Light Apprentice - The Comic Book RPG
is a Steam Role-Playing Game presented as an interactive comic book, with each event, area, and turn-based battle presented as individual panels in a story. The first Volume, consisting of four "Issues", was released on November 10, 2017. Plans for two more Volumes have been made, with no set release dates.
Tropes featured:
- Action Commands: Used frequently in battles; attacking or defending involves clicking at the right time to increase the effect, a heavy attack involves rapid clicks, healing and shielding involves moving the cursor over icons in a limited amount of time, etc. Even a Pacifism victory requires the player to move two sliders representing a V-Sign.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Tlob, the Blueling Wizard that awakens Nate from his slumber.
- The Empire: The Yhrosian Empire, which took over other countries for resources and energy.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Nate was knocked out at the beginning of a war against the Empire, and was put into stasis for 300 years until Tlob finds him.
- Green Aesop: Nate and his fellow Light Apprentices were chosen to protect nature, particularly from the resource-devouring Empire. To drive the point home, the main problem of Issue 2 is a fracking drill, albeit one that drains the planet's energy instead of oil.
- The Heartless: Shadows, ephemeral blob-ish monsters that eat on souls, and are first encountered towards the end of Issue 1.
- The Hero: Nate, one of the five titular Light Apprentices bestowed the power to protect nature.
- Karma Meter: Every character has two diametrically opposing traits, one focused on offense, the other on defense. Favoring one over the other powers up related skills while de-powering others, and in Nate's case of Warrior/Pacifism, can also affect the plot of an Issue.
- Squishy Wizard: Tlob, who initially specializes in healing and shielding, but is still capable of casting Blast at enemies.
- Story Branching: The player can choose what actions Nate can make, which can affect what skills he learns and what direction the Issue's story goes. However, some choices (such as whether Nate's weapon is the Light Sword or the Light Shield) are determined solely by which trait Nate's Karma Meter is skewed towards.
- Stuff Blowing Up: One of the possible outcomes of Issue 1 is Nate and Tlob escaping an Empire Lab right before too much pipeline pressure makes it explode.
