Veil of Time Play Test and Analysis

I was lucky enough to be given a chance to play test the new Veil of Time game, which was covered in a Kusamarian episode here. Their sale begins in a little under a week on March 3rd: Full details can be found here.

The team has been working to deliver within several ideals:

• They are delivering a solid game first and then offering an NFT sale without compromising their game design and community ideals.

• The game is inspired by classic JRPG gameplay but incorporates blockchain and RMRK technology in a never-before-seen way.

• They are creating an innovative own-to-progress model in which development, NFT utility, and gameplay all expands over time with participation.

In this article, I’ll be primarily diving into the gameplay, but there will be discussion around the risk, future utility, and investment prospects.

---

Overview

The basic premise of Veil of Time is that steam technology is just emerging, and magic has been outlawed. Recently, mysterious events and dark magic has been detected, and you are quickly thrown into a fight to prevent the destruction of the very world.

The game’s storyline is so far excellent, and the characterization is consistent and deep. Nothing makes me happier, as good writing is crucial to delivering a good JRPG.

The game feels professionally executed, where every detail, from the art to the sound design, has been considered thoroughly.

Classic JRPGs are marked by a heavy emphasis on storyline and characters, with turn-based strategic combat that drives the story forward.

As with all JRPGs, combat is built around knowing your characters, their strengths and weaknesses, and those of your opponents. This is perhaps the most fun part of JRPGs, refining your party builds and being adaptable to overcome any challenge.

Your personal play style will always have a weakness that a good game design will exploit, and you’ll become attached to certain types of obstacles while loathing other challenges.

In the current gameplay, the story has been the focus, but the battles do escalate in difficulty quickly.

Perhaps unlike most games and more like real life, some opponents may simply be impossible to overcome without special NFTs or significant time building a character’s highly-specific abilities.

Playing, I found myself diving back into familiar patterns.

If you’ve played any JRPGs, you’ll know that the “trick” is to dive into the world and “leave no stone unturned.”

This means is that you want to engage with every item you see and speak to every NPC just to see if there’s a clue or a hidden quest or resource already available to you to reduce backtracking later.

The amount of time I spent chasing down every NPC to talk to them was a little paranoid, but exploring the world thoroughly almost always offsets the time it takes to re-find the needles in the haystack of a massive JRPG world.

Oh, and make sure to save.

(You can only save against one Hero NFT at the moment. After the main quest is complete, there will be an ability to swap out Hero NFTs without needing to play through the entire game again, with a goal of on-chain save states. This means that if you own multiple classes, you won’t have to play through the entire game with each hero to get class-specific missions done.)

In several areas, there were clear clues to where you wanted to be but no clear way to get there. Basically, the story is so important that the most inefficient path is actually often the most efficient path, so slow down and take it all in.

Cues in the world’s art–from glimmering star-shaped pixels to ambient sound like a clock ticking to battle strategy in dialogue–are all part of successfully progressing through their world.

While I’ve yet to find a hidden resource obscured by a building or tree, I’m still haphazardly pressing the spacebar as I look behind every bush just in case I’ll find an artifact or quest item.

In these and many other ways, in Veil of Time, the team encourages you along with hints and promises. You can interact with almost everything you see, and the descriptions are witty, entertaining, and particular.

I did appreciate how areas that are unfinished or that will be necessary later after some unlock condition is met were obviously displayed, so you know you’ll be returning at a later date, which simultaneously teases future gameplay and functionality.

This last detail is where my real excitement emerges.

You see, JRPGs typically have a linear main storyline, but with a multitude of side quests that helps you achieve more and even contributes to the success you’ll have within the main storyline.

As the game is being developed, these sidequests are promises to players that there will be more personalized branches, and in combination with NFTs, a whole metaverse is waiting.

When I say “metaverse,” I mean that the metaverse is through the scarcity of NFTs, where certain quests and artifacts will be token-gated. A lot of the metaverse’s value will come through an in-game market.

You’ll have to earn NFTs or trade for them to discover unique paths in this world, and just like the real world, there’s an aspect of history, privilege, as well as right-time right-place.

Simply said, you can’t be everyone, be everywhere, or own everything–but you’ll want to.

That desire to be part of everything is a primal need that will expand the game beyond direct in-game elements. This will evolve into a model of unique identity, where players will have character-specific quests, items, and unlocked abilities that all contribute to their blockchain identity and, from there, become an absolutely non-fungible 1/1.

In a more practical example, will you be a thief like Gill, with no qualms about pulling friends into the consequences of his own greed?

Or will you be a noble knight, enforcing law–except when it applies to Gill, your closest friend?

And will these decisions become a proud representation of your online personality?

How far will you take this identity with you as new partnerships and more integrations with Veil of Time assets emerge?

Essentially, it is this merging of personal decision-making in gameplay and metaverse identity is what the team is really exploring.

Veil of Time also represents one of the first cross-collection deep integrations in RMRK. It has built-in RMRK’s Kanarias both as playable NFTs and also into its storyline:

Cross-collection integration has always been a major the thesis of NFT gaming, where an asset has value beyond a single platform, team, or function.

Additionally, NFTs remain in your custody at all times.

These have always been a big part of the metaverse’s value proposition, and it’s super exciting to see one of the first actual cases with these dreams come to life.

Veil of Time’s Kanarias are painstakingly crafted pixel versions of their counterparts that share in-game traits with their Kanaria traits, with game-related strengths and weaknesses.

This adherence and fidelity is an exciting element to the gameplay, especially as Kanarias are an equal member in a questing party.

Party dynamics and game balance related to Kanarias will add an additional layer of strategy, especially if (when) the team’s target for PvP gladiatorial battles is added.

You might be wondering why I’m discussing this in such depth. It’s because as the sale is approaching, the fundamental question of your investment is foremost:

“Is what I’m paying for worth the money?

“If the only value is this game, why would I pay x amount for this game experience versus other games?”

Every investor needs to make that decision on their own, but the thesis of Veil of Time differs from other games by the questions they are seeking to answer:

Can a player, starting from a deep JRPG world built from hypothetical situations, story, challenges, and player personality, turn an NFT character’s appearance, stats, (metadata?), and equipment into a personalized on-chain identity of high value?

This, all while just having an enjoyable experience?

The world is promising to be quite large; there’s a lot to look forward to.

But don’t get me wrong. For as much potential as I see and as well executed as it is thus far, it’s still an early game. There is plenty of room for expansion, especially once the player base has shown their involvement and enthusiasm.

The team will develop in tandem with the community, in a way, discovering the world alongside their players. This is something also unique to game development around NFTs. Supply and demand and the close interactions with community will give the team a clear pulse on player interest.

As most of the building thus far has been around infrastructure, the gameplay itself is around 10 hours, though if you’re like me, you’ll spend a lot more time immersed in exploration.

Future gameplay will be focused on multiplayer questing, more world and immersion, and the NFT economy.

There will soon be a lot more questing and crafting, and an in-game currency will allow for the rapid evolution of their economy.

Moreso, the team plans to expand and go for a parachain at some point.

As for their sale, complete details can be read here.

You’ll can enter the game for as low as 1 KSM or spend upwards of 63 KSM for a top, decked-out bundle.

New art has recently been rolled out for characters as well, and several updates between this play test and the current version have already been executed.

What’s been made absolutely clear is that this team is here to build.

---

Veil of Time’s gameplay evoked childhood nostalgia in me–days upon days of staying up all night to complete quests and discover the next chapter of a story. I love the genre, and I already am very much enjoying the game. It’s perhaps one of the most developed and professionally executed blockchain games I’ve played.

The thesis is vast, and while an investor could argue that they are simply investing in an indie game startup, I honestly don’t think that’s a fair assessment. There’s more here than meets the eye.

But, on the other hand, yes, it could become “just” a great game, and an investment nothing more than that. It would be neglectful not to mention that metaverse, and NFTs in general, just cannot be predicted, especially as they are predicated on community momentum and involvement.

---

Pnin’s Ratings:

Sincerity: 9.5/10 (1 = "It’s a scam, run for the hills") (10 = Convincingly not a scam)

Explanation: Everything about this screams passion and sincerity, almost to the point that it might be considered a flaw where the team has gambled their time, energy, and ethics so hard that anything but a resounding success would be sad to see.

I agree with the ideals of the team, but I can’t help but worry that their ideals will lead to some kind of disappointment if reality doesn’t match them. That said, they’ve chosen to take all the risk on their shoulders, and they should be honored for it.

Art: 9/10 (1 = Low effort/skill trash) (10 = Worth investing in if only for only the art)

Explanation: The art is perfect for the genre, and the new art that’s recently been added is a great upgrade. This is NOT an art-for-art’s sake collection, as the NFTs have clear utility in their gameplay, but even so, I’m really enjoying the new art and could easily find myself collecting based on aesthetics.

Ambition: 9/10 (1 = Nothing of note planned) (10 = Might actually be impossible to achieve)

Explanation: The ambition here is definitely borderline bigger than seems plausible. To come from a game and to deliver measurable value (in financial terms) to such an extent that individuals feel like their initial investment is worth it is a very high ask–regardless of how much effort and time the team has already put in.

Unfortunately, unlike other NFT collections with much simpler goals, people will always compare a gaming NFT to traditional gaming products, regardless of other utility and value. This is something that can’t be ignored. If this were “just a game,” players would be used to paying 10-50 USD. Anything above would be outrageous, especially as a work in progress.

The big question, then, is this: “What’s coming that’s more than just gameplay?”

Well, the fact that they plan on going for a parachain eventually definitely sweetens the pie. We’ll have to see what that really means.

Team: 8.5/10 (1 = Totally unqualified, if even real) (10 = The dream team)

Explanation: The team is pretty fantastic. From the art, development, gameplay design, and let me just compliment the writer here. The writer is on-point.

Everything is perfectly executed in the game; even if there are a few bugs and typos, they are minor and easy to overlook.

That said, perhaps because of the team’s ideals, community development has been lackluster. Perhaps it was prioritized too late.

Especially as so much depends on the community, moving forward, my guess is that they’ll need a devoted socials and marketing manager.

Community: 6/10 (1 = It’s dead, and for good reason) (10 = Not only is it active, but the community is real and authentically invested)

Explanation: Dotsama has a bunch of lurking participants. It’s hard to get a pulse on how much interest there actually is prior to any sale. Sometimes, even with a “dead discord,” the appearance of tremendous momentum astonishes everyone.

While we can hope for such a thing with Veil of Time, most channels look relatively low-engagement. Furthermore, there’s an extra gamble as the game is in a genre that almost celebrates solo gameplay.

The feeling of isolation while playing the game will draw parallels to traditional JRPGs without NFTs. That isolation needs to be overcome with their marketplace and future multiplayer integrations to be sustainable, IMHO.

Risk: 6/10 (1 = Pretty much a sure bet) (10 = Chances are akin to winning the lottery)

Explanation: The team recently moved their pricing tiers down, and I’m happy to score this more moderately. At this point, you can get involved for the price of a somewhat expensive indie game, though the targeted average cost is still very high per buyer for those wanting a complete starting bundle.

Don’t get me wrong, the team absolutely deserves the funding. The time and energy they’ve spent on development is incredible, as well as their execution. What they have already achieved is on new technology and built completely from scratch.

But from the investor’s point of view, none of that truly matters until there is proven interest, momentum, and community. Even if there is a parachain–will there be any demand for it? What other value will there be that expands beyond the single game?

Additionally, there’s a line to be walked concerning pay-to-win, or in this case, possible pay-to-progress.

I haven’t played enough to know, but if players aren’t allowed to experience the full game unless they pay for the top-tier items, that could put off many casual players and contract the community into one of whales and cult followers. Having a higher average price tag to be fully involved in something high-risk will put off some early investors.

Based on the demonstrable thoughtfulness inside the game, my theory is that they are well aware of this and will balance gameplay access carefully.

[Edit: the team has assured me that the main quest and main side quests are all accessible to any level of NFT ownership, but there’s always an element of exclusivity to any NFT]

Significance: 7/10 (1 = Doesn’t offer anything new or valuable) (10 = Could change the very fabric of reality)

Explanation: Right now, the significance is moderate. It’s a game, but with built-in identity and trading.

It also represents one of the first proofs of possibility with JRPGs, a possible re-emergence of an entire genre by utilizing RMRK equippable NFTs. It could be a massive milestone, especially if it can engage and bring in users from a familiar experience into understanding the potential value and utility of NFTs.

Veil of Time is a great execution of what we are always asking for: user-acquiring applications built around blockchain that one-ups traditional models through utility.

If successful, the significance of Veil of Time could quickly grow.

---

Disclosures: I was not paid for this article, nor am I associated with the team. I was invited to give my impressions as a known reporter for my previous work. The team does have a competition for promotion which you can read about here.

Follow Veil of Time’s Twitter, Discord, or Telegram.

If you want to send a donation as a gesture of thanks, you can do so to this KSM address: D8WrK1jsFy9zpFwFZStaDTmX32pMZVdwXTm5rt9LsRKBQrz