Deadly Woods by Richterwilker

 

A series of murders have been happening in the countryside of the USA. All of them are connected by the fact that the victims are all woman. The last one was of Sarah Anderson, a young girl resident of DreamVale, a small and pacific town surrounded by forests. FBI Special Agent Desmond Miles is sent to town, with the purpose of looking for possible clues that would lead to the culprit, and to try and stop any more killing from happening.

 

 

Deadly Woods is often considered an upgraded version of Mystery Falls: the plot, setting and characters involved are technically different, and there are various possible endings, but the graphics and gameplay are basically the same. Day/night cycle, minigames, shooting and action battles, puzzles, three dungeons, this game offers lots of content, whote gameplay is inspired by games like Deadly Premonition and Shenmue, While the story was developed in a way to be like a serialized murder mystery, similar to Twin Peaks. There are several optional sidequests that enrich the main investigation, telling details about the various characters involved.

Download Link

Itch.io 

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

Random Fact: the game had a prototype called The World Needs You that was a sequel to Mystery Falls about FBI Special Agent Desmond Miles investigations the disappearance of agent David Parker from Mystery Falls. It uses some slightly different graphics in some parts, anyway see this below.

 

Final Verdict: Deadly Woods is more like a return to the origins of Mystery Falls, but it's very good with more than double the content. New players may find themselves lost due to the amount of things to do and the freedom of the open world, anyway it's really a game that stands out.

EXTRA - The World Needs You: FBI Special Agent Desmond Miles was sent to Mystery Falls, a small town in the countryside of the Casa Island, to try and solve the disappearance of an M.I.A. agent, David Parker. He was investigating strange cases of people disappearing in this town, and he may have become a victim himself. But Mystery Falls is not the only place that requires his attention, as a series of murders are also happening around the Casa Island.
As the investigation advances, it may get harder and harder to trust in the citizens of the island, as it seems that most of them have secret lives, and some of them may be involved in dirty deeds that may or may not be related to the main investigation. 

This game has a single ending, and the author suggest to play it after Mystery Falls and Similar Mountains, but before Deadly Woods.

Download Link

Itch.io

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de 

Phantom Legacy by Nightblade

 

Years after the Old Gods have died, the world is still in turmoil. Shadar continues to cause trouble while the governments are becoming unstable. Slade and his companions are now adults who have set out to fix the mess, but they are unable to do it alone. One day, Slade sets out to kill Shadar for good.

Nero is a golem boy living a simple life in a small house in the woods. He often receives prejudice and scorn from the citizens of the nearby town and is forced to rely on wildlife for food, but he manages. Then one day, Shadar pays him a visit and turns his whole life upside down. Before long, Nero is thrust into the role of hero who must stop Shadar and save the crumbling world.

 

Phantom Legacy is the second part of the Legacy saga and sees the return of the return of all the old characters from the first game. However this time the protagonists are Nero and his allies, although there are still some temporary characters like in the first game, and the game plays more or less like the first, except for few little negligible additions. But battles, graphics and story were really improved.

Download Link

Mirror Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

 

TvTropes 

 

 

Random Fact: while this is the end of the series, another third game was planned but unfortunately only a short demo was release: its name was Eldritch Law, made with RPG Maker VX Ace, it was about a lone elite fighter, Albion, fighting in a war among deities in the same setting of the Legacy saga.

 

Final Verdict: Phantom Legacy expands the world of Demon Legacy with new adventures and places to visit. The game improves every aspect of the predecessor, and it's probably really enjoyable only if you completed the previous game.

Demon Legacy by Nightblade

 

Long ago, the world was ruled by Proteus and his children, the Demi-Gods. Prince Galahanzer, a hero chosen to save the world, found himself drawn into the middle of the war with the Demi-Gods and disappeared, never to be seen again.

Years later, Slade, a boy training to become a knight of the Kingdom of Ragan, encounters the sinister Shadar, the Malevolent Shadow feared all across the world for his cruelty. Slade becomes determined to stop Shadar, but in the process discovers the truth of the ancient war and the state of the world itself. The conflict between humanity and the divine resurfaces, and he Slade not only will have to fight Shadar, but also the corrupt Archduke Deimos, the Demi-Gods led by Apollo, and the now-insane Proteus.

 

 

Demon Legacy is an epic dark fantasy adventure and the first half of the Legacy duology. It plays as a classic fantasy adventure rpg, with characters possessing various skills and combat roles (Iris is clearly a healer/buffer for the attackers), visible wandering enemies and boss battles, the game is pretty much linear (although you may optionally revisit some places to restock consumables) and you can also save anytime. I found battles sometimes challenging, but for the most part well balanced. While the game is pretty dark involving the themes of wars, famine and death, there are still several humorous scenes involving the party members, like Sharn the mercenary asking for some popcorn to an apparition… that doesn't even know what popcorn is!

 

Winner of the Misaos for Best Cliffhanger Ending and Best villain (Shadar). 

 

Download Link 

Mirror Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

 

TvTropes 

 

Although the game was created with Rpgmaker 2003, a first prototype demo made with Rpgmaker 2000 was also released before. However in the complete version there is a little error in the beginning, if you try to go back to Narik: the dialogue shows the old faceset of Slade that was used in the first demo version! This happens only once anyway. Find the Rpgmaker 2000 demo below:

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Random Fact: for the prologue, and in few other parts of the game, we play as Prince Galahanzer, a powerful lone hero whose actions will be very important for the plot. This is mirrored in the sequel by Slade, that becomes a temporary playable powerful lone hero after the events of the first game.

 

 

Final Verdict: maybe it didn't age well, and still has some mapping errors, but I found this game very fun to play! Loot and battles are balanced, they never felt impossible or too easy, and the story, while not one of the best, kept me interested from the beginning to the end. A classic, surpassed by its excellent sequel!

Story of Innocence by Ultima187

 

Lyanna is a meager young woman with a streak a bad luck: due to a series of unfortunate events she ends being sold into slavery. However, after a failed escape attempt, she meets Joseon, a mysterious one-eyed swordsman with a golden armor who buys her freedom. They then start a journey to go back home that will lead to several strange encounters with various monsters, a ghost ship and many other incredible adventures.

 

 

Story of Innocence is a classic story-driven Rpgmaker adventure and rpg with puzzles, stealth sections and many locations to explore, for hours of adventures. It's a pity that this is just a demo, but for the rest we have a really well made classic rpg with many maps and lots of edited assets and custom animations.

 

WARNING: remember to disgregard the tutorial! It makes the game crash!

Download Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Random Fact: unfortunately the story of the second protagonist, Fiona the Commander of the Maridan Knights, was never implemented. The game was in fact supposed to have two different protagonists and storylines, that could be selected after starting the game.

 

 

Final Verdict: an excellent story with many likeable characters and los of adventure. Also one of the best looking Rpgmaker games from the author of Raciela.

Skydancer 2: ONI by Uran & Polakko (italian)

 

Five years have passed since the events of the first game and the end of Tatsuke Sanji's story. The little Kotaro is now studying martial arts under the guide of Koji Takana, Shin's older brother, while Gunner is exploring the wasteland ruins with the hacker Shoki.
Shin Tanaka, that mysteriously disappeared at the end of the first game returns too, and this time he will have to gather his friends to face a new menace.

 

 

Skydancer 2 was never officially released, but a complete beta version was made available by the authors. It adds some new features like real-time combat and new character and abilities, however it is still very similar to the first game, even if half of the cast is new. Unfortunately this sequel wasn't translated.

 

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de

 

Random Fact: a reboot of the Skydancer series is in the works, so this is probably the reason why Skydancer 2 was never really finished.

 

 

Final Verdict: with few additions, this is a neat game but more like more of the same compared to the first. Naturally, if you liked that one, you will love this game too!

Skydancer by Uran & Polakko

 

Neo Tokyo is ruled by a self-proclaimed emperor: Seijuro Godha, who easily obtained the consent of its inhabitants with a promise to restore the island to its original pre-war splendor through a precisely very ambitious reconstruction project called: Heaven Prime. The protagonist is Tatsuke Sanji, a future samurai equipped with a laser katana and a mecha arm that is the leader of the rebels that oppose Godha. His adventures will lead him to meet Shin Tanaka, a fearsome master of a deadly martial art that involves the use of Ki energy to hit his opponents: the "Denryoku jutsu".

 

Skydancer is not a classic Rpgmaker game since it has a distinct post apocalyptic futuristic setting with some elements clealry taken by the Fist of the North Star Anime series. Moreover the game adds a sort of quicktime event system to combat, making it more dynamic, but luckily there is still the option to lower the difficulty of the reaction time attacks. The game includes some ripped sprites but also lots of original artworks, edits and even voiced characters in battles.

 

Download Link

Indiexpo.net

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

 

 

Random Fact: before Skydancer, there was Shinquest. This game was originally created for a contest, had a totally different story and a more classic rpgmaker combat system, but characters and resources were in part the same used for Skydancer, that was a sort of reboot. Anyway see below for this first untranslated prototype.
 

Final Verdict: Skydancer is and impressive games made by someone who really liked the old 80s anime. While I wasn't a fan of the new "action-style" combat system, since I hate quicktime events, this took years to be made and the final result is pretty much impressive! A 30 hours complete game with lots of characters, places and battles.

 

 

EXTRA - Shinquest Broken Memories by Uran & Vinc90: the prototype of Skydancer, but the story is quite different. Instead of focusing on Sanji, the cyber-samurai, it features Shin Tanaka as the main protagonist. In Skydancer he was demoted to a side-character, but he's still very important to the plot. In any case the story is quite different, the locations aren't the same, and while some characters of Skydancer appear here too, it's a totally different story. This game was never translated into english.
 

Download Link

Indiexpo.net