Hell Gates is an action RPG created by Pad using RPG Maker 2000. Set on an island full of dangers and different climate zones, it follows the nameless silent protagonist on his quest to defeat the silent bad guy who attacked their ship and kidnapped the protagonist's silent girlfriend. For while the premise of the game's story is everything but original, what makes it stand out immediately is the fact that it does not contain a single written word, as demanded by the rules of the contest it was created for. Under these circumstances, reading the provided (relatively short) manual that explains the basic concepts of the game is mandatory, but even then you will have to learn most of its workings on your own. As Hell Gates is surprisingly long for a contest game, things will eventually grow familiar, but the early parts can be a little rough.





The gameplay in Hell Gates is very impressive and quite unusual for a game made in RPG Maker. Rather than in turn-based combat or the like, fighting in this game happens on-map and in real time. The protagonist is armed with a sword that he can attack enemies in front of him with, but he needs some time before his next attack afterwards. Enemies work similarly: When the player is close to them, they quickly rush a few steps towards you and deal damage upon contact, but they also can only do this again after some time has passed. If this sounds familiar to you, then you're probably correct. Hell Gates draws a lot of inspiration from games such as Secret of Mana, The Legend of Zelda and similar old-school top-down action RPGs. In fact, it's more than just inspiration, as the game very liberally uses rips and music from those games, which sometimes results in very apparent clashes of style.





In the beginning, winning a fight will be a matter of provoking and evading attacks, then landing a hit yourself while the enemy is unable to act. Later on, when monsters become more challenging and are sometimes not even content with attacking once per interval any more, the focus of combat shifts towards being able to anticipate where an enemy will move next. Unfortunately, there are also a few cases where it comes down more to pure endurance and the repeated use of healing while exchanging blows until one of the combatants dies, rather than actual perceptiveness and skill on the player's part.
The fact that there is a slight delay between starting an attack and its actual moment of impact, and that the protagonist is still able to move while attacking, makes aiming swings at moving enemies a lot more manageable. Yet, there are situations where winning a battle is just a case of repeating the same steps over and over while waiting for your attack bar to refill, or where enemies are so ridiculously dangerous, sneaky and powerful that it becomes borderline unfair, especially later in the game. Sometimes you can run into an instance where it's quite hard to grasp how a certain enemy or boss works mechanically, and you might have to retry some of them a few times before you understand how to beat them other than through sheer luck or brute force. That being said, I found the combat in general to be mostly enjoyable, and there are quite a number of enemies or bosses that are equally fun, challenging and cleverly designed. Still, since you can usually evade enemies' attacks if you're careful, encountering foes that always hit and deal damage from a distance can be pretty frustarting the first few times around. Similarly, in the final phase of the game, some enemies have tricks up their sleeve that make not getting hit simply impossible, and you are forced to rely too much on grinding and packing tons of healing items.





Personally, I am a huge fan of top-down action based combat in RPGs, and it was one of the main reasons I chose to play this game. And while I find it extremely impressive that the creator of this game managed to implement a working action-based battle system (in RPG Maker 2000, even), I cannot deny that it has some problems. The biggest reason for this, apart from the initial slowness and later excessive difficulty of the battle system, is that a lot of the systems either suffered from the limitations of the engine, or weren't thought out very well. For instance, about halfway through the game the player receives a companion with the ability to use certain supporting skills. Just as the hero's skills and powers, these can be leveled up and changed after a while to fit a certain fighting style (although unfortunately these choices are irreversible, so remember to keep a few seperate save files in case you Change your mind). Dealing blows to enemies now causes a special energy bar to fill up, and the companion's ability becomes available once it's fully charged.
In theory, this supporting ability is always useful. However, the problem is that the companion's skill is mapped to the normal attack button, which means that once the energy bar has filled up, you cannot attack any more and have no choice but to trigger the ability first. This isn't only extremely inconvenient, as you can't freely choose when to use said ability. It can even result in situations where the supposedly helpful companion causes a disadvantage for you. In the newest version of the game, you can fortunately continue to move while the support ability is happening, and enemies cannot attack. But neither can you, which means that you can be forced to forego the chance to hit an enemy at the right moment. After some practise, it's not too hard to get accustomed to the workings of this mechanic, and you learn how to work around its limitations, but it's still a less than optimal design choice.

There are other problems similar to this, such as the fact that enemies continue to charge their attacks while the menu is open - which is realistic, but also becomes a major danger during later fights where using spells and items is extremely important. Being very quick in your menu operations and planning ahead for the moment you close it again thereby becomes an integral part of combat stretegy later in the game. This could be construed as innovative in some ways, but in practice it's not very fun.
Recent updates have also improved a number of enemies who used to be unnecessarily frustrating. Yet, there are still some instances of bosses that are either rather bland in design and uninteresting to fight, or are so powerful they might require grinding before encountering them, neither of which is an enjoyable way to spend time. In short, the game contains a few mechanics that are fantastic on paper, but some of which are implemented in ways that feel inconvenient, unintuitive or not player friendly.

Apart from combat, exploring the setting and clearing out dungeons full of puzzles are the main activities that the player is preoccupied with. There are a lot of places to visit and secrets to find, and the handy provided map and quite a number of fast-traveling options make it a lot easier to keep your bearings. At least, that's the plan. Most of the time, it works, but not unlike many old SNES games, there are situations where you will have absolutely no idea what to do next or how to get somewhere new. And while the map is helpful for seeing where you are and where other things may be, it doesn't tell you how to get there. The brief walkthrough that is provided in the manual helps quite a bit and is probably necessary if you don't want to sink hundreds of hours into this game, but even then there are situations where the road to progression is just so unclear that it becomes frustrating. Similarly, the setup of the game's dungeons, and especially its puzzles, varies in quality and accessability. Some are very creative, intuitive and engaging, others are uninteresting, unnecessarily annoying or have solutions that are much too obscure. I immensely enjoyed certain parts of Hell Gates for their great design reminiscent of some of my favourite SNES classics, while others were plainly irritating and hard to understand.





Speaking of which, in a game designed in part around the deliberate choice to not use any written words, it seems reasonable to expect a lot of effort being put into finding different ways of communicating information to the player. And in a lot of cases, that is actually done very effectively. If you are not meant to enter a certain part of the world yet, the sheer overwhelming power of the enemies found there will usually tell you to go look elsewhere. In addition, upon finding certain key items the game will show you visions of new areas that have become accessible now. But nevertheless, the above measures aren't always equally reliable or easily understandable, and so the sense of direction for the player can be lacking. As a consequence, sometimes the player might simply have to experiment a lot until they discover what they are supposed to do next, or simply consult the manual for help.

Overall, however, despite some of the more questionable design decisions, Hell Gates is one of the most memorable RPG Maker projects I've ever played. And even after replaying it a second time once a major update had introduced massive improvements, I still I thoroughly enjoyed a good amount of it. Of course, as much as the basic premise intrigued me, and as much as the concept of the gameplay caters to my personal preferences, I cannot in good conscience overlook the flaws that make parts of Hell Gates harder to play and enjoy. The balancing issues, the confusing layout of some parts of the game's world and intended progression, and the counterproductive way some of the mechanics were implemented should not be ignored, even after they have been alleviated a lot in the newest version. But in the end, the many impressive mechanics, the strict adherence to the theme of wordless communication and the massive, thorougly enjoyable journey this game allows you to undertake more than make up for its weaknesses. Despite the huge restrictions and limitations placed upon it during development, I found that Hell Gates did so many things right when it comes to good action RPGs, that I will recommend it to anyone who enjoys this type of game and isn't discouraged by unconventional style.