The desert kingdom of Muspelheim is at war and needs not only soldiers but also craftsmen to supply weapons and armor. But the royal court blacksmith hasn't returned from his last delivery order to the front and so the son has to step in. In a simple character editor, you can define his name, character class, and blessing. The latter grants bonuses to certain character values or abilities, which are determined by the chosen character class.
In the beginning, you can only choose between warrior, archer, priest, sorcerer, and thief. Later on, however, you can unlock, change and even combine up to nine other classes, such as monk, Elementalist, or tamer. Besides, you can create four other characters and form a party with them. After all, you have to get the raw materials you need for forging yourself, and you also have to fight monsters for them, which is of course much easier when you join forces.
The comrades-in-arms, however, are just mute soulless mercenaries who have no stories, opinions, or goals of their own. The locations where you search for resources also seem sterile and generic. At least there are symbolic enemies and harvest points as well as one or other treasure chests to discover. If you have accepted a quest in the guild to eliminate certain monsters, they will be specially marked. But you don't know exactly who you're up against, since they all look like burka-wearing manicure accidents.
At least you can try to escape from unwanted encounters. Otherwise, you can attack with equipped weapons, use skills, and utility items, or defend yourself in the classic turn-based battles. If you want, you can even speed up the fights or automate them according to certain aspects like damage, healing, or energy-saving focus. Later, you can automatically complete explorations yourself with suitable cards and collect associated resources.
Outside of combat, you can also change formations, passive skills, and equipment. Back in town, it's also possible to change classes and blessings, while you can shop in the item store, grab battle bonuses in the arena, and earn additional experience points in the tavern. The most important place, however, is your forge, where you can process captured raw materials and create new weapons, armor, and other utensils.
Conclusion
With Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom, Rideon and KEMCO serve up a playfully solid, but narratively shallow and technically aged anime role-playing game in the style of Gust's Atelier series. If you like easily accessible dungeon crawlers with crafting and store elements, you can take a look: You go on a loot hunt, craft your equipment and sell what's left or in demand. Over time, you unlock new locations and recipes, save up for upgrades to the store, characters, and equipment, and unlock new formations, classes, and skills to experiment within the classic turn-based battles. In the long run, however, more variety, depth, and especially more story elements would have been nice.
