Bring It! Revenant Dogma for Apple TV
One of my favorite iOS game publishers of the past few years is KEMCO. Although they’ve diversified as of late, this Japanese company is largely known for bringing retro RPGs to mobile devices. Some of their games have now made their way to Steam as well as to Nintendo and Sony systems. This move has me wondering if Apple TV releases could work.
Specifically, I’m thinking of one of my favorite KEMCO games: Revenant Dogma.
Here’s what it’s about, as described by the company:
Humans have attained divine strength through the power of holy beasts, while therians worship different beings known as feral gods. As the two races try to thrive in harmony, a foul stench arises. The main hero, Caine, infiltrates a ruins site and finds a mysterious girl in a mask. This girl has the same black wings as a feral god…! This strange encounter becomes the catalyst of a grand scheme that will change the worlds of humans and therians. Will divine power lead to prosperity or destruction… Find out as this epic story unfolds!
You can expect some classic JRPG melodrama, but with a sharp sense of humor. You’ll fondly recall some of the early Final Fantasy games while playing, and I’d say that’s the point.
A lot of the story-driven game centers around exploration, which would be easy enough to handle with the Siri Remote; simply move your thumb around the touch area to move your character. Game pad use would make more sense (the iOS version does support MFi controllers), but KEMCO wouldn’t logically assume enough Apple TV users have one (although you should).
As with many JRPGs (Japanese role-play games), combat is turn-based. Although diving through the complex navigation system would be cumbersome, you’re at least not under a time crunch to do so. The game’s strategy is set up around party placement/enhancement and powering up your weapons, so you actually spend quite a bit of time preparing your party for battle and then selecting how to use the character during fights. As such, having an MFi game pad would be more useful for strategy than for combat itself.
I also wonder if the graphics would be an issue, as the Apple TV certainly has more power than what Revenant Dogma requires. The game looks good on the smaller screen of the iPhone or iPad, but blow it up on your TV and portions of seem more dated than retro.
Perhaps it’s not an issue, as it’s not stopping the company from releasing many of their titles on consoles.
KEMCO embraces many different gaming platforms, and it would be great to see them add Apple TV to that list. Revenant Dogma would be a good place to start, but I’ve got a couple other suggestions, too. More to come.
In the meantime, visit kemco-games.com to check out their vast catalog of iOS games.