Saturday Morning Gaming: Yaga

When I was a kid, I had all kinds of books about folktales. The Mother Goose collection from the 60’s that you could find everywhere in the 70’s and that I have since found out was COMPLETELY expurgated. Holy cow, you go back and read the real ones and, jeez louise, there’s death and destruction everywhere. But there were also the books that had folk tales from all around the world. Brothers Grimm, 1001 Arabian Nights, the Aesops, and, of course, the ones from Russia.

The Baba Yaga stories were particularly striking because of how weird they were. The chicken-legged hut. She flew on a mortar and pestle (is that weirder than flying on a broom? Yes). The fact that she was capricious. Would she help you out? Would she try to eat you? You just didn’t know! She was a lot more interesting than, say, the witch in Hansel and Gretel. You just knew that the lady in the gingerbread house was bad. The one in the chicken-legged hut? Well… yeah, she was bad too. But she might help you? Intermittent reward/punishment systems are a lot more fascinating than knowing what’s going to happen, I guess.

Well, the video game Yaga takes place in the Yagaverse. Baba Yaga had an interaction with the Tsar that left a bad taste in her mouth. She puts a curse on him: The unluckiest man in Russia will be there when your reign ends. On top of that, if you order him killed, your empire will turn to sand. (Evil laugh.)

You are Ivan: The unluckiest man in Russia. The blacksmith with only one hand. The tsar finds you and sends you on a series of impossible missions and, wouldn’t you know it, you’ve also taken the interest of Baba Yaga herself.

So you’ve got a bunch of impossible missions to complete and you’ve got only but so many tools in your toolkit (and only one hand to use them with). Run around town and get some side quests as you go off to do the impossible for the Tsar.

There are a couple of mechanics that raise this above a run-of-the-mill action RPG. The first is Baba Yaga’s interactions with the Three Fates between missions. She asks stuff like “What day will he be doing this?” and you then have a choice to make. If Ivan starts on a Sunday, he heals after a fight. If he starts on a Friday, he gets more treasures as he does the level. Mondays will have Ivan be faster. Thursdays will have Ivan be strongest.

So you get to pick which perk you want for the level by choosing which of the three fates answers Baba Yaga’s question.

There are also crossroads that ask what Ivan will do next. Will he take the risky shortcut? Or the longer stroll? Will he go through the fields or through the swamp? When he goes up against the bad guy, will he beat the bad guy up? Or will he use his guile to trick him? Lots of little choices to make. I like that part. It makes it feel like a collaborative folk tale telling.

The second mechanic is the game’s use of luck. If you have good luck, you’ll get more money. If you have bad luck, you’ll get more experience points. (Just like real life, I guess.) Using items will give you a little bit of bad luck. Oh, jeez! You need healing? Bad luck.

You’re trying to run away from a baddie? Maybe throw a comb behind you and it will grow into a forest! I can’t believe that worked! But, wait. Bad luck.

So the game has a weird balance to it. I like that a lot.

Combat has the close quarters attack with your hammer, you can throw your hammer and it automatically returns like a boomerang, and you can roll as a dodge (this will cost you stamina, though… so don’t think you can just roll an unlimited amount of times and avoid getting hit that way).

The gameplay itself is nothing to write home about, but the universe that it takes place in elevates the game and you’ll play it because you want to see what happens next. The combat is more to be endured than enjoyed but the fun of the little story sections and little side quests more than make up for it. Help a farmer find his sheep by whispering the answers to riddles in their ears. Help a peasant find his drunkard brother. Figure out who is stealing the dairy farmer’s milk money.

You’ll see all sorts of little notes from the folk tales that you’ve forgotten: the comb turning into a forest thing? I loved that when I was a kid. I had forgotten it until I started playing this game. You fast-travel between parts of the map by jumping on ovens. More than that, you can play Ivan as a Holy Fool, an Ill-tempered lout, or a confident guy who figures he can just power through being the unluckiest man in Russia. Oh, and your grandma keeps telling you to find a wife. That’s a nice touch too.

Upgrade your hammers, upgrade your anvils, repair your stuff, repair other people’s stuff. It’s a fun ARPG that takes place in an *AMAZING* universe. If you miss remembering Baba Yaga, check it out.

So… what are you playing?