Sunken Spire

Clearly one of the best submissions to the former 2014 IGMC, and sadly left as an underdog for the competition due a game breaking bug.
Despite the set back Sunken Spire is an inspiration to how game making should be treated. Stylized portraits, a customized menu and skill
system, unique characters with matching abilities, and a story to carry it all.

Indrah, Formar, Rachael and Maiko come together to deliver a powerful game that marks another raising of the bar for RM games. Not only does the game deliver intense battles, but it gives the player satisfaction of a completing a story where the elements payoff.

I'll start by talking about the antagonists since they are my favorite characters. Preston and Trixie occupy the once hidden spire holding it for their benefactor and employer. Normally I expected the villains to be calculating and severely overbearing though this is not the case. Preston, the dark priest, is clearly green in the sense he hasn't had much experience and Trixie, the succubus, is supporting him. The two function well together, but they ultimately jump the shark with all the letters they write to the protagonists.
They also fail to lock doors, which would inevitably stopped the investigation dead in it's tracks. the spire itself was once a powerful icon of a saint who built it and crosses into a dimension drift that allows the space inside to warped. This means that most floors have an elemental theme and can be larger or smaller than the previous. Through the limitless monsters and tough boss battles Preston becomes increasingly more desperate to show naivety and leaves most of the dirty work to Trixie.

I enjoyed them immensely, but when villainy is done poorly for the sake of humor it urks me. Having them able to control an essential character at the end, only to be thwarted previous to the encounter by that same character they have full control over makes me cringe. I need a bit more than "They must have forgotten."

Now for the protagonists. Alma is a very stern agent of Ulstern who is often sent away on long term missions for potential magical threats to her country. Her profession is magical engineer and she is best known for her golems. Happily you can create a customization support golem with abilities you can research directly to your tastes. She is well rounded,and comes with even more customization as she can research new magical items that alter her abilities in battle. She can range from full support, healer, or full caster.

Elsa is another story entirely. Tough in the beginning, but sorely lacking towards the end. Her summoning contracts give her some versatility, but it's the rune system that makes her fall flat on her face if you don't read the fine print. Runes generated count towards her generated equipment in her out of battle skills. So if you overlook using certain abilities in battle for the sake of function and efficiency you will be left with her wasting turns to self heal and counter with very little for your trouble. She's a great character, but sadly weaker than the golem if used improperly. The extra busy work associated with her skills gives a big grocery list of "Do I have enough of this rune? Should I use this ability? I really need to use this now. I have too many of that rune already, but it's connected to a skill I like."

Ooze is definitely the hands down favorite. Extremely weak in the beginning he can be fed trash items from monster groups to gain powerful "forms" he can morph into.

In these forms can assume a new shape and abilities of that monster group. When Alma is experienced enough she can research new forms for ooze as well.

Treasure can also be found that enables new forms and abilities in ooze and the amount of graphical work backing him up makes it worthwhile to see them all. The theme, personality, and spirit of the character shine through in every aspect of battle. His dependency on the two women is adorable and we are given a small sampling of the previous adventures the two had before meeting him. It's all executed so well it's heart warming.