Tower of Fortune 4 is a game that makes the randomness of some RPGs as plain as it can. The hit mechanics here are built around a slot machine mechanic – press to spin the reels and see what happens.
You might block, you might attack, you might open yourself up for a counter from the creature you’re battling. There’s a simplicity to it that’s either going to endear you to the game or make you push it away.
Elsewhere things are pretty standard. You’re a bulky knight with a plucky young girl sitting astride your shoulders. You’re running away from an enormous beast, fighting other monsters and helping out characters as you flee.
You move along the map automatically, picking which direction to head in when you come to a junction. Events occur as you wander, and they’re all resolved with the same three-reel slot machine game.
Need to jump over a gap? You’ll need to hit a jump icon on the first reel then. You can spend some of your coins to re-roll and get another chance, but the cost goes up incrementally, and you need to save your gold for buying equipment between levels too.
When you’ve completed a section you can equip new gear, rest up and buy the food and potions you’re going to need in the next challenge. Even resting and cooking need you to spin to win – hit a skull and instead of recovering or making a delicious meal, things will go wrong.
Tower of Fortune 4 lives and dies on its central mechanic. If it’s too obviously, opaquely random for you, then you’re not going to push on and keep playing.
But if you accept the explicit element of chance that it throws into everything you do, you’re going to find a solid RPG that’ll keep you engaged for a good long while.
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