Song of the Bereaved

Intro

"Song of the Bereaved" is a turn-based RPG that uses a grid-based combat system similar to the one used in "Naruto: Path of the Ninja" for the Nintendo DS. Though if this game's combat system also encompasses the idea of hits being weaker if your in the back row while also taking less damage or delivering harder hits if your closer to the enemy isn't entirely clear. At any rate this project currently exist in a beta state I suppose might be the best description since it does have an ending, but it's pretty clear some of the assets used in this project were intended to be placeholders. Unfortunately this entry for the 2022 Indie Game Making Contest appears to no longer being worked on. So were probably always going to be stuck with a version of this game that is full of placeholder assets.

Story
Summary

We play as a boy that has the ability to resurrect himself at the cost of someone else's life. A process that requires them to be tied up to a machine, but apparently our friends are willing to do this for us since were the only person who can possibly deal with a bio-weapon that has gone out of control. A bio-weapon that has absorbed our sister and our only means of helping her is to put her down like a rabid dog. An ending that feels similar to that of "Alien Syndrome". The one released in 2007 for the PSP and Wii.

Greatest Strength/Weakness

Unfortunately this is a rather gameplay heavy game as it currently stands. So there really isn't that much dialogue beyond setting up the premise that were the last hope for humanity in their final hour. And while this isn't a bad background to work with. It does mean we don't get that much dialogue to flesh out the main character and his companions. I think part of this is the game is built around you losing in order to have a meaningful last conversation with them, but if your the kind of person that is willing to grind battles like I am you'll probably miss out on the bulk of those so the main character will end up feeling rather flat. As a result it's really hard to get invested in the story.

Gameplay

As previously mentioned this game uses a turn-based combat, but to be more accurate it uses a conditional turn-based system. In other words faster characters will get to go way more often than slower characters. This means if you grind enough levels in this game you'll just utterly own your enemies since you might be able to go twice before they can even go once. Combine this with the player having access to rather cheap area of effect skills and the ability to restore HP and MP via guarding and your left with a game where fights with trash mobs are pretty boring. Though oddly enough the game does try to incentive dying since you gain new powers that can be used to solve puzzles when you resurrect and consume the life of one of your friends in the process. Though the game does leave the player free to explore paths that don't require the player to sacrifice anyone as well.

Of course you also gain access to a familiar when you consume one of your friends in order to bring yourself back to life. Though how useful these familiars are can be debated. Admittedly the only one I ever used was the one you get from consuming the last of the old man's life force which proved useful at first and then became useless by the end of the game. This is because that particularly familiar starts off fast, but as you level up it's speed stat eventually undergoes a massive nose dive which renders it rather useless since you'll most likely get half a dozen turns in before it gets to move once. At least that was the case in my run since I leveled up high enough to learn a skill that let me dole out seven powerful hits on the game's only boss. As a result I was able to tear through it like it was made of tissue paper.

And before I forget the game uses a touch encounter system. Though oddly enough the first monster you encounter as part of the tutorial never respawns back in. A factoid that's a bit weird in my opinion seeing as how every other enemy in the game respawns as soon as you leave the map and reenter it.

And one more thing to keep in mind is that equipment in this game doesn't come with descriptions. As a result it's not exactly clear what the various pieces of equipment do to your stats in this game. As I result I'm not sure if the equipment you find lying around is better than your starting.

Graphics and Sound

On the graphical and sound side of things the game appears to deploy a lot of custom assets. On the plus side these assets are pretty solid as far as the graphics go, but a few of the assets are still placeholders. This is especially the case with Rene who sticks out from the rest of the cast like a sore thumb.



On the sound side of things the game is average in my opinion. In other words the background music does it's job, but it's not something I'd particularly want to listen to during my free time.

Conclusion

In some areas "Song of the Bereaved" is pretty solid in my opinion, but the combat tends to be rather boring. Though, I'll admit I'm probably a lot more prone to overgrinding than most. So my perception is probably a bit warped since I hit level 20 before the final battle and was able to utterly dominate the boss during our second match. On the other hand the narrative seems to really rely on the player dying in this game. So it probably would have been a better idea to ensure the first few fights against the game's final boss were unwinnable. Otherwise the game really needs the main character to provide some more commentary or something to help define them. Though considering this game was made in a month by a small team as far as I'm aware I'm willing to cut this game some slack in terms of it's overall score, but I feel like this one is still a bit too undercooked in my opinion.