Turn-based combat is god awful and the game knows it since it always reminds you it's better to leave so I don't even know why it's in here. The story has very ham-fisted themes with one-dimensional characters. Also, has randomly awful voice acting in some scenes?
awesome game, its focus on an intimate but oppressive setting and excellent atmosphere, plus some really cool mechanics make for a great game.
Really enjoyed it for the most part, a sad but harsh true tale about living in the cusp of fascism. The writing is strong and despite being set in 2010s Austria, I feel familiarity with classic latinamerican literature I read in my youth. I had trouble with the more poetic and obscure language, but given that english is not my mother tongue, I don't feel qualified to comment on that further. The art was wonderful and I liked the gameplay's ties to the narrative.
As of right now I can't wrap my head around the more meta elements, particularly endings S and R, I mostly find them confusing and underbaked.
But at the end of the day I recommend this game, it's unique and worth your time if anything about it seems interesting.
As of right now I can't wrap my head around the more meta elements, particularly endings S and R, I mostly find them confusing and underbaked.
But at the end of the day I recommend this game, it's unique and worth your time if anything about it seems interesting.
The benefits of having that one amazing neighbor can not be understated
played october 20th for rpgmaker october
this is one of the few games youll have to pay for that i put on the list (mostly bc i already owned it), n as such it is a game with /serious/ production values. the visuals in general are nice, the music is real good, the prose is sometimes thoughtful in ways that often escape rpgmaker games, and the most impressive thing of all is how i had to constantly remind myself that this game is made is rpgmaker 2003, how difficult alot of what occurs in this game mustve been to program for. this was primarily made, along w quite a few others, by the original fr->en translator of off, and from that you rly get a sense that this is by someone who not just acquired a serious technical knowhow over the years, but an affection for the engine n whats been produced from it to match.
all this to say i didn't really like it in the end. an outcry has the opposite problem of fragment:AM; this is a game w much greater n more ambitious grasp over its engine, and is capable of making some rly crafty decisions w that knowhow (outside of the combat which is so defanged for story purposes as to make it a predictable slog to get thru), and yet is not that interesting at its core. considered prose does not necessarily equal effective writing, n i felt there's not as much to this game's ideas as it likes to think there is. it must seem so sexy to know abt foucault or brecht or whatever but this game just regurgitates the usual 101 shit abt them and acts like its some grand point to make. and it rides so hard on its allegory but its so unchallenging of the audience and itself, even as it tries to drum up some urgency abt not playing into fascists' hands it just doesn't invite any like unique or substantial investigation into what fascism is. as far as rpgmaker goes hello charlotte 3 eats this things lunch wrt its analysis on that front, and that was only one aspect of that game. for an outcry that's like all it has!! ig there's a few bits on how miserable living in vienna is i could kinda like but ultimately, amts to a lot of nothing in an ornate wrapping.
this is one of the few games youll have to pay for that i put on the list (mostly bc i already owned it), n as such it is a game with /serious/ production values. the visuals in general are nice, the music is real good, the prose is sometimes thoughtful in ways that often escape rpgmaker games, and the most impressive thing of all is how i had to constantly remind myself that this game is made is rpgmaker 2003, how difficult alot of what occurs in this game mustve been to program for. this was primarily made, along w quite a few others, by the original fr->en translator of off, and from that you rly get a sense that this is by someone who not just acquired a serious technical knowhow over the years, but an affection for the engine n whats been produced from it to match.
all this to say i didn't really like it in the end. an outcry has the opposite problem of fragment:AM; this is a game w much greater n more ambitious grasp over its engine, and is capable of making some rly crafty decisions w that knowhow (outside of the combat which is so defanged for story purposes as to make it a predictable slog to get thru), and yet is not that interesting at its core. considered prose does not necessarily equal effective writing, n i felt there's not as much to this game's ideas as it likes to think there is. it must seem so sexy to know abt foucault or brecht or whatever but this game just regurgitates the usual 101 shit abt them and acts like its some grand point to make. and it rides so hard on its allegory but its so unchallenging of the audience and itself, even as it tries to drum up some urgency abt not playing into fascists' hands it just doesn't invite any like unique or substantial investigation into what fascism is. as far as rpgmaker goes hello charlotte 3 eats this things lunch wrt its analysis on that front, and that was only one aspect of that game. for an outcry that's like all it has!! ig there's a few bits on how miserable living in vienna is i could kinda like but ultimately, amts to a lot of nothing in an ornate wrapping.
One restless night, "the unnamed" - enjoying a cigarette in the courtyard of residential building - heard an outcry... then a fascist crow spoke to them.
An Outcry is a RPGMaker game with multiple endings, where your inactions have consequences. Locking themselves out of their apartment and with no means to quench their nicotine addiction, "the unnamed" ventures through the residential building, asking for a lighter and a smoke. All while experiencing "the outcry" - a swarm of crows who seek to eradicate anyone that doesn't share their "terrific birdness". "The unnamed" is the emotional wreck of a protagonist we are playing. Coming off a terrible and traumatizing relationship, the agender individual must also struggle with nigh poverty, struggling to stay afloat and find a job in the "bustling and flourishing" city of Vienna. To top it all off, they also have to deal with being misgendered to straight up antagonized by their neighbors. Only Anne, a transgender woman and friend of "the unnamed" (and literal girlboss, slay 💅), acts as a beacon of hope and comfort for these dire times.
Basically, you wander the corridors, courtyard and apartments of this tenant building with the usual dialogue choices, combat encounters and branching storylines you tend to find in a decent RPGMaker game. The scope and exploration is kept fairly tight and lean, allowing the small cast of the game to flesh out and get explored quite nicely throughout its short playtime. I really enjoyed the way how the player can choose inactions/ignoring presented options without explicitly telling them. Narratively, the game wants you (the player) to take a stance and act against the literal fascist storm happening in front of you and ohh boy will it condemn you for trying to be a fence-sitter (good).
In it's setting and backdrop, the game doesn't shy away to draw a familiar and on-the-nose picture of Vienna: The run-down Altbau residential buildings (with generous room height and that's pretty much it), housing a melting pot of people, all right in front of the ever-so-busy Vienna city belt, where tons of election ads are plastered throughout the boulevard, imploring you to vote for the next dip-shit conservative fucker from the ÖVP or the FPÖ to join the parliament, while the milieu can only best be described as modern-day depression (aka, the U6-line). This is what basically drew me in, cuz' it's rare to see a game set in my country, let alone in my city and wow the vibes are correct.
In short: It's a good game, I encourage everyone to play it. The game has 5 endings, all results of the actions you take against the existential doom you're facing. Coupled with the dazzling art direction, really strong presentation and execution, this game is on all-fronts (politically, narratively, artistically) a banger.
Punch Nazis, Don't be a centrist, Trans rights!
An Outcry is a RPGMaker game with multiple endings, where your inactions have consequences. Locking themselves out of their apartment and with no means to quench their nicotine addiction, "the unnamed" ventures through the residential building, asking for a lighter and a smoke. All while experiencing "the outcry" - a swarm of crows who seek to eradicate anyone that doesn't share their "terrific birdness". "The unnamed" is the emotional wreck of a protagonist we are playing. Coming off a terrible and traumatizing relationship, the agender individual must also struggle with nigh poverty, struggling to stay afloat and find a job in the "bustling and flourishing" city of Vienna. To top it all off, they also have to deal with being misgendered to straight up antagonized by their neighbors. Only Anne, a transgender woman and friend of "the unnamed" (and literal girlboss, slay 💅), acts as a beacon of hope and comfort for these dire times.
Basically, you wander the corridors, courtyard and apartments of this tenant building with the usual dialogue choices, combat encounters and branching storylines you tend to find in a decent RPGMaker game. The scope and exploration is kept fairly tight and lean, allowing the small cast of the game to flesh out and get explored quite nicely throughout its short playtime. I really enjoyed the way how the player can choose inactions/ignoring presented options without explicitly telling them. Narratively, the game wants you (the player) to take a stance and act against the literal fascist storm happening in front of you and ohh boy will it condemn you for trying to be a fence-sitter (good).
In it's setting and backdrop, the game doesn't shy away to draw a familiar and on-the-nose picture of Vienna: The run-down Altbau residential buildings (with generous room height and that's pretty much it), housing a melting pot of people, all right in front of the ever-so-busy Vienna city belt, where tons of election ads are plastered throughout the boulevard, imploring you to vote for the next dip-shit conservative fucker from the ÖVP or the FPÖ to join the parliament, while the milieu can only best be described as modern-day depression (aka, the U6-line). This is what basically drew me in, cuz' it's rare to see a game set in my country, let alone in my city and wow the vibes are correct.
In short: It's a good game, I encourage everyone to play it. The game has 5 endings, all results of the actions you take against the existential doom you're facing. Coupled with the dazzling art direction, really strong presentation and execution, this game is on all-fronts (politically, narratively, artistically) a banger.
Punch Nazis, Don't be a centrist, Trans rights!
This review contains spoilers
An Outcry is one of those few games which I feel like they are not for me at all, but I played out of emotional masochism.
This is a turn-based RPG maker game with a high emphasis on its themes. It is a game which condemns neutrality and equals it to cowardice. The only true characters are those which are broken, struggling, confrontational against evil and living true joy out of the few moments of mental peace they find.
Commodity is seen as ignorance, people misgendering the character because they would rather not understand what the fuck is an enbi and how it would shake their understanding of identity in general, or worse, out of evil and despise of the unnamed's nature.
The obviously neonazi crow army is not portrayed as persons, but a force of nature made flesh: birdness, despise of everything different, eventual massacre after the late realization that everyone is in their own different, ultimate moral death and fixation on their dangerous goals, no matter how much hypocrisy, cowardice, violence and intimidation it takes to achieve it. They don't have a clear ideology, nor do we have clear what makes for a bird, the only thing you know is that perhaps nobody around truly belongs within them despite their promises.
Not taking action and ignoring the outcry is taken as existential dread, as an outside force robbing the Unnamed's uniqueness and voice, perhaps in an attempt to bring it closer to the player. But unlike other games where neutrality is granted a pat on the back, this game takes it as an illness because of which everyone Aster loves dies or ends up hating them. The game looks specifically at you and condemns you for robbing the game of its purpose and voice, of the immersive empathic factor it tried to project, and turns it around by breaking the 4th wall to attack you.
As a largely coward person who is still allured by neutrality, this game felt like it was trying to instir a change within me. It comes to mind the sentence of Hbomberguy "Gamers want political games, and precisely those complaining about politics in games are the ones who wish politics in them the most." I don't know if this game will do any of it within me, but at least it is a empathy door to the frustration minorities feel against the condescendancy of their peers. I apologize to them for not being able to be truly there for them.
As such, and reflecting that, this game shall remained unscored by someone who doesn't truly understand what it conveys nor did its apparent message reach. The review I made on steam was void yet possitive, for I appretiate this game's vibe, so hopefully the spoiler tag and this website serve as a shelter of my true thoughts.
This is a turn-based RPG maker game with a high emphasis on its themes. It is a game which condemns neutrality and equals it to cowardice. The only true characters are those which are broken, struggling, confrontational against evil and living true joy out of the few moments of mental peace they find.
Commodity is seen as ignorance, people misgendering the character because they would rather not understand what the fuck is an enbi and how it would shake their understanding of identity in general, or worse, out of evil and despise of the unnamed's nature.
The obviously neonazi crow army is not portrayed as persons, but a force of nature made flesh: birdness, despise of everything different, eventual massacre after the late realization that everyone is in their own different, ultimate moral death and fixation on their dangerous goals, no matter how much hypocrisy, cowardice, violence and intimidation it takes to achieve it. They don't have a clear ideology, nor do we have clear what makes for a bird, the only thing you know is that perhaps nobody around truly belongs within them despite their promises.
Not taking action and ignoring the outcry is taken as existential dread, as an outside force robbing the Unnamed's uniqueness and voice, perhaps in an attempt to bring it closer to the player. But unlike other games where neutrality is granted a pat on the back, this game takes it as an illness because of which everyone Aster loves dies or ends up hating them. The game looks specifically at you and condemns you for robbing the game of its purpose and voice, of the immersive empathic factor it tried to project, and turns it around by breaking the 4th wall to attack you.
As a largely coward person who is still allured by neutrality, this game felt like it was trying to instir a change within me. It comes to mind the sentence of Hbomberguy "Gamers want political games, and precisely those complaining about politics in games are the ones who wish politics in them the most." I don't know if this game will do any of it within me, but at least it is a empathy door to the frustration minorities feel against the condescendancy of their peers. I apologize to them for not being able to be truly there for them.
As such, and reflecting that, this game shall remained unscored by someone who doesn't truly understand what it conveys nor did its apparent message reach. The review I made on steam was void yet possitive, for I appretiate this game's vibe, so hopefully the spoiler tag and this website serve as a shelter of my true thoughts.
I am not really a fan of RPGmaker style games, but the writing and style and production quality of An Outcry makes it an exception for me. I recommend getting the soundtrack, too. It's fantastic.
memorable and very special to me.
Uno de mis juegos favoritos. Es increíble y no para de sorprender. Mensaje muy guay
This review contains spoilers
First off: I made this game. This is not a review. It's more like an informal postmortem, or a self-critique with hindsight. If you want something more insightful and detailed, check elsewhere, I've made three posts of much more organised thoughts there.
Here, I'll just try and be as brief as I can: "An Outcry", like my first, never-released novel, was, in a lot of respects, a failure. It showed me the way to do a lot of things, either by throwing me head-first into the deep end, or by allowing me to learn from mistakes of others and myself.
It also taught me this: As a narrative designer, I am specialised in very specific things, and should not drift out of those territories without a seat belt on, or without expecting to severely crash.
This game was step one to a crispy kind of burn-out I'd never before experienced. I'm still reeling from that! Turns out wearing nearly every hat at least partially on a game-team will kill you a firey death!
Further, you will do an extremely spotty job of it in the process, too - there's some design-errors and failures to account for contingencies in this game that I shake my head at nowadays, but really, it was the best I could've done, then.
The refusal mechanic in dialogue is great (and I'm unhappy I can never use it again, now!! Gah!!), but there absolutely exists the oft-observed possibility of people not getting it, and the game not sufficiently meeting those folks halfway.
Smoking to save being possible anywhere in the game was also a terrible idea. There's a reason RE has ink ribbons as a finite resource and typewriters stationary in safe rooms. Professional and sufficient playtesting would have revealed that, but we didn't really have any - so this is how that'll stay.
Lastly- GOD. RPG Maker 2003 sucks for commercial games. If I'd had known that I would have as much time as I ended up actually having, I could've straight-up made this game in a more up-to-date engine instead. ...Well- Next time, then?
All of these issues will, of course, be addressed in the sequel.
Oh. Did I write that out loud?
Hehehe...
Here, I'll just try and be as brief as I can: "An Outcry", like my first, never-released novel, was, in a lot of respects, a failure. It showed me the way to do a lot of things, either by throwing me head-first into the deep end, or by allowing me to learn from mistakes of others and myself.
It also taught me this: As a narrative designer, I am specialised in very specific things, and should not drift out of those territories without a seat belt on, or without expecting to severely crash.
This game was step one to a crispy kind of burn-out I'd never before experienced. I'm still reeling from that! Turns out wearing nearly every hat at least partially on a game-team will kill you a firey death!
Further, you will do an extremely spotty job of it in the process, too - there's some design-errors and failures to account for contingencies in this game that I shake my head at nowadays, but really, it was the best I could've done, then.
The refusal mechanic in dialogue is great (and I'm unhappy I can never use it again, now!! Gah!!), but there absolutely exists the oft-observed possibility of people not getting it, and the game not sufficiently meeting those folks halfway.
Smoking to save being possible anywhere in the game was also a terrible idea. There's a reason RE has ink ribbons as a finite resource and typewriters stationary in safe rooms. Professional and sufficient playtesting would have revealed that, but we didn't really have any - so this is how that'll stay.
Lastly- GOD. RPG Maker 2003 sucks for commercial games. If I'd had known that I would have as much time as I ended up actually having, I could've straight-up made this game in a more up-to-date engine instead. ...Well- Next time, then?
All of these issues will, of course, be addressed in the sequel.
Oh. Did I write that out loud?
Hehehe...
one of the most unique and emotional games i've ever played in my life. i don't really want to get into it here but if you've never tried this before please do and with as little info as possible
Every time Anne calls you baby I melt a little
Starts off really promising. The game has a very interesting setting, well-written characters and i liked the general idea it was aiming for - but ultimately its metaphors, analogies, and the game's ultimate message were too blunt and a little too on the nose to really resonate with me.
An Outcry tem essa forte mensagem política sobre a necessidade que há em resistir e combater quaisquer atos de preconceito ou de abuso. A obra constantemente brinca bastante com o jogador, inserindo o não como uma personificação de um avatar chamado “protagonista”, mas como um integrante daquele meio. É recorrente o surgimento repentino de decisões, as quais muitas vezes o próprio jogo engaja em ignora-las e criar novas escolhas que vão de contra ao status quo gerado pelo próprio universo da obra em si como mídia. No final, An Outcry nos lembra que, acima de tudo, nossas ações fazem uma enorme diferença na sociedade; que o silêncio não é um ato de “imparcialidade”, mas sim de negação; que é fundamental denunciarmos cada injustiça existente nesse mundo. Em síntese, An Outcry é sobre o grito.
7/10
7/10
Beaten: Feb 01 2022
Time: 02 Hours
Platform: Mac (Via Parallels)
It’s wild that I went straight from FF8 to this.
An Outcry is an indie horror rpg I found out about when I played the 2021 Haunted PS1 Demo Disc. Even among that stylistically and presentationally varied crop of wonderful bite-sized experiences, this was far and away my favorite. Now it’s finally out, and my god it’s amazing. If you don’t know about the game, which, fair I guess but Fix That Now, just calling it an indie horror rpg doesn’t really tell the whole story. The horror is primarily conveyed through this.. foreboding atmosphere, and walls of cryptically written text that I could just read for hours and hours. On top of that, it’s got gorgeously realized full screen pixel-art just, everywhere. Honestly there’s some things in this game that I didn’t think you could do with RPG maker, let alone a version that’s 20 years old. One thing that’s very RPG maker is the battle system. It’s based in ATB, with your standard kind of moveset (some defensive, some damaging, some meta/support). It doesn’t have much (if any) of the progression and resource management endemic to these kinds of systems though, which feels very refreshing to me, personally (after coming off of 6[?] final fantasy games in a row lmao). The battles feel thematic, not unlike Undertale, but in a much different way? The game manages to get you into the head of the main character in a way not many RPGs I’ve played, even some all time favorites, ever have.
We can talk about the main character and the themes a bit too, but I really don’t wanna get into them too much. I think it’ll be the most effective for you the blinder you go into it. That being said, the way this game deals with issues and themes surrounding politics and trans identity is absolutely top tier, and if you’ve been looking for a game that handles all of that perfectly you cannot pass this by. When I played the demo last year it got me paying more attention to what I say and the way I say it, which is.. not really an affect I expected to feel from a game.
Absolutely check this one out. It’s nice and short (but has multiple endings that you’ll be driven to check out!) and just, so so good. It deserves your attention. Also birds :)
Time: 02 Hours
Platform: Mac (Via Parallels)
It’s wild that I went straight from FF8 to this.
An Outcry is an indie horror rpg I found out about when I played the 2021 Haunted PS1 Demo Disc. Even among that stylistically and presentationally varied crop of wonderful bite-sized experiences, this was far and away my favorite. Now it’s finally out, and my god it’s amazing. If you don’t know about the game, which, fair I guess but Fix That Now, just calling it an indie horror rpg doesn’t really tell the whole story. The horror is primarily conveyed through this.. foreboding atmosphere, and walls of cryptically written text that I could just read for hours and hours. On top of that, it’s got gorgeously realized full screen pixel-art just, everywhere. Honestly there’s some things in this game that I didn’t think you could do with RPG maker, let alone a version that’s 20 years old. One thing that’s very RPG maker is the battle system. It’s based in ATB, with your standard kind of moveset (some defensive, some damaging, some meta/support). It doesn’t have much (if any) of the progression and resource management endemic to these kinds of systems though, which feels very refreshing to me, personally (after coming off of 6[?] final fantasy games in a row lmao). The battles feel thematic, not unlike Undertale, but in a much different way? The game manages to get you into the head of the main character in a way not many RPGs I’ve played, even some all time favorites, ever have.
We can talk about the main character and the themes a bit too, but I really don’t wanna get into them too much. I think it’ll be the most effective for you the blinder you go into it. That being said, the way this game deals with issues and themes surrounding politics and trans identity is absolutely top tier, and if you’ve been looking for a game that handles all of that perfectly you cannot pass this by. When I played the demo last year it got me paying more attention to what I say and the way I say it, which is.. not really an affect I expected to feel from a game.
Absolutely check this one out. It’s nice and short (but has multiple endings that you’ll be driven to check out!) and just, so so good. It deserves your attention. Also birds :)
Proof there is still plenty of life in the RPG Maker scene.