Real Web Legends: Carter’s Quest Review – Better Than Its Muse

Real Web Legends: Carter’s Quest is a unique action adventure with flirty energy that makes it rise above its inspirations.

It’s not every day I find a game where I get to play as a sexy twink in an array of magical girl outfits beating the snot out of bad guys with an even larger array of weapons, spells, and magic. It’s also not every day that I get to experience a game with as much style, story, and flamboyance as Real Web Legends: Carter’s Quest. Fortunately for me, right when I felt like the well of games I was extremely excited for was drying up for the year, Act 2 of this early access title released after 2 years of development.

Goba, the solo developer behind the title, has passion rarely seen injected into a game before. The sheer amount of animation work, cut scenes, additional weapons with their own unique animations and movesets, story beats, puzzles, gameplay mechanics, and more on display is staggering. Goba has clearly taken inspiration from all mediums. From different genres of gaming to anime to religion to science and medicine and so on all across many time periods, it still retains control over the story.

The feeling of the world and making it completely and utterly their own is something to celebrate here. I won’t even begin to list off probable inspirations, not only due to it being in poor taste, but also because the list would be far too long. At the end of the day, it simply does not matter. Real Web Legends: Carter’s Quest, despite where and how frequently it takes inspiration, is 100% its own experience with its own completely unique identity, and Act 2 is where this all shines the brightest.

For some quick context, Real Web Legends: Carter’s Quest originally released into early access in August of 2024. At the time, the game was just Act 1, but as of Friday, September 18th, Act 2 is officially out! Act 1 covers the intro of the game, a dungeon-esque tutorial through a castle, before spitting you out into a larger sandbox world where the player can choose where to go, interact with new NPCs, find and complete side missions, shop, and so on. (Sounding a little familiar?)

While the setup for the world may sound similar to a particular retro action-adventure game, it deviates from the formula often and in interesting ways. Combat against enemies leans more into hack & slash mechanics with in-depth combat expression found in multiple weapons unlocked throughout a playthrough. Despite this change, there are still puzzles and gimmicky power-ups, like fire arrows or a “sticky hand” that acts like a grapple of sorts. The D-pad buttons can be assigned to particular items for quick use, like a potion, but there are also submenus and subactions for further combat expression.

For example, a weapon’s moveset and combos change depending on whether you’re locked on to an enemy or not. In addition, each weapon has its own moveset with unique animations and can each be upgraded to unlock more moves. Magic can be unlocked slightly later into Act 1, and spells can be assigned to face buttons, similar to items. There’s a crafting system where you can collect items to create potions for health or mana on the fly to assist in sprawling dungeons. There are crystals that can be found hidden in the world and equipped to add special statuses to Carter; for example, one can trigger an effect that gives you mana after a perfect dodge.

All of that is to say, there’s a lot to the first act of Real Web Legends: Carter’s Quest, but where I really found Goba coming into their own was Act 2. Act 1 had a massive amount of not only mechanics but also world-building and lore to dump on us. There were plenty of cutscenes but also a lot of really fun things to do, like side quests and combat encounters.

In Act 2 I feel all these systems were drastically fleshed out. Without boring you with the details, a lot of additional content was added with the Act 2 release, including a lot of Act 1 additions that made the entire experience feel more ‘full.’ Updated character models, updated cutscenes, new quests, redesigned towns, expanded buildings, and so much more.

Along with Act 1 additions, the whole of Act 2, while shorter, felt much more confident. More puzzles, more gimmicks, more thought put into the bosses, and deeper plot moments. Everything about Act 2 felt like a deeper exploration into Goba, the developer. The inspirations evident from Act 1 came into play much stronger in Act 2; character development was more interesting, artistic avenues were explored more deeply, both for the 3D and 2D elements.

And despite Act 2 releasing 2 years after Act 1, it rolls everything together seamlessly, picking up exactly where the player left off and giving them more of the same absolutely bonkers world they’ve come to expect from Carter’s Quest.

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I won’t lie to you, this game is in desperate need of some love. As a solo developer, Goba is putting a lot of their life into this game, including finances. Act 2 isn’t performing where it needs to for Goba to keep working on this. It’s absolutely heartbreaking. I’ve not played a game with this much love and fun bursting from every single seam in maybe ever. While absurd at times, Real Web Legends: Carter’s Quest is also completely and utterly true to its creator.

In any moment where it felt Goba could have tuned down their flamboyance, their passion, their screaming heart, they didn’t. Carter’s Quest is raw, it’s emotional, it’s colorful, and it’s most of all hopeful. Carter is a child of abuse. Not only has he experienced it, but so has everyone around him. The world is inundated with abuse, and that fosters a lack of empathy; yet Carter persists and continues living with an open mind and a loving heart.

There’s a moment, dear Reader, where Carter does something I didn’t expect him to do during the events of the entire story, and it really circumvented my expectations of him as a character. Through that circumvention my entire view of Carter, his story, and the story of the world changed. In an instant. It was beautiful and emotional and so very vulnerable. It is that moment where I decided this game cannot be lost to the capitalist ether. I believe it must persist.

There is no media doing what Real Web Legends: Carter’s Quest is doing. I’ve mentioned this already, but it cannot be overstated how impressive and beautiful the animation work and cutscenes are in this game. The storytelling on display here is some of the best in the indie scene as far as I’m concerned, and this game should absolutely be experienced for yourself.

That is why, despite it being in early access, despite the financial uncertainty, despite the jank and unfinished story, I will continue to champion this game. It’s not only fun, it’s beautiful in a way I haven’t felt since I saw the messy masterpiece that is I Saw The TV Glow. That film isn’t perfect, just like Real Web Legends: Carter’s Quest isn’t perfect, but why should we expect them to be?

Art is messy, similar to the life it’s meant to be a reflection of. Something as true to the self as Real Web Legends: Carter’s Quest should not have its life cut short under any circumstances. So while this is a review of the game, it’s also just as much a call for action. Please check the game out on Steam. Give it a wishlist. Buy it and review it. I promise that, even if it doesn’t have a personal impact on you like it did me, it will absolutely give you a fun couple of days with some absurd laughter along the way.