Given the economics of the mobile market, it’s hardly surprising that we’re seeing developers try to figure out how to make a workable free-to-play model out of every traditional genre. Some have taken to it well. Puzzle games, racing games, and building/simulation games in particular have made fairly smooth transitions. RPGs, on the other hand, have seen a lot of experimentation. After some misguided steps like Tales Of Phantasia and Final Fantasy: All The Bravest (Free), it seems like the model set forth by Puzzle & Dragons (Free) has settled in as the default template. That might be good for developers, but as a player, it’s kind of bittersweet. I’ve enjoyed a lot of games built in that vein, but few of them hit what I really enjoy about RPGs. Unfortunately, the discovery of a successful model means most have given up experimenting with anything else. We still see the odd attempt at something different, though, and Beast Bound (Free) is one such example.
Like other free-to-play RPGs, Beast Bound isn’t exactly a typical RPG. You play as a boy or girl, your choice, who is bound to a weird flying cat-moogle thing named Cappi. The story has you running a monster-hunting agency whose bad fortunes are about to turn around thanks to a massive boost in the local monster population. It’s up to you to get to the bottom of it, and maybe make a bit of a profit on the way. That’s the story, but what you’ll really be doing is going through stages collecting all kinds of stuff, most importantly coins and experience, to try to get strong enough to get to the end. This will generally involve multiple trips to the same stage, especially if you’re exploring or trying to find all the treasures. Eventually, you’ll be strong enough to make your way to the generator at the end of the stage, beat the boss, and claim your plot coupon that opens up the next level.
The levels are played from an isometric perspective and generally have you moving along twisting, narrow paths, collecting coins, opening treasure boxes, and fighting enemies. The bad guys are visible on the map, and when you touch them, you’ll go to a separate battle screen as tradition dictates. The battle system is a turn-based affair with light action elements. Depending on the weapon you have equipped, you’ll be able to strike the enemy a number of times. After that, they’ll take their turns smacking you, and you can tap on your character to mitigate damage. You can also use health-restoring potions while you’re defending, and you’ll almost certainly need to. Different weapon types are effective versus particular monster types, and some of them have special effects, but that’s about as deep as it gets. Still, it keeps you tapping, and you at least have to consider your actions and supplies, so it does the job.
Between stages, you can visit your workshop. This is what you’ll be sinking the majority of your coins into, with all kinds of clutter to clear by using coins or special items, equipment to build, and decorations to place. The equipment has a practical use, allowing you to craft items if you have the right ingredients on hand. Simply drop them in the machine, wait the required amount of time (or use gems to pay the timer away), and you get a useful item like a potion or a bomb. The other pieces you can place in your workshop are mostly cosmetic. Aside from just pleasing your own aesthetic sense, you’ll want to gussy your place up for visiting players. Yes, once you’ve placed a certain piece of equipment, you’ll be able to visit other players to buy their items, or put your own items up for sale in turn. It takes a lot of resources to fully deck out your base, and it’s obviously the activity that’s meant to keep you chewing on the game for a while.
As for how it monetizes, well, it uses a lot of methods. There’s a premium currency in the form of gems which can be earned in small quantities during the game. They’re used for all sorts of things, like buying bunches of potions, speeding up construction timers, and paying your way around not having the right items to remove garbage from your base. You can buy gems via IAP in the usual variety of packages. There are also costumes, which are purely cosmetic and sell for $0.99. Finally, the game also uses video ads. Occasionally when you zone into a new area, a ghost will appear and force you to watch an ad to continue. Naturally, the game requires you to be online to play, as it needs to check between just about every zone for all of this to work properly. There’s no way that I could see to buy your way out of the ads, so you’ll have to deal with them regardless.
The game is awfully grindy, the strategy is pretty threadbare, and its monetization techniques certainly seem a bit too much at times. So why am I not slamming this game into the ground and stomping on it? It’s the writing. The text in this game is really fun to read, with Cappi wisecracking constantly without crossing the line into being annoying. The story takes some interesting turns late into the game, and it’s all just so lovable. This has got to be the only game I’ve ever played where I laughed the first time it showed me an unskippable video ad. That got less amusing over time, but I appreciate that it always tried. The excellent sense of humor carries the game far, and I’d encourage you to at least give Beast Bound a shot on the back of it.
Still, there’s a lot of game in between the funny bits, and that’s where it starts to fall off over time. The principle gameplay doesn’t change very much over the course of the game, and it’s not really strong enough to get away with that. Although there are plenty of colorful locales to battle in, it all starts to feel the same after a while. Once you’ve picked up a few different types of weapons so that you’re ready to handle whatever monster comes at you, the treasures become more trouble than they’re worth, and the rate of gold and experience gain versus what it takes to get ahead gets slower and slower in the back half. I also had a number of problems with bugs, specifically one that liked to eat my gems and equipment purchases. It was nothing game-ending, but it certainly didn’t make me want to buy any gems, that’s for sure.
Beast Bound is an okay game made slightly better by infusing itself with an infectious amount of enthusiasm. I think it strikes an interesting balance for a free-to-play RPG, though if I had my way, there wouldn’t be any unskippable video ads. The rest of it is pretty reasonable given that you can play through the whole game in a sensible amount of time without making any purchases. Come to think of it, that might make those unskippable ads a good idea for the developer. It’s worth trying for the gags, even if the balancing, strategy, and pacing are all a bit out of whack. If nothing else, it’s nice to see another take on a free-to-play RPG that isn’t just another social RPG.
