Hi!
This game that I'm reviewing today is called Charon's Sabbath and was originally made for the IGMC (Indie Game Making Contest) in 2014 with RPG Maker VX Ace. The author of this game is Synonysis, atuhor also of a little demo called Rune Rhetoric, anyway this Charon's Sabbath is a short but complete game.

In this game we play as Munica, the spirit of a young girl that's tasked by the weak Soulmother to gather the lost souls and help them find peace. Ok but what's the Soulmother? A sentient cluster of spiritual energy, and the souls of the dead people fuse with it... IF they do not become lost in the world. Lost souls are in cat separated by the world of the living and doomed to continuously relive their death through their memory descending into madness. So our mission is to end their endless cycle of suffering.


Understandable! All pretty much clear, my friend!

The game starts without giving us any real direction: in the beginning we know which is Munica's mission (rescue 12 souls) but not how things have to be done. Anyway exploring the various locations she'll be able to find someone she can savem and often a soul can give help to save another soul... that can help regardind another soul and so on. Well not all the souls are linked, anyway those who are require being approached in a precise order. So yes, this is a trial and error kind of gameplay, and I am pretty sure that many other players, like me, aren't fond of that since there are lots of way to die and this is pretty frustrating (insta-deaths are rather annoying after a while) in my opinion. Moreover to get the GOOD ending (yes, there are TWO endings) you need to save at least 11 souls out of 12, meaning that you can fail just ONE time. Sigh.
Well it's really annoying escaping hungry ghosts and phantoms that can instantly destroy you, or making a misstep in a burning house and die, not to mention falling into a river or... wait, what is this, Dark Souls? Oh, well at least there you can try to fight back!

That's a pity because for the rest the game is excellent: mapping is done competently, the portraits (not just facesets!) of the various characters are really nice, and I cannot really found any weak point amond the aestetics (maybe the caves have some assets that do not merge so well together, but it's ok).
Music is also pretty good and appropriate, intro theme is haunting, the forest and cave themes also creates fairly different almost opposing atmospheres (one lyrical and the other dark and oppressive), so all is fine here.


Maybe... but well, probably not, sorry but thanks for the offer!

Final Verdict
Charon's Sabbath may be an aestetically pleasing game, but unfortunately I really believe that the gameplay is a very important part of the game and... honestly this was not a fun experience, a real pity since all could technically be fixed by just few expedients, like for example leaving the possibility to save anytime instead of limiting the option to save. Sigh. A real pity since it looked such a cool game to play. Better luck next time!