Hello!
Esper Unleashed is a submission to the 6th Annual Driftwood Gaming Game Jam "Build Your Own Game Jam" made by Starmage with RPG Maker MZ. The themes chosen are "Purple" and "Survival".

Esper Unleashed is a short but complete sci-fi adventure about Axephus, a mysterious man that find himself in a laboratory as some scientists are experimenting on him. Due to these experiments he has lost his memories, but at the same time he becomes so powerful that he's able to break the straps, kill the guards and escape the laboratory. But this is just the beginning of his journey to freedom!

This game is a simple, inverted-dungeon delving adventure: instead of entering a dungeon to look for loot here we have to escape, and this will lead to a simple and linear exploration that will require looking for supplies and memories to survive.


YES! Level two! Look at Axephus, how cool is he! And yes, we'll get out of this place! Promise!

Ok, here's where the game gets interesting: Axephus is constantly losing Hp due to memory leak as he walks around, but there are some glowing spots that rapresente memories and have to be collected to gain back some life points. But it's also possible to look around for consumables and equipment, using also vending machines (uhm I remember just one if I remember correctly!) to buy what you need. But the scientists that escaped the laboratory warned the guards, so expect some battles!

Combat in this game is fast and furious and includes about ten encounters: while some can be avoided (I did that a couple of times) it's not always easy due to the presence of narrow corridors, and there are also two mandatory boss fights. Anyway Axephus starts immediately with a set of six excellent abilities that you can use to defeat the opposition, three require spending Energy Points (the equivalent of Mana) and others need you to use Spirit Points (the normally called TP, earned durgin combat). Check the effects and learn how to use the various attacks and combinations since combat isn't too easy at all, especially when Axephus is outnumbered! Axephus isn't an esper like the others, and he can prevail, also he will level up in the course of the story, improving his abilities (but not getting new skills, anyway he does not need them!).

Visually the game uses a classic rpgmaker visual style typical of rpgmaker thanks to the RPG Maker MZ Rtps, anyway the setting stands out since the futuristic tilesets and resources are well used, and mapping is pretty good with a great use of lightning. In this future there are bots and airships (all looks sci-fi even if guards still use big swords!), and people have blue or green hair, except for the purple haired Axephus. And speaking about our hero I believe that his sprite and cool full body figure are probably edits, the enemies themselves (three kind exists with some alternate and stronger versions) are Milano-Cat's battlers edits, but all is pretty much well done! Also the music fits the game!


This guy is an elite Cypher or something like that. But he cannot stop us!

Final Verdict
I wanted to be a bit generous since this was an entry for a game jam made in a short time, anyway it's a solid game with nice visuals and a well made interface. I liked it despite being pretty short, but it was prefect even if I expected a more climatic final part (also it was never explained what were those green ghosts... or did I miss something?) some more cutscens, more maps and some more encounters, anyway it's ok, I mean that there isn't anything else I could criticize!

In the end an excellent short game and story, simple but fun.