Intro

"The Eye of Vyrius" is a turn-based RPG that was being developed by Yooper_the_Pirate using RPG Maker MV. At some point during development the developer decided to cancel this project. Unfortunately they really didn't specify a reason for why this project was cancelled in a blog post or a comment on the game's page. And digging through Yooper_the_Pirate's posts only turns up this little gem.

Yopper_the_Pirate
Long time game maker here, about 15 years making the Eye of Vyrius, recently released a demo. Kinda disappointed in the reception, my Princess Daphne game which only uses RTP resources got wayyyyy more views and downloads... Oh well. It's a cursed project anyways and I'm nearly done with it, and I can move onto something else...

So my best educated guess it this cursed project was just left to rot in favor of working on a series that was more successful. Though, I'll admit the demo really doesn't feel like it was the result of fifteen years of development. I also imagine this game is going to serve as insight for my thoughts on two other games made by this developer when I get around to them. Though for now I'll focus on the story of "The Eye of Vyrius".

Story
Summary

Reizt and his friends are adventurers and they've agreed to help a certain farmer deal with his monster problem. Of course said farmer has also made it clear that if Reizt goes near his daughters he's going to blow his head off with a shotgun. A task that is a lot easier than it sounds considering all of the farmer's daughters want Reizt's meat stick.



Though I'll admit this game's horny dialogue does make this game feel like something a horny teenager would come up with. At any rate after getting a stern warning about not letting the girls jump our bones were directed to a cave in the North East and told we can stop the monster attacks if we deal with their leader. So it looks like it's time to go boss hunting in an abandoned mine. A task that doesn't prove that difficult after I realize the combat system in this game is all about spamming skills and using items to heal up after battle. At any rate we eventually manage to track down the boss and kill him. Unfortunately this leads to us getting cursed when we get greedy and try and claim an elemental crystal for our efforts.

After a somewhat weird conversation with our mom we leave town for the big city. After all, we need to see an expert in curses in order to learn how to get rid of the curse on our back. Of course along the way I learn about some bandits troubling the next town over and decide to lend them a helping hand and it was around here I started to lose interest with this project, but being a stubborn son of a god I did come back to finish off the bandits and made my way to Flint in order to meet with the curse expert. And it's at this point we learn that were going to turn into a save node if we don't fix the elemental crystal that cursed us. A task that will require us to gather a rare resource from a rare monster. A task that I'm not even sure is in the demo since I gave up after stumbling into an area full of enemies that were simply beyond my ability to deal with.

Gameplay

Probably one of the most unique aspects of this game is the trauma point system. A system where the more damage your character takes the faster they take damage. A system that probably would be an interesting idea to implement in a horror game, but in a turn-based RPG this system is just a nuisance in my opinion. This is because it takes a genre that tends to place a heavy emphasis on grinding out levels by engaging your enemies and turns it on it's head. Instead of spending time on fighting random mooks. You want to devote your limited damage resistance to boss fights so the game actively encourages players to avoid enemies even as they explore a new dungeon.

Conversely the game's skill learning system requires the player to level up in order to earn job points for buying better skills. So the game actively encourages the player to engage enemies. As you can imagine this makes for a frustrating experience where you both need to spend time grinding out levels and then need to return to an area after doing so in order to deal with the area's boss while trying to avoid enemies in rather narrow passageways.



And as we all know backtracking in video games sucks. Admittedly this game does make it a lot easier than most by giving you an item that can be used an infinite number of times to return to a dungeons entrance/exit. So getting back to a nearby town in order to heal up is pretty easy. Though the lack of items to restore your TP to normal is pretty frustrating since it would be really helpful for deep dungeon dives. Especially since being able to restore your TP to normal is pointless if you can't reach the boss of an area without taking a ton of TP damage.

To make matters worse the item consumption rate is pretty high for MP curing items as well since this game is all about ending fights quickly with skills. So you'll be spamming your best moves on a regular basis. Thankfully basic mana potions are pretty cheap, but the sheer amount you'll go through later in the game is pretty disgusting. An issue that only gets worse when you realize most special skills in this game miss their mark on a pretty regular basis.

Another slight twist on the usual formula is that armor in this game doesn't really increase your defense or magic defense. Instead armor gives your HP a big boost which I suppose does make sense. After all, one of the biggest aspects of this game's combat system is that you'll be taking a lot of damage while your TP is high. On the other hand I'd argue that's even more reason for armor to provide a lot of defense and magic defense so you'll take less damage and thus accumulate less TP over the course of a dungeon dive.

Graphics

On the graphical side of things the game is a mix of custom assets and stuff found within the RTP for RPG Maker MV. Unfortunately these assets really don't blend together that well and some of them are hideous in my opinion.



What's wrong with her face!?!

To make matters worse the maps in this game tend to be pretty boring. This is because you'll see a lot of the same tile next to each other as well as areas being shaped to mirror each other. And I suppose the bad maps are another reminder this was probably one of the first games ever worked on by Yooper_the_Pirate.

Sound

On the sound side of things the game tends to pull pretty heavily from the RTP for RPG Maker MV, but a few of the songs may have been lifted from elsewhere. And while I don't have any real complaints about how the RTP songs and sound effects were used. I also don't have any real compliments to give this aspect of the game either.

Conclusion

"The Eye of Vyrius" is a turn-based RPG that can't seem to decide if it wants the player to grind out levels in order to purchase useful skills while your working your way to a boss. Or if it wants you to avoid fighting as much as possible in order to keep your TP low enough for the boss battle to be manageable. After all, I spent quite a bit of time getting party wiped at the end of the second episode of my Let's Play for the demo, but when I came back with a much lower amount of TP damage I was able to easily wipe the floor with the leaders of the Cowboy Bandits. So the TP system in this game can really mess up your ability to win certain fights. In fact, even regular enemies become dangerous enemies overtime. I suppose the goal was for a more moderate approach to clearing dungeons, but that would be a lot more doable if enemies didn't tend to greet you around chokepoints. As a result were left with a combat heavy game that feels like it punishes the player for engaging in combat. Add in some questionable graphics and a story that is so horny it hurts at times and left with a game that isn't that fun to play.