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chuckroIttle Dew 2+ - Like the first game, this is an attempt to revisit classic 2D Zelda gameplay. (And “it’s not Zelda, but it’ll do.”) I initially found this mildly frustrating because it’s a fairly open world, and I wandered into one of the tougher areas unprepared and got killed a bunch of times. Fortunately, you have infinite continues (and frequent checkpoints) and when I went and found the actual starter dungeons, I did much better. (I still died a lot, though. A lot, a lot. The combat is a step harder than Zelda standard and I really could have gone for an “enemies do less damage” easy mode.) The puzzle difficulty is fairly even until the final dungeon, but you can find lockpicks by doing bonus caves scattered across the map--which in turn allow you to skip the insanely-hard key puzzles in the last dungeon. But if that wasn’t enough for you, there are also four bonus dungeons, and extra-final dungeon, and a set of Dream World bonus stages.
Septerra Core - The world is made up of seven shells that surround a biocomputer core, and the keys to that core can grant incredible power to the user. A random junker from the wilderness will end up being the force that stops that power from falling into the wrong hands. If you needed a reminder of why 90s PC rpgs weren’t very good, here it is. Features include: Unskippable voiced dialogue. Mixed mouse-and-keyboard input without a tutorial or options to edit it. Weird isometric viewpoint that makes it hard to navigate. No mini-map, hint system, quest log or useful plot direction. Obtuse combat system where characters are turn-based but enemies attack in real time, and you can’t pause. (Apparently this was an attempt to make a jrpg-style game for the American PC audience; but it kept the things I dislike about PC rpgs and lacks the quality-of-life features that jrpgs have steadily added since the PS1 era.)
Dreaming Sarah - A short and fun no-combat Metroidvania. You guide Sarah through a dozen areas to find tools that unlock other areas. The platforming isn’t too tricky and dying only knocks you back to the beginning of the room regardless. The atmosphere is dreamy/creepy/dark, because it is all, in fact, Sarah’s dreams.
Elf Enchanter: Arousing Anima - Lacking the combat system of this publisher’s other games, it’s significantly shorter—and there are all of two choices to make in finding the three endings. For that matter, it doesn’t really make good use of its premise. I’d call it the weakest of that lot.
Helen's Mysterious Castle - A semi-roguelike exploration rpg that uses a timing system for duel-based battles. In this case, you can use XP dropped by monsters to upgrade your weapons and make earlier battles easier and later battles possible. (This is another game in the category of "Neat things you can do with RPG Maker.") The plot is left very nebulous, as Helen says nothing and apparently can’t read, so why you’re exploring the local ruins and fighting monsters is unclear at first. As you play, what seems like a standard exploration quest turns into a mindscrew, as you learn that the Mysterious Castle is the prison for all the monsters created by a necromancer artisan and used as weapons of war. Helen was apparently an innocent victim caught up in this, and this whole adventure was a gambit to let her go free.
Septerra Core - The world is made up of seven shells that surround a biocomputer core, and the keys to that core can grant incredible power to the user. A random junker from the wilderness will end up being the force that stops that power from falling into the wrong hands. If you needed a reminder of why 90s PC rpgs weren’t very good, here it is. Features include: Unskippable voiced dialogue. Mixed mouse-and-keyboard input without a tutorial or options to edit it. Weird isometric viewpoint that makes it hard to navigate. No mini-map, hint system, quest log or useful plot direction. Obtuse combat system where characters are turn-based but enemies attack in real time, and you can’t pause. (Apparently this was an attempt to make a jrpg-style game for the American PC audience; but it kept the things I dislike about PC rpgs and lacks the quality-of-life features that jrpgs have steadily added since the PS1 era.)
Dreaming Sarah - A short and fun no-combat Metroidvania. You guide Sarah through a dozen areas to find tools that unlock other areas. The platforming isn’t too tricky and dying only knocks you back to the beginning of the room regardless. The atmosphere is dreamy/creepy/dark, because it is all, in fact, Sarah’s dreams.
Elf Enchanter: Arousing Anima - Lacking the combat system of this publisher’s other games, it’s significantly shorter—and there are all of two choices to make in finding the three endings. For that matter, it doesn’t really make good use of its premise. I’d call it the weakest of that lot.
Helen's Mysterious Castle - A semi-roguelike exploration rpg that uses a timing system for duel-based battles. In this case, you can use XP dropped by monsters to upgrade your weapons and make earlier battles easier and later battles possible. (This is another game in the category of "Neat things you can do with RPG Maker.") The plot is left very nebulous, as Helen says nothing and apparently can’t read, so why you’re exploring the local ruins and fighting monsters is unclear at first. As you play, what seems like a standard exploration quest turns into a mindscrew, as you learn that the Mysterious Castle is the prison for all the monsters created by a necromancer artisan and used as weapons of war. Helen was apparently an innocent victim caught up in this, and this whole adventure was a gambit to let her go free.
