Video Game / Joe Dever's Lone Wolf

For many centuries, the Kai Lords defended their kingdom of Sommerlund from the Darklords of Helgedad. Many battles were fought and won by the Kai, but finally came their demise. Three years ago, the monastery of your order was attacked by the armies of the Dark Lords. The Kai were destroyed, you were the only one who survived the final battle. All seemed loss, but you retrieved the Sommerswerd, the one weapon that can slay a Darklord of Helgedad. You slew Zagarna, the Darklord leader and saved your kingdom from destruction. Now the lesser Darklords hunger to take their revenge. It fell to you, the last Kai Lord of Sommerlund, to crush their evil scheme once more.

— Intro

A video-game spin-off of the Lone Wolf series of Gamebooks by Joe Dever. The game combines the Gamebook genre of written narrative and multiple choice puzzle with a combat system using Combatant Cooldown System and Quick Time Events. The game was released in an Episodic Game format for IOS and Android, and in a single release for Steam.

The game is set in the Kai era, three years after the Darklords invaded.^* Putting it between books 3 and 4 chronologically. You play once more as Lone Wolf, last of the Kai lords, and the game is set in the land he was given liegedom over for defeating the invasion. News soon reaches Lone Wolf that a village named Rockstarn under his protection has been attacked, and Lone Wolf sets out to rescue the survivors and find the reason behind the attack.

The story is penned by Joe Dever himself, and written exclusively for the videogame, not an adaptation of any book. Dever himself also voices the intro.

The game's website is located here.Not to be confused to the 2016 mobile game

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Joe Dever's Lone Wolf provides examples of:

• Action Girl: Leandra for part of the game.
• Action Survivor:
  • Lone Wolf himself, as established by the Intro.
  • Leandra, who has been pretty much surviving alone since the attack.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Lone Wolf is depicted as blond on the cover of Rune War and in the text of Trail of the Wolf, but he's black haired in this game.
• Already Undone for You: In chapter 3, you can use a Drakkar map to backtrack the temple and retrieve unique treasure from previously-explored areas, which has you using the Cube to open the locks. However, one of the treasures was already looted by a Vordak, which forces you to fight for it.
• Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: Gunzar wears one to become a truly worthy end boss. It even forces Lone Wolf to fight a Battle in the Center of the Mind a couple times on the way to the final battle.
• An Ice Person: Abysmal can shoot a cone of deadly frost from his mouth that will freeze Lone Wolf, sapping his Kai Energy and eventually freezing him solid if he fails the QTE.
• Animal Motifs: Lone Wolf has one, in the form of a recurring Alpha wolf. He mentions the link himself - like the wolf, he is beholden to protect his subjects.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • If solving puzzles is not your thing, picking the "6th sense" Kai Discipline will give you the answer for Shianti Cube puzzles immediately.
  • If you fail a Shianti Cube minigame but are still alive, you can solve the puzzle automatically at the cost of some health. Or try again, without the loss of health.
  • After fighting your way to the top of the tower in the last chapter right before the final boss, you find a secret forge that lets you repair all your weapons and armor for free. Meaning the game's nice enough not to make you get all the way to the top and then ask you to fight the last boss with broken weapons and armor. Too bad you'll know nothing about it on your first playthrough and probably go back to the bottom to pay to get them fixed once or twice.
• The Atoner: Cenetar the Wizard wants to make amend for his brother's infamy, while later Lone Wolf can potentially gain the help of a Shianti Necromancer who was responsible for creating the Cubes and is sealed in a Bronin vase.
• Automatic Crossbows: Leandra's invention and weapon of choice.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Played straight with Drakkarim and Gourgaz. In Gunzag's case, the opposite is true, giving that his backstory mentions that he managed to survive the destruction of Zagaarna's army in Sommerlund before forming an army from scratch and returning to the Darklands.
• Ax-Crazy: A room inside the Shianti Temple has a sinister idol with a red stone inside which makes people insanely violent and bloodthirsty: Lone Wolf himself succumbs to it, and must solve the Shianti puzzle in order to defuse the idol.
• Bad Boss: Scarlet Fang, the Gourgaz champion, will sometimes attack by violently stomping the ground, damaging both Lone Wolf and his own subordinates in combat.
• Battle Cry: In combat, Lone Wolf is mostly silent, safe for grunts and cathartic battle cries when he finishes off Gourgaz or use the Sommerswerd's ultimate ability.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: At the end of chapter 4 part1, Lone Wolf is trapped in a dream where he fights his dark counterpart.
• Big Bad: Warlord Gunzar, with an example of Co-Dragons in Scarlet Fang and Abysmal.
• Blessed with Suck: Vann and Gunn, whom you meet in chapter 3, are trapped in the Crystal Chamber of Shianti Temple. They can potentially live forever without food, water or sleep, but getting too far away from the chamber will kill them.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: The Gourgaz. Big, mean reptiles with a ton of HP who attack three times per round for asinine damage, are immune to crowd control effects (so you can't prevent them from doing said damage) and can buff their underlings, removing crowd control from them in the process. They will make your life hell in multi-stage battles.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: One of the possible equipment setups for Lone Wolf if you chose the crossbow in lieu of throwing knives.
• Breakable Weapons: All weapons and armor have a durability rating that go down with use. While they don't exactly "break", their stats are lowered to the point of being useless.
  • Unbreakable Weapons: The Sommerswerd, which was a gift to mankind from the gods themselves.
• Canine Companion: Lone Wolf can summon one during battles, using the "Animal Kinship" Kai Discipline.
  • Warlord Gunzar and some Drakkarim can summon Doomwolves.
• Cast from Hit Points: Lone Wolf can sacrifice some of his Vitality to attack enemies when his Endurance runs out mid-combo.
  • I Shall Taunt You: Taunting enemies to cause them to break ranks or run into traps.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Rushing in battles head first to surprise or intimidate enemies.
  • Stealth Expert: With the appropriate skill, you can avoid fights or sneak up for a surprise attack.
• Classic Cheat Code: Inputting the Konami Code on the menu screen brings up a screen giving the lyrics to the national anthem of Sommerlund.
• Climbing Climax: The final chapter sees Lone Wolf makes his way up the Dark Tower to retrieve the McGuffin. The final battle, appropriately enough, takes place atop the Dark Tower.
• Combatant Cooldown System: A variation. There is no distinct turn for hero and enemies. Lone Wolf's time is represented by a bar which reduced very quickly. When it is depleted, he has to wait until it fills completely to act again. Enemies have their own time bars and can attack when theirs are full, regardless of the hero's bar.
• Cool Down: Every attack and spell has one. The Sommerswerd has a universal cooldown that affects all of its attacks (meaning you can't use two different attacks consecutively)
• Cooldown Manipulation: A Stun attack makes a combatant lose his turn, and his time bar stops filling. At least that's how it works with Lone Wolf.
• Cool Sword: The Sommerswerd (Summer sword), Lone Wolf's signature weapon.
  • BFS: It's a large two handed magical sword.
  • Flaming Sword: When it's being charged for an attack. Mastering the basic swing will allow you to set an enemy on fire with holy flames.
  • Holy Hand Grenade: It's a literal divine artifact that burns the forces of evil.
    • The Power of the Sun: It's an artifact of the Sun god, Kai.
  • Sword Beam: It can be focused on an enemy or swept horizontally for a room-clearing move.
  • Finishing Move: There are at least 5 different animations for executing an enemy with the sword, burning them up like vampires in sunlight.
  • Sword Plant: The ultimate move shoves the Sommerswerd into the ground to hit all enemies from beneath with a surge of holy power.
• Cycle of Hurting: If you are unlucky enough, you can get stunned repeatedly by enemy attacks and die without getting a hit in.
• Damsel in Distress: Leandra, especially in the last act.
• Deadly Dodging: How 6th Sense is employed in combat. Doomwolves have a power-up which allows them to dodge all incoming attacks and retaliate for a while.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Scarlet Fang, the Gourgaz champion which Lone Wolf must defeat in order to access the Shianti Temple. In Act III there's Abysmal the Vordak, fulfilling the same role.
• Dirty Coward: Darklord Haakon leaves all of the fighting to Gunzar in the final showdown since he's afraid of being within striking distance of the Sommerswerd, one of the only things that can slay a Darklord. His fear is well justified, considering Sommerswerd's capable of emitting Sword Beam as well (as pointed out by the narration in the game as well).
• Disney Death: Leandra seemingly dies Taking the Bullet for Lone Wolf after defeating the Final Boss, but she's barely alive.
• Dual Boss: The penultimate battle of Act III pits you against two Gourgaz at once. Fortunately the game cuts you some slack and they have less health than usual. You fight two Gourgaz again later before meeting Gunzar for the first time.
• Dual Wield: Lone Wolf can do this if he trades his shield for a secondary weapon. Unusual for this trope, he cannot use both weapon for a combo attack. The offhand weapon is used either to parry or to cause Status Effects like Stun or Bleeding. Several Drakkarim do this too, including Warlord Gunzag.
• Dungeon Crawling: The third act takes place inside the underground Shianti Temple.
• Early Game Hell: The game is much harder at the beginning. As the game goes on, Lone Wolf's stats and equipment become better, which gives you more wiggle room and makes the battles more forgiving.
• Elaborate Equals Effective: Played straight in a realistic sense: stronger weapons are more efficient stat-wise and they look better in a realistic, not too showy way. Lone Wolf goes from wearing a leather armor to a chaimail to a better looking, pauldron-equipped platemail.
• Elite Mook: Each type of enemy will have a thougher counterpart, usually wearing better/more armor and carrying a different, more threathening weapon. You start off with barely-armored Giaks with shortswords and then have thougher Giaks in leather armor, large flanged maces and shields.
• Escort Mission / You Shall Not Pass!: Lone Wolf needs to protect Leandra while she does repairs to an elevator in the open from subsequent waves of enemies. Mercifully it's just a regular fight, if somewhat tough for that point in the game, without you having to actually make a special effort to protect her from enemies.
• Episodic Game: The game is separated into four acts. The PC release combines them all.
• Evil Knockoff: The inner battle against the Shadow (a black, smoke-clad counterpart to Lone Wolf). The tricky part is, the Shadow has a score of health, Stamina and Kai Power as Lone Wolf does, and they decrease accordingly to Lone Wolf's actions and viceversa, meaning that your attacks will also consume the Shadow's stamina and wounding it will also harm Lone Wolf himself.
• Fantasy Metals: Bronin. The higher-tiered weapons in the game is made from this metal.
• Faux Action Girl: Leandra does a good job shredding some Mooks in the early game, but spends the rest of it getting kidnapped, captured, or staying out of the way when the menfolk fight.
• Final Boss Preview: upon reaching the first floor of V'taag, Lone Wolf's confronted by Warlord Gunzag himself and his pack of Doomwolves, ready to bring the pain.
• Finishing Move: Lone Wolf has the option of performing one on the last enemy slain during a battle, or particularly strong enemies, using the Sommerswerd to deal the finishing blow. This refills his Kai power.
• Flaming Sword: Much to Lone Wolf displease, Act III and IV feature Drakkarim armed with flaming swords, apparently something Gunzar devised.
• Flechette Storm: One type of ranged weapons available is throwing daggers. It's possible to launch up to three daggers at once to hit a single enemy or all enemies in battle.
• For Science!: The Shianti Temple has, among other things, a very big laboratory where they perform less than humane experience on their test subjects.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The Codex warns that using the Sommerswerd will draw enemies to the user "like moths to a flame", but it has no such effect in-game. You're actually encouraged to use it at least once per fight to build up experience and power its special attacks so that they get buffs and stronger damage output.
• Genius Bruiser: Leandra. A reasonably capable fighter and a crackshot with her crossbow, she is also a skilled inventor and mechanic, even better than her father.
• Greed: Another room in the Shianti Temple has an alluring idol and a cursed shield that attracts people towards them... across a deadly, trap-infested room.
• Ground Pound: If you're really unlucky, Gourgaz will use this: it's a powerful, unblockable attack that deals tons of damage and has a chance of stunning Lone Wolf, leaving him defenseless against further attacks. The only positive effect is that the assault also damages the other enemies.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Lone Wolf and Leandra, when they briefly fight together.
• Healing Hands: The Healing discipline allows Lone Wolf to do this.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The Shianti Necromancer will give his unlife to destroy Abysmal's barrier, giving you a shot at taking the ghoul down.
• Hope Spot: Right when it seems that you have defeated Gunzar at the bottom of V'taag's tower and you're about to impale him with the Sommerswerd, the Warlord will use his Shianti talisman to defeat Lone Wolf, making him lose the Sommerswerd (which, fortunately, can't be even touched by the enemies and stays planted there) and sends him into a deadly illusion where he has to fight his own Shadow.Upon surviving the mind trick, Lone Wolf still has to evade from his cell and get ahold of his Sommerswerd.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Food is a type of restorative item in this game, unlike in the books where food just keeps you from getting weaker through hunger. The tradeoff in this game is you can only eat outside of fights, but potions can be used anytime. Bread refills Kai Power, Mushrooms replenish stamina and cooked food (such as soups, cake and roast meat) refills everything.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Enemies on the receiving end of Lone Wolf's finishers, mostly through the chest (Giak and Vordaks), back (Drakkarim) head/throat (Gourgaz and Doomwolves).
• Infinity +1 Sword: Near the beginning of Chapter II of the final act, you can obtain a precious piece of top-class Bronin from an enemy Drakkar: if you take the ore to Nogril, the insane blacksmith of V'taag, he will forge you the strongest sword, axe or mace, depending on your choice.
• Item Crafting: Present in the game in the form of upgrades to Lone Wolf's gear.
• King Mook: The Bosses tend to be souped-up variations of regular enemies: Scarlet Fang for the Gourgaz, Abysmal for the Vordaks and Warlord Gunzar for the Drakkarim.
• Large and in Charge: Warlord Gunzar is HUGE compared to regular Drakkarim. Scarlet Fang is described as "the largest Gourgaz you've ever seen". The only aversion is Absymal, who's around the same size as regular Vordaks, though he still tower over Drakkarim.
• Level-Up Fill-Up: After completing an Act, Lone Wolf's stats receives a boost, and his Vitality, Endurance and Kai power are restored.
• Life Drinker: The Survival discipline allows Lone Wolf to do this. Vordaks can also do this to Lone Wolf.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Abysmal the Vordak leeches power from the entire Shianti Temple for his battle against Lone Wolf, unleashing tremendous energies but at the same time weakening the structure. By the time the battle is over, the whole room is severely damaged and the following act has quakes that slowly break through V'taag, caused by the previous battle.
• Long-Lost Relative: The previously unknown brother of main series villain Vonotar the Traitor appears in this game.
• MacGuffin: Leandra's prototype for an engine devised from her research on ancient Shianti power sources.
• Magic Knight: Lone Wolf. He is mainly a fighter, but knows several support spells. The Vordaks, who master a variety of destructive spells and wield a massive mace in battle, can also be considered this.
• Mana: Lone Wolf's Kai powers and the Sommerswerd now run off a mana meter. You can recover mana through blue potions and bread, as well as recharging the bar by killing enemies (especially through fatalities).
• Mana Drain: Sort of. Killing enemies restores some Kai Power. Managing to execute them with Sommerswerd restores a much larger amount. Abysmal's ice attack saps Lone Wolf's Kai Power reserve.
• Meat Shield: Gunzar is clearly not above using his own Doomwolves to take blows for him.
• Mind Rape: The "Mind Blast" attack is basically this.
• Misidentified Weapons: The Gourgaz are described as wielding axes. Their bladed weapon in game looks more like a polearm of some sort, at most an oversized bhuj (which is quite different from standard axes).
• Money Grinding: From Act 2 of Chapter II, the player can make use of Random Encounters to kill enemies for loot and money.
• Mook Chivalry: Lone Wolf never has to fight more than 3 enemies at a time, because of the game engine. In large battles, enemies always come in waves of 3.
• Neck Lift:
  • When finishing Giaks off, Lone Wolf will grab them by the neck with his left hand before sinking the Sommerswerd into their bodies up to the hilt.
  • Warlord Gunzar has such a move as part of his deadly repertoire: if Lone Wolf fails the QTE, the Drakkarim will sink his sword into Lone Wolf's chest, resulting in instant death.
• Nintendo Hard: Being a Lone Wolf game, this has to be expected. There is no *Non-Standard Game Over*, but battles can be incredibly difficult, even at "normal" difficulty. Your resources are limited, and they drain out pretty fast. Starting a battle with your meters partially empty, or even bringing the wrong items, might force you to reload a previous save.
• No Hero Discount: Each chapter has at least one place where Lone Wolf can buy equipment. In the first and second chapter, it is pointed out that Lone Wolf insists on paying for the items, because the village in his care just barely survived a Giak attack and needs every supply they can get. Later on, however, the "merchants" available become more and more ridiculous. In chapter 3, he trades with Vann, a man who's trapped in Crystal Chamber with no chance to escape, and in chapter 4, with an imprisoned and tortured blacksmith that has gone insane. He still has to pay full price for everything, and the game just stops trying to explain.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Can be invoked if the player refuses to take the elevator without Leandra.
• Noble Wolf: The Durncrag wolves that Lone Wolf can befriend with the Animal Kinship ability.
• No-Sell: With Mindblast/screen, Lone Wolf can shrug off the Vordak's spells. On the other end, certain enemies such as Gourgaz and Vordak are immune to certain effects such as stunning or bleeding.
• One-Hit Kill: Warlord Gunzar has a special grapple attack in which he rushes and chokeholds Lone Wolf: if you fail the QTE, he will sink his broadsword in the Kai's abdomen, istantly killing him.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: In chapter 2, the area below Rockstarn Village, south of the Great Chasm. Enemies are plentiful and are comfortably beatable. You have easy access to 2 human camps, so it's trivial to heal and sell off unwanted stuff.
• Plot Coupon:
  • In the first chapter, Lone Wolf has to find components to fix the elevator and pursue the enemy.
  • In the second chapter, he must procure a Shianti Cube to gain access to V'taag.
  • In the third chapter, in order to surpass a room filled with Deadly Gas, you must recover an amulet and a crystal from some nearby vaults.
• Power Crystal: The Shianti Cubes can act as Power Source to power Shianti-made machineries. Or a really destructive hand grenade.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: The Shianti Cubes, each contains a soul. While Lone Wolf is disgusted to learn this, the Necromancer who made them claims that the benefits they brought greatly outvasts the price.
• Power Glows: Lone Wolf's eyes glow briefly when he uses a Kai power or the Sommerswerd. The Sommerswerd glows when in use. As do regular weapons empowered by Lone Wolf's Weapon Mastery discipline. The Shianti Cubes as well.
• Press X to Not Die: Most of the game's combat is this, especially when an enemy gets ahold of you.
• Psychic Powers: The Mindblast/Mindshield disciplines, and the Sixth Sense discipline.
• Point of No Return: After finishing each of the four acts, there's no going back to a previous area.
• Random Encounters: When Lone Wolf moves from one location to another, he can randomly get ambushed on the way.
• Rapid Aging: Happens to Gunn, see Blessed with Suck above.
• Savage Wolves: When you reach V'taag, the enemy forces include armored Doomwolves. Using Animal Kinship in battle allows Lone Wolf to briefly summon a wolf to help him.
• Save Scumming: Averted because of an autosave system and one slot per game, presumably to prevent the player from backtracking after meeting an unpleasant end as was common with readers of the books due to their difficulty.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Lone Wolf wears one of these instead of his long cloak that the books always mention as a Kai Lord's signature garment.
• Shield Bash: If a Shield is equipped, Lone Wolf can use it to either bash his enemies in the face (dealing damage and stunning them) or take advantage of the narrow lower edge to cut the enemies at leg-level with it.
• Sinister Scimitar: Zigzagged: Giak's are low-level mooks and their swords are crude, knife-like falchions, while Drakkarim wield straight, spiked swords. Lone Wolf's starting sword, however, is a curved saber, and one of the late-level weapons is a falx-like sword.
• Sinister Scraping Sound: Vordaks announce their presence with one, as they drag their flanged maces on the floor.
• Spikes of Villainy: Doomwolves wear armors composed of massive spikes on their backs.
• Spread Shot: Lone Wolf can accomplish this with throwing knives.
• Stat Grinding: Although Lone Wolf doesn't gain exp from kills, engaging in combat allows him to level up his weapon skills and Sommerswerd attacks.
• Status Effects: Lone Wolf can Stun enemies, set them on fire, poison them, disarm them, incapacitate them. Vordak can use the "Silence" move to prevent Lone Wolf from using spells.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Random encounters are depicted as Lone Wolf being surprised by enemies from behind as he walks. This somehow also includes the gargantuan Gourgaz to the lot.
• Storming the Castle: The entire final chapter consists of Lone Wolf storming the Dark Tower.
• Story Branching: In the reading portion of the game, the player is continually faced with problems and has to pick a solution. Choices either weaken enemies, help you avoid fights altogether, or put you in even more troubles. Some have more long lasting consequences, such as determining whether an NPC die or live to help you later.
• Stuff Blowing Up: The side effect of Shianti Cubes? They tend to violently explode in presence of life force if misused.
• Survivor's Guilt: A curse employed by one of the villains takes advantage of this to force Lone Wolf to face negative manifestations of his feelings of inadequacy and remorse over being the last of the Kai in the form of evil duplicates of himself.
• This Cannot Be!: Abysmal the Vordak has this reaction if you have Mindscreen and use it to survive his tremendous psychic assault which allows you to attack him with your health intact.
• Tin Tyrant: Warlord Gunzar: it also extends to his cape, being a steel bar across his shoulder with a series of cloth stripes from it.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The execution animation for a Vordak has Lone Wolf throwing the Sommerswerd into the Vordak's gem-heart.
• Trauma Inn: Lone Wolf can meditate anywhere to fully recover Vitality, Endurance and Kai power. Paying to stay at a human camp has the same effect, but keeps player safe from enemy attacks when resting.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Leandra. Her trying to use the Shianti Cube as power source for her prototype engine is what draws the enemy to the village in the first place.
• Violation of Common Sense: Sometimes, what looks like the wisest option has some disadvantages in the following set of events. For example, in chapter three, a Gourgaz shoves a minecart in your way: trying to dodge will result in painful wounds and a battle with the Gourgaz acting first, while trying to stop the cart with brute force hurts you... but allows you to get the drop on your enemy, who thought the cart killed you.
• Walking Armory: Lone Wolf carries one primary weapon, one ranged weapon with ammo, the Sommerswerd, and either a shield or a second melee weapon.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Diverging from the books, Lone Wolf has a limited use for the Sommerswerd and has to choose among three different weapons for his primary fighting method: He can choose among the following:
  • Swords: They inflict the less damage, but are faster and their attacks are the least expansive when it comes to stamina points. As offhand weapons they can either disarm or cause bleeding. Swords are also commobly employed by Giaks and Drakkarim troops.
  • Axes: The average weapon in both damage, speed and stamina cost, in the offhand they can cause bleed or make the target slower and weaker. Drakkarim Sergeants and some Giaks also wield them.
  • Maces: They deal the most damage but are slower and heavier. Still, they can stun enemies in combat even with normal attacks. Vordaks and Mountain Giaks will use pretty large maces to fight.
• Weapon Twirling: Lone Wolf sometimes does a slow version as a fight's beginning.

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