Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind 12+

Amazing game

Structurally, this game is sort of a hybrid between a strategy game and an RPG. I find that it's helpful to think of it more like an RPG myself, where you play the clan, rather than an individual character. Your clan has a destiny, which will lead you to riches and glory if you are strong enough to hold onto it, or will leave you forgotten and destitute if you don't.

Gameplay then, is about surviving and building your strength (especially in the strength of your leaders) long enough for your destiny to roll around, and in the face of inevitable hardships you'll find. The game does hide a lot of information from you: It's the sort of game that's much, much easier once you've beaten it once or twice already, which can be good or bad depending on what you like in the game. There's also a fairly significant random element. Even your best laid plans can fail, or your insane adventures succeed, if the dice gods favor or hate you that roll.

Nonetheless, I've spent hours and hours enjoying this game, and I really do think it's great.

Almost Perfect

First, let me say this is one of the best games that I’ve played. You basically play as a clan trying to survive in a fantasy world where your god has just been killed. The progress of your clan is extremely engaging and some of the events that pop up are really interesting (i.e., how do you handle having an ally clan that has accepted your religious revelation taking the position that non-believers are heretics and can be enslaved?).

But there’s one huge and pretty glaring problem. This is an extremely short game and it breaks my heart because the game length is artificial. Basically, the clock starts ticking once a single event chain, which occurs very early, starts. After that event triggers, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing or what you want to explore, once the event chain ends so does your game. This is extremely frustrating especially in the context of King of Dragon Pass which would allow you to decide when to start a Tribe (and thus start the end game). I feel like the game would be significantly improved if there was a way to allow players to determine when the end game chain begins (maybe when you’ve completed a certain number of rituals) but as it is, there’s no way to do this and it doesn’t matter what other event chains you’re in the middle of (and will never see the ending of) or if you want to play longer.

Developer Response ,

The game is about as many years as a typical short game of King of Dragon Pass. I understand that you want something even longer, but that’s not “extremely short” for most people (howlongtobeat.com says it takes 11 hours).

Excellent, Ambitious Game with a few blemishes

While I was never a big fan of King of Dragon Pass, Six Ages really sucked me in. Improvements to the combat system and the changes to simplify/abstract a few systems (particularly food) have really made the core stories shine. And it’s hard to overstate how ambitious this game is compared to most others I have played on the iPhone.
While I have a lot of things that I wish could be different, I think most of them make the game better. For instance, I really wish I could wipe out other clans, particularly my smug, conniving, weak, and stupid Wheel neighbors.
The game is not without flaws however. The game seems to have a time limit that cannot be changed and gives no warning. Events and outcomes can be very random. Even when it feels like there’s a reason you lost a battle or a party of explorers never returned, the game gives you no information or clue on why.
Being able to restore definitely helps with this but I don’t think players should have to do that just to get a new dice roll on an event.
I am definitely looking forward to the next few chapters and hope this game does well.