Drova - Forsaken Kin Steam Charts & Stats

Nice game overall. I like the grittiness of this game and sense of progression. The only thing I disliked that there are some story points that you must do and it felt a lot out of character (act 3 stuff) and I hated that choice but still completed the game. Nice game, but player agency could be worked on

A Must-Play for Gothic Fans and RPG Enthusiasts! Wow! Drova is an amazing game that I would highly recommend to any fantasy RPG lover. It draws heavy inspiration from the Gothic series, capturing that same sense of rewarding exploration, where every corner of the world has something to discover. Right from the start, the entire map is open for you to explore, allowing for complete freedom in how you approach the game. Progression is handled through teachers, who help you level up specific skills—a classic Gothic-style feature that adds depth and immersion. Another standout aspect is the variety of ways to complete quests. You're rarely locked into a single solution, and your choices feel meaningful, adding to the game's depth and replayability. Yes, the game is isometric, and you need to read dialogue rather than having it fully voiced, but the immersion is so strong that it never feels like a drawback. The world feels alive, atmospheric, and filled with mystery, making every interaction and journey through the game a rewarding experience. If you love classic RPGs and especially the Gothic series, Drova is an absolute must-play!

Needs a neutral rating. I never played Gothic so I don't have any nostalgia coloring my experience. There is a lot of good on offer here. The story I liked. The exploration is sometimes surprising and interesting and the scope of the game expands further than you might expect at first glance. The things I dislike are the combat and the quest structure. The combat: slow and shallow. Enemies come in two varieties, dead in one hit, or kills you in one or two. You want to add a swing to your sword combo? Well time to scour the game looking for the 3 NPC's who know the mysterious art of stabbing. You might have to pay this person for the pleasure of learning, or you might have to do hours of quests and join their faction locking you off from half the content in the game. Oh and you didnt save enough of your learning points because you wanted to learn lock picking? Well screw you then player, you should have never considered leveling once these past few hours. There are also plenty of enemies that act like they are from an entirely different game with an entirely different combat system and dont seem to be restricted to the poor stamina system, just showing me how fun the game could have been. The quest structures: At first I didn't mind the vague af quest descriptions (ie head west until blah blah blah) because the world isnt THAT big and finding what you need typically isn't much of a hassle. That is until the devs decided to make large sections of the map into mazes with plenty of dead ends and ambush after ambush because you were stupid enough not to memorize the forrest/mine/cave layout. Adding even something as simple as a large circle on the map to designate that your objective is SOMEWHERE in this vicinity would have made this game a lot easier to come back to after a break. Instead you get nothing and are told its a feature. Smaller gripes: I can steal in front of most NPCS and they wont care at all, hell I can start a fight with almost anyone, beat them unconcious and just take their stuff with 0 repercussions. It just makes the world feel dead and dumb. Also everyone has the same laugh and laugh animation that takes too long and I cant skip. Smug laughers wasting my time. Positives: No carry weight limit.

I really enjoyed the opening acts of Drova, but unfortunately I can't recommend the game to others. I usually wait for discounts to purchase most games, but seeing the glowing reviews and wanting to encourage indie game devs, I paid full price. In the first couple of hours the game feels pretty good. Combat's difficult because you're low level, exploration is fun, quests are decent. I was motivated to join a faction and grind up XP by slaying those tedious wolves in the woods, so I spent a few hours doing my "extra credit" to get ahead of the power curve. I joined up with one of the game's factions, got some shiny new armor, and I was ready to rock! But the tedium didn't end there. Past the opening act, you're still fighting tanky wolves, boars, mosquitoes, and bears, all of which have an irritating "charge" attack which must be dodged. And that's mostly what you'll be doing for the rest of the game: Running through mazelike forests and swamps, getting charged by boars and wolves from hidden spots, taking unavoidable damage to open every encounter. It's not only the forests and swamps that are mazelike: In addition to the myriad cliffs, deep water, mud pits, trees to clamber around, cities have plenty of fences, stone walls, cliffs, and confusing layouts to make navigation a major pain in the ass. Early exploration (i.e. "extra credit") is not worth your time. I grinded up XP and gold to buy the best weapons available, fighting tedious wolf after wolf, dying what felt like hundreds of times, thinking it would pay off in an early power increase. What I found was that continuing the main quest yielded far better equipment, even finding better gear lying next to corpses on the way to main quest locations. I would have been better off ignoring side quests and exploration, following the significantly easier main quest to get better gear, and coming back to steamroll the forests/swamps in a quarter of the time. It's been a while since I played Gothic, but I remember feeling rewarded for early exploration and taking the time to grind XP and loot. Drova, unlike most other RPGs I've played, inverted this concept, making me feel like I wasted my time. Even looting can be tedious. At first I was glad for the infinite carrying capacity, but then I realized it was a curse. EVERY enemy you kill you can loot. You press 'X' twice to loot a dead enemy. So every enemy you kill, you need to follow up by pressing 'X' two times. On top of that, when you unlock animal skinning, declawing, and ichor extraction, all existing corpses will spawn the appropriate loot, enabling you to go back and press 'X' two more times to harvest more loot. An auto-loot option would have likely saved me an hour or more of looting time and hundreds of button presses! Combat is too repetitive. Even with major gear upgrades, fighting hundreds of wolves gets old and you barely feel a power increase as you level/gear up. Combat is an endless grind and never becomes fun. Game mechanics are cryptic. There are items that if you pick them up, you will die instantly. "WTF was that?" Reload, try again. Die instantly. You will later learn how to pick them up without dying (a protection item is required), but instadeath for pressing 'X' on a loot item is cheap as hell. Some human enemies take damage at a normal rate but then appear to become invincible at around 25% health. "Why can't I kill these guys?" I died 5 times in a row to an enemy who I thought I had dead to rights, but then they stopped taking damage completely. I recorded a video of one of these encounters and posted it on their Discord. "Why does this guy stop taking damage at 25% health?! Do I suck or something?" Oh, it's because he's wearing a special armor that reduces damage based on missing HP (up to a 90% freaking reduction of physical damage). So if their HP bar is at 10% they're actually at what, 50-75% effective HP? What the hell? Items like this are fine for PCs to wear, but hiding this crap on NPCs is cheap as hell! That was the moment I realized I really wasn't enjoying myself anymore. I stopped playing the game when they wanted me to memorize two pixel art drawings and draw them from memory to continue the main quest. I'm not joking, they make you draw things on a 10x10 grid to progress certain quests. I simply don't have any patience left to continue this game. On top of all this, in Act 3 they make you commit a major crime against the game world that you can't avoid in any way. It definitely felt strange making the main character do such a horrible thing, but if you play RPGs mostly for the story, this might be a dealbreaker for you (read some of the other reviews to see some pissed off customers!). The developer has been responding to other reviews suggesting people turn the combat difficulty down. Sorry, this is not a solution. The problem is that the combat is not fun or engaging, and turning the difficulty down doesn't solve for that. It's a shame to leave a negative review on such a promising game. The story and lore were pretty good and there were some memorable encounters and story elements, but the RPG progression issues and combat mechanics hold Drova back too much. Drova comes close to finding that unique RPG magic but never quite captures it.

Just finished it, and wow *sigh... Yes, it leaves you with that feeling. Phenomenal game. Perfect? No, but worth playing? Absolutely. The good: The atmosphere, the Celtic style, story, dialogue, exploration, detail, twists and turns, easy to pick up. There was a nice progression from everything kills you to you kill everything. It was challenging but just right. The game looks beautiful. Love the different characters. Even questioned decisions made and got into my feels at times, but it all worked out in the end. The bad: Combat could be a bit clunky or rigged feeling at times but wasn't awful. Was sometimes impossible to know where to go. Map was all but useless at times. Quest markers would've helped. Would sometimes wonder around for an hour trying to figure out where to go. The whole land is like a maze. You would sometimes run into a patch of rocks or deep water that kept you from reaching a place you needed to get to, which meant you'd have to circle back around the whole map to find another way, which was super annoying. Overall, it was a fantastic adventure that stayed true to itself from the start. They put a lot of love into this. Great job!

One of the best games I've played in a long time. The unrestricted manner of story continuity and exploration mixed with combat that really flows provides an experience that is uncommon in a lot newer games.

Drova is a love letter to the RPG Genre. It reminds me of early Bethesda games & specifically New Vegas in terms of factions and writing. The ultimate Modern SNES RPG that plays great on the Steam Deck. The art is beautiful, the gameplay is challenging but rewarding, and it reminds me a lot of of the magic of the first time playing Classic WoW. Game is fantastic. Take your time as it's slow paced - but it's worth it.

I havn't beat the game yet but after over 30 hours I can say I love this game and it is spectacular. The combat and dodge mechanic are superior to any isometric game (with very few exceptions). The enemy movesets are fun and fair while being challenging yet not too hard. This game is tough enough for mature gamers yet possibly more accessable than the souls series. The game features tons of dark medieval fantasy stuff with a compelling spooky setting, but is divorced from the stereotypical british medieval setting. 10/10 Be warned magic takes a back seat but is present. GRAB THE MAP FROM THE GUY WHEN HE OFFERS IT OMFG.

Secret of Evermore + Baldur's Gate 1&2. This game is INCREDIBLE. The storytelling, the combat, the music, the level design, the enemy design, EVERYTHING is peak. This game is so good it's given me better DREAMS. 10/10

A lot of things to like about this game, but a few annoying ticks as well. The Good: - Very solid RPG. Dialogue is genuinely interesting, entertaining, and well-written. I was immersed the whole way through Chapter 1. - Feels like Oblivion meets Hyperlight Drifter meets Dark Souls. - Zero bugs and glitches. The game is seamless. - There is replayability. The first map comes with two major factions, and joining one locks you out of the other. Likewise, there's no way you can cover all the weapon builds in just one playthrough. - Mobs/bosses/etc are genuinely hard. I died 6x to the Bear boss alone. Felt like a kid playing Dark Souls again. - Music is really solid. - Aesthetic is fantastic. The Great: - You can beat up/attack most NPCs and loot them for their stuff. It's a very viable way to get gear, but they're tough as nails. You genuinely have to consider how to talk to people because 9/10ths of the NPCs in this game are built different. If you are rude to someone in a conversation, they might just beat your a** for it and take all your stuff. The Funny: - I slept in a gladiator's bed, so they woke me up, knocked me unconscious, stole all my money, and 9hrs later, I returned, kicked the sh** out of them and stole their hat. The Not-so Great: - Difficulty, at times, comes from the mobs and bosses simply not knowing when to stop. - Unlike you, they have no stamina/focus bar. - So if you fight a guy in the arena, he will spam special attacks over... and over... and over. - There is no actual ebb and flow to some fights. You just get railed on with magic/shouts/special stuns, and that's... that. You just sort of have to roll with it. The Annoying: - Some of the NPCs you can fight have power levels that don't make sense. - I was playing a new Hardcore playthrough and decided to beat up a kitchen wench because she denied me a quest reward. She hit me with iron daggers, at first, then got tired of that and changed to a high-level sling; which one shot me, totally breaking my immersion. - This lets down an otherwise great mechanic, because you are never really sure who you can start on and who you can't.... despite it being an integral gameplay feature. As far as a role-playing game goes, it is great. But you occasionally run into those awkward (?) moments that make you feel awkward and like your time isn't being respected. I feel like the developers should go back and tighten up a few screws on the NPCs. Non-fighters probably shouldn't hit like The Terminator. Edit: I saw that this review blew up. I should add: The Dev team for this game is beyond excellent. If you check out their Discord, you'll notice they're active with the community. Likewise, this game feels like one of those early PS1 titles that you grow up with. If you were to boot up this game, and it was one of your first ever games, you would get absolutely lost in it. I'm biased because I've played through 800+ titles in my life, which leads me to compare it to everything else (the shtick of old age). Despite my chagrin comments about some of the flaws with the game's combat system, I wholeheartedly recommend buying it and supporting this Dev team. They made something really magical here. It's a breath of fresh air -- I'm not sure how else to describe it.