This new ‘hand-drawn’ RPG adventure is a true homage to 90s games and comics

If you’re looking for something a little different to play while most are sinking serious hours into Hollow Knight: Silksong, there’s this brand new RPG adventure that has just launched, and looks like it’s been made in MS Paint.

It’s called Heroes of the Seven Islands, and is a self-proclaimed “poorly” hand-drawn “tribute to Classic RPG and Comic Books.”

In practice, that “poorly” tag is part of the charm. Heroes of the Seven Islands is deliberately scruffy with thick marker lines, scribbled shadows, and comic-book speech bubbles, but underneath the doodles is a surprisingly well-made 90s-style RPG.

It focuses on Furax the Indestructible, a fleshless intruder from an inter-dimensional rift, and has slipped into the candy-coloured world of Émeyralia and is busily seeding sadness, despair, and nightmare creatures across the map.

The prophecy says only the Oracle can stop him… except the Oracle retired centuries ago. Your job is to lead four brave heroes on a non-linear hunt for seven keys held by the seven rulers of the seven islands in the Emerald Archipelago, then haul the Oracle out of retirement for one last gig.

Exploration is point-and-click, with quests fanning out in every direction, and you can ignore the main objective to chase side quests if you wish. Battles are turn-based yet snappy, so you’re never waiting long to see if that reckless all-in works.

First runs are supposed to come in at 7–12 hours, which is refreshingly reasonable for a game that still lets you detour and poke into every nook.

Beyond the pen-and-ink look and feel, the developer lean into mood with a dungeon synth soundtrack, with hundreds of unique hand-drawn illustrations to discover.

If you want a break from the ultra-slick and photoreal, this one’s happily rough around the edges in the best possible way. What’s more, you can pick it up for less than ten bucks on Steam, and there’s even a free demo you can try to get a feel for the experience.