Shadows of Adam from Something Classic and Circle Entertainment is an homage to old-school JRPG with some 21st-century improvements. Learn more in our Shadows of Adam review!

 

Shadows of Adam takes place in the remote village of Adam, past the Misty Woods. Orazio, the legendary hero, has gone missing. It’s been ten years since Orazio left, never to return. Your adventure will begin with only two characters in your party, but as you progress you’ll have other characters join you. The first two are Kellan, the young hero of this adventure – and son of Adam’s legendary hero Orazio – who favors melee combat to deal considerable damage to foes, and versatile magic user Asrael – adopted daughter of Orazio – who can both heal (and revive!) party members, as well as dish out a ton of damage to enemies thanks to her powerful and deadly attack spells.

Battles in Shadows of Adam are turn-based, and that means you’ll be selecting what each of your party members does during the fight while your enemies do the same, and then everyone attacks one after the other. You can select to fight (do a regular attack), use a skill or magic spell (which requires you to spend some AP to activate it), use an item (from your inventory), or try to run from battle if you think that odds are not in your favor for that particular fight. The enemies you face during the start of the game might not prove to be much of a challenge, but using skills can keep you safe even when you’re only up against slime and giant wasps.

 

As characters level up from the experience points gained in battle, they will get access to new skills or magic spells that will prove to be very useful in battle. For example, Kellan starts with the Cleave skill, which allows him to deal two slashes in a row that will deal more damage to an enemy depending on how much hit points they have left, as well as with Parry, which gives him a defense boost while also recovering some AP. Once Kellan gets to level 2, he’ll get the Rally skill which can boost his magic and attack, or that of an ally, for three rounds – boosts that can be stacked.

There are a couple of things you need to know about how Shadows of Adam while being an homage to the old-school JRPG of ages past, gives us a 21st-century experience. First up is the fact that you can actually save anywhere at any time, just by pressing the X button to enter the menu, selecting the Save option, and then selecting a save file. This is very different from how old JRPG from back in the day did this, which is definitely appreciated. While you can suspend your progress on the Nintendo Switch by entering Sleep Mode, being able to also save before that – you know, just in case – is a great option to have. The other thing is you can run by pressing the B button or select to have your character run automatically when you move around – something that cuts down on total gameplay time considerably.

 

If you’re stuck, or if as you visit each location, you are having a hard time finding every item in the game, you might want to consider buying the official guide for the game, straight from the developer! You can buy it by clicking here for only $3.99. This will get you the 60 page official guide with maps and item lists and locations for all areas in the main game, as well as an index with all weapons, armor, artifacts, and items, as well as a handy bestiary for you to check the strengths and weaknesses of enemies – you’ll get to see all of their stats, skills, if they’re immune to something, the item they might drop when defeated, and even their thoughts!

 

Shadows of Adam is an entertaining Kickstarter funded role-playing game that pays homage to the games of ages past – in particular Final Fantasy Mystic Quest – while giving us some of the refinements and improvements you’d expect from a game launching on the Nintendo Switch in 2019. It offers an adventure that will take you 12-16 hours to complete depending on how much you explore, and the version for Nintendo’s home console even includes the Guild of the Artificers DLC at no extra cost, adding a New Game Plus mode, a battle arena, artifact crafting, a black market from which you purchase powerful items, a new area to explore, a higher level cap and new bosses to test your skills.

Disclaimer
This Shadows of Adam review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Circle Entertainment.