End of Legends by HedgeMage

 

Do myths still hold relevance during the darkest of days? Will nations be driven by technology, to their doom or their redemption?

 

You will come face to face with your own nightmares in the Scar....

 

The Scar is a chasm that rips apart nations and oceans. Very few have seen whats on the other side. However, since its existence, armies have been deployed along its borders to keep the denizens in check....

As advances are made in weapons designs, the Scar continues to pile on layers of corpses and broken machines. The enemy always seems to be one step ahead of mankind...

 

End of Legends is a dark steampunk adventure with fantasy elements following mainly two groups: one is a duo of soldiers, Biggs and Wedge, preparing for an expedition to the Scar together with an unnamed Captain to reach a researcher that is exploring and studying the area, the second is the young Jaden, an apprentice mechanic that helps his uncle Hubert to work on a plane that the army would like to acquire.

 

While assets of the game are mainly custom made, edits or rips from Final Fantasy VI, the music comes from other sources and one of the most recognizable is Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.

Download Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

 

Random Fact: the game ends reaching a girl that looks like Sailor Moon and asks the player if he wants to save, after explaining that this is the end of the demo. Anyway she also gives the option to annihilate the party, morphing into a giant demon and attacking the party!

 

Final Verdict: this is a pretty short demo with many good ideas and interesting premises, unfortunately it suffers by some errors probably due to the inexperience of the developer since I am not aware of other games made by HedgeMage, it would need some works to made it much better, for example correcting some edits, changing some sprites and making encounters not on random battles but on touch with wandering enemies. That's a pity, still it's an enjoyable little demo if you like old classic adventures and you can overlook the minor errors.

Die Reise Ins All by Real Troll (german)

 

Die Reise ins All, or The Journey to Space is a steampunk rpg adventure game influenced by the works of Verne, Doyle, and Wells: it's a journey all around the world of four different characters: Lieutenant von Mackwitz, a strong but dumb prussian soldier, Professor Heisen, a mad scientist, the Frankenstein's monster and Fräulein Eleonore, a smart journalist that opposes the military like Mackwitz and their attempt of using Heisen's inventions as weapons. Anyway they will learn the cooperate when they will have to face a menace from space.

 

 

This game is an incredible story driven adventure with an unusual setting where we will travel to Transylvania, Texas, India and many other places to stop a martian invasion. The adventure is lighthearted and linear except for a couple of branching paths. The storyfeatures lots of different characters, both real historical figures and fictional characters, heroes and villains from various famous novels (from Sherlock Holmes to Buffalo Bill Cody, Zorro, Sigmund Freud and Captain Nemo, to name a few). The game is really well done with edits, custom sprites, animated cutscenes, and also some minigames.

 

Official Page

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de

 

Random Fact: at a certain point the Lieutenant von Mackwitz can choose to read a book, and this will be Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. The game will then switch to the story, making Jim Hawking the playable character, then this side-story can be played fully or quitted. However the player may miss a nice part of the game and bonus points if he quits it early or didn't picks it up at all. 

 

 

 

Final Verdict: an excellent and unique adventure game, winner of two RPG Atelier awards: first place in 2007 Demo des Jahres - Player's Choice and of the third place in 2012 Goldener Deiji - All-Time Bestes Spiel oder Demo vor Juni 2009.

Technomancy by Lorestrome Productions

 

In Technomancy: A guide to the supernatural in a world ran by steam and electricity, we play as Lor Obscura, a librarian (with a gun) looking for an enchanted lantern. Unfortunately the train on which he's travelling is attacked by some hostile creatures called Nuls. What's even worse is that the train is destroyed, and Lor finds himself stranded in the desert in a bandit infested area, but he joins forces with the quirky ratman mage Cimo to escape and reach the nearest town, Toval... the place where the magic lantern is located. Will the two unlikely allies recover this legendary relic?

 

 

Technomancy is an unfortunately short demo with many great ideas. The setting is a sort of Weird West with magic and monsters, but the game is rather light on combat, focusing more on puzzles and exploration, but maybe this is because this was the first chapter of a bigger adventure, so characters possess no skills and few equipments they can use. Anyway the aestetics, consisting in edits and some custom art, are really unique.

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de

Random Fact: almost every map fills entirely a single screen. There are only two maps that will scroll, being bigger than a single screen: one is the first area on the train, the second is the world map.

 

 

Final Verdict: this is one of the demos that I enjoyed and really made me hope for more. The setting and story are charming and interesting. What are these Nuls? Which is the power of the lantern? What will be Lor's next mission? I guess we will never know!

Notes on the Second Mellynd War by Eike

 Some years after the first game we see three heroes of the first adventure, Mark, Shin and Pete Mk. II, involved in a losing battle that opposes the prince Oskar of Etgos, another well know character if you played the first game. Then the real story begins with three students: Amos, Eugene and Lester. The three friends live a peaceful and more or less quiet life in a town near the Etgoesian border, but soon the rebellion will reach their homeland too.

This sequel is basically a stand alone adventure: we have new characters, a new setting and a new story. This time every playable character has a special Steamglove that lets him/her use special moves. It's powered by coal that works more or less like Mana in other games. Despite this introduction of new "powers", the game is still a lighthearted low-powered and low-fantasy adventure, and the prologue let us play once again for a while as some of the characters of the first game (others are also mentioned), but apparently, like the true protagonist of the adventure, they also were able to find these coal-powered steampunk gloves that unleash various elemental attacks. Unfortunately only a 2-chapters demo was released, and you can find it here:

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de

Random Fact: Unlike the first game, that used taller custom made charsets, this game uses smaller, more classical RTPs assets and edits. In the beginning also the first game used these, but they were changed in later versions of the game for a more unique visual style.

 

Final Verdict: this is a good demo, but unfortunately it's not as refined as the previous adventure by Eike. It is still fun, with some charming characters, still it could have been as great as its older brother. Pity!

Franzen by Scumhead

Franzen begins with two characters: Franz, a lizardperson and Lefsa, a cheerful little creature that lives inside a tuba that Franz carries around. These two are amateur technomancers inside a world populated by bizarre creatures, and they are investigating the Scream, a tear in reality that seems to be the origin of an invasion of demons that overran the reale of Brazen. The two are travelling on their airship when they are attacked by flying creatures, however they defend themselves and they later land inside a steampunk city where they will be forced to hunt a dangerous criminal. And tha's just the beginning of a series of adventures, meeting friends and foes as they explore this strange world.

Franzen is a simple linear adventure made with rpgmaker: there are battles but no level ups or experience points, the game is practically a raiload with no real choices and a single ending, but one of the best I've played: story, setting is unique, characters are really brilliant, and the graphics are quite pretty in my opinion. It's not a very long adventure, nor a complex one, still it's very enjoyable and one of the best among the "new" rpgmaker 2003 games. Definitely recommended.

Itch.io

Steam 

Random Fact: the developer, Scumhead, wasn't famous for making other rpgmaker games, but for some first person shooters using the Doom engine and platforms, and all these had a very retro appearance. Frazen was the first rpgmaker adventure an for now the only one.

 

 

Final Verdict: an extremely linear game, a raiload, but probably the best raiload I played. I mean, combat isn't really fun or interesting, but story and characters are captivating, and the setting is unique. Well done!

Warrior Saga: Hot Road by GDSA Team (russian)

Created after Warrior Saga (that I discussed last saturday), this is standalone spin-off game set during Rumata's invasion of the Sagdan Empire. The protagonist, a Sagdan hussar named Batz, has experienced an unhappy love in the past. During the war, he meets his beloved Kaya again, but this time she is killed by Red Armbands, while he is left for dead. This begins a rather dynamic story of war, revenge, saving the inhabitants of an unnamed village Fighting the Dagonian army, with demonic forces that will offer Batz a choice... The game has two endings, one of which leads to Batz's reunion with his beloved.

 

 

Unlike the first game, that makes us play as neutral heroes caught in the middle of the conflict, this time we play as a soldier of one of the armies (the Sagdan who are the "good guys"). This game is not an rpg, but it's an arcade shooter with visual novel segments. The story is a real "Hot Road" in the sense that there is a single linear path of levels that will lead to a confrontation with the final boss.

 

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Random Fact: the GDSA Team used the same real time combat/shooting system also in another of their games (with the same hud), Infernal Fox Tournament: choose one of the six heroes and go through a path of infernal foxes (that act as the Red Armbands soldiers), after successfully completing the path, you'll have to fight a boss. 
You can get also this game here: Infernal Fox Tournament 

 

 

 

Final Verdict: surely darker compared to the original game, bur very similar for aestetics. I liked it because despite being a real-time rpgmaker game it's quite short, so as a side-adventure with a minigame included it's pretty interesting. Not that you will play this more than once or twice times, but it's ok!

Warrior Saga by GDSA Team (russian)

The story takes place during the second great war between the Sagdan and Dagonian empires, unleashed by Rumata, who sent his Red Armbands against the Sagdans. The main plot revolves around the Secret of Ages, an ancient technology possessing immense magical power. Everyone is hunting for it, especially the villains, who are on Rumata's side. The main characters are two warriors from the island of Eidon sent with the task of protecting the Secret of Ages, or rather, one of its fragments, which turns out to be... a little girl! Thus begins a great and exciting journey making allies and enemies through a world engulfed in yet another world war.

 

Developed by the GDSA team in 2003-2004, it was never fully completed. However, a rather lengthy demo version was released (7 hours!), and you can download it below. I was really impressed because rather than a classic fantasy rpg, the team created a believable steampunk grim world where magic is mysterious and rare: armies are composed by riflemen with tanks and planes, the heroes fights with guns and swords. There are lots of sprites from various sources, edits and custom art that give an identity to this unique setting. Impressive.

Download Link

Vk.com

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Youtube Playthrough

 

Random Fact: despite never being completed, this game had two spin-offs: 
Warrior Saga - Hot Road is a complete action shooter (with two endings) about a deserter of the Sagdans. After the Dagonians killed his girlfriend, he decides to face them as a one-man-army to protect the peasants that rescued him. But the Dagonian leader possess a child that can turns in something lethal (maybe a reference to the Secret of Ages in the first game? Anyway we get to see the island of Eidon once more).

The second game was Warrior Saga - Dagonia, and it's an adventure game without battles about a homeless orphan of war that discovers a dark secret about the people who are hosting him. This game was a demo.

Final Verdict: a really unique epic adventure, and it's really a shame it has no conclusion. The different characters and the setting really stood out from the houndreds of generic fantasy rpgmaker games. This is an unforgettable game with its mish-mash of resources used to create a very unique world.