Epic Elf 2 by Spirit Young

 

Dagree is back and ready for another chapter in his life! He was cursed by the "Red Evil" from his visit to Vitality Island. Though destroyed, Red Evil isn't gone! In fact, he sometimes appears before Dagree and offers to help him now. After living in a cave for a year, Dagree decides it's about time to finally get outside and land a job!
And of course, a new evil haunts the land that must be punished! Oh, yeah!

Epic Elf 2 is much more than an upgraded version of the first game: it features a series of areas, towns, forests, plains, a desert and so on, a small world but one full of details and also dynamic, since the roaming encounters will change and some areas will be revisited due to some... changes that will happen (cannot say more). In the beginning there are some roadblocks (such as giant boulders in the middle of the road) that will have to be removed, initially limiting the exploration to some locations. 

Combat this time happens only on touch with roaming opponents, except for the mandatory boss battles. 

Download Link (2017 Rebalanced Version)

Download Link (2013 Regular Version)

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de 

Gamejolt.com 

Internet Archive

 

Random Fact: once again the game is available in regular version or the 2017 that fixed and rebalances some battles, unfortunately it doesn't add new content, and that's a pity since some material originally planned was cut from the game. For example Hex. a character of the first game, was originally planned to be a party member in this game too. But unfortunately it didn't happen.

 

Final Verdict: Epic Elf 2 is a classic, and as I wrote in the review of the first game, my favourite in the series. The only thing I did NOT like is the rarity of the save points (or maybe more playable characters, since Hex from Epic Elf 1 was also planned to play a role in the party of this game), anyway there isn't anything else I can criticize, because this is a really epic and fun game. Mapping is excellent and the setting is full of life and surprises. In a word, it's FUN.

Epic Elf by Spirit Young

 

In this quest you play as a Dark Elf named Dagree. He's a simple treasure hunter who is normally feared by humans. For some reason, the citizens of Vitality Island aren't scared of him except for the naughty Royal Family. Along the way you can make choices in the game that determine what side character you'll end up with.

The story itself is easy to follow and doesn't really need to be serious.
Most of the characters that you talk to probably rode on the short bus. 

 

Other main characters come into the play as well. If you join up with the wizard he'll have his own problems that come into light during the quest for you. If you kill the wizard you get a thief to replace the loss. If you don't talk to everyone, future quests won't become available and you'll miss out on items, weapons, or hidden bosses. There are also abilities that your characters can learn (pushing stones, raiding houses). 

 

Epic Elf is a really epic adventure of 10 hours that will take the dark elf Dagree from rags to riches. Or so is the intent: the game isn't some epic quest to save the world, but rather the exploration of a large isle that hold a great treasure. Of course a dark elf like Dagree isn't liked by humans, however, starting with his trusty slime Drip, he will have to form a party of adventures, collect equipment and start exploring dungeons. The story has a goofy tone and it's a parody of the more serious jrpgs.

 

The game is a pretty classic adventure that uses RTPs and the usual Rpgmaker combat system, although maps are really well done. Enemies are both fought in random encounters and in touch encounter, depending on the map. Speaking about maps, the world map is pretty compact, but it will be necesssary to open some roadblocks to progress in the adventure.

 

Download Link (Epic Edition)

Download Link (Regular Version)

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

Internet Archive (Epic Edition)

Internet Archive (Regular Version) 

Random Fact: the game was completed in 2012, and that version is still available, but in 2013 a new version was added, with more sidequests, bosses, secret items and even a different ending.

 

Final Verdict: Epic Elf may be an old game with pretty generic visuals, but it was really done with attention to the details and the particular care typical of some games that look like something bland and generic due to the use of the old RTPs, but they hide some real fun! Another example of this is Everlasting Journey, so do not let the lack of original assets deceive you, because this is an entertaining game of exploration, humor... and also battles, even if this is maybe the aspect that probably could have been perfected (well it's an old game made with an old engine, ok?), anyway I did not mind. This is without doubt a well done classic rpgmaker adventure!

Final Fantasy Time and Again by Azrael & Sephiroth X

 

The world is in a state of flux. The Baron Army, the most powerful nation in the world, has inexplicably begun attacks against other nations in a blitzkrieg attempt to gather all of the Crystals of the Elements. While the people of Baron are confused, their King is well loved for his service to the people up to this point. As his support dwindles, attacks come out in larger force, with the Dark Knights, Dragoons, and the Baron Red Wing airship fleet coming out in more violent shows of force each time.

 

In the midst of this, a loyal Dragoon of the Baron Army, a half-demon orphan of Mysidia, and an unbalanced Psionic wanderer will meet, their fates locked together until the end of this madness, and will begin a constant struggle for peace... 

 

Final Fantasy Time and Again is a fangame based on the world and some events of Final Fantasy IV. The characters of that game will appear from time to time, but the game focuses on the four core characters of the game. Like Kain, the protagonist Azrael is a Dragoon and the game closely resemble the original source game, sending the party of original characters all around the world and making them interact with the various characters seen before. Expect dungeons, puzzles and battles.

 

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Youtube Playthrough 

 

Random Fact: this is one of the few FF fangames that includes a working Jump attack mechanic. It's cumbersome but well integrated into the Rpgmaker 2003 system.

 

Final Verdict: this is a brillian fangame that while incomplete, it's 8-10 hours long. Mapping is pretty good and it really represent a case of well made fangame and entertaining story that involves new characters inside a familiar setting.

Four Sided Triangle by Majin Sam

 

The protagonist is Hennu Katsuya that recently moved with his mother to the town of Onanne. Being a classic teenager he has to go to school but something happens on the way and becomes involved in a battle between the city guards and some dark knights followed by the appearance of mysterious portals around his new home. After this event he starts to help Jonouchi, one of his schoolmates, that apparently is a sort of secret-soldier/agent that works with the town guard. For Hennu this is the beginning of a great adventure.

 

Four Sided Triangle is a fantasy Rpgmaker jrpg with a serious plot but also comedy moments. The system is classic, heroes have Alchemy powers that are linked to the elements, Hennu for example will learn how to use electricity powers, and enemies have strength and weaknesses to these elements. But the game includes also races and puzzles to be solved.

 

Download Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

Random Fact: the game constantly references to the Full Metal Alchemist anime. For example Hennu is said to look like Edward Elric to that anime, moreover he will have to learn Alchemy during the course of the adventure. Unsurprisingly there are golems in this game too, even if they are more similar to the fantasy counterparts rather than to those of the anime.

 

Final Verdict: Four Sided Triangle is a pretty good demo, pity for the imprecisions and mapping issues especially in the later parts, but I can say it's an enjoyable experience if you want to try an old-school Rpgmaker jrpg that is not too serious. Despite the lack of polish you can still have some fun with this little unfinished game thanks to the variety of tasks, the humor, and fun classic party-based jrpg gameplay, if you can tolerate the silly parts and quite random events, but better if you can enjoy them! 

Overall not bad at all!

1873 by LouisCyphre

 

The year is 1873. Law-enforcement is non-existant in the small trail town of Tombstone, Texas. Bandits, drunkards, crooked gamblers, and killers walk undeterred. Crimes are committed without regard to consequences, because there ARE no consequences.

 

Enter Mardsen Dustine. With his handful of allies, he is charged with clearing out the filth from Tombstone. Each month of the year 1873, you'll bring in various bounties and wanted men, cuminating each month with a showdown with a particularly dangerous opponent. As you progress and your fame grows, the rewards you reap will grow as well - but so will your notoriety and the danger it entails. Can you survive a year in the West?

 

 

1873 can be defined as a western-themed rpg/adventure: the game in fact consists into a linear series of missions that our bounty hunters will take. Sometimes they have to capture a dangerous criminal, others they have to rescue someone, in any case all boils down to dungeon delving adventure, fighting bandits, solving few puzzles and facing enemy bosses. Restocking is possible in some cases even during missions.

Battlers are custom made by the author, that also made all the graphics for a game posted previously, Speak no Evil. 

Download Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Random Fact: this game is more a prototype than a real demo and it includes some unnamed and non-interactive characters that were supposed to enable some extra optional quests and features.

Final Verdict: I admit, despite some lack of polish this game is strangely addictive, maybe for the simple and fast battles or the wild west charm, a very unusual occurrence in rpgmaker games. I only wish maps were a bit more refined and populated, but I know that this is a demo of a cancelled game, still it was a promising prototype! 

Tierra Azul by Riko

 

Prohesia is a world protected by the goddess Rubi, but not everything goes well: King Richard sends one of his men, Sir Edward, to investigate the presence of an enemy patrol of the Iriad Army at the nearby Medusa's Caves. But Edward once he arrives to the place he finds the enemy soldiers massacred, and suddenly he's ambushed by a mysterious creature.

 

Meanwhile Rico joins a friend to help him completing an errand for the sage Krilos, and all goes well… until they go back to town! Here they find that their friends and relatives mysteriously disappeared and their village is empty. So they decide to leave through the forest to search for the missing townsfolk...

 

 

Despite the title in spanish and the subtitle in latin, this very old game is instead in english, and it's a pretty long demo of fantasy adventure. Here you can find numerous battlers, puzzles, mazes and other challenges, but our protagonist will also find numerous allies in his adventures. And old game that offers a classic gameplay, nothing more and nothing less, however I must admit that the plot is pretty unusual and interesting.

 

Download Link

Mirror Link

Rmarchiv.de 

Random Fact: it's not a coincidence that the protagonist is called Rico, when the developer is named Riko! Anyway most of the time the developers use the same name when they make a self-insert.

 

Final Verdict: this is a very old game, so do not expect something original or new, it's pretty classic fantasy Rpgmaker game, but well done, and despite being a demo it offers a lot of content, for example all the world map is complete, so it's possible to travel a lot, even if not every location was completed. Mapping isn't too bad but in my opinion it was the weakest aspect of the game. The rest is pretty good.

Fantasy of the Hearts by outlander145

 

Jurven... a reasonably normal man, if not a bit snide in his mannerisms. He must make a rough decision: saving humanity from a fate worse than death, or cryogenic stasis (apparently). Well, while cryogenics may take several decades to be discovered, one thing is for sure. The doors of the Mind have been placed in harm's way. Final Hearts, the interconnecting chamber to the mind has been penetrated deeply... and its security, compromised. Two omnipotent beings have altered the very reality of the Mind's fabric weave, with colors on whites, and bleach on color..

 

Roy Latrice, Jurven's supposed friend, is merely a pawn in this dilemma. In being possessed, Roy fears for his inevitable insanity. The end result: drug consumption. While not only an extremely idiotic decision, this also proves incredibly useless. Jurven, practically the last man standing within Earth's shattered reality, has been chosen to mend the Mind's fabric for reasons even he is unsure of.

 

Roy opens a portal to a land beyond time, imagination, and budget costs. Especially the Fourth Wall.

 

 

Fantasy of the Hearts is a parody/fangame of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, in fact our hero, Jurven, will be joined by some popular Square Enix characters. The game itself is basically a classic jrpg with battles, levels and party management, the main appeal are the weird situations and funnly dialogues.

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de

Rpgmaker.net 

Random Fact: this game is basically a remake of Final Hearts, a game posted on the Gaming World forums that received terrible reviews. This is better, I assure you.

 

 

Final Verdict: this game is basically a joke based on the title screen and not much more, so do not expect this to be a good old style fnatasy rpg. It's instead a silly and humorous little game with some funny moments, but that shouldn't be taken seriously!

The Sword & the Fish - The second greatest story ever told by scumdrop

 

You are Clifford, a scrubby hick with a penchant for amorality, sarcasm, and thumping stuff before thinking. Along with his comrades, Clifford travels a twisted path towards his great fate: to be the one destined to "try" and fight Gwar, the demonic villain whose name is only coincidentally after the 80's metal band. Along this path your journeys take many unstereotypical routes - such as a Battle of the Bands, DNA cloning, ghost pirate sea ballads, and an infectious disease that sounds more like a cereal. The journey also contains particularly stereotypical routes - such as the Generic Tower, discussions over whether towers are more evil than caves, and the Island of Too Many Towers. 

 

The Sword & the Fish is a very old Rpgmaker game, and the second most downloaded, or so they said. It's a very long and epic humorous adventure of a group of friends in a fantasy world that form a rock band but end fighting demons and travel through time becoming heroes, and opposing also the "real predestined hero" (that unsurprisingly has the classic Alex RTP charset). The game includes the cameo of various characters real or imaginary, such as Chun Li from Street Fighter II, and is pretty entertaining. 

The game site includes several extras, like a comic and a guide for the setting and details on all the playable party members.

 

Download Link

Mirror Link (2006 edition)

Mirror Link (2007 edition) 

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Official Site 

 

Tv Tropes 

 

Random Fact: The Sword & the Fish is a game created in 2000 and  completed in 2006, however it got a 2020 version. You can find this special version here: https://rpgmaker.net/games/11653/

This upgraded version removes Kid Rock from the game and upgrades the dialogues, making them more grammatically correct and PG-friendly, removing some profanities and vulgar language. For the rest the game isn't any different.

 

 

Final Verdict: the Sword and the Fish plays better than he looks, it's funny and probably one of the longest and best comedic/parody Rpgmaker games. I had fun and I wasted a lot of my time in this game, and, most importantly, I played it to the end! This is because the game entertained me from the beginning to the end, and while I find that there are some parts that could have been improved, I saw a lot of care for what regards the musical choice, the storyline and the character progression (at mid point most party members take an upgrade that is also reflected with a change of their appearance!). In the end this is not a bad game, it's a nice game with some frustrating dungeons with random encounters (but they are short), so in the end on the surface we have a normal jrpg with comedy, parody and weird (but great) dialogues. But this made it fun since it's entertaining, balanced and well designed, but this will be noticed only if you play it! 

Mana Conquest: Vengeance by Ramza

 

A thousand years have passed since the events of the first part. 

When Meridia is attacked on the night of Prince Eidan's sixteenth birthday, his country is pulled into a war against both the Council and the Resistance, which had been fighting for hundreds of years previous. Join Eidan on his quest to round up as many specialists as he can find to wipe out both enemy factions, and with them, the ancient evil of so long ago...  

 

Mana Conquest: Vengeance is a story driven rpg adventure and the second episode of the Mana Quest series. Unfortunately it was never completed, but the demo available includes some hours of gameplay and the following features:

 

- 6 Playable characters
- caterpillar system
- random banters between party members. if the character doesn't like you, he'll let you know
- skill levelling system for all PCs is implemented and active
- improvements to the intuitive twists on the DBS from the first game.
- several improvements to the encounter system from part one. monsters will notice you if you get close, - the actual distance and follow speed is different depending on the monster.
- Fabulous (mostly) custom musical score, some familiar from the first game, others not.
- Scaleable difficulty system

 

Download Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de 

Random Fact: Mana Conquest: Vengeance can be played as a stand alone adventure, in fact the prologue summarizes the events of the first game and its ending, letting us play as the protagonist Rolf once again for a short time.

 

Final Verdict: Mana Conquest is an ok demo with many options and useful additions to the usual rpgmaker system seen in many other games. Combat could have been balanced a little better, still it's enjoyableand while I am not a fan of the use of savepoints, the game is not frustrating at all, just challenging. 
Ok, it's true that the setting is pretty generic and the story is nothing special: usual bad guys threatening the world, and the classic "you killed my father prepare to die", characters speak in a casual modern way to their King, and there is an abundance of some classic fantasy tropes, still this is much better than other similar Rpgmaker games.
Overall this was a pretty good demo for its time, and I admit that I enjoyed it despite its shortcomings, in any case it's not your average rpgmaker game, nor a must-play one. But if you like the genre, like me you will have fun playing this game.

Mana Conquest by Ramza

 

The boy Rolf wakes up to an ordinary day in his tiny forest village of Ur. During a routine excursion to the forest with his friend Melissa, the village is attacked by a former resident, a man named Theo. After wiping out the entire town, Theo decides to allow Rolf to live. Rolf spends the next years of his life training to defeat that man and avenge his family and friends.
 

Mana Conquest is a story driven rpg adventure: there are five playable characters, a change party 'reserve' system allows you to choose who is in your party at a given time. While it uses the DBS, there are strategic twists to make it a bit more interesting. There are no random encounters, either. While it is, for the most part a standard RPG, there are sci-fi elements in the storyline as well. It provides somewhere between 14-16 hours of gameplay. Features a lot of customized graphics (notoriously bad faceset designs) and an almost entirely custom musical score. 

 

Mana Conquest was supposed to be the first game of a trilogy, unfortunately only this entry was completed, and the second game was released as a demo. 

Download Link 

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Random Fact: one of the first obstacles that Rolf has to face is a quiz about the names of people, items and locations of the first part of the game. Thankfully the developer wrote the answers on the Rpgmaker.net page so that you can pass that part without much hassle.

 

Random Fact: Mana Conquest is basically a prototype for Mana Conquest: Vengeance, its sequel that more or less begins from a similar situation and offers some similar pushing boulder puzzles, battles with wandering enemies and exploration. The game is ok, some things could have been mich better and in fact the sequel with address these issues, for example mapping and battles, that while not terrible, they were perfected and improven in the next game, that's still in many aspects more of the same.

Exile by QHeretic

 

The story is set in a semi-futuristic / medieval world where machines meet magic. The game begins with the introduction to three seperate tales, each with it's own protagonist. When evil is amidst, these three have a kind of bond that seems to call them together to fight the enemy.

 

However, each ends up in their own tangle on the same day...and soon each person's story develops into a epic battle tale. The complete story begins 10 years before the present day, when a power hungry emperor comes close to taking over the world. His desire for power also drives the children that he kidnapped to serve him to assassinate him, to phase in a new era of peace. The day this occurred was further known as the Medlahm Assassination, and the ringleader of this faction was Xelan. He lead this faction named Sabre to become the new leader of the world capital, Imanene.

 

 

Exile is a very old Rpgmaker adventure game released in 2002, and one of the first to feature different protagonists in different scenarios: however as the titles says, all three heroes will be exiled for different reasons and this will lead to a series of adventures. Do not expect anything new or original, this was a basic adventure rpg using the classic Rpgmaker system and the default RTP graphics, still it was one of the first works by the author of the great Kindred Saga.

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de

 

Random Fact: the old defunct original site for the game can still be found using Waybackmachine: see it here https://web.archive.org/web/20001017095906/http://www.geocities.com/enterranet/exile-sto.html 

 

Final Verdict: an ok game if you are very nostalgic, the adventure is however well made but pretty classic and can be still be enjoyable. Anyway being a demo do not expect a real epilogue to the story.

Scogno's Adventure by Scogno (italian)

 

Scogno is a boy that lives with his family in a little village, and dreams to be a hero. He has a terrible temperament, and after getting fed up with the miserable conditions of their lives, he decides to leave his town. His father Pippo gives him a sword, the mother Francy gives him few money and he also gets a potion from his sister. Reaching the first village he discovers that many heroes are here to start a crusade against the monsters that are invading the country, sent by the evil Malefix. However Scogno sleeps until late morning, when everyone else already left the village, except for the sorcerer Dale that joins him in the first of his many adventures around the world.

 

Scogno's Adventure is a very old Rpgmaker 2000 adventure game released in 2003. It's a pretty long parodistic epic story about the rise to power of a jerkass hero that has great ambitions but he's a coward at heart. Of course the journey will not only turn him into a really powerful warrior, but he will also meet a series of quirky characters that will join him in his adventures.

The game is a fantasy parody with lots of references to popular media in particular anime and videogames: Dragonball, Final Fantasy VII, Excel Saga, Evangelion and others are referenced here. 

 

Download Link

Archive of old italian games 

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Random Fact: it's not a coincidence that the name of the developer is the same of the protagonist: at the time, early 2000, italian Rpgmaker games were in many cases "Lol games", that's a category used to indicates humorous and parodistic adventures made among friends, starring themselves. The games sometimes featured sophomoric or crude humor and always used the default rpgmaker combat system.

Despite this, some like Scogno's Adventure were actually completed and done well enough to be appreciate also by non-friends of the developer.

 

Final Verdict: while not perfect, and including some errors and minor issues, this was an old classic with lots of content, many playable characters, an arena for extra battles and so on. A pretty impressive game at the time.

Don's Adventure 2 - Don's Nightmare by Xargoth

 

Years ago, humanity was terrorized by demonic creatures from the underworld. That changed when a warrior claimed the sword Excalibur and, alongside allies, fought the demons and drove them back to the underworld.  

 Peace ensued, but it was later shattered when the devil Parricada appeared on Earth and killed the wielder of Excalibur. Vowing revenge, the fallen hero's son led a force of one hundred warriors through the gateway to the underworld to finish off the creatures once and for all.  

 

Lilith, Seminex, Umbraticus, and Don Lessus - the only creatures of the underworld capable of working as a team - were tasked with driving back the human force. Despite harboring some reservations, the quartet ultimately accepted the mission.

 

 

The gameplay of this roughly 30-minute game centers primarily on combat and mini-games. Enemies appear as shadowy silhouettes on the map, signaling potential combat encounters. Battles utilize the standard turn-based, front-view combat system found in RPG Maker 2000, enhanced by the display of character graphics during the player's attacks. In addition to standard monsters, players can defeat elemental creatures that grant the main characters new abilities. 

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de 

Random Fact: like you can see from the title, this game serves as a sequel/spin-off within the Don's Adventures series created by Don Miguel. But this time, unlike typical hero's journeys where you play as agents of light, you control a group of underworld anti-heroes sent to hunt down the great hero's son.

 

Don's Adventures (sometimes titled Don Miguel's Sample Game) was created using an unofficially translated/unlicensed version of RPG Maker 2000, and was included in his original unlicensed distribution of that program. If you want to play also that sample game, that I will probably cover with more details in a future article here someday, check one of the links below:

 

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de 

RPG Maker Wiki  

Makerpendium 

 

Final Verdict: a little homage to Don and the Rpgmaker sample game Don's Adventure, this is a really well done funny adventure with many well made edits and good maps. Not a very long game, it's still a quality product that entertains from the beginning to the end. While there were many others Don's Adventure 2 (and even Don's Adventure 3) that will probably deserve their own entries, this is in my opinion one of the best homages to the first Don's Adventure.

Necropolis by Jude

 

Take on the role of Marcus, an aging war veteran who awakens under peculiar circumstances... he has joined the ranks of the undead! Battle your way through a gothic necropolis of skeletons, vampires, and werewolves to unravel the mystery behind your undead condition. This RPG will feature a unique turn-based battle system, character customization to fit your play-style, and handmade retro NES-style graphics. Fight against your dark fate, restore your humanity, and take vengeance upon the creatures of the night! 

 

Necropolis is not the classical Rpgmaker jrpg since this time we play as a single hero, an aged warrior. The game uses custom handmade retro NES-style graphics and a custom turn based system with skills that allow three possible specializations:  Basic, Finesse, and Power.

 

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de

Internet Archive 

 

Random Fact: it's no mystery that the game is a homage to the Castlevania series, presenting a setting that's clearly inspired to the  popular series. Enemies are also similar, like the journey of a single hero, however the genre is pretty different.

 

Random Fact: it's a really a pity that this game hasn't be completed since it's a promising first half of a bigger adventure. 

The Rose Chronicles by Legacy001

 

Rose Chronicles follows Roselle as she goes 7 years into the past to prevent a tragedy from occurring. The game plays similar to a 2005 GBA game: Riviera. In which you are not able to move a character around the map, but rather drag a cursor around clicking on nodes to advance the story.

 

A very unique gem of a game, the author ripped the sprites from a game called Hoshigami, then formated it to rm2k3 himself, and adapted the maps to the isometric characters, but since Rpgmaker 2000/2003 can only do diagonal movement in special cases, Legacy001 opted for some comprimises. The payoff? The game ends up exhibiting a distinct look compared to other rm2k/3 games.The demo is about  4-6 hours long.

Download (3.2 version)

Mirror Link  

Download (1.1 version) 

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Rpgmaker Historia 

Random Fact: The Rose Chronicles was just a side project made by Legacy001,worked on to take a break from doing the Naufragar series. Though it’s understandable why the project took too much effort to continue working on. In the end it ended up being one of the more memorable demos of the mid-GW era.

 

Final Verdict: this was a rather unique experiment that showed what can be accomplished using Rpgmaker in a different way, and if really offers something new and original. A must play game.

DEEP 8 by IndependentArt

The planets of the DEEP 8 universe are populated by different races like for example the mighty Droons with their green martialness, the furry Dominators, also called Summoners or the normally peace loving Dayigons, which is also the race, our protagonist Ramirez belongs too.

Ramirez might be the shyest individual, that you could ever encounter. Aside from being a social cripple, he’s a respectable fighter and reliable employee.
His female partner Meling is not a very pleasant companion. She’s barely talking to him and when she does, she usually does it in an insulting or humiliating way, which not really raises his confidence. Aside form being a real fury, Meling weilds a gigantic axe in battle, which enables her to crush any enemy they encouter.
Ramirez and Meling work for the emperor Vagnus of Antia. That is a big city on planet Lisarya, which is mostly populated by Dayigons.
 

For some weeks now, the people are very anxious, cause’ they seem to face a really great threat. They even have to fear the extinction of their race.
The Droons, allways known for martial behaviour seem to have set their mind to committing a genocide on the Dayigons. They used a weapon called Pluz-Cannon to vaporize several planets and raided others with ground forces. Now they are planning on destroying Lisarya as well with one big bang, but they ran out of the rare mineral Pluz. As soon as they find a new source for it, they would equip their cannon with it and blow up Lisarya immediately. Millions of Dayigons would be dust within a blink.

 

Deep 8 is a story driven sci-fi adventure/rpg with custom graphics and system: the game includes quicktime events, minigames and puzzles to make the adventure rather varied. The setting is original and this is a journey that takes places on many different planets and locations, including many quests and subquests. 

Download Link

Itch.io 

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

Steam.com

Random Fact: the complete version includes both the english e german version in the same package. The language is selectable when starting the game. From 2023 this game was released as free to play.

 

 

 

Final Verdict: Deep 8 is an interesting game, that while not perfect has many interesting moments (including a section where you will be running around with a flamethrower! And battles between robots!) and a suggestive setting with various alien races and environments. In a certain sense this sci-fi setting reminds of Albion, an RPG released in 1996 by BlueByte Software, with the difference that here we'll be travelling between different planets. Combat is quite complex and pretty challenging, but grinding won't help much, a good strategy is surely more useful, but do not forget to look around for supplies and useful additional items. The only real problem I found were some jumps that required an exceptional (for me!) timing, anyway you can always re-try since they do not lead to Game Over, so it's not frustrating. Could have been worse!

In the end I find DEEP 8 to be an excellent product, with just some minor flaws but really engaging and well made.

Chantlicoatl by Zombiczek (polish)

 

Spain during the reign of King Philip II of Habsburg: with the beginning of naval expeditions to the new land, a golden age began for Spain. But this wealth came at the cost of innocent blood. Over time, colonies began to emerge on the new continent, all paying tribute to the king. All but one — located in the western swamplands and commanded by the renowned and celebrated general Enrique.

Fearing a rebellion that could damage his reputation and pride, the king secretly sends his man — prosecutor Hernando Manzanares — to the new land, keeping it hidden from the other camps. His Holiness Pope Pius IV, concerned about the situation for his own reasons, decides to support Philip II. Manzanares is to be accompanied by a Vatican envoy — Father Inquisitor Adalbert Rivero.

Will they be able to uncover the reason behind Enrique’s disobedience?
A great mystery lies hidden in the swamps, waiting to be revealed.

 

In the game, the player will play as prosecutor Hernando, accompanied by Father Adalbert.
This is a linear adventure where the two protagonsits will have to traverse the swamplands, battle wild animals, interrogate Enrique’s men, visit a supposed gold mine, and even cooperate with the local indigenous people. In addition to the story and adventure elements, the game also features systems inspired by classic RPGs — exploration, finding hidden chests and caches, collecting trophies, trading with merchants, equipping better gear, and learning various skills. Among them: herbalism, lockpicking, and learning the language of the natives. 

Itch.io 

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Youtube Playthrough 

 

Random Fact: the game was originally made and released in 2020, in polish. At the moment an english translation is in the works, along with a game update that will improve the gameplay.

 

Final Verdict: like Ronin, another game from this developer, Chantlicoatl is not a very long game, but has a nice graphics and some neat features. This time the game has more classical rpg aspects, like the avoidable dangerous fauna, still it's a pretty original adventure.