Covenant of Solitude is a KEMCO-published RPG from developer Magitec that was first released on mobile devices back in 2013. Now, it’s made its way to other platforms, including Steam. Covenant of Solitude unabashedly hearkens back to the 16-bit era of RPGs from the 1990s, but does it do enough to stand out among such a crowded field of retro-inspired games?
Communicating with and summoning monsters is a rare ability that is misunderstood, feared, and exploited in Covenant of Solitude’s world. Those born with this power are called genies, and protagonist Fort is an orphan with genie blood in him. Fort resides in an orphanage in a remote village, where he gets bullied and outcast by its strongly anti-genie residents. His two best friends, a burly guy named Legna and a sympathetic girl named Elicia, protect and support him as best they can.
Life goes on until, in true RPG fashion, the evil empire razes the village, causing Fort’s latent powers to awaken. Unfortunately, Fort cannot fully control them, and tragedy befalls his friends as a result. Fort is then locked up in an imperial prison and sentenced to death. The day before Fort’s execution, a sassy demon named Wicca appears and offers him a new lease on life. With Wicca to help him figure out his genie powers, a skeptical Fort’s adventure of self-discovery in a war-torn land begins. Covenant of Solitude’s story may have an unremarkable premise, but it’s surprisingly dark and touches upon some heavy themes like prejudice. The game’s second half is far stronger than the first, thanks to some tense plot twists.
I admire the dynamic Covenant of Solitude has between emotional-roller-coaster Fort and Wicca’s cooler, more objective counterpoint to keep him grounded. Wicca is supportive and understanding, yet has a firm hand when needed. She also avoids the nagging and bickering typically associated with characters of her ilk, making her an ideal companion and my favorite character in the game.
The story, while good, has a rough localization that has not been updated from its original form. Conversations read awkwardly due to questionable sentence structure and word choice. The copy-pasted text affects non-story aspects as well. For example, one NPC talks about needing to use real-world money to buy “Solitude Points” to redeem for certain convenience items in a special shop (a.k.a microtransactions). Microtransactions do not exist in this version; you gain Solitude Points through battle.
Covenant of Solitude’s DLC does require real-world money, though. A few easy mode features (like a modifier to triple EXP gained) are available as paid DLC. I would have liked those easy mode features available in the base game, particularly given that many comparable retro-inspired J/J-style RPGs in Covenant of Solitude’s price bracket include those convenience options at no additional cost.
If you’ve played a retro or retro-inspired RPG of this style, Covenant of Solitude’s traditional gameplay is old hat. Progression and exploration consist of the usual town-overworld-dungeon loop with loads of battles throughout. Dungeons feel longer than they really are due to a high random encounter rate and some sudden difficulty spikes causing a need for level grinding. I finished the game in about 16 hours, but it felt longer than that.
Covenant of Solitude’s most interesting gameplay aspect is creating Fort’s monster companions using a simplified version of Final Fantasy V’s Job system. Monsters come in four classes (tanky Dragons, offensive speedster Beasts, support magic Fairies, and offensive magic Vampires) and can take up one of several jobs (Fighter, Healer, Thief, Wizard, and some hidden jobs). Approaching party creation similarly to how I’d create generic troops in SRPGs is fine, but because every new monster starts at level one, changing a job resets the monster’s stats back to level one, and the special job-change items are expensive, there is little motivation to make more than three companions at the very beginning to see you through to the end.
The menus provide all the necessary information an RPG fan needs, but navigating them feels clunky due to unintuitive arrangements. For example, the quest log is within the system menu. Why would the quest log be in the area where I adjust the BGM volume or screen resolution? It also doesn’t help that some interface tutorials mention using keyboard commands, yet I used a gamepad and had to peck and hunt to see which button performed the action the tutorial described. Items are not very well organized in battle menus and there are no sort options. I had to endlessly scroll through large numbers of filler items to find the ones I needed to use. The interface is not as bad as Shadow Madness’ messy menus, but it’s far from efficient.
Covenant of Solitude’s graphics are as basic as it gets. The tired engine used in many Magitec-developed KEMCO games does not look or run much better than games made using RPG Maker XP. I would have liked to see updated graphics in this re-release; a little HD sheen for 2025, at least. Character portraits feature an appealing, if generic, anime style. One stylistic choice I’m not fond of is that male versions of Dragon and Beast class monsters resemble animals, yet the female versions look like humans in “sexy animal” Halloween costumes. Fanservice is all well and good, but in Covenant of Solitude, it creates a nonsensically inconsistent look within the overall design context.
The music is decent, 16-bit MIDI-inspired JRPG fare. Every piece of music is nicely composed and fits its intended action or environment. I can’t say any tunes will get stuck in your head to the point where you hum them throughout the day, but you won’t turn them off and substitute your own music while playing. Sound effects get the job done, but some sound effects, like the teleportation one, are unpleasantly shrill and piercing.
I genuinely liked Covenant of Solitude, but have a hard time recommending it when other (arguably better) games like it exist that offer a better value for the money. That this 2025 re-release of Covenant of Solitude remains relatively unchanged from its 2013 iteration is disappointing. The potential for a good game is there, but it needs a remodel to compete in a supersaturated and highly competitive market. Regardless, Covenant of Solitude always has the wonderful Wicca; she absolutely makes the game.
