Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3
This quickly became one of my favorite RPG’s as well as my personal favorite game in the PAA series, and with good reason. There’s quite a lot I’d like to say, so let’s get to it.
The game takes place 2 weeks after the events of Episode 2, but what’s neat is that you don’t need to have played it to understand the story going into Episode 3, as they immediately give you a summary of prior events upon talking to one of the statues in the Detective Agency. That alone makes Episode 3 easy to pick up and play, and the gameplay will keep you around for the long haul.
– Real player with 105.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best JRPG Detective Games.
This game was an enjoyable throwback to 16bit turn based RPGs, but with a twist. They improved the combat system by adding some complexity without making it overly complicated. Since the core of all these turned based RPGs is mostly how well and fulfilling the combat is, the majority of this review will go over that section in detail to give you a greater understanding of how the game plays. I broke down the review in bold sections so you can read what is most important or what is most interesting to you in order of importance.
– Real player with 16.2 hrs in game
Loser Reborn
What?!
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There isn’t enough variety of class options. There is Knight/Samurai, Wizard/Wu-jen & Rogue/Ninja to bring to a total of six. Problem is there is no differentiation between, say, a Knight and a Samurai. Only the starter skill is different. And the usual normal class traits don’t really apply here–a Warrior/Samurai in Loser Reborn is a “supporting class” and Rogue/Ninja are more of a “attacking class”.
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Throw-away plot with typical plot-holes of anime.
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Equipment Balance Issues: MC can be K’O in one hit. To explain: equipment can be either conducive or combustible–meaning you have to be very careful how much “weakness” stacking you are doing. Combat is about memorization; for example: one class is more inclined to use fire-tribute skills than physical attacks or a foe is more resilient to physical damage but more acceptable to magical damage.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best JRPG Parody Games.
I can tell that the developer of this game put in so much love and effort into this game.
This short, yet extremely difficult rpg game is basically inspired by the isekai trope of magically teleporting the player into a fantasy world on the brink of annihilation. There are basically three classes: Knight, Mage, and Rogue. The Knight specializes in tanking for his team mates, the Mage uses spells, and the Rogue is fast and focuses on debuffs. The goal of your mission is to defeat the Dark Lord who is threatening to destroy the entire kingdom or world thing. You are assisted by your harem party of brave heroes to defeat him.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Cthulhu Saves Christmas
At first I was really into it. It was funny, combat was fun and showed promise, music was great, the writing and scenes kept me interested. But it quickly died down. This is not a bad game. But not only does it not improve from previous games, which would’ve been important, it’s even a step down from previous games overall, especially coming from Cosmic Star Heroine.
First, minor tech issues: the game has an overlay glitch at 1440p, possibly appears at other resolutions too, that doesn’t happen at 1080p. It’s not major, but it’s a blemish. There is also an issue with characters following you going out of-sync above 60FPS. Doesn’t pose any problem otherwise though.
– Real player with 13.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best JRPG Comedy Games.
I picked this up back around Christmas, and took only a little over 12 hours to finish it. Its only now I am getting around to reviewing it, so lets begin. I do recommend this game, but barely. It didn’t click with me totally like some of Zeboyds previous titles.
The concept is simple. Cthulu wakes up and is told Santa has been kidnapped. Why should he care? Because Santa helps everyone get what they want for Christmas, even dark gods. If Santa isn’t rescued, Cthulu can never conquer the world. Oh no! And so you set off to battle the League of Christmas Evil and save the holidays.
– Real player with 13.2 hrs in game
Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4
7/10: The fourth and final part of Penny Arcade’s quadrilogy involving elder gods and silly puns. Zeboyd Games has a classic turn-based approach to RPG’s that I always enjoy, though it’s a bit closer to Pokemon with the whole trainers and monsters dynamic.
Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness series began back in 2008, and took about 5 years to reach it’s conclusion. The first two parts, developed and published by Hothead, were both released that year and were close to the style of the webcomic and had timing mechanics mixed into their turn based combat. Then things went mysteriously quiet, leaving the series potentially unfinished until 2011 when Zeboyd announced they’d be developing episode 3 (and later 4), at which point the series combat mechanics switched to Zeboyd’s style, with turn bars and interrupts and 16-bit graphics.
– Real player with 29.6 hrs in game
Rain-Slick 4 is an improvement on Rain-Slick 3 in almost every way. Once again, I played through the game on Insane difficulty. Due to the new monster ally mechanic, party member roles are not as rigid, and many battles require a different approach than using the same team composition over and over. While the overall challenge is slightly less than 3, it felt more rewarding to clear a hard encounter through modifying my strategy rather than just retrying and hoping my tank takes more hits; not to mention, there are still plenty of formidable opponents in the optional content.
– Real player with 22.3 hrs in game
Case 02: Paranormal Evil
Case:02: Paranormal Evil is a casual story driven game about a guy that wakes up in a hospital amidst a zombie outbreak spurred on by cultists in the area. The game features very well done pixel art as well as some anime art of the characters in the dialog cards. Just well executed for the game and gives a charming essence to the experience. The game has you do skill checks of Willpower, Firepower, and Dexterity and items that you can equip will increase the number of dice you can use against these checks against any paranormal evil beings you may come across.
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game
Story
You play as Marty, a boy woke up from a coma only to find himself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Marty befriends a girl, Sally, who looked after him while he was comatose, but then she gets kidnapped by the Cult of Gla’aki. Despite being an ordinary guy, Marty has to fight his way through the undead hordes inorder to save Sally and escape the hospital.
While the story stands well on its own, it feels a lot different from the other games in the Physical Exorcism games thematically. For one thing, Marty and Sally are written as traditionally sympathetic protagonists, unlike Brucie, Jade, and Lucy, who are written as darker protagonists that most people wouldn’t cheer for. Also, while Loser Reborn tried to deconstruct the wish fulfillment of Isekai stories, I feel that Case 02 plays the wish fulfillment of the zombie apocalypse genre straight.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
Cthulhu Mythos RPG -The Sleeping Girl of the Miasma Sea-
Fun game with a lot of detail to it. Multiple endings, choices having an impact on dialogue and story, the “New Game+” feature (Levels carry over when you die), customizable protagonist and you can choose what party members you have! I like the old, retro-style graphics and the characters are interesting and likable. I really enjoyed the sanity mechanic, even if it got annoying sometimes (I especially liked it when they had a BREAKDOWN BREAKDOWN). I always got shivers down my spine later on in the game. I played this before and after Sweet Home for the NES and still prefer this over that. The character’s overworld sprites are a tad odd cuz they look like they’re lying on their backs, but other than that, it was a very enjoyable and interesting experience! (The music is pretty jamming too! Especially in the last area of the game)
– Real player with 16.5 hrs in game
Nice, a bit shorter than I thought it’d be with all the stuff you see at first, but it’s a really nice game that mixes 8 bit visual style and music with some Dragon Quest like abilities and combat (which actually flows really well), some inventory management (this may be a bit irritating for some, but it’s doable) and a really creepy overall feeling without any cheap jump-scares everywhere.
If you like Corpse Party, or any RPG-Maker Japanese horror game, you’ll like this too.
– Real player with 16.3 hrs in game
NetSpace Saga Ep.1
When the crew of the Black Coffee Class C Transport ship finds themselves with no cash and no fuel, they have to ask for work from an old, unpleasant acquaintance, which unchains a series of events that will change the fate of the Solar System, making them unlikely heroes.
Fight your way against aliens, zombies, robots, androids, AI’s, sicarios, and more while meeting hundreds of characters in the Asteroid Cities, vInternet (a Virtual Internet that has gone mad), and Deep Space. Rescue three girls in danger and learn Satan’s true name, while uncovering a terrible conspiracy.
Features of Episode 1:
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A modern take on classic gameplay!
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Turn-based Battle with Point N' Click elements, just like the JRPG gems of the past!
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An irreverent story with characters you will never forget!
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Save anywhere!
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More than 70 unique enemies!
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Meet hundreds of characters!
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10 or more hours of gameplay!
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4 or more hours of hilarious side quests!
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A dark, cyberpunk soundtrack by The Krundas!
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More than 40 levels!
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You can connect to vInternet anytime and explore!
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Use Chips to learn new abilities!
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Episodic story!
Skautfold: Knight’s End
Knights End - The final part of the Skautfold Series is finally here!
Yet again bringing a new style of game play this one features A Timeline based Rpg system while incorporating The Guard System from previous games, The Result fast paced unique combat which like usual takes a while to learn but as soon as perfected Is really fun to play.
Lots of different types of enemies keep it interesting with bosses featuring different mechanics which put a spin on what you’re normally used to.
Now The game is in early access but Is patched extremely frequently and the Dev welcomes feedback and Fixes bugs as soon as they’re reported.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
Good so far. Interesting spin on a sort of time-based turn based battle system. Very moody atmosphere, very detailed enemies, and lots of different kinds. Fun sort of metroidvania element to world navigation.
Developer puts out patches very quickly.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
![[Neolithic]To the End](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1519140/header.jpg)
[Neolithic]To the End
TL:DR
This may be the weirdest fever dream you’ve ever had.
Life is full of absurdity
Some Features:
Everything in a classical RPG plus…
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Bizarre adventures.
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First-person gunfight during battle.
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Convert supernatural (or not so supernatural) enemies to be your pets.
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Deployable traps, barricades, and furniture to decorate your home.
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Your very own home with a map editor. ALL MAPS in the game can be edited during the gameplay. Support import/export map to RMXP.
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Magical items and anomalies with their own mechanisms.
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Crafting items from 3D printers.
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Plant and harvest food and…something else.
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Endless procedurally generated quests from mission boards.
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A powerful cheat console that can run Ruby script.
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Minigames! The awesome part of an open-world RPG is, you can get all those minigames for free!
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Frequent updates. Who knows what you can find in the future.
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DRM-Free!
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Highly customizable playing experience.
Risks: (I will be totally honest with you. Thus, I put it here)
1, The game is made with a very old game engine. (For memories' sake)
2, There is only one developer.
3, I am terrible at 2D art.
4, I am not a native speaker of English.
Thus, I provide an honest demo for you. The demo version will update all the way till the game release.
It reflects the current stage of game development in almost real-time.
As the game is one of the first and last RMXP games that’s ever being developed, I’m not exactly aiming to make it something great. (or even sane.)
Instead, it needs to be unique and fun in a way that people can rarely see nowadays, to make people laugh maniacally even in a grimdark world where both the in-game world and the life circle of RMXP are coming to an end.
Story
Welcome to our secret society of [redacted]. We are among the most ancient ones in our line of work.
For a long time, we have witnessed the rise and fall of many others.
The situation is grim, the world almost ended in 2008, 2012, 2015, and 2020.
Some people predict it will keep ending this year, next year, and the year after.
But, well, even if that’s true, even if the ending is inevitable, it is tragic, we are still alive.
So, cheer up! We shall carry on.
As long as we stand, the world shall never fall!
To the end…
Features:
Unbalanced and Unfair
Beneath the facet of the beautiful life people called “normal”, lurks the truth that this secret struggle is never fair.
There are things that can hardly be killed. They may come in great numbers to overwhelm us.
Even when not facing such a supernatural entity, a well-trained Kung-Fu master can still be killed by just a bullet.
But, We Fight on With All We Have!
We have guns and our own magics. We even learned to bind supernatural entities to our wills.
We have tools and artifacts, we have skills ranging from combat to conversation.
If there is a lock that can hardly be picked, try blowing it.
There are always solutions.
You Are Different.
Your arrival was not expected. You were not on any lists. We know little about you.
Show us, who you are and who you will become with all the perks/skills/proficiency you may develop.
We may still stand a chance against all odds with your help.
Lead us…
In This Vast World
Your loyal companions will follow you from ancient ruins to modern metropolis, from east to west.
You will meet common folks we swear to protect, watching them live their “normal” life.
You will discover mysteries, solve them when combat evil forces lurking in the dark.
The Secret History
The story behind this game:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1519140/view/2986431641632413538
It’s the first Neolithic game with English localization that comes to Steam since 2004 when the first game of Neolithic was published in a dark corner of China.
_Comparing to a commercial game, this is more like a memento to the old golden age of RPG Maker XP (when indie games are really indie; when updates are free instead of being paid DLCs; when developers update games for years, even decades instead of abandon projects as soon as it’s no longer profitable; when games are made with passion instead of money-hunger; And, when RPG Maker was not used to just make those cheap adult-only games.)
This is NEOLITHIC!
There are many games out there, made with modern tools and more than 1 developer. They are supposed to be better than mine.
But, they are not. Why?_
Unauthorized Edit Detected!
We also have cats! They are cute. :3
Fenrir’s Prelude
Good game good design
– Real player with 12.4 hrs in game
You get what you pay for ,_,
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game