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There can be only one!

The RpgmakerAddict today is... in search of Immortality!.

Welcome to the review of this classic game (probably one of the first I found on this site!), that was made in about two weeks: Tarneus’ tomb is rumoured to hold the Elixir of Immortality, and since Tarneus disappeared before anyone could prove that his reasearch was successful, a party of four characters will go there in search of Immortality!.

The protagonists are Isaac, an alchemist sent by the guild and accompanied by his wife Alma, a magic engineer, and his nephew Ellis, a young illusionist. The fourth and last party member is Ezekiel, a priest and a guide to the tomb. The adventure took me about 2,5 hours to complete, and I am pretty sure that everyone, even those that would explore every corner of each map, would need just 3 hours or less to finish it (there are just three levels each one with a boss at the end: the forest, the crystal caves and the tomb).

This game is a party based jrpg (with a couple of twists on the mechanics that you will probably soon realize, anyway play and experience by yourself!) but do not worry: even if the game relies on random encounters (and I normally do not like them so much) the rate is thankfully quite low and grinding is not necessary at all.


I am pretty sure we will meet him, sooner or later!

The combat layout is classic: big large rtp monsters facing the tiny sprites of the heroes that show their backs to the player. But here's where the classic style stops. The game offers the opportunity to play four different classes, each with its own mechanic! Isaac has an ability "Scrounge" that lets him find items during battle, and "Mix" that lets him combine and use them. Alma is the typical White and Black Mage, but she is also able to make Kits. Ellis can heal, buff allies and debuff enemies, use illusions decoys against opponents and send the demon Pudding to fight with different techniques. Isaac the priest is instead a powerful tank, but this is not everything! The game also includes a crafting system and a mod system to boost the various stats, and it's pretty obligatory to take advantage of this system to progress without sweating!

Despite all these different powers of the cast, the difficulty of the encounters is (at least in the beginning) rather challenging but still fair, it's not too hard but do not underestimate the opposition (well at least until a certain point, after some time the party, and especially Ezekiel, will become an unbeatable powerhouse) especially the bosses, and use all the available resources in order to have an easy time going through the whole adventure! What I mean is just that you cannot win just spamming the strongest attack without thinking (you have to learn and use these skills!).
Luckily not oncly you can save anywhere but you also do not need to worry for resurrecting dead party members since the party is completely restored after each battle! There is also an option named "battle" to immediately start a combat encounter (only available where hostiles are present, of course!).


Pudding attacks, while the rest of the party stands behind!

Graphically the game is amazing, considering the time constraints: the characters' portraits are full of character (I'm especially fond of Ezekiel!) and their facesets are expressive and amusing!
Mapping is very good, it uses the Rtp resources extremely well, maps looks very good, also you can find many items and loot exploring around. And you will listen to good music while doing this!

But what I really loved are the characters: each one feels unique and original, and it's impressive how these are so well characterized in a really short time. Oh and nice idea the use of a different coloured text depending on the character that is speaking. The writing of this game is exceptionally good, and really professional, it contribuites a lot to makes this whole adventure enjoyable and in the end I'm pretty sure that most players would love to play even more! In the end the whole game is a journey that will explore the five characters (four party members and the demon Pudding), the simplistic plot is just an excuse to set in motion an entertaining adventure about a group of quirky and inspired characters.

Oh and make no mistake, this game may seem lighthearted but despite some funny dialogues and situations there are still some serious parts and dark moments!

On the bad side there are some typos and the lack of other activities like for example puzzles, but due to the short time available to make this game I guess this is ok!


Uhmmm.. hey ok! I won't judge you! But I'll judge the game now...

Final Verdict
In my opinion this is an excellent game, a bit easy but despite the short length it has many original features for what concerns combat and lots of funny dialogues. There are some little tasks like finding buttons and crystals to unlock passages, but the game is totally linear and quite simple. But it's a compact funny adventure and I was really impressed that this was made in a really short time. Awesome.

I do not know why I played this game only recently, because it is a lot of fun, original and well written too. I found no problems, typos or errors and I find difficult to criticize it. Maybe it's too short? Or too easy (last combat was quite short, the fight against the mimic was longer even if less dangerous)? I do not know, I find really few reasons to complain. It's a 4.5/5, I seldom give this raring but due to the time restain and the final result, I cannot give less! At all...

Posts

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Thanks for the review, a blast from the past. Glad you enjoyed the game, Alma and Ezekiel return in Sunken Spire if you're interested in seeing more of them.

My memory is bit hazy when it comes to this game, I haven't touched it since we released the re-release. I'm glad you enjoyed the skills (and found that you couldn't just mash attack). As for Ezekiel being the most powerful, if you max Isaac's agility he gets so many more turns that he is equally/more unstoppable, hence the nerf to max agi in the re-release.

You mention the combat being too easy, were you playing on normal or hard mode? I remember the most optimal builds trouncing everything (even on hard) but I didn't want to make sub-optimal builds unusable.

Thank you again for the review, it was a great read and was quite a euphoric nostalgia trip for me.
author=Fomar0153
Thanks for the review, a blast from the past. Glad you enjoyed the game, Alma and Ezekiel return in Sunken Spire if you're interested in seeing more of them.

My memory is bit hazy when it comes to this game, I haven't touched it since we released the re-release. I'm glad you enjoyed the skills (and found that you couldn't just mash attack). As for Ezekiel being the most powerful, if you max Isaac's agility he gets so many more turns that he is equally/more unstoppable, hence the nerf to max agi in the re-release.

You mention the combat being too easy, were you playing on normal or hard mode? I remember the most optimal builds trouncing everything (even on hard) but I didn't want to make sub-optimal builds unusable.

Thank you again for the review, it was a great read and was quite a euphoric nostalgia trip for me.

Niceee! I have to try that but yeah, there are other games related to this I'd like to see.

Oh yeah all the characters are useful, I used Alma as a healer/crafter (so zero attack, lots of heal and rifle/mortar building), Ellis (well, Pudding!) and Ezekiel as the main attackers and Isaac as a versatile party member.

I played normal, but I expected hard to be difficult (duh!) anyway normal was easy, not that I could be careless, BUT after the first half you can steamroll everything except bosses, but even these do aren't that difficult, but it's ok since I could use the skill and the strategies I wanted.

Yeah, it is an old game, but seriously I did a huge mistake in the past because this was the first game I saw here when I arrived to the site and I NEVER played it until now (two reasons. First: I am Rm2k3 die hard fan, and two: looked generic from the pics but...) now I'd recommend it!
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