Zephyrus and the Kingdom of Heaven by Rue669

 

Zephyrus Isaiah, the Ruler of Rhea, is haunted by the galaxy he lives in. He can’t help but feel the pain and suffering of the mysteriously destroyed planet, Judas. On the other planets, Rhea and Arcadia, he is disgusted by the people and their traditions. But most of all—he’s disgusted by their religion. In Zephyrus and the Kingdom of Heaven we play as Zephyrus and his son, Aegis Isaiah, as they both uncover the secrets of their galaxy and fight for what they believe in.

 

 

Zephyrus and the Kingdom of Heaven is a complete fantasy adventure with religious overtones, and if you've played Xenogears you'll understand. The game starts with us playing as Zephyros exploring the tomb of the Messiah, but later he is joined by his son, Aegis, that becomes the true protagonist of the story. The game is a complete linear adventure with a couple of optional enemies (the reward for the victory is unlocking the final weapons and armors for the party) and a curious systems that uses battle points, earned fighting battles, to buy spells and powers for the characters, and a barter system to get useful items. Game uses save points, non-random encounters and avoidable battles, except for the obligatory boss fights.

Download Link

Mirror Link

Rmarchiv.de

 

Random Fact: although the game is complete, the ending hints to a sequel that was never made. On the other hand, Rue669 after this game made a series called Elohim Eternal. The three games tells a different story, but there are still characters named after biblical figures and present similar themes and fantasy setting to the one of Zephyrus and the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

 

Final Verdict: this is a pretty good game, difficulty is for the most part well balanced (one optional boss has a multiple strile that may destroy the party with a single attack, but that's it!) and mapping is very good. Well done!

Acsiosa, Terre des Cieux, Terre de Magie by ThrillerProd / Corentin Flach (french)

 

Lita is a resident of Acsiosa, the legendary floating island, is peacefully napping on one of the archipelago's islets when three spirits possess her. Feeling unwell, she falls from the floating island to the world below, where she's rescue by Ulric, a young man wanted by the men of King Faust, that outlawed magic to porsue the ways of technology. The adventure of Lita then begins in the town of Nomura, and being like all Acsiosaians a wirlder of primal magic, she becomes the hope of the restistance against the king. However who are the spirits that possessed her? And is it really a coincidence that she arrived in a village of rebels?

 

Acsiosa is an action rpg game where we control Lita in real-time exploration and combat encounters. The game uses many custom made menus and an original battle system and interface, unlike most other rpgmaker games. On the other hand the graphics uses the classic Rfmap resources and the maps are really prettye and well done, with a particular attention to Lightning effects.

Download Link

Mirror Link

Alex d'Or

Rmarchiv.de

 

Random Fact: the author made another game about two years before Acsiosa: LothFer. This game is darker, and tells the story of a half-demon, LothFer. However it presents may aspects in common with Acsiosa, like a real-time action combat system and an interesting use of lightning.

 

Final Verdict: I am not a fan of real-time action rpgs but I cannot deny the quality of this project. While the story and characters aren't very original, he interface isn't bad at all, and the maps are especially well made.

Monstrous Wars by King of Games

 

The world was created by three gods, but now it's falling apart. Toshi, a young man that lives in a small quiet village training to become a swordsman, after some everyday adventures find himself hunted by a madman. This insane magician infiltrates the cathedral of his village to attempt reviving the three godly creatures in a fit of twisted vengeance. Toshi is wounded, and find himself stranded in the big city where he will have to unravel the mysteries and join in the fray he's longed for his whole life. A series of bizarre events will take him to contact an unlikely ally: a humanoid panda martial artist called Bishop II.

 

Monstrous Wars is a pretty weird game, it starts as your average Rpgmaker rpg with some simple battles against slimes, but then it opens to a free roam and a series of disjointed trippy adventures. Expect not just battles against monsters, that can be avoided, but also minigames like real-time duels, riding motorbikes, puzzles, stealth sections, a climbing rhythm game, dancing and more. Visually is colorful and includes many different locations and environments, various custom made sprites and edits.

Download Link

Mirror Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

Random Fact: at a certain point Toshi will visit a crypt with some zombies inside. The walls features some textures and sprites taken directly from the first two Doom videogames.

 

Final Verdict: Monstrous Wars is a very interesting game, unfortunately during later parts the story falls apart with a series of bizarre events and dreamlike sections that make little sense. There was the attempt to put everything together, but unfortunately in the end the game was never completed. 

The Last Days according to Ezra by Orochii

 

Ezra, worker on a factory whose name is Machine Inc. suffers some changes on his life. 
After being fired for some unfair reasons, he becomes involved in some strange events and meets some powerful beings like the Red Avenger and the mysterious Uriel. These events may put the entire world on risk and lead to its ending, if not stopped on the act.

 

 

The Last Days according to Ezra is an adventure game about a perfectly normal person in  a modern neighborhood where something strange is going to happen. It plays as a classic adventure game with some interactions, weird dialogues, cryptic monologues and some brutal combat encounters: Ezra in fact is a normal person and at first he'll find himself in trouble when facing more aggressive opponents, luckily later he'll be helped by stronger ally. There is no equipment management, no experience points and no levelling up, but few new skills and items are unlocked during the story.

Orochii originally made this game in spanish, however there is an english version available too.

Download Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

Gamejolt 

Random Fact: despite the title mentioning Ezra (Ezra Bound to be precise), you are free to name the protagonist as you prefer, so technically "Ezra" is just the default protagonist name.

 

Final Verdict: a very trippy and unusual game, thanks also to the custom graphics. It's unlikely that a player will play complete it more than once, since it's pretty linear, still quite good. Short and peculiar, but probably not for everyone. 

Alpha-Terra Conspiracy: Empire of Stars by Section69

 

The game follows the adventure of Rei, a technician who lives on the dying Earth of 2088: our protagonist will travel through time and space to survive the destruction of his planet with the assistance of Lieutnant Ashleah Marshall, a war hero of the Kusharik Resistance, and Doctor Del Wraa, a mysterious scientist. Stealing an airship from the Reznoria Corporation, that created a colony on Mars, he escapes from Earth before it's too late, but the Reznorian stasis pods were created to ensure the loyalty of the soldiers partially erasing their memories. So reaching Mars Rei and Ashleah believe to be Reznorian soldiers, and are tasked to investigate the attacks of the Kryll, an alien race that seems to be behind the destruction of Earth…

 

Alpha-Terra Conspiracy is a story-driven sci-fi epic adventure rpg where nothing is how it appears. The game includes a lot of mystery and weirdness, but it's also a classic rpg at heart: manage your party, rest in stasis pods, fight space pirates and the strange alien fauna of Mars. The most impressive aspects are probably the music and the visuals, that really create an original sci-fi setting with factions, good guys and villains. 

 

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de

Rpgmaker.net 

 

Random Fact: the game was originally called The Empire of Stars, but the last demo was renamed Alpha-Terra Conspiracy.

 

Final Verdict: despite the classic gameplay, the setting is really unique and developed. There are many dialogues, locations and while not all of them are pretty, and some look like fillers, this is still an impressive game. A pretty good job! 

Crimson Sky by Mitsuhide the Vagrant

 

Lieutenant Haos Guardlance is the leader of a group of soldiers that is ambushed and defeated by the Zervan Army. Taken to the Zervan sea prison on the coast, he wakes up in the middle of the night finding the door of his cell open. Meanwhile it seems that a large group of monsters is attacking the prison, and now the guards are rather busy fending off the invaders, so it's the right time to evade. Thanks to the help of another convict, Wilton the thief, Haos is able to escape from the prison, and after some misadventures he wakes up on the nearby beach, finally free. Then he is joined by Violet the mage and begins his travel back home, and the adventure continues...

 

 

Crimson Sky is a demo that can be completed in about two hours and thirty minutes. It includes exploration, puzzles, traps and many battles, random encounters and set battles, included boss enemies. This is a pretty classic fantasy game, with nice maps and custom made battlers and charsets. 

Download Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

 

 

Random Fact: Tross the mercenary swordsman, a rival of Haos, is encountered in the first part of the demo, and he's later left at the prison fighting the monstrous invaders. However the game includes his battle sprites among the resources, so he was supposed to become not an enemy boss, but rather a playable party member and ally of Haos. 

 

Final Verdict: this is a good 2-hours adventure that shows lot of potential and attention to some parts, including minigames and puzzles, even if it's noticeable the lack of... *something* due to being only a demo.

Lobby Loitering by ViktorTheGreat

Marcel is a silent and quites boy, that is visiting  a dying mall of his town, where many people speak about a mysterious abandoned store, and everyone seems interested in finding this place for some reason. Marcel is curious and decides to investigate, but at certain point find himself in another dimension populated by strange humanoids, some are half animals and others half plants... then he leaves but still he keeps finding himself in other dimensions that have all one thing in common: all these places that he will visit are hotels. Will he be able to find the way back home?

Lobby Loitering is an adventure game where Marcel has to explore various areas looking for items and people needed to progress, moving from dimension to dimension until he'll be able to go back home. There are some little puzzles and tasks, anyway there is no risk of game over, and the game is for the most part lighthearted. But not all of it, there are some serious and dramatic parts, thrilling events, and dark, creepy locations. Visually the game uses custom assets and it's colorful and cute. There are also some pictures of real locations sometimes integrated as cutscenes.

Itch.io

Steam

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

Random Fact: Lobby Loitering includes various cameos. The most unexpected one was probably Gag, the panda from Pen Pals. Yes, protagonist of the game I posted yesterday, probably ViktorTheGreat liked that game.

 

Final Verdict: this is a pretty strange but cozy game. I liked it, has lot of different locations and colorful characters.

Pen Pals by Maroonracoon

The protagonist is a humanoid panda named Gag that leaves his home and dad to search for his mother. He is joined by his abusive friend Pal while he visits different locations such as Onion Town, a forest and the city of Understanding. The two will meet many quirky characters in their travels.

 

Pen Pals is basically a walking simulator and exploration game, without combat or puzzles. Maroonracoon released this game in 2013, and it's worth mentioning that this was the first game made the dev using custom graphics and music. It is a linear experience, but you can enter almost every house and talk with everyone. Sometimes you can collect items and consumables that have no great importance (except for the leather jacket, that's the only item needed to progress after a certain point).

The creator stated that this game was release incomplete and many players criticized it for this reason, but even if some content was cut, the adventure has a beginning and an ending, creating a sort of simple and a little confusing short story. 

Download Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Random Fact: although the game has no combat, there are still some parts where you can take damage and even be killed. In these parts the only option is fleeing from the area and escape.

Final Verdict: the game is pretty unique for its visuals and despite being a little rough around the edges and clearly not a final version, it is surely an interesting first game. 

The Strangetale - Rpg Comedy Novel by Seus (italian)

 

The Strangetale is an epic adventure of four friends: Shadow Zorkas the ingenious handyman, Alex Z. Purger the veteran soldier, Edgardo Lancelot the master swordsman and FatMan Tack, a lazy and coward fat friar. These four unlikely heroes in the beginning have some comedic adventures and clashes with an incompetent sheriff, but later it will become clear that a true obscure menace from a past era is threatening the world. Will the four will be able to set aside their disagreements and work together to stop those who want to destroy their land?

 

The Strangetale is a complete epic fantasy adventure with futuristic overtones: the game is a parody of the jrpg genre but includes also many minigames and some puzzles. There are lots of cameos and references to other games, comica and other media, like Pokemon, Jojo's Bizarre Adventures, Berserk and the Punisher, to name a few. The game uses lots of different assets, from Rtps to edits, sprites ripped from other games, and even hand-drawn cutscenes. 

Download Link

Mirror Link

Rmarchiv.de

 

Original Thread 

 

Random Fact: an optional dungeons sees the party competing against two other teams of adventurers. One is a parody of a typical jrpg party (like Final Fantasy), lead by a teenager with spiky hair and a giant sword, the other is the parody of a western action rpg (like Diablo), basically a single taciturn character able to do everything. The protagonist have to beat both teams, of course.

 

Final Verdict: this is a game with ninjas, giant robots, magic and firearms, for the most part silly and parodistic, but not without some serious moments.   

The Cicatrix by Stedar

 

The story begins with the main character, the warrior Ephren Sillion , heading off to rescure his comrade in arms Alastor Match. Anyway after this introduction that gives a little background and starts with an enigma, the story reverts back to weeks before Alastor's kidnapping. Ephren is resting after returning from brokering a peace treaty with the nation of Selia on behalf of his home kingdom of Larica. He has to travel back to the Castle of Cyria where he'll meet Alastor, howerver during his travels he'll get into trouble with necromancers, wizards and rabbits.

 

The Cicatrix is a classic fantasy Rpgmaker game, but has many interesting aspects: even if the story is linear there are some extra optional events/activities/subquests, and many situations in which you can choose how the protagonist will act. In some parts you can take a side or another of a conflict, for example. 

Then there are the maps, that are filled with many details, populated areas are often crowded and the charsets have many animations (Ephren's swim animation, for example).

Finally there's even a day-night cycle system that will also change the maps (for example the stalls will be empty at night).

 

Download Link

Mirror Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

Random Fact: the game was in the beginning called "Hero I: Ephren's Journey". The old title screen can still be found inside the Title folder, together with the first "The Cicatrix" old title. 

 

 

Final Verdict: a very beautiful demo, and a lesson in style: it's not very long but this was clearly a refined intro scenario to a bigger story that unfortunately was never completed. It's still an enjoyable experience.

Evoker by Kaempfer

 

Evoker begins with our alter ego, Lucan, being summoned by King Coren to escort a Sun Magi initiate, Cassie, to the temple. Lucan is a Sun Kight of Davos, able to cast healing and damaging spells, but he's also a strong warrior, far stronger than the young Cassie. Unfortunately things won't go as planned and a series of events will lead to his defeat and being weakened, just before the beginning of the real adventure. So Lucan will start a new quest, recovering his powers and strength, meeting several helpful companions, fighting monsters and travelling a lot all around the world.

 

 

Evoker is a classic jrpg adventure made with Rpgmaker to resemble some classic titles like FFIV and FFVI: there is a large cast of different playable characters, and the graphic style and system is pretty similar, even if it's not a fangame. The graphics are for the most part ripped and edited, mapping is very good also. The bosses are also interesting, like the Chimera, where each head has to be be attacked separately. Nothing really original or new, but everything is well done!

 

Download Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de 

Random Fact: the game lets you save only on the world map or using save points, that aren't always positioned before bossfights. Anyway if you farm some money you can be able to buy Save Scrolls that lets you save anytime.

 

 

Final Verdict: the beginning is a bit harsh since you start with few money, two companions, and everyone is a weak pushover, moreover due to the lack of resources it's one of the hardest parts of the demo. After managing the resources and levelling up, the game becomes a little easier. For the rest it's ok even if some character like Lucan, Blind and Una seems quite stronger and more useful than others (Lucan has healing spell, Blind a lethal two-weapon style, Una is a IA-controlled combat monster).

Matchmaker Carol by Gretgor

 

Carol is a prodigy matchmaker, a person who helps other people find the loves of their lives. There is nothing she likes more than to make people happy, and in her talents as a matchmaker, she found a way to do just that. As a special day of celebration draws near in the lovely island of Tropicalia, the island's mayor asks Carol to serve as a matchmaker for the island's eight young singles. The mayor is adamant that Carol only pairs men with women, and women with men, but as Carol will eventually find out, the only way to truly make all singles in the island happy is to convince him to break that rule.

 

 

Matchmaker Carol is a lighthearted game about exploring a colorful setting and solving puzzles: no battles nor even risk of Game Pver, plus it's possible to save anytime, and the game is all about solving puzzles, looking for useful items and unlock new areas to meet the different singles. The game uses a custom inventory and menu useful to review the informations acquired, and there is also a handy map of the island. Game is short but complete, includes some secrets, and it's really well done.

 

Download Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Random Fact: holding down SHIFT and spamming Z it's possible to skip most cutscenes including the one that opens the title screen.  

 

 

Final Verdict: not your classic Rpgmaker game for sure, Matchmaker Carol is a relaxing adventure with some well made puzzles that may require some tries but are never too hard to figure out. A fun little complete game.