The Dark Prophecy | Switch Review

September 18, 2022 David Newman

I’m back! Not even a month has passed since I wrote my first review for The Gaming Outsider, but I think I found my new hobby. Similar to my first review, I played another genre I do not feel as familiar with. I took the opportunity to try out the point-and-click adventure genre with developer Start Warp’s The Dark Prophecy, a game initially released on PC in June of 2021 that is getting ported to all major consoles. Unlike Cult of the Lamb, The Dark Prophecy does not compel me to play more point-and-click adventures.

Prophecy 13

The Dark Prophecy has you play as Jacob, a boy in a small village who is warned by a water bubble-projecting wizard that the kingdom is in danger. He tasks you with telling the town wizard, Merlin, that “Prophecy 13” has begun. From there, you have about 20-30 minutes of tasks before *spoiler* you find Merlin and tell him. Unfortunately, the story ends not long after this, and it is a shame because it feels this game has more to offer before abruptly ending. Some of the characters you interact with posed interesting backstories that were not expounded upon, and it just felt like this game had more to offer.

I find it hard to talk poorly about the story and its simplicity because as an adult, this game does not feel like it was made for me. From the start, the dialogue holds your hand and feels like they are talking to a young child. Conversations in general are short and point out the obvious, similar to how a young person might speak. For example, you meet a troll as it clearly states that when you hover your cursor over it, but when first interacting with him, one of the dialogue options is, “You’re a troll, right?” Simple dialogue like this makes me think that this game was meant for a younger audience.

A Fantastical Setting

What initially drew me to this game was the art style. Oddly, I have usually considered myself a person that has cared quite a bit about graphics, but I am finding that that is not exactly true. I found the 2D-pixel artwork of The Dark Prophecy to be very charming. Also, the game tries to place you in the world with simple, but tone-setting fantasy music. To me, this was the best aspect of this game.

“I Can’t Do Anything With That…”

The gameplay of The Dark Prophecy translates well to the Nintendo Switch. I had no issues with performance and the interaction was very responsive. However, due to the short length of this game, there was not much for puzzles and most were unintuitive. I could very well be bad at point-and-click adventures, but I often was just clicking around to find something else to complete the task with no rhyme or reason for what I was doing.

For example, I was stuck at a certain point, but the game did not end like it had when I made the wrong decision earlier, so I figured there was something I was missing. However, after exhausting all options, I decided to look up the next step. Lo and behold, I made an error that prevented my progress and had to restart. Again, maybe I am bad at point-and-click adventures, but I feel that when puzzles were difficult, it was a lack of intuitiveness, not necessarily a meaningful challenge.

Final Verdict

The Dark Prophecy was not a game for me and probably was not meant for my demographic. The story leaves something to be desired and the dialogue feels forced. The art style and music are very charming and place you in this fantasy world. And while the game translates well to the Nintendo Switch, the puzzles are not satisfying nor intuitive. This game may be better suited to introduce kids to the point-and-click genre, but even at the price of admission of $10 US, you may want to wait for a sale.

To hear me talk more about The Dark Prophecy, be sure to listen to Episode 415 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast.

This review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy of The Dark Prophecy provided by PR Hound for review purposes. It is also available on Steam with versions coming to PlayStation and Xbox at a later date.