Franken is a great RPG. I beat it in under two hours.

Love is a very important aspect of the game making process. It's not something you can or should give a numbered score, but you know when it's there and you especially know when it isn't. You don't need to take your game seriously to love it, but you do need to respect it.

Franken, in more ways than one, is a game about love. It's a game that loves the fact that it exists. With simple and entertaining combat, vibrant and beautiful artwork, equally hilarious and engaging writing, it loves that it is an RPG. It has its fair share of satire on the genre yet it never feels like an admonishment of these aspects, but rather quirks that it wears proudly on its sleeve. It takes everything you love about RPGs and compresses them down into their most concentrated forms. Love is in its themes as well, from wanting love and wanting to be loved, grief, and pirated anime music during the big climactic boss fight. Okay maybe that last part doesn't fit, but *I* loved it. It brought back feelings of a bygone era of fangames and early game dev in general. I only wish that it didn't cost the developer the ability to make any money off of the game directly. (btw you should definitely give her money for it indirectly https://twitter.com/splendidland)

Is this a lot to say about a game that's only a couple hours long? Maybe! It truly did touch me in a way that I was not prepared for, though. Once I started I didn't want to put it down, and once it ended I was truly a different person for having played it. It was much-needed reminder, as silly as it sounds, that games are as much or as little as what you make them. If the game in your head is only and hour or two long, or even 30 minutes, make it. As long as you're loving making it, because that love and excitement will shine brightest above all else. Thank you, Splendidland. Thank you, Franken.

Games like this are always a bit of an odd one for me because oh how irritating I find them if they’re done even slightly wrong. Self-aware games that basically serve to parody existing titles and genres always run the risk of coming off as insanely annoying due to feeling totally misguided in how they approach the comedic aspects of the games. Thankfully Franken is a game that avoids a lot of this with the way it’s another of those games that feels as if any fun its poking is entirely in good spirits and from a position of pure admiration from the art. It also helps that the game is only an hour long to make sure it never really outstays its welcome, keeping the jokes about silly aspects of JRPGs present in a way that consistently still feels fun to play through and having some jokes that honestly feel pretty funny and original. The 4th wall breaks are also kept to a minimum, thank god. Just a really fun time that ends on a high note with some of the dumbest and greatest “plot twists” possible, would recommend it especially if you’re into old school JRPGs like the original Dragon Quest and this style of quirkier game.

Good game. Each game that draws the player enough to complete it deserves the name of a good game. And if after finishing the player does not think like "this time was wasted, I was disappointed", the more the label of a good game deserves.

This is also the case here. The game is short, it might seem, but with such a simple game play, visuals and linear storyline, the game time is perfect.

The first impression the game makes is deceptive. Well, another RPG Maker's forge game with its own but crude graphics. Probably with a lot of flaws and only the first 5 minutes is ok and then poverty. You have to overcome this feeling and give the game an additional 15 minutes. The graphics have their own style, which, combined with the amazing music, texts and stories, creates a fantastic atmosphere.

The combat system that is super crude is actually a storytelling tool. The creator came out with this idea fantastically.

The story itself is told quite dynamically. Between a new friendship and the death of a friend, he can literally pass 30 seconds.

If someone creates in RPG Maker, they should play Franken for inspiration. It is especially worth checking how the story narrative works in the combat system. It was done masterfully here. It is also worth playing for the sake of music. There are notes here that are in vain to look for in other productions in rpg make and here prove the strength in creating a specific climate​

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Pros:
+ the writing is often funny and remarkably irreverent
+ stripped down combat leads to smart inversions of RPG tropes
+ soundtrack is colorful and the final fight track slaps hard
+ original Final Fantasy sprites are a cute homage (but don't tell Square...)
+ Three Man fight is the best
+ battle sprites have a distinct style ...

Cons:
- ... but the character portraits are rough
- unwinnable fights cannot be skipped
- sprite layer issues and scrolling is choppy
- a word map would have been nice
- late stage story twists are pretty silly and lack cohesion

Magic Bit of Writing: "I see the makings of an autocracy, and have been branded a dissident."


Verdict:
This is clearly a labor of love by creatr Samanthuel Louise Gillson, who released this for free for anyone to enjoy. The homages to and inversion of 2D RPGs of the past will make fans of the genre rejoice and the attention to detail and just plain love for the genre is felt at every turn and every new suprise, of which there are plenty. However, as great as some of the early writing is, the ending feels like a missed opportunity to actually say something about the genre and its tropes and felt like a missed opportunity. If you can look past that, Franken is certainly worth a quick, 30+ minute playthrough.

Cute lil parody thing. It's smarmy about itself but moreso in the charming hehe scrunkly side rather than the "h i yes do you gett this one???", although there's still a bit of that which kind of makes me roll my eyes. But it's kind of like the roll your eyes when your friend's making that really dumb in-joke you have together, that you've probably heard like 10+ times from them but still kind of makes you internally smile because it's coming from that genuine point in history you two share. In this case we've both played moon and we really liked moon, we're giggling about moon's jokes that are (really harmlessly) riffed right off. It's cute, we had a good time, extended metaphor included. That being said if you made it past that really lame joke (I've been inspired) and feel like this game might be a bit underwhelming I'd suggest trying out Magic Wand cuz that game's really cool.