Wycheweald is a rare thing on the ZX Spectrum – an actual Role-Playing Game, with a first-person viewpoint and turn-based combat. It was created by Red Zebra and first released in 2023. And, while it is a little slow to play, it is well presented and quite absorbing. That is: if you like these kinds of esoteric RPGs. Which I do! 🙂

The first thing you need to do is: make sure you load the game on a 128K Spectrum, because the 48K version of this game is very stripped-down and confusing. I actually played the 48K version for a couple of hours, before realising that the 128K version had important enhancements, so I ended up restarting. The main reason the enhancements are useful is because of the quest pointers. In the 128K version the cut scenes give you clues as to where to go next, and the map screen has the main objective shown at the bottom. In the 48K version you don’t get these, so it can be difficult knowing where to go next at certain points.

You begin the game on your own, but gain more party members as you explore. The story is explained as text and portraits, but there are things that aren’t explained that you should know. Forester, the guy whose house you start at (after being rescued), will allow you to rest if you talk to him. This is really important, but I missed it on my first playthrough (and really struggled as a result). Secondly, enemies will immediately sense you if you have your lamp on (pressing ‘L’ toggles it on and off), so only use it in areas you know are clear. Thirdly, keep checking your map (press ‘M’), and don’t forget to use the southern stone marker at Forester‘s house to enter the southern part of the woods*.

*= This will only unlock after you find Raedwulf. Return to Forester with Raedwulf, then go speak to The Witch, then go back and ‘use’ the southern stone marker. If you try to use the marker before then, it will just say that it’s not the north marker.

Graphically, Wycheweald is fairly pleasing on the eye. I’d say that it’s more “neat and tidy” than wildly imaginative, but it does have some nice touches. Like the lamp the party uses to illuminate dark places, which flickers between red, yellow and magenta to give the lighting effect a more unique look. It works very well. The animated enemies are poor, though. They don’t have much character and it isn’t clear what they’re doing when they move. The environmental animations, when your party moves, are also unnecessary and just slow the game down. I turned them off.

Gameplay-wise, Wycheweald is mixed. On default settings the movement and text speed were way too slow for my liking. I set the movement speed to 6 (max), and the text speed to 5 and that made things better. It’s still very slow, though, even at those settings. Combat I found to be uninspiring. Which – coming from me; a lover of turn-based combat – is a serious criticism. Even after unlocking some abilities and continuing to clear the forest of enemies I found myself dreading combat. Because it’s so slow. Every battle is a sluggish war of attrition and takes way too long. I think the main problem is that you don’t do enough damage when you hit.

With a game like this you have to feel – at some point – that you’re improving, and also that the combat is getting easier as you progress. It takes too long in Wycheweald for that to happen, which will put some off playing this game. If the combat had been better I would’ve been singing the game’s praises, but as it stands I think only hardcore RPG fans will like it.

I’d seriously love to see a great RPG on the Spectrum from the homebrew scene, but unfortunately Wycheweald isn’t it.

More: Wycheweald on itch.io