Master of the Wind

Let me tell you a little story: Some time ago, I wanted to redownload RPG Maker XP. I recieved an e-mail with basic instructions, which ended with the following sentence: "We're going to stop talking now and leave you with an awesome free RPG Maker XP game to play. It's called Master of the Wind." I thought, "well, if even the RPG Maker distributors think it's so great, it won't hurt to take a look." So I clicked the link. That changed everything.
I played through this epic-length game in one single week's time. It was the reason why I initially became interested in the RPG Maker community again, and it fundamentally changed the way I look at games as a medium.
Let me try to explain why.


Master of the Wind by Volrath and ArtBane is a 30+ hour long RPG made with RPG Maker XP that merges, deconstructs and reinvents both the fantasy and the superhero genre. Set in the fictional world of Solest, the game follows the adventures of the masked wind mage Shroud and the undead warrior Stoic. Whenever a threat to their hometown Port Arianna arises, armor merchant Cade Mistral and his best friend, the skeleton known as Bones, put on their costumes and save the day - at least, until the moment it becomes clear there are villains at work far greater than your occasional bank robber. The heroes must travel their history-rich world, encounter new allies and enemies, and fight against all odds in a desperate struggle to stop greed, hate and genocide from emerging once again.



Finley here still has a lot to learn...



The Good (Positive qualities that justify an increase of score):
- If I were to rate the different aspects of Master of the Wind on a 5-point scale, the story would get 6 points. Yes, it is that good. While the game pretty much starts with action right away, story elements are introduced slowly but surely.
Even though the premise of the game, a mix of superheroes and fantasy, sounds pretty odd at first, you'll soon notice the story's incredible depth. Master of the Wind is not about saving princesses, collecting crystals or becoming the most powerful person alive. This game covers topics like racism, greed and corruption, religion and religious extremism, identity, justice and responsibility - all in a thoughtful yet entertaining way.
And while it utilizes many well-known elements of the fantasy genre, the world of Solest is not your typical fantasy setting either. Rather, it's a highly complex world with its own (and actually believable) political systems, religions and a rich history and lore that were developed over the course of two earlier, unpublished games.
But more importantly, while this fictional world has its own problems, issues and conflicts, it often also mirrors the real world in an impressive way. Master of the Wind's narrative is not only very solid in itself. It is a game that rises above the meaninglessness we so often encounter in the fantasy genre. In short, this game really is about something.
- The same high quality can be found on the field of characters. Forget about flawless cardboard cutout heroes and evil overlords who are evil for the sake of being evil. Even the minor characters in this game you only have a short chat with have a distinct personality and make the game's world feel truly alive.
The profoundly developed main characters form the core of the game. They all have their very own special character traits, their preferences, their sense of humour, their strenghts and weaknesses, their good and bad sides. Nothing ever feels clichéd, they are believable, natural characters. And this goes for the antagonists as well. No matter what evil things they do - stealing, kidnapping, hurting others, killing, brainwashing, you name it - it is always clear that they are no mindless monsters. There are always multiple sides to a story, always an amount of ambiguity involved: Both the protagonists and the antagonists are presented like real people – people who are convinced their ideas and principles are right.
It may take you some time to really get into the story, but before you know it, you will care about the characters like they were real people you've known for years.



Fight like a... tiger.


- Master of the Wind proves all those wrong who think great gameplay and a strong focus on story are mutually exclusive. While it is a quite linear game with few sidequests, its variety is stunning nonetheless. Wall destroying and mirror puzzles, mind-reading and remote-controlling a golem are just a few of the many fun and cleverly designed minigames you will encounter on your adventure. There are many towns and cities you will visit and numerous elaborate dungeons to be explored, each with their own unique style of challenges and enemies.
The game uses a noticably improved version of the default turn-based battle system, whose potential is really used to the maximum. Characters will acquire a wide variety of skills and items to use, and practically each type of battle has some sort of twist to it. This encourages smart fighting strategies and makes sure that, without being too difficult, combat does not easily become boring. That goes for random encounters and even moreso for boss battles, which are especially cleverly designed. Beating one of these always feels like a special accomplishment. A simple but useful crafting system adds to the combat aspects as well.
- Master of the Wind's graphics consist of a mixture of RTP and custom assets, which are used to great effect. Almost all of the battler graphics were created specifically for this game and give it an even more distinct feeling. The mapping in most areas is exceptionally beautiful and adds a lot to the game's mood as well.
- One aspect that is strongly emphasized in Master of the Wind is the great design of cutscenes, which are often extremely atmospheric and meticulously timed to exactly fit the music. This leads to an epic, almost cinematic experience and makes cutscenes a memorable means of storytelling that has a deeply felt effect.
- Despite its serious themes, Master of the Wind also contains a lot of funny and satirical elements. Without coming across as forced or making it difficult to take the game seriously, its humour both provides comic relief and enhances the presentation of the characters' personalities. In short, even among the more humorous things if this game, there is a lot that actually adds to the narrative instead of distracting from it.



Remote controlling a golem. Admit it, you've always wanted to do this.



The Bad (Minor issues and nuisances that usually only decrease the score if they come in large numbers):
- The encounter rate. I'm not entirely neutral here since I don't really like random encounters, and I do think with the encounter rate meter they are handled much better than in many other games. But despite this and the fact that the battles are usually engaging, the encounter rate often goes up way too fast, which can make exploring certain areas a lot less pleasant. At least there is a cheap item available that reduces the encounter rate.
- Although the vast majority of the puzzles and dungeons are very imaginative and fun to play, there are a few cases where things have to be solved in a quite unintuitive way. While rare, situations like these can potentially get a player stuck for a while.
- There is also a small amount of bugs, of which most are inoffensive (passability errors and such). A few of them can actually be annoying or force the player to reload a certain section, but if you save regularly and use alternate save files, they should be no real issue.
- The face graphics used in Master of the Wind are not always consistent in their graphical style. This has little effect on the actual game's presentation, but it can be slightly odd to see different art styles follow each other in the text boxes.
- One downside to the impressive cutscenes is that, in order to have it fit the music and visuals, the text flow is often extremely fast. This can make it somewhat difficult to read everything in time (especially for non-native speakers of English).


The Ugly (Major problems or very frustrating aspects that lead to a decrease of score):
None. This is not to say that Master of the Wind is entirely flawless in every aspect (which game is?). But the few weaknesses (as mentioned above) are minimal and the impact of the positive aspects easily makes them fade into irrelevance.




You don't want to make him angry. Trust me.



Conclusion:
It took me a long time to write this review, and I'm still sceptical about whether I managed to put into words what an extraordinary experience this game was for me. Master of the Wind made me realize how much is still possible in fantasy RPGs, and how effectful games in general can be. Not only is it among the most enjoyable RPG Maker games I ever played, it also has a literary value to it I found to be higher than even many well-respected books I have read.
Long things short, there are few games I enjoyed as much as this one, and I found Master of the Wind to be the greatest RPG Maker game I've ever played. I highly recommend trying it yourself. You won't be disappointed.
Now, there might be those who say that I, as someone who calls himself a fan of this game's creators and their work, am biased in my opinion and therefore not in the right position to review this game. And perhaps that's not entirely untrue. However, do consider this: There is a reason why I initially became a fan of Volrath and ArtBane. And that reason is...? Exactly, this game.