played oct 27th for rpgmaker october
stalled on saying anything abt this bc it amts to a lot of tiring adjectives i could use to communicate how dark fantasy computer rpg this feels while being v adventure game made in rpgmaker w only the lightest rpg elements. like barely even a battle system, just bump into an enemy and get a prompt with the math of your damage trade + maybe a status effect occasionally, and that's it. "arcane" is one id use, classic game basically drops you into things to figure out its interactions on your own, without any clear goals dictated to you. you just run out of reasons to live (literally as items that function as a measure of the time you have left in your run) as days go by, floundering around to understand this world youre in. my first run obviously didnt go well but i was rly taken w how the game instills its grim atmosphere thru that. i think its worth doing at least one run blind, taking setbacks as they come.
the 2nd run, one where i followed the devs walkthrough pretty closely, was v revealing for just how much shit is in this game that almost doesnt want to be found. a couple parts of this game had me yelling but what i have been thinking abt more is how they were buried; classic game isnt like a confessional, nor does it have shock content or anything explicitly fucked up or sinister like that, but there is something rly intoxicatingly perverse abt unravelling its secrets. that christian fearfulness or idk how to describe it that as you immerse yourself further into its esoterica, you bring yourself closer to the devil. i think its rly immense for this engine that kinda leans towards the cartoonish. like there's space funeral for comparison, which i thought this would be more patterned after based off the ascii character sprites n occasionally goofy sfx juxtaposed against drearily detailed environs n glowing pentagrams, the go-to example for halloweeny satanism "corroding" rpgmaker, but that game was simply using it for go to hell zx spectrum styled silly kitsch. classic game is not overly serious all the time but its harder to laugh its invocations off. entire game feels like an expansion on the mephistopheles quest in demon's souls, painstaking completionism + cryptic directions followed just to summon your own oblivion for you to see more clearly for yourself.
idk if my opinion of this game will soften over time but the way it explores that dark space btwn ancient lofi gamey abstraction n visually tactile depictions of cold ruined lands, how our imagination snakes its ways thru the machine and renders it accursed, really hit for me since playing a few weeks back. for the moment im calling it one of the best i played last month
stalled on saying anything abt this bc it amts to a lot of tiring adjectives i could use to communicate how dark fantasy computer rpg this feels while being v adventure game made in rpgmaker w only the lightest rpg elements. like barely even a battle system, just bump into an enemy and get a prompt with the math of your damage trade + maybe a status effect occasionally, and that's it. "arcane" is one id use, classic game basically drops you into things to figure out its interactions on your own, without any clear goals dictated to you. you just run out of reasons to live (literally as items that function as a measure of the time you have left in your run) as days go by, floundering around to understand this world youre in. my first run obviously didnt go well but i was rly taken w how the game instills its grim atmosphere thru that. i think its worth doing at least one run blind, taking setbacks as they come.
the 2nd run, one where i followed the devs walkthrough pretty closely, was v revealing for just how much shit is in this game that almost doesnt want to be found. a couple parts of this game had me yelling but what i have been thinking abt more is how they were buried; classic game isnt like a confessional, nor does it have shock content or anything explicitly fucked up or sinister like that, but there is something rly intoxicatingly perverse abt unravelling its secrets. that christian fearfulness or idk how to describe it that as you immerse yourself further into its esoterica, you bring yourself closer to the devil. i think its rly immense for this engine that kinda leans towards the cartoonish. like there's space funeral for comparison, which i thought this would be more patterned after based off the ascii character sprites n occasionally goofy sfx juxtaposed against drearily detailed environs n glowing pentagrams, the go-to example for halloweeny satanism "corroding" rpgmaker, but that game was simply using it for go to hell zx spectrum styled silly kitsch. classic game is not overly serious all the time but its harder to laugh its invocations off. entire game feels like an expansion on the mephistopheles quest in demon's souls, painstaking completionism + cryptic directions followed just to summon your own oblivion for you to see more clearly for yourself.
idk if my opinion of this game will soften over time but the way it explores that dark space btwn ancient lofi gamey abstraction n visually tactile depictions of cold ruined lands, how our imagination snakes its ways thru the machine and renders it accursed, really hit for me since playing a few weeks back. for the moment im calling it one of the best i played last month