Forsaken Realms: Vahrin's Call Review — A Nostalgic ARPG with Rough Edges
Titan Roc’s ambitious indie RPG blends handcrafted exploration and a classless progression system with janky combat and performance hiccups—great for patient fans of Fable/Gothic, but expect bugs and a clunky UI at launch.
I went into Forsaken Realms: Vahrin's Call wanting to like it — the trailers promised handcrafted levels, a flexible classless progression and the sort of exploration that made old-school RPGs memorable. Titan Roc shipped a clear love letter to late‑90s/2000s RPGs: think Fable or Risen vibes mixed with a modern action-RPG shell. What I found is a game with clever systems (alchemy, traps, level-by-use progression) and a world that rewards poking into every corner — but it arrives with frustrating UI, inconsistent combat feedback and varying technical performance depending on your GPU. If you’re nostalgic and patient, there’s a lot to unearth; if you expect AAA polish on day one, temper your expectations.
Mastering the Mercenary Life
The core loop in Vahrin's Call is straightforward: explore handcrafted areas, tackle contracts, loot chests and grind skills by actually using them. Combat plays in real time with dodge rolls, stamina management and a sense of weight that aims to land each hit with gravitas; sometimes it succeeds, sometimes the feedback feels like swinging at air. You’ll swap between melee, ranged and elemental abilities on the fly, set traps, brew and throw potions, and mix gear and spells in ways that let you sculpt hybrid builds. Leveling is classless — skills improve the more you use them, and skillbooks unlock new abilities, which encourages exploration and experimentation. Maps are separated into zones with loading screens rather than one seamless open world, which keeps scale focused and the design denser than a sprawling sandbox.
When Choice Actually Means Something
What stood out for me was the freedom: there are no hard class walls, so an archer can throw fireballs and a berserker can toss potions. Traps and alchemy aren’t window dressing — they form viable tactical options that can turn a tough encounter into a clever win. The progression rewards curiosity: some of the best skillbooks and crafting ingredients sit tucked away behind environmental puzzles or off‑path ledges. Respecs are free and instant, which removes the fear of experimenting but also undercuts long‑term commitment to a single build if you crave permanence. Crafting, upgrade benches and dismantling are present, but their UI presentation makes them feel fiddly rather than fun.
A Game That Tries to Look and Sound Big
Graphically the world is pleasant and often charming in a Fable-like way: overgrown streets, moody caverns and colourful bogs that look handcrafted. Performance is inconsistent — DLSS helps on Nvidia cards but there’s no FSR for AMD users, and several players reported terrible FPS on RDNA hardware; shader warm-ups and microstutters are common early on. Voice acting is full (English), sometimes surprisingly good, sometimes uneven, which gives NPCs personality even when the writing leans on RPG tropes. The UI and inventory, sadly, feel like a placeholder: long text lists, tiny icons or none at all, and clunky menus that make equipment and crafting less pleasant than they should be.
Forsaken Realms: Vahrin's Call is a loveably ambitious indie RPG that often nails the systems I care about — exploration, hybrid combat and a classless progression that rewards curiosity. It’s also a release with rough edges: UI, hit feedback and platform optimization need serious attention, especially for AMD owners. If you’re nostalgic for Fable‑era adventures and don’t mind technical hiccups (or waiting for patches), keep an eye on it; otherwise consider a sale or a few updates first.
Pros
- Classless progression and 'level what you use' system encourages experimentation.
- Handcrafted levels and rewarding exploration with hidden skillbooks and secrets.
- Flexible combat options: mix melee, ranged, magic, traps and alchemy.
- Full English voice acting and strong art direction that evokes classic RPGs.
Cons
- Technical problems and poor optimization on some GPUs (notably AMD/RDNA reported).
- Inventory and UI feel like placeholders — clunky, text‑heavy and hard to navigate.
- Combat feedback and hit registration can feel floaty; ranged hits sometimes don't register.
Player Opinion
Players are split, and the reviews mirror that schism. On the positive side many users praise the exploration, the handcrafted maps and the nostalgia — several compares it lovingly to Fable, Gothic or Morrowind because of the ‘level what you use’ progression and the smaller, focused zones. Fans enjoy mixing weapons, spells, traps and potions and some say combat and animations have satisfying weight when everything lines up. On the negative side there’s a recurring chorus: poor performance on certain hardware (lots of AMD complaints), DLSS-only scaling, a UI/inventory that feels like an alpha screen, and frequent reports of floaty hits or ranged shots not always registering. Several players asked for fixes to mouse slowdown, dodging distance, loot/UI polish and universal widescreen or keybind support. In short: if you value handcrafted systems and old-school charm you’ll find much to like, but expect a bumpy ride until the most vocal issues are patched.