This was a really impressive effort!

The gameplay loop of investigating your surroundings and battling the zombies when necessary felt very well balanced. The map design, in addition to looking wonderful, is the right level of realistic and claustrophobic.

Dead Again utilizes the built in RPGMaker 2003 battle system to great effect. Zombies come at you from a range of distances and quickly close the gap. Your weapon effectiveness is determined by how near they are, meaning if you have the pistol you'll be able to pick them off at a distance - but you must wait until they are close if you're using a melee weapon. It's a really cool setup, and the speed of it blurs the line between a turn based and active battle system.

The original pixel art is really well done, the style is very consistent and the color palette is perfectly chosen for the atmosphere. The atmosphere was actually quite spooky, which is quite an accomplishment considering the engine.

The music selected contributed greatly to that - a combination of fitting sound effects and appropriate music. I think ambient sound is something that a lot of RPGmaker developers don't give enough consideration as far as setting a mood goes - that's definitely not the case here. The sound design for the zombies is also fresh. They're not your stock Resident Evil groans, they are more abstracted and freaky as a result.

The game itself is quite short but has a good amount of replay value, trying out the different choices and the variations on the endings. I have completed the game in six different ways so far, and I definitely plan on revisiting it. I still haven't found the sewer pictured in the screenshots!

Overall, Dead Again is a clear vision executed on a very high level. I think it's really admirable to deliberately create something smaller in scope like this and to focus on the little details.