Looking for a classic-styled text adventure? ASCII Quest has just been released on Itch.Io, and best of all? This interactive fiction adventure is free!

Check out the in-game user interface!
Here’s the plot for ASCII Quest from the Itch.Io page, which is also where it’s playable!
  • The story takes place in a typical medieval-fantasy village called Txtown. One morning, the Queen makes an announcement to all of her subjects: a powerful magic curse is leading to the town, a curse that only ASCII worlds can have: slowly, but inexorably, everything is turning into non-translatable characters (Like �).
  • The Queen is sure that the non-translatable pest is caused by somebody, an infected who spreads the curse to damage nearby kingdoms, and capturing them will stop the plague; she, therefore, put a huge bounty on the head of this mysterious person, and whoever will bring her enough proofs will become a hero AND a very rich person.
  • In all this, you are just a common villager. Will you spend the day hunting and completing random side quests? Or will you help and find the cause of the infection? (Actually, is there a cause at all? Is there a plague at all? Will this random object be useful for some quest?)

The gameplay of ASCII Quest is reminiscent of old-school, classic text adventures. Think Zork! However, there are some great, modern quality-of-life improvements.

What makes the game fascinating though, is it has some similarities with titles like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. There is also a time factor at play.

For example: When it’s 12:30 PM in the game, locations like stores will be closed for lunchtime. Different actions you perform in-game too will take up different durations as well.

ASCII Quest is perfect if you’re looking for a unique text adventure to jump into… Plus it’s free! It’s also worth checking out Heroes Of Book & Paper if you want more RPG action.


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By Camellia Hao Ren

Camellia Hao Ren is an Australian journalist and editor. When they aren't writing, they are usually playing games or reading.

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