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A weird adventure in a normal world

Yep! This game is set in an almost too normal world... where some weird things happen.
While the game soon will become a surreal story, it begins with a normal, almost boring situation: you are Ezra, a factory worker, and you go to work.. then you are ... then you go to a bar... and then I won't tell anything else or I will spoil the fun!

The game reminds Hotline Miami (maybe it is a coincidence, but it was release in 2012 too) to me for several details:

1) The particular visuals. I liked them a lot, the dull colors give a particular depressing feel to the (few) enviroments that our protagonist will visit.

2) The normal, urban setting and the presence of weird masked individuals that may or may not be real. And also cryptic phrases.

3) The day-to-day pacing: here too you begin each day (or level) in your house and finish the day there (with a savegame each time you go to sleep).

4) Some themes like hate, violence and the end of the world.


I have some rocks, he has a gun! Not fair!

Yes, violence. Because even here you are not gunning down hundreds of mobsters, there is still some combat: our Ezra is a weakling that can defend himself throwing rocks, bit later the obtains several support abilities, and then the even earns a companion that can fight decently and has some powerful combat skills, even if no one of them is really tough. So be prepared that dying combat isn't that hard.

Oh and despite combat has the classic front view layout of a jrpg, you do not level up at all (so in the last section in which combat is not mandatory, it is better to avoid encounters, but you can risk if you want to acquire some extremely useful items that will help a lot in the boss fight) but at least you are completely healed after each battle. You also do not have equipment, the rocks are items that you can scavenge during combat and the abilities are found rather easily exploring the map.

I liked a lot both graphics and music of this game as they are rather singular and unique. Graphics are simple but effective, and create a grim setting that's also normal and dull. Music is in my opinion excellent, and if you finish the game you will be able to select the ten tracks from the last save before ending the game.


Yes, that's a long haired, bare chested man, wearing a motorcycle helmet and a loincloth!

What I did not like so much are the dialogues, that are few and often cryptic, I don't know if this was done on purpouse or it's due to the translation.
Also, the game is short and never explain some things, but this may have been done on purpouse too, anyway I'd have preferred more of it, more dialogues, events, maps and explanations, but this is because I was intrigued by this story.

Last problem is combat, that is quite easy when you get the hang of it but first you have to experiment the abilities. At first it's a bit difficult to understand how they work (especially Uriel attacks) since there is no tutorial for this (hint: you have a skill to collect rocks, but rocks are items usable in combat through the items menu, like the deadly spinner and not special attacks from the abilities/skills menu).

The Verdict
I enjoyed playing this game. Even if interactions are limited and there's not much to do, and it's pretty linear, I liked it not particularly from the gameplay, that is rather classic and depends also from your luck besides strategy, but for the graphics and music choice: these are in my opinion the two stylistic choices that makes this game stand out. It's also quite short and simple, and not particularly hard even if last fight can be e bit difficult, anyway it's an ok game.
From me it gets 3.5 - a game not for everyone, but pleasant looking and entertaining.

Posts

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Thanks for the review! This was the first game I made all the graphics for. That, along with keeping a max of a month of development were my main goals, and I managed to do it! It also was my entry for a contest (more like a jam, atm didn't know that existed), sadly I ended being the sole participant.

If I recall correctly, I kind of based it on two things: one was the apocryphal book of Ezra, which I came up by looking into apocalypse stuff. The other thing was some thing I wrote for a Literature class, just for the setting.

As for the music, I opted to use public domain MOD files from modarchive. There is a lot of cool stuff there. I don't know what criteria I followed, I think I just picked songs that I felt had the taste I wanted, I don't know much about music. But yeah, I wanted some somber, some rock/metal, some weird... Like the bar music.

The plot could've been done better, yeah. I kind of rushed at the end. The overall theme was about delusions, playing with what's real and what's not. I didn't make a good work. xD

But yeah, thanks for the review! I enjoy reading these a lot, doesn't matter how many years later.
author=orochii
Thanks for the review! This was the first game I made all the graphics for. That, along with keeping a max of a month of development were my main goals, and I managed to do it! It also was my entry for a contest


Yay, these were great, I just wished the game was longer, but ok, clearly being made for a contest there is a reason if it's short, but have enough variety to be enjoyable. The charsets style remind me of Phantasy Star 2.

author=orochii
If I recall correctly, I kind of based it on two things: one was the apocryphal book of Ezra, which I came up by looking into apocalypse stuff. The other thing was some thing I wrote for a Literature class, just for the setting.


Well I recognized the reference Ezra Bound/Pound, but I was convinced it was inspired also by Hotline Miami, that came out the same year and has an opponent that always wears a motorcycle helmet (and he's a killer too), besides the cryptic dialogues and the trippy music.

author=orochii
As for the music, I opted to use public domain MOD files from modarchive. There is a lot of cool stuff there. I don't know what criteria I followed, I think I just picked songs that I felt had the taste I wanted, I don't know much about music. But yeah, I wanted some somber, some rock/metal, some weird... Like the bar music.


I said the graphics were great, but music was a great selection too! I did not know there was this kind of resource site.

author=orochii
The plot could've been done better, yeah. I kind of rushed at the end. The overall theme was about delusions, playing with what's real and what's not. I didn't make a good work. xD


The plot is ok, if I understand correctly this game wasn't originally made in english, and it was translated only later. And despite that english isn't my native language I think I grasped the meaning of the story, because clearly there is the theme of delusions, but in the end I was not sure if the protagonist was a chosen one or a madman, anyway I think this was left obscure.

author=orochii
But yeah, thanks for the review! I enjoy reading these a lot, doesn't matter how many years later.


Thank you, I like playing games that are original and creative, even if they are old!
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