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.
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.
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.
chato demais. história (até onde joguei) inexistente e o meio de avançar no jogo é baseado em combates, que seriam divertidos, se não fosse repetitivo e tivesse um sistema esquisito de block. mas o gráfico é bonitinho.
clever battle system, lots of secrets, good length, charming as hell
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.
need to finish this. kind of tricky but also im not a smart guy
Well, Helen's Mysterious Castle. I got attracted to this game because of the anime-girl-in-a-weird-16-bit-retro-environment premise, but came back with a little good surprise. I always thought this game was long since one steam user had almost 100 hours invested on it, but turned out to be fairly short for an RPG, I finished it in almost 6 hours.
What really shines here is the gameplay, an one-to-one JRPG combat system where the attacks are performed based on a countdown timer. For example, if you want to perform a hit with your broadsword, you have to wait to the counter to go all down from 14 to 0 to perform the attack, and you can't stop the movement once it's chosen, so you'll have to wait until it's performed to do another move. The enemy also has its own counter, and this is where the strategy factor comes. If your enemy has to wait 15 'turns' (so to say) to perform a powerful attack, you can deploy three attacks of 5 'turns' before getting hit, or you can use a heal movement to recover you and defend yourself from the great impact. A really unique combat style that I wish could be more standarized (or more refined in another game), since it's so fun. After winning battles against enemies and bosses, you get experience points that you can spend on upgrading your movements, something I prefer more than the common stats improvement mechanic, though it rewards grinding and that's quite a gray area for me.
Don't expect too much from the story, but at the same time, it's not like it tries to be more than what it is. The story is simple yet entertaining, with some twists and turns here and there, and that's all you really need for a game this length.
On the sound section... the music is amazing. I can't really remember who the composer was, but tracks like this one are so memorable they're still in my head after years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWJJAt4cbKM
And yes, you may ask "why after so many years, if you finished this game this year?", well, that's because I already played this game before, but didn't bother to finish in my original run. Anyway, the music is great, the sound effects are on point with the aesthetics...
And speaking about aesthetics, the game looks excellent. It's really like your generic RPG Maker 2003 game, but that's because all games created on RPG Maker 2003 look fantastic. The graphics are greatly designed and original, and they truly bring a sense of nostalgia, or longing for the times where the only preoccupation in your life was finishing up that captivating JRPG you played on the SNES (or its emulator counterpart).
Overall, this is a game I recommend strongly. I can't think of any flaws other than it can become quite grindier depending of what kind of build you want to achieve (or if you get stuck with powerness past certain point), but whatever, still good.
6.5/10
What really shines here is the gameplay, an one-to-one JRPG combat system where the attacks are performed based on a countdown timer. For example, if you want to perform a hit with your broadsword, you have to wait to the counter to go all down from 14 to 0 to perform the attack, and you can't stop the movement once it's chosen, so you'll have to wait until it's performed to do another move. The enemy also has its own counter, and this is where the strategy factor comes. If your enemy has to wait 15 'turns' (so to say) to perform a powerful attack, you can deploy three attacks of 5 'turns' before getting hit, or you can use a heal movement to recover you and defend yourself from the great impact. A really unique combat style that I wish could be more standarized (or more refined in another game), since it's so fun. After winning battles against enemies and bosses, you get experience points that you can spend on upgrading your movements, something I prefer more than the common stats improvement mechanic, though it rewards grinding and that's quite a gray area for me.
Don't expect too much from the story, but at the same time, it's not like it tries to be more than what it is. The story is simple yet entertaining, with some twists and turns here and there, and that's all you really need for a game this length.
On the sound section... the music is amazing. I can't really remember who the composer was, but tracks like this one are so memorable they're still in my head after years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWJJAt4cbKM
And yes, you may ask "why after so many years, if you finished this game this year?", well, that's because I already played this game before, but didn't bother to finish in my original run. Anyway, the music is great, the sound effects are on point with the aesthetics...
And speaking about aesthetics, the game looks excellent. It's really like your generic RPG Maker 2003 game, but that's because all games created on RPG Maker 2003 look fantastic. The graphics are greatly designed and original, and they truly bring a sense of nostalgia, or longing for the times where the only preoccupation in your life was finishing up that captivating JRPG you played on the SNES (or its emulator counterpart).
Overall, this is a game I recommend strongly. I can't think of any flaws other than it can become quite grindier depending of what kind of build you want to achieve (or if you get stuck with powerness past certain point), but whatever, still good.
6.5/10