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Lost in the woods!

Oh yes,
today we're lost in the woods with Hansel and Gretel in "Once Upon the Woods", a RPG Maker MV game by Starmage released in 2018 for the One Map Challenge event being held at Rpgmaker.web. Guess what that event was about? Yes, it consisted in creating a game set in a single map, for this reason I expected this adventure to be rather short (well, event games aren't usually long, due to time restrictions), and I was right since this game can be completed in less than ten minutes.

I'm not going to say much about the story, because I'm pretty sure everyone knows who are Hansel and Gretel. Anyway there are some differences from the original fable, since Hansel is a warrior, and Gretel is a sorceress, anyway that's a good thing because there are a lot of dangers in the woods!


Ohhhh these monsters are scary but Gretel can cast magic! I admit this was the battle that took me most time and effort, and it's not the final battle!

Once Upon the Woods is a linear game of tactical battles: it's not really an rpg because there will be no level ups, battles are all fixed but using the standard attack will take you nowhere (Gretel is particularly useless as an attacker). It's important to learn the various skills (four for each characters) of our protagonist and their strenghts and weaknesses: Gretel is capable of magic, both attacks, healing and buffs, but she's frail and weak, Hansel instead is a tough guy that can protect her and also has some special strikes that includes debuffs, but his skills uses TP (tactical points? Well these are earned getting hit and hitting in combat) and not Mana like his sister, so he needs to build some before being able to unleash his stronger blows.

Winning battle and opening some chests scattered here and there there will award some loot in the form of feathers: the white ones can be used to heal, the red ones can resurrect a party member, and the bue ones can restore Mana to Gretel. Oh remember to check the status after each battle since items are the only things that will restore our party, and while the game is rather generous with loot, pay attention that some battles can be challenging (Gretel is easily oneshotted!). At least you can save anywhere and anytime!

Now the graphics and music: this game is really beautiful, charsets, monsters, battlers and facesets are really pretty, I just do not understand why our heroes have realistic facesets in battle and another set of more classic rpgmaker facesets for the dialogues. But it's ok, except maybe for the witch whose charset has the classic RPG Maker MV proportions like the monsters, but unlike the protagonists that have different styled charsets so there is a bit of dissonance (less perceptible with the monsters, because they're supposed to be monstruous!). Mapping is also pretty well done, I just have liked some more twists and turns instead of just a corridor that goes from south to the north with some rooms, because that's what it feels. Concerning the music it's simply beautiful celtic-style soundtrack that's both original and appropriate to the game, so this is pretty much perfect, nothing else to say.


End of the road, I guess! Uhm I would not trust a human with that big head!

Final Verdict
Ok, I mentioned some little flaws, but in the end as a submission to the one-map event this is pretty good and enjoyable. I won't judge the predictable story of course, anyway the gameplay is well thought out, because despite the simplicity of using a team of two characters it still require some strategy to reach the end of the story, and making a short game challenging using few elements it's not that easy. Well done, short but solid a stylish game that you can play spending less that 15 minutes of your time!

Posts

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Hello TheRPGmakeraddict!~ Thanks so much for this fun and detailed review for my one map challenge entry! <3 ^_^ Im so glad you enjoyed most of the game despite some of the inconsistencies found, tbh, that witch with the big head really do look out of place, I just thought her sprite ended up cute xD But yeah! Thanks so much once again! Hope you have a great day! ^_^ <3
author=Starmage
Hello TheRPGmakeraddict!~ Thanks so much for this fun and detailed review for my one map challenge entry! <3 ^_^ Im so glad you enjoyed most of the game despite some of the inconsistencies found, tbh, that witch with the big head really do look out of place, I just thought her sprite ended up cute xD But yeah! Thanks so much once again! Hope you have a great day! ^_^ <3


^_^
Heya! I forgot to mention how beautiful is the pic on this page!
Tall Tales of Fall looks interesting too... anyway nice game, the second battle was quite tough, but I had fun! I liked this two-characters mechanic.
Thank you so much and I'm so happy you like the new poster for this game, TheRpgmakerAddict! <3 ^_^ And oh my, I'm happy Tall Tales of Fall got your attention, I would be honored if you play it sometime too and hopefully enjoy! <3 ^_^ Thanks so much once again!
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