Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 preview

It's back in action

Meanwhile, a couple of well-known Penny Arcade forum members formed Zeboyd Games and released underground indie RPG favorites Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World. Some other members suggested they continue the Penny Arcade Adventures series, and Robert Khoo PA's director of business operations agreed and reached out. And so the series continues.

But it's so different!

Unlike the two earlier entries, which feature adventure elements and 3D visuals, the lightly retitled Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 sports a pixel-perfect 16-bit role-playing aesthetic, all the way down to the boxy menu screens and fuzzy text. Like Zeboyd's previous games, it's a loving tribute to that era, albeit one filled with a lot of comedic elements. And considering the license here, it's expectedly hilarious. We chuckled aloud multiple times during a quick demo based solely on the conversational text a very good sign!

Wait, Xbox Live Indie Games?

Why release it through the Indie Games channel? Both of Zeboyd's previous games were released in that space and still achieved recognition, but Penny Arcade's senior sales manager, Jeff Kalles who's acting as an in-house producer alongside the developer's two-man team says it's more due to the fact that they want to offer a lower price point. Cthulhu Saves the World launched for just 240 Microsoft Points ($3), and the third Penny Arcade entry is slated to sell for a very similar amount.

It's been a couple weeks

By the time the third entry releases this summer, it will have been almost four years since Episode 2 dropped in the real world though in the game, only a couple weeks have elapsed. Detective Tycho Brahe and his sidekick Jonathan Gabriel receive a curious phone call with silence on the other line; but what could it mean? In the early bits of the game, we'll hear rumblings of a third god causing mayhem in the world two have fallen already in the past episodes and that seemingly kicks off the storyline, which Kalles says won't require knowledge of the past titles or the written online chapters.

It's a turn-based RPG

Depending on where you roam, you may be affixed to a navigational grid or given some flexibility on where you walk. Initially, in the demo, we traversed from point to point on a fixed map, triggering some narrative bits along the way. But shortly thereafter, we were able to walk freely around a boardwalk setting, walking up to visible enemies to trigger fights.