Path of the Martyrs
Path of the Martyrs is an excellent adventure!
The time I spent as Saiyato in the world of Delma was rewarding.
While battles proved somewhat easy, they were also a lot of fun. The combat and skill systems have depth, and fun realtime arcade elements in some cases that keep you on your toes. Resources are plentiful for thorough explorers.
The real challenge is the puzzles. Kazuki Takamura is a clever designer when it comes to these. There are many types of puzzle, and the difficulty level is a nice balance between frustration and satisfaction.
– Real player with 8.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Emotional Games.
Playing status: finished the game, experienced both endings
Guide: Link
Intro
Path of the Martyrs is a turn-based RPG Maker game with a non-linear story. You’ll travel back and forth between past and present as you uncover the truth about what’s happening.
Pros:
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2 endings
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Different weapons has different elements to defeat the enemies efficiently
Cons:
- Exploration and battles feel repetitive
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game
Navin: In Search Of The Light
About
After an unknown event, Navin has been lost in a magical world… and to return home he must solve many puzzles in this mysterious place. A voice from outside is calling him…
Explore this wonderful world with the metroidvania-like gameplay style. Know new places, new bosses by using new abilities you acquire throughout the game.
Features
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Metroidvania-like gameplay
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A great story to fall in love with
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Unique Cartoonish graphics
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An immersive Dark theme
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Singleplayer Games.
Pale Cachexia
Beautiful Sadness
Lonely. This is the first word that greets you when you start Pale Cachexia. Alone in the dark wood. The contrast between forest’s spring awakening and “ghostly gloom” of the night, with “rustling sounds of crickets”, nocturnal creatures and “ominous howls”, the feeling that someone is breathing right behind you while you venture among the endless unmoving trees - all set the mood of the VN right from the start and mark it as decidedly Gothic and Romanticist. With a sense of crippling loneliness and smallness the main character Esther stumbles through this vast, misty forest in search of a cure for her terminal illness, and finds herself in a gloomy Gothic manor, almost like she just stepped into a dream.
– Real player with 12.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Casual Games.
Short Review:
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Kinetic visual novel (no choices)
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Complexity in story and characters
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Heavy topics of death, illness, grief, guilt, and loneliness
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Somewhat open ending
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Nice art, including unlockables
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Soundtrack that perfectly enhances mood
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Overall an atmospheric, emotional story I enjoyed!
Full Review:
What an atmospheric, emotionally complex story. This kinetic novel (visual novel without any choices) has elements of horror and fantasy, and there are some creepy parts, but it’s mostly mysterious and melancholic, dealing with the heavy topics of death/dying, illness, grief, guilt, and loneliness.
– Real player with 8.7 hrs in game
Framing Dawes
A cursed teenager is thrown into a forgotten recursive wonderland where the last twenty-four hours are a mystery, her Mother’s been kidnapped and she’ll be framed for the murder of a missing boy if she can’t find him. Oh, and her pet rabbit has risen from his grave…
Framing Dawes is an atmospheric adventure game following teenager Bay Dawes on her journey to find and bring a missing boy to the asylum where her mother is being held captive before the end of the day. If she doesn’t, she will be framed for his murder and never see her mother again. Accompanied by her dead pet rabbit, Dink, they explore the hidden world beneath her town of Foresight in a flying bathtub to recover missing memories and rescue her mother.
But can she break the curse before it’s too late?
Gameplay
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Story-Driven, Point and Click Adventure.
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Players will interact with Dawes' world, collecting and combining inventory, solving puzzles and casting spells.
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There are occasional instances where the player can switch to Dink the rabbit and Dawes' mother.
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The game is composed of three parts combined into the full game.
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The control options are Mouse and Keyboard.
Highlights
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Over 90 beautifully hand-drawn environments to explore
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Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, mythological stories, Jan Švankmajer, Tim Burton, Labyrinth, Dark Crystal and old dreams
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The provocative narrative will surprise and immerse you
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Navigate to different locations in a magical flying bathtub
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Bizarre characters, talking dolls, missing socks, space exploration and more!
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Experience occasional possessions and paranormal activity
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Original soundtrack
十三月のふたり姫／The 13th month
◆“Sleeping Beauty”？
The fate of the world is bound to a princess lost in an endless sleep… The famous fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty” is completely reimagined and redesigned as Visual Novel… With a demonic imagination and originality, the creators will lead you through a fantastic and illusionary world…
【Story Summary】
The princess was just too beautiful. She was given all the good qualities of this world, such things as beauty, grace, kindness, tolerance, and honesty. It would soon be the princess’ 16th birthday.
Dead Hearts
You can listen to OST on Gamejolt page!
In Dead Hearts you play the role of Zero, Nekojin living in a village in the mountains. One night the village is invaded by elite knights of the neighboring empire, Araynia. You, your sister and childhood friend, are the only ones to emerge from this event. After a successful escape, you are forced to survive in the wilderness and wander for a long time to a prosperous city to join the gendarmerie and take revenge.
Dead Hearts is an RPG with dynamic action, battles happen in real time with a view from above. Earn levels, items, silver, companions, new skills and better equipment to face increasingly powerful opponents. There are many different quests in the game to move the story forward… or to help a settler from the surrounding village with his problem of rats. The game has several endings, and some romance with some of the characters, as well as the dynamic character of the main character, which changes depending on the choices made or events in the game world.
The continent on which the action takes place was divided into 2 parts: Western and Eastern.
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The western part is mainly desert, and is mostly inhabited by elves.
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The eastern part is more diverse, both in nature and in the races living there.
In the west there are nations:
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Theocracy of Elfrand
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Dishan Empire
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Satsuran Kingdom
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United Commonwealth of Continental Nations
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Chetiak
In the east there are nations:
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Principality of Ywjilthar
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Araynia Empire
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Chetian Federation
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Vrignian Monarchy
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Polonian Republic
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Abria
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Wiederescian Republic
In the game world there are four, uncovered, humanoid races:
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Humans
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Elves
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Nekojin
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Angels
Need a packet?
There’s a large chance that this game simply fits within my own niche of interests extremely well. I really do like this project a lot for what it is! an experience, and art. The cash registry is really fun too once you get in a rhythm. I think it does a good job of displaying a descent from what I’ve seen, though while the atmosphere is dreary and holds an important message about antipollution, but it doesn’t exactly feel heavy y’know. Very close though! And I love all the surrealist energy!
Personally my biggest gripe with the game is simply the easy mode. I understand the, feeling that was being gone for with it. But ultimately, having it in a way where it’s a completely different experiences and eliminating a core gameplay mechanic, (the bullet hell), it just feels like whoever needs, or simply just wants to play the easier mode, is being excluded y’know ? Personally I’d suggest a way to opt in and out of these things but, that’s just one solution.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
I purchased Need a Packet because I watched Markiplier try it out a while ago, and he had a very negative reaction to it at the time, but the visuals were so compelling that I had to come and try it out myself. And I’m glad that I did! I haven’t finished the game yet, but so far Need a Packet is a challenging game, with great artwork and music, and a compelling story! The mechanics are interesting too, switching between you being a cashier and giving packets to people, and defending the transport you take to work against giant demons and the like, it all getting progressively more difficult as the game goes on.
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Seed of Amaranth
Was asked to give this game a quick look over for any major bugs before it was released, but then I wound up getting drawn in to the story in the process.
I found the storytelling and setting to be very enjoyable, it builds an interesting and meaningful universe without relying too much on spoon-feeding background information to the player. Many of the most interesting elements of the world are subconsciously learned over time, smoothly woven in to casual dialog between characters. Enjoyable and unique characters with interesting consequences to their actions that occasionally took me by surprise. Very enjoyable character and background art, I only wish there were additional backgrounds to enjoy :)
– Real player with 9.1 hrs in game
I have somewhat mixed feelings regarding this visual novel. It is excellent as a novel… but it falls a bit short on the visual half of the genre. And it’s essentially kinetic. There are 3 choices, but they do not appear to change the story much. The worldbuilding is also great? The setting reminded me a lot of The Last Remnant, a game I loved. Another game it reminds me of a bit is An Octave Higher. There are some similar themes, but I liked this much better overall.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2014583838
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
Bleeding Moons
A unique and entertaining point and click adventure game in the vein of Space Pilgrim about war, politics, love and everything in between. The game is more of an interactive novel, the puzzle part is very easy, too easy I would say, so if you are expecting to get creative about picking things and combining them in the inventory, this is not the game for you.
The game tackles adult issues such as rape and abuse, but very tastefully, which is testament to the overall excellent writing. The world is rich with characters and they all have a story, even the many NPCs will tell you their tale. The creators really took their time with every detail, including some humorous: in a city with many stray dogs, of course you will find poop on the street :) … which should have been an achievement itself.
– Real player with 35.4 hrs in game
First of all, I’m writing this review as a huge THANK YOU to the creator. I just finished the game and I’m absolutely in love with it! I spent about a good 10 hours playing through the story and because I’m that kind of guy that wants to know everything, I logged over 200 saves. I’ll be going back to my final save later this week to try something a little different. After that I’m likely to try again from the beginning to see what I might be able to change.
! I was surprised to find out I was locked out of Luna’s ending but the rest were available to me
– Real player with 13.8 hrs in game
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows really took me by surprise, it really did. The game claims to be a RPG but there are very few elements to support that claim, especially given the fact that the story is quite linear and there are no choices for you to make, you’re basically just watching how everything unfolds. That said, there is a lot to say about Masquerada, both good and bad, and I believe it’s a game that went under a lot of people’s radar and I truly believe it deserves a lot more exposure and credit than it has received.
– Real player with 38.5 hrs in game
Once again, this is the type of game where the “Yes” actually means “Yes, but-”, as in “Yes, but only if you like linear story-focused games with lots (and I mean LOTS) of reading”. Let’s get this straight: any mention of this game being an “RPG” is very misleading. There are no choices in the story at all; the protagonist (Cicero) is a defined character with his own personality and backstory, which I don’t think is a bad thing. There is very little exploration, aside from a few tidbits of lore and equipment sprinkled about, and since the game almost never lets you backtrack, it’s easy to lock yourself out of getting a certain lore entry or mask forever if you’re not careful. Pretty much the only RPG-like mechanic is the skills, masks, and enchantments you can pick between, so if you consider XCOM an RPG, then sure, I guess this game counts, too.
– Real player with 27.4 hrs in game