Alex Heartnet
Educated
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2015
- Messages
- 161
Well, I did say I was going to find a game you've never heard of.
Developed by a certain Mark Pay during a time where there was no room for the little guy in the gaming market, this game saw a modest commercial release during the Summer of 2008. What reviewers and bloggers did stumble upon it praised it quite highly. Over the next couple of years, the price steadily dropped until it was generously re-released as freeware.
The first game was a crummy amateur project. The second one is quite simply one of the best JRPG's ever made, as demonstrated by the mere fact that I am replaying this.
The setting is perhaps what Generic RPGLand would look like if it actually managed to get out of medieval stasis for a few centuries of technological progress. This is the age of gunpowder, where the battlefield is dominated by musket and cannon and what few swordsman still exist find the skills they spent a lifetime practicing to be useless. However, the wildlife is just as aggressive as ever and religion and sorcery remain alive and well.
Three citizens who find their paths crossing in an act of charity one dark night will find themselves burdened with the responsibility of not only defending the nation but deciding whether to save civilization as they know it.
...And there's also the game's absurd use of soundtrack. There are 101 (!) tracks for a total of over 2 and a half hours of music. Rarely is any given song used for more then one scene - instead a lot of the songs are simply very well placed and fit the action quite nicely. As such, I'll be pointing out whenever the music changes. If you want to follow along, the full soundtrack can be found on Bandcamp here.