Mont Asall

Mont Asall is a roguelike rpg game by Ocean, created in 2012 with RPG Maker VX.
The plot is, as in other games of this author, pretty simple: an important person, Sir Edmund, has been murdered and we're accused to be the assassin.
The game starts immediately with a trial, but no matter the result, our mission will be to find and punish the real criminal. The interesting part is that there is no pre-made hero protagonist, but we get to create our alter ego.
This means not only that we get to choose his/her appearance and name, but also the starting equipment, and in this game the equipment means a lot (anyway starting equipment will be hopefully soon replaced with better gear... but take note that loot is randomized!), but let's start from the beginning.


Whoa those enemies are going towards me and I've no way to avoid them... except if I retreat going back south!

After the intro we start with the first dungeon, and this is not like the other games you probably have played before: first the dungeons are hand drawn but randomized, so maps will be different in different playthroughts.
Second there is a "fog of war" that limit the visibility of the maps, that is uncovered as we explore the surroundings.
Third, there are chests and loot is always randomized (both for position and content of the chests), so you can get weapons, armor, spells, consumables, money... it's all random, really! Similarly enemies are visible and avoidable, indicated with red flames that will flicker if the see us. Combat encounters are triggered on touch and the group of enemies faced is random, but clearly chosen among those who populate the dungeons, because each location has its own bestiary. There are clearly also bosses, and this is nothing new, what's new is how combat works. You can save your game at some save points that resemble blue gems but mind that the save point will disappear for good as soona as you've used it, and you have just a single save slot!

Forget the usual Rpgmaker Atb combat, Mount Asall uses a turn based combat with a tactical map: during combat each character may move AND perform one action (or the opposite, or move-action-move) that may be an attack, using an item or casting a spell.
The encounters take place on a map divided in squares, and this is very important since each spell and weapon has a different range of attack (a knife may attack only the adiacent squares, a spear has a longer reach and a gun... even more of course!), but they may also have different powers like increased criticals or ability/elemental enhancement.
Similarly armors can have different bonus and malus: heavier armor reduces the movement (the number of squares you can move in a round), lighter armor instead is less protective, by the way some items are better than others and this is indicated by the color of the name (for example items with the name in green are better than those with grey names).


As you can see I've a gun, and this means that I can hit enemies from distance! (and notice that I have one step left so I can shoot and move backwards!)

Some items can be bought in Mount Asall, the city that acts as a main hub to rest and buy consumables, spells and gear, but also where it's possible to hire a mercenary that will e our only companion during the adventures. Unfortunately while there are different hired helpers with different equipment, like a dagger wielding thief or a gun toting musketeer, there is no possibility to give them weapons or armors scavenged during the exploration, but on the other hand they level up and become quite useful... until the end of the dungeon, where they will leave for good.

I like how the dungeons are structured since they are not too long or labyrinthine, they sometimes include traps, and are also pretty colorful, and they're also randomized as the loot you will find inside. Well graphics seems to be custom, I like that characters are like some sort of "paper figures": they have no animation but they display the equipment they possess. This also means that our alter ego will also show the armor and weapon equipped each time! That's cool. The best map, aside from those on the introduction, is surely the one of Mount Asall, the central hub of the game and base of operations. Overall the graphics reminds to me of another game by Ocean, Paradise Blue: the style is different but colors are more or less the same tints and have a distinct look. I liked this!
The game has also a nice soundtrack and all music (that look like to be composed by Vicman) and sounds are fitting, so there isn't a lot to say here. Good job!


Nessy? Happy to see you here in Mount Asall!

Final Verdict
Mont Asall is a great game, the only issues I had were the use of a single save slot and the varied difficulty that is determined by the randomization of loot: in some cases I desperately needed a healing item and I wasn't absolutely able to get a single herb or potion in all the second dungeon... just lot of bad weapons, armors and some gold. Sigh. Some enemies are also extraordinarily tough, like the golems, and avoided them each time since defeating them would cost me too many healing items (they were both fast and resistant to damage, and often I found them in pairs!), with bosses unfortunately this is not possible, and the final boss is very tough... but yes it's ok since it's the last combat.

Anyway these are minor complaints, I mean that many players would clearly love these limitations as features, but maybe not everyone, anyway it's understandable since it's more or less determined by the randomness of the roguelike games. And among these made in rpgmaker, this is one of the best for sure!