Letter Quest Remastered: The Undisputed King of Word‑Based RPGs
The Humour, Art, and Personality That Make Letter Quest Shine
Over the years, whenever I cover word-based puzzle games, Letter Quest often crops up as the standard-bearer for quality. It seems unusual to retrospectively cover a game released over a decade ago, but I was sure that I had sung the praises of Letter Quest in an article upon its initial release - I had certainly played it enough! - but I checked during my research for Beyond Words, and no, I hadn’t. So I’m getting to rectify that here.
From the website:
The grim reapers, Grimm and Rose, need your help to defeat a legion of monsters, ghosts, and evil bunnies using the power of words!
Spell words to battle monsters and earn gems that can be used to purchase upgrades, books, special items, potions, and much more!
Letter Quest is a turn-based RPG featuring high-res artwork, clever wordplay, and two great soundtracks. Use your linguistic skills to survive!
A 2D game, Letter Quest puts you under the mysterious cloak of Grimm (and later, Rose), two reapers who travel the land, defeating monsters and mutants through a combination of words and unlockable power-ups. Each enemy you come across during the short, punchy stages must be defeated using the power of words, created from the fifteen tiles available.
Whilst it’s initially a case of ‘the longer the word the better’, soon you’ll be unlocking power-ups, upgraded tiles and various other cool little varietals to ramp up your attack power, not to mention the new scythes, boosts and bonuses that you can get your hands on from solving mini-games (all word-based, natch), and loot sections, which can net you a tidy profit.
With a choice of soundtracks – the original, and a more modern take – the music changes quite nicely between the stages, each being a mesmerising, lengthy loop that sits in the background well, and keeps the game from getting staid, without being overly dramatic or irritating, a careful and delicate balance!
What sets Letter Quest apart from its contemporaries is the touches of charm and flashes of personality. Each animation is subtle and fun; the enemy types and descriptions are genuinely amusing; and the art style completely captures the overall vibe of the game, with a sort of cartoonish, gothic, animated setup.
There are moments where slight grind points are hit, but working back through the previous stages to earn more stars and gems to upgrade your loadout in the hope of buffing up enough to take down whichever boss is currently ailing you is always satisfying due to the rock-solid core gameplay loop.
This is a game that would work absolute wonders on a handheld device [Rich has it on Switch and YES it does work wonders], but is just as fun with a group of friends, or with a glass of wine and a loved one, a charming little imp that’s suitable for all that love word-based puzzle games.
SUMMARY
It’s been an absolute pleasure diving back into Grimm’s world for the third time, and I feel very comfortable in stating that Letter Quest Remastered will never be uninstalled from my Xbox. It’s a wonderful gem of a game that is – as far as I’m concerned – the jewel in the word-based puzzle genre’s crown. Absolute, shining solid gold.
9.5/10
ICE COOL🧊🧊
(also available on PS4/5, Xbox One, Switch, iOS, PC, Mac, Linux)
Developer – Bacon Bandit Games
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