Final Fantasy: The Phoenix Prophecies by Madriel222

Nickel Arand is a highly trained swordsman from the planet Miidrio with the mission to assassinate the Emperor of Nafein. The adventure starts inside a spaceship, in fact Nickel belongs to a very advanced civilization, compared to the primitive world where his mission will take place. Nickel reaches Nafein posing as a taveller, but infiltrating the keep and reaching the Emperor will be more difficul than he expects…

 

 Final Fantasy: The Phoenix Prophecies is a fangame inspired by the popular series. Surprisingly this game uses a real-time combat system with a single playable character, that's pretty vague and probably the weakest part of the game (avoiding the enemies is easier!). In any case it seems that there were also three companions for Nickel, but the first joins at the end of the demo, so we do not know how they would support him in combat. For the rest we have puzzles, stealth sections, optional sidequests and some investigation, adding some features to a game that's interesting but also pretty short. The graphics are nice, and there are some unexpected details, like the sounds of the protagonist's steps that changes depending on which material he is walking on (stone, metal, etc).

 

Download Link

Rpgmaker.net

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Random Fact: if you played any Final Fantasy game, you probably know that Gil is the name of the currency used in all games. This fangame makes no exception, however our protagonist, that comes from another planet, in the beginning oddly tries to pay with dollars! And no, dollars do not appear in any Final Fantasy game.

 

 

Final Verdict: I wasn't a fan of the realtime combat, and I avoided it entirely, and I wasn't also a fan of the final puzzle, but aside for these two inconveniences, I found the story pretty interesting and maps well made and rich of details. A peculiar fangame. 

The Song of Elegin by Madriel222

The Song of Elegin starts on the aftermath of the defeat of evil: the demons were banished from the realm, and now after the Xiannodel Wars, those who were trained in the arcane arts find themselves purposeless, and the masses they protected from the dark demonic forces now look at them with distrust and fear.
Oroth Naraskodel is an apprentice mage who's 10 year training at the arcane academy known as The Order. A deeply caring and empathetic individual, Oroth now heads back to his childhood home of Innarlith, back to a father whom he believes abandoned his responsibilities as a parent. Embarking on the long odyssey with his childhood friend, the young warrior Berundd, he will attempt to find purpose in this world. What will start out simply as a journey home will evolve into a great adventure that will make our heroes reveal and face the greatest conspiracy the world has ever known.

The Song of Elegin is apparently a classic Rpgmaker2003 fantasy game: there is a certain freedom to explore and talk to people to obtain a series of optional quests, the game uses classical random battle encounters, but there are also some really interesting features, like the day/night cycle that also changes the dialogues of the npcs encountered, there are many custom menus to keep track of the various quests and to manage spells and characters. Overall these additions are good, but add an extra layer of complexity that not every player may like. Mapping is for the most part pretty good, with varied areas ike colorful villages and dark forests, sunny beaches and snowy areas.

 

Download Link

Mirror Link

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Random Fact: Madriel isn't just the name of the developer of the game, but also of an important character that appears in this adventure. This character (like all the important ones) has a unique faceset, and coincidentally is the same used for Nickel Arand, the protagonist of another game created by Madriel222, Final Fantasy The Phoenix Prophecies. But that's another game for another day.

 

 

Final Verdict: this game was impressive for some features, like the night-and-day-cycle or the usual portable teleporting device, but for the rest it was a pretty much classic rpg adventure. The game also leaves lots of freedom, something that may lead the player to enter areas where the opponents are too tough. Anyway it was an ok classic game!