If a dragon slaughtered everyone you knew, chances are your immediate course of action would be to enact some serious vengeance upon the beast. Such is the life that Goshe, a young Rabbitfolk who is able to somehow siphon powers from the dead, leads in The Use of Life. Every choice, be it dialogue or where to go next, will steer him towards a specific outcome.
It all impacts Ghoshe’s Flame of Life and Flame of Power differently, determining which choices are available in the first place, so think twice when facing a seemingly uneventful challenge as choosing poorly just might have genuinely dire consequences! According to the press release, the first two chapters are currently available in The Use of Life – being an Early Access title and all – which might not be a whole lot, but again, Early Access. Needless to say, a lot more is planned for the full release, which has an estimated release window of mid-to-late-2023.
“I believe there’s a shared tension in roguelikes and gamebooks that video games just haven’t quite unlocked yet, and The Use of Life is my attempt to explore an undiscovered harmony between them,” said the sole developer at Daraneko Games.
That said, all that choice-based stuff is only one side of the coin, as JRPG-style battles also make an appearance, complete with QTE-style defensive options and an interesting turn-based system. See, instead of simply taking one action each turn, alternating between Goshe and the enemy, each side gets to pick three and then they all play out. Not a bad way to try and mix things up from the usual turn-based JRPG fare, and that’s just scratching the surface, really. New abilities and tactical battle options can be unlocked and failing an encounter won’t result in a game over – unless you run out of retries. All of which makes me more than a little hopeful that Goshe might eventually be able to figure out The Use of Life. With some help from you, the player, of course.
The Use of Life (Early Access) is available on Steam, carrying a $17.99 price tag.
