D.O.G and the abandoned train

Hello, dogs, cats and players!
I just finished playing "D.O.G and the abandoned train", a good old RPG Tsukuru 2003 game made by Phantavi-Productions and released in 2014. I probably have to warn you since this game lacks of some Rtps (but if you're a hardcore rpgmaker player like me you surely have them, otherwise you can find them online) but also of the music so we won't be able to enjoy the tracks of this game. Pity! Oh and note that this game was made for a school project. The target was children from about eight years old. It's an adventure game with a mysterious flavour.

Detective Othis Green, or D.O.G for short, is the local detective in New Pork Kitty, and became famous after saving a goldfish! Anyway that was easy, the new case is about a mysterious abandoned train, and will involve ghosts, robots, evil rats and more!


When the robots attack... we have to find the switch that turns them off! In the meantime let's run!

"D.O.G and the abandoned train" is a game divided into various levels that includes puzzles, mazes, exploration and some interesting gimmicks. For example the first level is about finding the wallet of Lennart the Elephant, a watchman at the station that hired Othis, and includes a little logic puzzle. Then we've the sewers where we'll have to use Othis' bark ability to scare the big rats. The third level will introduce the flashlight that's indispensable in the dark areas, and in later levels it will be used to scare ghosts, but requires batteries to be recharged, like Othis' barking requires milk to be used more times. Finally there are cookies that are used to replenish the hitpoints, indicated by bone-shaped cookies on the upper side of the screen. Lose them all and it's game over!

Luckily you can save after each level, and this starts the next level with full health, but do not underestimate that, game isn't too easy. Luckily you can collect bones that once buried can be used to save the game at any time! Cool idea, and that's even more interesting when you will learn that you can buy all these items (milk, batteries, bones) and more (brass keys to open special chests) from a weird rabbit and each item costs only a single coin. My suggestion is to interact with EVERYTHING that doesn't move, like pots, drawers and chests.

The game has many good aspects, I liked mapping in this game (even if there are a couple of passability errors, for example you can walk over one of the trains!), and the various chipsets used are mostly appropriated and nice to see, the charsets come from various sources (Othis is probably also an edited rmk3 charset) but they fit quite well all together. The interface is simple and it works, including also the help section.
As I wrote in the beginning there is no music, but sounds are instead pretty well selected, EVEN IF there is no barking!!! No, this is unacceptable!

There are also some other things that could have been better, for example the level in which you need planks, nails and a hammer to fix the stairs require a lot of luck finding them, and took me three tries, since those green rats are really implacable! Anyway I did not mind some challenge, and the game even includes bosses!


Uhm Othis, I wouldn't approach a ghost that cries. Do you know La Llorona? I watched too many horror movies not to be cautious here!

Final Verdict
"D.O.G and the abandoned train", while not perfect, for me it was an ok game: writing is so-so, surely english is not the dev's native language, but it's not too bad, there are some parts that could have been better and some weird "jumps" (for example when Othis exits the train and enters a laboratory... WHY? There isn't even a trainsition, but uh, nevermind), but on the other hand there are many gimmicks implemented (bark system, smell system, flashlight, etc), various puzzles and a good use of the assets. An ok game, pity for the missing files!