Worst RPG of the Year Second Place Third Place

At one point while playing Blood Knights, we thought it was going to be one of those "so bad it's good" games. We thought being told "let me use my healing powers!" repeatedly would be all in good fun...until we were turned into vampires, the game broke itself a few times, and we realized it was "so bad it's unfinishable." Blood Knights has the potential to be an interesting vampire game with some unique mechanics. It is also a game that could stand to be patched a few times, as its plethora of glitches, awkward pacing issues, and dull writing does it absolutely no favours. There's nothing to praise in Blood Knights as it's an overpriced title with little care put into it. Why is it so hard to playtest games before releasing them? Why is it so tough to make a fun and competent co-op RPG? In the end, the technical flaws of Blood Knights, which are carefully outlined in our impression, are what put the nail in the coffin for it being RPGamer's Worst RPG of the Year.

Time & Eternity is our runner-up for Worst RPG, but the top two games in this category could go either way depending on what type of terrible you consider the worst type of terrible. The reason Time & Eternity didn't "win" is because it isn't technically broken and can be finished. That doesn't mean, however, that we will be getting that twenty hours of our lives back, nor will the brain cells we lost be returned. Time & Eternity is offensive, from its sexist dialogue and narrative, to its choppy, robotic animation. The only aspect that's remotely capable in this game is its combat system, which is as interesting as watching water boil. It's such an awful game that someone thought it would be funny to send our reviewer two copies (No really, TWO!). Time & Eternity is one of those games that will pique some people's interest just to find out how terrible it is, but we say this with all sincerity — please don't torture yourself with it.

Hometown Story, as a game, is completely pointless. It's overly long, bland, and just generally poorly conceived. It's a game about running a shop where the shop itself has almost no effect on how the game plays out. It takes place entirely within a needlessly large town where everything looks remarkably the same. The graphics are dull, the animations are simplistic, the music is repetitive, and the dialogue is poorly written. No matter how you look at it, Hometown Story is a game that isn't worth playing, putting it among RPGamer's worst RPGs of 2013.

by Sam Marchello, Adriaan den Ouden