Villain RPG

Hello and welcome to the review of Villain... RPG! Ok, ok this is not related to another event game named Villain I reviewed some time ago, it's a totally different story, even if even this time we don't play as the hero but as...
guess what?
The Villain!

Brahms is the name of the protagonist, but he is supported from the start by two goons, Gage the Warrior and Venom the Mage, even if these will be just his starting party members since there are many other quirky characters (for a total of twenty, anyway I've still to catch them all!) that can meet and join our merry band of bad guys looking to make the big shot (I won't say more of the plot but you will soon learn everything after 15 minutes from the beginning).

Anyway in several parts you have many choices: you may attack and slaughter every city guard (good luck!) or use disguise and stealth, you can be vengeful and pursue a thief or care for your wounded henchman and stop to heal him. Your choice!
As expected this means that sometimes there are different ways to complete a mission, and lots of optional parts, extra loot, sidequests and puzzles that can be optionally done for additional rewards! Cool!


Epic combat encounters, including fighting a ninja on a roof of a tower! And games that include ninjas are always cool!

But how is this Villain Rpg? Well it's an Rpg, with a party of four, very classical like the usual Atb Rm2k combat with first person view, monsters and no battlers. Classical as the big fantasy world map we can freely roam and explore once reached a particular chapter.
Oh, time to warn players about a thing: this game is really old style, meaning that in some areas are present challenges that are impossible until you reach a certain level. Also selecting some stupid choices may lead to nearly impossible combat encounters, especially at the beginning when the team isn't so strong, so be ready to save before experimenting anything!

Anyway do not worry! this is not just one of these banal and limited rpgmaker games where you must grind endlessly hoping to level up and be strong enough: there are some particular instances in which you have to choose which power you will obtain (and not just for Graham), then there is the ability-grid (I don't know how to call it!) accessible from the headquarters, where you can unlock different abilities, permanent bonuses and upgrades spending points that are earned during the adventure. And do not forget that you can also find tomes with new abilities and spells or permanent bonuses, and here you can also choose who learns what (some party members alreay possess some of these abilities/spells). Nice, really!


To fight the incredibly fast opponent there is no boring boss combat, but one of the many minigames! Fast and furious, but not too difficult for us, luckily!

Anyway nothing stop you if you want to grind attacking the enemies roaming the world map (or in the dungeons, of course, they do respawn in some cases), these are random encounters (in the sense that it's random if you will encounter monsters or normal travellers, but they are visible and avoidable), but the real meat of the game are the quests and the optional encounters and bosses that can be found from Chapter 5 (when games becomes harder, anyway I still had some difficulties fighting the final boss of Chapter 4, maybe because I try to avoid confrontations) onwards. Even if enemies are always visilbe, sometimes they move, other times they are static (especially when they block some passages, or in the case of some bosses they are patiently waiting for some fool that will try to defeat them), the problem is that except some rare cases there is no way to escape from combat, but do not worry, loot is generous (well, this is a game about looters after all) and you can also buy what you need from various shops. Also, as I wrote before remember to save, because you can save anywhere, anytime. And remember to go back to the hideout to spend the ability points, rest (for free, inns cost some money), re-organize the party and check the mission log.

I like how you can get involved in different adventures and tasks, quest and subquests that are distributed in the world and present different situations of danger. These often require solving puzzles, fetch quests, stealth parts and even timed sections! There's a lot of variety, really! I'm impressed by the amount of gimmicks that each map/quest/dungeon presents, I mean there are even different time of stealth sections, some will need to exploit the shadows, another to avoid traps and alarms, and same also happens for some particular avoidable combat encounters, that I won't describe to avoiding spoiling the fun of discovery!


Wait, what's happening here? Well, as in many others rpg now we're fighting in the Arena, and our lone opponent just used Naruto's Shadow Clone technique!

The execution is... ok! Passable, I mean this game is not perfect or highly detailed, but it's fun! There are some small map errors (mapping is ok, nothing terrible but nothing memorable either), clash between different art styles, facesets that do not match their charset (and include some familiar faces like Sephiroth), and some little imperfections that give a "cheesy" feel to the adventure of the three villains. Or shall I say to the humorous adventure of the villains? Yes, this is not a serious game and story, it's a sort of parody, so don't expect a game like "Diary of a Madman", that is an rpgmaker game in which you play a real villain in a dark story. Uhm ok, you can still be a real bad guy here, but it's not a really grim world, even if people die and bad things happen to good people, there are still some quirky moments and weird situations like encountering an aggressive powerful hippy (!!!).

If you do not like meeting weird characters at every corner I won't judge you (I only judge games!), but personally I like the creativity and the wide number of strange fellows that can be found here. Monsters are similarly weird and creative, I remember for example a sort of bird that live inside a sentient tree, and you have to fight them both at the same time! Creative!


YES! We're here to defeat evil too, trust me, tall man!

The Final Verdict
Villain Rpg surprised me, a lot: I was at first not impressed by the sometimes mismatched graphics and not so original music. All looked like the usual classic Rm2k old style fantasy game, just with more edits and less Rtps than most. But I was wrong, the amount of content is amazing. Choices, features, puzzles and so much to play and explore that's noteworthy!

Yes, there are some flaws, for I noticed that for some obscure reason Chacron the Hunter can NOT eat/use apples! (maybe he hates them?) There are also some typos and little errors here and there (the mercenaries telling me to see the boss in the tent, the guards telling me not to enter the tent... because the boss is outside!), the abilities aren't really balanced (for example the spell found near the boss of the Moon Dust caves is pretty handy amost everytime while others were pretty useless, still not a problem!) and the difficulty spike of some parts. For this last problem, it's true that you are showered with loot and items before things become really difficult (even if most consumables cannot be used during combat), so it's all a matter of explore, fight and improve! Trouble with the underwater parts? Find the holy rebreather (I can't remember if it was the name, but it was holy for sure!) and worry no more about breathing. Problems with some enemies? Choose the best weapons (there are a ton of different ones) and elements to attack them (there is also a spell to identify their weaknesses, but I don't have to tell you that some can be guessed easily).

Yes, it's a funny game, yes there is a lot content and much to do, it takes your hand but only until a certain point, after that you're on your own (meaning that you have to travel and explore). But if you like old styled rm2k games it's fun, if you also like humor, it will be extremely fun! It's a big, cool game and I've still to explore every corner of it, but I'm really willing to do so! Check this game out, it's good, so it's a solid 4/5!