Eve of Calamity

Eve of Calamity is a love letter to the golden age of roleplaying games, and it's one you can lose yourself in for dozens of hours. Developed by the solo creator and released on July 23, 2024, this is an oldschool RPG inspired by both Japanese and Western classics of the 80s and 90s think early Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest crossed with the openended freedom of Baldur's Gate and early Fallout. Two decades ago, your adoptive father saved the world, but his deeds were forgotten. Now the threat is stirring again, and it's your turn to answer the call.

The core of the experience is freedom. There are no mandatory quests and no specific order you have to do things in. You're dropped into the empire of Asterna and told to prepare for the final battle however you see fit. Want to pick a side in a civil war? Fight in an arena? Hunt monsters? Or just make money by trading? It's all valid. This is a game that respects your intelligence and doesn't hold your hand, letting you carve your own path toward preventing the next Calamity.

What makes it truly stand out is the sheer depth of character customization. You can master and switch between over 20 classes, learning more than 150 active and passive skills, and using several hundred items and pieces of equipment to build your party exactly how you want. There are more than 15 companions to find, recruit, and get to know, each with their own stories and abilities. The turnbased combat is at your own pace, with no pressure to rush your decisions and no long wait times between actions. The graphics, gameplay, and music are all reminiscent of early 90s RPGs, delivering a nostalgic experience with modern design sensibilities.

The game has received a "Very Positive" rating on Steam from 54 reviews, and it just got a major expansion called The Forgotten Spire in June 2026. This free update adds a new postgame story, new dungeons, new quests and bounties, 6 new Ascended Classes with their own skills, and more than 70 new pieces of equipment to further tweak your character builds. For players who love building the perfect party and experimenting with broken combos, this is a goldmine of content.

It's worth being honest about one thing: the game doesn't have official Chinese support, so you'll need to be comfortable with English or Japanese to fully enjoy it. But if you can read either language, the language barrier is the only real obstacle.

Who's it for?

If you grew up on classic 90s RPGs and want something that captures that same sense of adventure and discovery, this is going to hit you right in the nostalgia. If you love games like Baldur's Gate or Fallout where you're given a world and told to explore it on your own terms, the openended structure will feel like coming home. It's also for players who enjoy deep character customization the class system, skill trees, and equipment variety offer hundreds of hours of build experimentation. And if you just want a complete, polished RPG with a passionate solo developer behind it, this one's an easy recommendation.

There's a free demo available on Steam if you want to try before. You're getting an entire world to explore, a massive cast of companions to recruit, and a class system that will keep you experimenting for a hundred hours.

If you find the game interesting, I hope you win!