switch. It’s a great but basic RPG that takes the traditional genre and adds some unique ‘old western’ quirks. Asylummetric have made a wonderful game and I’m so happy it’s come to the Switch. I really hope they bring Kingdom of Loathing too!

Should you buy this game?

Yes absolutely! The amazing writing creates some real laugh out loud moments and the side quest are all memorable and fun to play through. For hardcore RPG fans the game might be too simple, however, if you’re looking at getting into the genre then it’s definitely worth a buy!

Have you played West of Loathing? If so what did you think of it? let me know over at Twitter, Discord or over on Instagram

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