Fellwalker

You've seen this kind of game before. Or have you?

You have probably seen the ads: a small hero runs through a field of monsters, and each monster has a label over its head that says +1 damage or +10 health. The games behind those ads tend to be thin, and most of them stop you with a timer or send you to a shop after a few minutes.

Fellwalker starts from the same idea and treats it as the base of a full action RPG. Everything you can break carries a label that names what it drops, so you know what a fight pays before you start it. A hay bale gives max health and does nothing to stop you. A fox gives damage, and bites. Further into the island the labels get better and the things wearing them get a lot more dangerous.

You only steer the hero. The weapons swing by themselves, each with its own reach and speed, and you can carry four at once: a sword sweeps in front of you while a wand throws bolts at whatever is further off, for example. Since the fighting is automatic, most of what you decide is where to go and what to walk into.

That is also how you build a character. If you want to attack faster you look for the things labelled attack speed and go and break them, and if you keep dying you spend a while on the health ones first.

The island is made by hand and it is open from the start. Nothing is behind a key or a level requirement, so you can walk into a biome you are far too weak for and find out what happens.