Legendary Legend by Sibhod

Legendary Legend (subtitled "the fantasy genre don't deserve this!") begins in an unusual way: our protagonists (Steve, Nick and Brian) are three normal students that are mysteriously teleported to a fantasy world. Here each one is turned into a fantasy character of a different class (respectively a rogue, a warrior and a sorcerer) and they start working as adventurers, getting involved in several (humorous) battles against the forces of evil. Soon they are joined in their quests by two elven half-sisters, the ranger Rixis and the druid Ruli.

 

 
Legendary Legend is a colorful parody rpgmaker game that consist in funny cutscenes first, then exploration and battles. Well, honestly combat is mostly encountered in random battle encounters, and in some locations the fighting becomes pretty intensive.

The game is a comedy not just for the humorous dialogues and situations that parodies most classic fantasy tropes of games and rpgs, but also for other subtle details like for example some odd placement of the enemies. Graphically it uses a mix of RTPs, edited sprites and custom portraits and battlers, but there are also some nice CG cutscenes. The developer can draw well, and the game really integrates well the custom art, while the humor is a little more subjective, and it may be well received or not.

Download Link

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

 

Random Fact: this game was originally a comic that one of the two authors turned into a game. Unfortunately only this Chapter One was released, leaving the story unfinished.

 

Final Verdict: this is another game that deserved more love, and its problems are just the intensity of battles in some areas and the fact it is incomplete. Part two would have made this a pretty fun parody game, so it's a pity because there are some clever ideas and fun cutscenes. Ok humor is pretty juvenile, still I enjoy!

Finding Forever Eden by Nerow_Alexangelos/Rowen

I mentioned this title last week, when talking about Haze, Daze & Curiousness, and how its resources, made for a game called Eldritch, were in part used for this game. Anyway Finding Forever Eden was never completed, and only four different short concept demos were made available in the course of its development, sometimes changing some aspects and systems.

 

 

In any case we still have these old demos of Finding Forever Eden: they includes just some cutscenes and battles, however with just a couple of maps, few monologues, sample battles and a dream sequence, it's hard to understand what was planned by the developer, anyway unsurprisingly there is mention of "Eldritch" (see? That was the title of the game mentioned when I discussed HDC, and the aestetics also fit the setting here). What's important is that these demons show some really suggestive areas, nicely made battle sprites and an intriguing dark and mysterious setting with angels and gloomy creatures. 

 

Download Link

Mirror Link

Rmarchiv.de

Random Fact: in the end even the original title changed: last time it was worked on it had the title of Ghosts of the Arcanum, but soon after it became vaporwave.

 

 

Final Verdict: well, I wish this game, or better, these demos, were longer and there was more story, because it looks it could have been really interesting and original. However the graphics and assets used here are very cool and well made.

Huey the Kid by Taylor`y`Josh

Huey the Kid is a game where we play as... Huey the Kid, of course! The basic story is that Huey, a little kid that lives in the town of Puecco, wakes up one day, meets Junior, a boy that dares him to test his raft, so our little hero after a frantic mini-game reaches Goose Village and realizes he's quite far from home. What follows is a little adventure about slaying monsters and being ignored by adults… besides an odd quest of finding out “where he comes from” involving angels. 

Huey The Kid is a little lighthearted adventure of a brave kid with a hammer, rather than the epic quest of a teenager with a big sword and a peculiar hairstyle. It's not bad at all, there are some well-edited and well-used battle characters, pity for some minor issues like immobile npcs without dialogues. For the rest it's a pretty classic RTP game with random battle encounters and some simple puzzles that doesn't offer anything really new or exciting (except for the raft ride and replacing healing potions with candies, PhoenixDowns with wishbones  and save points with... slimes), but in my opinion it's still a cute little game!

Download Link

Rpgmaker Historia 

Rmarchiv.de

 

Random Fact: Huey the Kid is a complete one hour adventure that was supposed to be the first episode of a series. Unfortunately the reviews were average at best, and in the end it never had a the promised sequel(s) adventure(s). Another peculiar thing is that the game project is titled "Teddy Boy"… the same name of Huey's cat in the game.

 

 

Final Verdict: uhm I didn't liked a lot Huey as a character, but the adventure could have been a nice introduction to a probable longer story and setting. It's all pretty classic, I just wished there were more puzzles/minigames and less random encounters, after all we play as a child, not as a knight!

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!

Sore Losers by Sated

Markus and David are two troubleshooters and gang members of Central Ferusia, a large futuristic city where the slums are used by the government as prisons for lowlives and criminals, while the rich sectors are protected by the Ferusian Soldiers. Our two protagonists work for Jade, a former rebel, but during the last mission they meet Alexis, a Ferusian Captain on the run from the government. This is just the beginning of real troubles for the two friends.

 

 

Sore Losers is a cyberpunk adventure that includes puzzles and minigames. These  activities are used for some sections like hacking, piloting and other tasks that nicely alternate with battles and exploration of abandoned slums. It's an enjoyable game with a nice variety and a good story. The setting is gritty and atmospheric, maps are compact and well done, there are many edited sprites and there is a good variety of enemies, from mutants critters to robots and soldiers. For the most part the game is linear, but there are a couple of choices that can lead to two possible endings for our two heroes, and one outcome is better than the other.

Download Link

Internet Archive

Rmarchiv.de

 

TvTropes 

 

Random Fact: even if this is a complete game, it had a sequel that doesn't feature the two original protagonists and it's also a pretty different kind of game. It was called Sore Losers: Riot Grrrl, and a demo was released, but I'll talk about it another time, of course.

Final Verdict: a good game, it's quite long (but not too much!) and challenging (but not too much!), and in my opinion it gets better and better as you play, providing some twists and surprises here and there. The only bad thing I found were some typos, a couple of annoying sections (I found annoying the sequence of fights on the train part, and the laboratory puzzle, because you need to hack the computer EACH time you try to use it!) and a sort of bug: towards the end I had to edit an event to unlock a door (BUT it seems I am the only one I had this issue!!!), since despite the game claiming that the door had been unlocked after the hacking attempt… this did not happen and the doors kept being locked! (Yes, I had to hack the game to rectify a hacking event that di non work as intended… lol!). Oh and the game also warns to use different saves on some maps because you risk getting stuck, but oddly this instead never happened to me!

Despite this last issue that was maybe avoidable choosing a different sequence of actions (I'm not sure, but I guess is also avoidable if you choose another option during the last part of the game) this is a solid entry among the cyberpunk rpgmaker jrpgs.

Haze, Daze & Curiousness (HDC) by JPC

This is a collection of maps, pictures, animations, scenes and musics from JPC, not a real game but rather an interactive showcase of some unused game fragments and locations made by this developer. This project was released in 2005 for a "release something" event. 

 

The game has no real plot, is just the journey of the girl (Alethea) inside an eerie, mysterious world...

Mind that this is unfinished and glitchy, for example avoid entering the Gallery and being arrested ot it will crash. However you can save at any time! When you reach the snowy town after taking the train you'll be at the end of the journey.

 

Download Link

Rmarchiv.de

 

Random Fact: These resources were supposed to be used in a game, Eldritch by Legion. Apparently it was a Lovecraftian-horror type deal set in England in I think the 1960s or 1970s with a sanity system and a heavily customized DBS with guns and reloading, and the latest version of it I remember playing (an unfinished demo) had custom sprites and battle sprites by Ocean's Dream. The game was about two mercenaries named I think Marlowe and Chambers trying to steal an arcane grimoire from a collector in a spooky British neighborhood called Crouch End and running into standard Lovecraftian horror stuff. Some of the resources of the demo of Eldritch were reused in Finding Forever Eden (that I'll probably discuss next week). 

 

 Here's for comparison a screens from the lost Eldritch demo:

 

 

Final Verdict: ok, this is not a game, but let me say that I wish that there are more collections like this one! It surely shows that a lot can be accomplished by those who have creativity and skill! Well done!