Iris

Hello, old-time players!
IF you are here it's probably because this is an RPGmaker 2000 game and you probably like them exactly like me (oh the nostalgia)! In this case Iris is a game by YellowMagic that sees as protagonist some of the typical Rm2k database heroes: Alex, Enryuu and Helen (ok and there is also the cameo of Don Miguel that appears represented by Falcon's charset exactly like in Don's Adventure or The First RPG Maker Game).

The story starts with Alex, the typical rpgmaker hero, that in this particular incarnation is a whiny and naive rich guy looking for a treasure belonging to his uncle. Unfortunately he needs help, so he enlist Helen, a Prefectural Guard that is bored of living inside the forest... and the opportunity to travel and earn lots of money is really appealing to her. Unfortunately earlier Alex quarreled with a rough guy at the inn, Enryuu and thus he has a rival in his search for the treasure. Like that the journey was not dangerous enough...


Uh, Enryuu I just walked through a forest full of slimes, orcs, troll and a manticore! Do you think you can scare me?

Iris is a lighthearted adventure rpg, with humor and likeable protagonists (especially Helen, for me), and despite being a rather short game there are enough dialogues and events to make things interesting, funny and include also some character growth. Nice! My only gripe is when a character interrupts another in a dialogue and that happens so fast you won't have the time to read, anyway it's a really little issue.

Visually the game is a classic Rm2k RTP game, but I found a lot of attention to the details, I mean that mapping is pretty good, characters use their facesets and charsets, there is the addition of Mac and Blue stuff and some other tiles here and there, and the result is pretty good. Probably it does not stand out (and many people many mistake it for one of these boring and low effort rm2k/rm2k3 games), but it's competently made. And music is well selected too!

Now the gameplay: as many other RPGmaker 2000 games Iris is a linear sequence of dungeons that include exploration, puzzles and battles. But YellowMagic did some good choices, implementing the possibility to save anywhere and removing the old and annoying random encounters! Oh, yes, this rpgmaker game has battles initiated by contact with enemies (touch encounters! I like this). Some of these will look for you, others will walk around randombly and some instead will walk in fixed paths. Remember that avoiding everyone means having underlevelled characters when facing the mandatory bosses, so fight once in a while!


Oh yes! The experience points! WE absolutely need them... well, this is also a boss so ne has to be put down anyway!

Ok, but how is combat? First characters level up killing enemies and getting experience, BUT all skills are available from the beginning, and they're many: Helen and Alex have different abilities, but the first has a limited resource of mana (that can be increased with some consumables) to use the abilities, while Alex starts at zero and then earns mana each round (more if he focus). Helen is more an elemental mage that can empower her attacks and use some harmful effects (like blind, confusion, sleep and so on) while Alex (that's more like a supporter) can heal, stun the opponent and... negate the Mana Fields! What are mana fields? Well they're effects, and each battle starts with one of the four Mana Fields active, that are ALL unpleasant for the player (one gradually reduces the player's health, another regenerates the opponents, and so on...). The system is interesting, peculiar, and probably it would have been even better in a longer game, it's an interesting idea but requires a lot of micromananging for such a short game (it's a constant Battle>Save>CheckCharacters>Battle>Save>CheckCharacters, etc) not to mention that you may be overwhelmed in the beginning for the lethora of skills available.

Oh and during the travel you will find wandering merchants in the dungeons, in order to buy consumables or the healing package that, in other words, is the equivalent of a rest at an inn (in other words, it restores the party).


Ok, ok... I admit I skipped it! And I will never regret that' I'm REALLY sure!

Final Verdict
Iris is an ok game, the story is simple but good, graphics are nice even if not original, and mapping is pretty much ok, so nothing bad from this point of view. My only issue was combat, for me it was... acceptable: on one hand it perfectly made the simple two-characters party interesting to use with some strategies available, but on the other hand I found annoying the use of the Mana Fields (I absolutely HATED the Fire Mana field whenever it appeared!), the necessity to rely on consumables to heal outside of combat (actually prolonging battles can be helpful to avoid this but why bother?), and the last part of the cave puzzle (that luckily you can skip). Ok, so none of these are errors, but I think some players may not like them. I do not know, the intro is quite long, so I expected a bit more dialogues and adventure and a bit less combat (and less time spend on the menus) but in any case it's not a bad game, if you like Rm2k classics it's worth trying for its improvements!