Crimson Shroud

Decades ago, when video games were in their infancy, the concept of an RPG was limited to tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons in which the results of sword fights and the effects of fireballs were simulated by dice rolls and look-up tables. Even in 2016 that's still how video game RPGs work at their core - but random number generators and lookup tables are hidden deep inside a CPU and we're treated with fancy and beautiful visual flourishes that, thirty years ago, had to be completely imagined in the minds of players.

Crimson Shroud comes full circle on the evolution of the RPG. It's a downloadable game for the 3DS that essentially simulates the experience of playing a tabletop RPG, right down to the statuesque figures and the rolling of dice in order to calculate damage. I know Crimson Shroud isn't the first video game to incorporate actual dice as a form of random number generation, but it's the first game I can recall playing in which the entire aesthetic is meant to mimic a Dungeons & Dragons experience.

And honestly? It wasn't really for me. I've only barely dabbled in actual Dungeons & Dragons gameplay before, and what I enjoyed about it when I played was interacting with friends and sort of free-lancing as I went along. (God, I bet I was an annoying dungeon-exploring comrade.) But the rolling of dice and the constant bookkeeping of character sheets? Those weren't really my jam. Still, I think the concept behind Crimson Shroud was a really cool idea for the right demographic. I'll stick to JRPGs from the likes of Square and Atlus.