Rollers of the Realm (PC)

Thank you Atlus for sending us this game to review!

A rogue who has been robbed of her village, family, and childhood sets out to steal from those who dare to profit in these turbulent times.  It doesn't take long for her and her dog to get into some trouble.  Fortunately, a knight comes to her aid after her dog is taken from her.  As strong as this knight is, he's a drunk.  Later on in the game more reliable characters will join her cause for free or for hire.

Each character in Rollers of the Realm is represented by a pinball with varying attributes and unique abilities.  With the gold earned (or taken)throughout the game,  you can buy upgrades for each of the characters to slightly increase their stats.   They'll also level up with experience gained by completing levels.  

Every level in this game is represented as a pinball table with people to pickpocket or soldiers to attack.  Some of the levels are multi-tiered and more complex than others.   Every stage has at least one set of flippers  which can be damaged by fire magic or by archers' arrows.  The healer can repair damaged flippers and revive lost balls/party members.  When all the balls are gone, the level will have to be restarted and any gold and experience gained will be lost.  

Besides the knight and healer, a ranger, sword fighter, and a mage will join your party.  You can hire additional party members like a monk and an alchemist.  With the Alchemist's bomb throwing ability, I highly recommend getting him first.  Each hired party member costs 5,000 gold and you can only hire one per every three levels gained.  

Some levels have characters or bosses with health bars over their heads.  Those characters have to get defeated before the exit route will become visible.  The bosses typically have a party member that they are weak against.  Here's a tip: if there is dialogue at the beginning of the level, use the party member involved in the conversation!

The character faces in the dialogue boxes look fine on the Vita's smaller screen, but they look pixilated on the PC/PS4 version.  The levels themselves look more like an RPG game with flippers than a glitzy pinball machine.

The background music is great and I wish the Steam version came with an option to download or listen to it outside of the game.  The voice acting is good and it gives the pinballs some personality.    The only pinball I cared about losing was the healer since she could restore my flippers to pristine condition again.  I didn't have any emotional attachment to the other ones.    

Unfortunately some of the characters use some language like h*ll and d*mned.  There is  some violence as the enemies are bumped into, stabbed, or shot with arrows.  Magic use is also prevalent and there is some necromancy and rising of the dead later on in the game.  

Rollers of the Realm is a reasonably priced game at $9.99 or less.  It's been on sale on Steam and is worth considering if you're into pinball or RPG games.  While this game is not extraordinary in either category, it's still fun.