A young girl with a hidden past sets off on an epic and mysterious journey in hope of learning more about her own origins in this beautifully rendered, classic-style RPG adventure.
Reviews View More
I often wondered what a JRPG would feel like, if it got rid of RNG in its entirety. If it cut out most of the stats relevant for combat, to the point where you can realistically keep all the numbers in mind while picking your next action. Where you would always know whether an attack would kill the enemy in front of you - and if it didn't, exactly how much health they would have left over.
Helen's Mysterious Castle answers that question and I fucking love it. Every attack feels meaningful, every enemy feels like a puzzle to learn and understand, until I figure out a way to defeat them with the minimum amount of damage taken. No matter how often I die, it always feels like I'm improving - both through knowledge and stats.
Since there aren't any actual game overs, every time I woke up back home still felt like progress: an opportunity to rethink my strategy, upgrade or swap out my equipment and often gaining an additional healthpoint - almost as if given a reward for trying again and again.
As the game culminates with some truly difficult boss fights, all the little systems snap together to create a coherent whole: most of my equipment has been upgraded to the max (or at least close to it) and it all became about creating a setup that would allow me to withstand the enemies' attacks for long enough to get through those final encounters.
A short experience, extremely focused on its unique systems that I just wish I could find in more games of its kind. Absolutely worth checking out.
Helen's Mysterious Castle answers that question and I fucking love it. Every attack feels meaningful, every enemy feels like a puzzle to learn and understand, until I figure out a way to defeat them with the minimum amount of damage taken. No matter how often I die, it always feels like I'm improving - both through knowledge and stats.
Since there aren't any actual game overs, every time I woke up back home still felt like progress: an opportunity to rethink my strategy, upgrade or swap out my equipment and often gaining an additional healthpoint - almost as if given a reward for trying again and again.
As the game culminates with some truly difficult boss fights, all the little systems snap together to create a coherent whole: most of my equipment has been upgraded to the max (or at least close to it) and it all became about creating a setup that would allow me to withstand the enemies' attacks for long enough to get through those final encounters.
A short experience, extremely focused on its unique systems that I just wish I could find in more games of its kind. Absolutely worth checking out.
clever battle system, lots of secrets, good length, charming as hell
The game has a very cool combat system but even though it's very short, it still gets tedious and boring because of the number of encounters. Nothing else is worth noting: the story is boring, there's no level design, it's basic RPG maker art and there is no gameplay outside of walking and battles.
Essentially, it's a very poor dungeon crawler. The game is short but I still felt like it drags on for way longer than it should in the last section.
Essentially, it's a very poor dungeon crawler. The game is short but I still felt like it drags on for way longer than it should in the last section.
Pretty short but fun turn based RPG, with genuinely one of the best battle systems I've ever seen. There's very little randomness, no missing, but it's also not so complicated that it takes a long time to understand.
The rest of the game is alright. The story is good, the music is fine, and the graphics are okay, but this is honestly worth playing just for the awesome battle system.
The rest of the game is alright. The story is good, the music is fine, and the graphics are okay, but this is honestly worth playing just for the awesome battle system.
This game has a really interesting gameplay, and it got me hooked so much that I think I beat the game in a whole day.
The RPG Maker 2003 graphics were a plus to me as well.
The RPG Maker 2003 graphics were a plus to me as well.
need to finish this. kind of tricky but also im not a smart guy