'Secrets of Grindea' Is Full of Sarcasm and Fun

I love when a game can make fun of itself. I especially love it when a game can make fun of other games, while doing exactly what it's making fun of. This is something that Secrets of Grindea does, and does well.

Secrets of Grindea is a throwback to old-school RPG/Adventure games, while also poking fun at those same games. There's your silent Hero/Heroine, an old guy who sends you on an adventure, dumb villains with eye patches, an arrogant rival, huge machines made from ancient technology, and slimes. There are references to Zelda, Pokemon, Bomberman, and more. Instead of just one massive mockery (i.e. DLC Quest or Dev Guy), it actually pokes fun while still being fun to play.

The controls are easy enough to learn, but you can choose to remap them if you wish. The music isn't too overbearing, and is actually nice to listen to. The starting puzzles aren't too difficult to figure out, but are still challenging. The bosses actually take a little bit of strategy. The crafting is easy enough to understand as well. The one glaring "problem" - if you even want to call it that - is the level grinding.

Remember back in the day when you went to beat a boss and he whupped you without so much as a sideways glance? So then you would load up your save and sit in the same area for awhile just grinding away, killing mob after mob until you thought that you would out-level the boss? That is one of the main portions of Secrets of Grindea - if the title didn't give it away already. You need to grind. Quite a bit, actually. The reason I say it's a "problem" is that some people don't like grinding, myself included. HOWEVER, Secrets of Grindea is still somehow fun, even with grinding. There are two reasons for this.

The first reason is the leveling system. You are not bound to one class. You can choose magic and melee at the same time, and pretty much customize how your character is going to be balanced. After playing a few characters, I've found that it's much easier to choose one main attack early on and get it leveled up, and then branch out later. How you choose to play may be completely different.

The second reason is multiplayer. You can ask three of your friends to play with you. This makes leveling and questing much more fun, especially when you can get your friends to compliment your skills with differing skills. Inviting your friends through Steam is especially enticing, since you don't have to mess with any port forwarding or exchange any IP addresses.

Overall, this is a great little game to play. While it's still in beta and everything hasn't been added yet, there's still a good amount to do and mess around with. Plus, the magic bag is hilarious. He's not to be missed.