Einlanzer
A lot of the time displayed on record is having the game open in the background or waiting for npcs to move out of my fricking way.
Still, it took me almost 80 hrs to finish the game on hard difficulty and I still have something left to do, if I can muster the energy that is. Which brings me to my main point. This is a barely positive review. I couldn’t bring myself to give it a negative one after thoroughly enjoying the gameplay for many hours, but oh boy did this game seriously outstay it’s welcome.
– Real player with 177.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best RPG JRPG Games.
When this game talks about how it is inspired by classic JRPGs, it really shows in how both the game is written and stylized. And, overall, I really enjoyed it as a whole but an informative review has to be informative:
The Plot:
As of now (I’m at about the midgame slightly above lvl 30), the plot of the game is easily its weakest point. It might turn you off and while it seems to be building up to something quite interesting all in all with those races being banished from each other to their specific realms between gods but so far, the plot is about an evil king and his generals who are turning evil pillaging, stealing and its your job to try and stop them.
– Real player with 109.9 hrs in game
Soulbringer
Finished the game and I think was good. Of course is very old school. Graphics are dated and controls are clumsy. Nevertheless, there are several mechanics that were pretty unique. There’re plenty spells to learn and many are quite nice. Combat is… interesting… Efficient way to fight, but not the most easy way to solve it, but guess by the time the game was released the whole techy stuff was just fine.
The story is good, a little hard to follow, but good enough.
Now, I do recommend the game, but I must suggest it for very patient, hardcore retro-gamers. This game absolutely challenge your will. Run and run, round and round, back and forward, get lost and struggle to find your way… over and over again. The game doesn’t hold your hand, many times you are left wondering: what did I miss this time? Why this thing is not working? Then you do realize you indeed missed something long ago or the stuff will work but much later. Yup, likely you gonna need to use a guide several times.
– Real player with 56.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best RPG Fantasy Games.
This game is one of the more addictive games that I have played in recent days. It will provide sufficient quantities of medieval fun. If you’re very persistent and don’t lay off it for days, ‘cause it’s not that short, you will finish the game. Again you need a lot of patience to see it through coz it’s really long. Really, really long.
Overall Soulbringer delivers very well on all fronts of the RPG genre. It has a unique approach to combat and magic, very interesting storyline, and the usual RPG joy of gaining some newer, tougher weapon or level up.
– Real player with 32.6 hrs in game
Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria
This is yet another retro-pixel 8 bit game with a few notable differences. It doesn’t seem to have been made with the terrible RPG-Maker engine which does make the game slightly more appealing. It’s written slightly better (but not that great) than most retro JRPGs trying to cash in on the success of Final Fantasy.
Regardless, this is still just a cash grab driven by nostalgia, the graphics are very lazy retro-pixel (it’s 2018 now, let pixel graphics die).
I would give this 5/10 for not being a rubber stamp RPG-Maker game, but it’s still completely derivative. Go play Final Fantasy if you want this kind of retro experience.
– Real player with 38.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best RPG JRPG Games.
Dragon Warrior (NES) meets EarthBound (SNES), in a great meshing of gameplay that will have you hooked for hours.
I myself prefer the 8bit mode to enjoy this game, as being in my 30s I’ve been raised on the 8bit genre - but you can enjoy this hidden gem in 8 or 16 bits (music and gfx toggleable seperately in the config screen).
This game is addictive if you liked the old dragon warrior games on the NES, you’ll love this. I won’t spoil the fun, but I’ve gotten through the 1st two caves and found the 3rd one (and died…). Luckily, I had my progress recorded on the imperial scrolls of… well, you get the point. It’s just like Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest series (with a splash of EarthBound’s humor on the monsters/battles and hidden stuffs). Secrets items abound so do look around. Should be a fun play-through for anyone with a hankering for some more 8 (or 16) bit games.
– Real player with 21.9 hrs in game
Finding Light
This is in my opinion the best one in this series of 4 games so far. If you are thinking of playing it I would suggest getting Knight Bewitched first, which is the second in the series. The first one, Black Tower, is rather repetitive and is not really related to the second, even though it is to the rest, so you can come back to it afterwards if you are committed to playing the whole series.
Also Dispel is the worst thing in the history of everything and I hated it with a passion. Otherwise very enjoyable game.
– Real player with 40.5 hrs in game
I really didn’t expect to enjoy this game … 8-bit, greyscale … hmmmm
But the old brain soon adjusts and you’re drawn into the story. Music is retro and really great in some areas - especially the future section of the Black Tower.
Game objectives are clear, though not always easy to achieve. I spent a lot of time running round trying to find things. Battles in new sections are always a challenge too.
Steam achievements are working. And I missed out on defeating the Master Slime and on finding the last alchemical recipes. Also I was playing on Normal - I don’t think I could manage Hard on this game.
– Real player with 28.1 hrs in game
Knight Eternal
Fourth game in the series. Even though the third one is my favourite, this improves on all aspects except writing, which has always ranged between tolerable and terrible, and music, which to be fair I muted 10 seconds into the game.
Your characters get a skill tree, which is a nice touch and offers more options. Considerably easier to deal with resource management, like mana, a quality of life much needed. Tactics, even the same ones from the previous game work better, stats are more meaningful and in general combat as a whole feels more refined. Unfortunately the difficulty doesn’t keep up with all these changes that make you life easier and let you better tailor your party to your preferences, that’s why I still prefer the 3rd one.
– Real player with 32.5 hrs in game
I’m not good at leaving reviews, so I’ll just lay out my thoughts.
I liked that the battles went pretty quickly.
I really liked how this and finding light have mechanics similar to the Final Fantasy Legend games, if I remember them correctly.
There was a large amount of abilities to use and I was always excited to find a new one. Items that gave a lot of abilities were particularly coveted by me. I did wish there were more abilities, but the ones that were available had enough variety that I never felt bored by them.
– Real player with 15.3 hrs in game
Light Crusader
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Light Crusader is an isometric action-adventure game. It was developed by Treasure and published by Sega, released in 1995. I think it was their very last game on the system, at this point they were rushing to have it done before the market is gone, not unlike Alien Soldier. They say that they made all the maps in a very short period of time. 16 Megabit goodness. 4 save slots.
The game that you have here is nothing more than emulation of Sega Genesis version. Also, little tip, you can change language used for dialogue through debug cheatcode menu.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
The Legion of Maelstrom
Great dialogue, fantastic sprite work, and fun battle system! I hopped on board with Andrew R at the last minute and composed the soundtrack for the game, and I’m so glad I was part of the team, as I’m thoroughly enjoying playing it much as I enjoyed writing the music!!!
– Real player with 35.9 hrs in game
I really liked this game for a multitude of reasons nobody cares about and I recommend it wholeheartedly but gushing reviews are useless to other people, so I’m going to instead list potential deal breakers.
A few reviews make mention of humor and dialog but there’s not much in this game. There’s actually only enough story to get you going then the game steps back and lets you do your thing undisturbed. The dialog that does exist is pleasant enough and while a few lines of lore are scattered across some bookshelves, I didn’t feel I needed more story than what was given. If you’re expecting some sprawling saga, a speaking protagonist, memorable characters, or love exposition, you won’t get that here.
– Real player with 24.7 hrs in game
Another Star
Another Star is a remarkably well made nod to RPG games of yore with some unique elements sprinkled in to make the gameplay still feel fresh. The game offers varying difficulty and character growth levels, with even the harder difficulties relatively well balanced. Personally, I think the enemies that can heal/absorb hitpoints are a bit overpowered, especially on higher difficulties, but that’s the only thing that bothered me. Playing on Hard difficulty and Old School (25%) growth rate, I still felt very little need to grind to advance in the game, so I never felt like I was stuck on an insurmountable obstacle.
– Real player with 148.9 hrs in game
I should probably write mroe reviews for the Steam games I play, but I haven’t. This game defintiely deserves one, however.
I went into this game expecting a retro experience with maybe just a bare minimum of a game, like most retro games out there. I liked the premise, but the battle system seemed simplistic, and I was skeptical when I read that the game was ~20 hours.
Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when the mediocre impression I had before firing up the game proved completely wrong. This game is definitely old-school in that it will be hard, even on the regular setting, but it rewards you for exploring everywhere all the time. Even up to the final endgame portion of Another Star there was more stuff to find and more of the games world and lore to learn about.
– Real player with 44.1 hrs in game
Artifact Adventure
In a sentence this game is about old-school RPG gameplay. There’s power gaming, story, and lots of replayability. You control 4 schmucks
! or just 1 and a wad of dirty slaver cashon a quest to slay the Swamp King and halt the creeping poison from consuming the world. There are many quests and moral dilemmas you will face as you rise to be the heros the world deserves, but history is never silent; are your swords, fists, and guns good enough to remain pure?
I highly recommend this game if you like J/RPGS. That being said, here’s some more details and greivances:
– Real player with 135.5 hrs in game
Aesthetics: Nostalgic!
This game’s sound design and appearance, right down to the layout of the battle screen, give it an 8-bit feel, reminiscent of the early Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) games. The battle music is particularly good; it will get stuck in your head!
Narrative: Simple and Many
While the game has one overall objective of defeating the Swamp King, there’s no “main” plot line. There are many little side stories. Some of the quests present the player with moral choices; a couple of these really made me stop and think.
– Real player with 80.6 hrs in game
Brave Battle Saga - The Legend of The Magic Warrior
Brave Battle Saga (also known as Barver Battle Saga) is a solid RPG. Just my kind of game.
Just to start off, this uses the Mednafen emulator, which works fine, though it had a few hitches. For some reason the emulator’s “Pause” function doesn’t work at all, and there were a couple of times where the audio desynced and the only fix I could find was to restart the emulator.
Although the preview images and videos show the image all stretched, it’s actually far more reasonable, using the base 320x224 Genesis resolution (game looks chunkier at x1 or x2 scaling). The emulator allows up to 4x scaling with or without smoothing and it adds a neat little border when playing in full screen. The game only uses the ABC face buttons so configuring XYZ is not necessary. Steam overlay works fine. Now, into the game.
– Real player with 31.2 hrs in game
Brave Battle Saga is an unlicensed Sega Mega Drive J-style RPG by Taiwanese developer Chuanpu, originally released in 1996 in Taiwan, and then bootlegged for Russia soon after. The Taiwanese release had cover art that used Yoshitaka Amano’s art for the Warrior of Light from Final Fantasy and Cecil from Final Fantasy IV, while the Russian release was called Final Fantasy and one cover for it used the box art of the original Final Fantasy above a picture of a Japanese Sega Mega Drive 2, while another used a CG render of Tidus from Final Fantasy X. All without permission from Squaresoft, of course.
– Real player with 28.4 hrs in game