Lasting Dreams

Good morning... welcome to something really different!
Yes, because after playing a classic 2k3 jrpg game and a dark fantasy 2k3 adventure, now it's time for a 2k3 sidescrolling 2d action game.

The game wastes no time with introductions! We're a fat pirate (the famous Gomez charset, if you know the 2k/2k3 database heroes!) locked inside a cell, and with the help of another prisoner he'll escape the prison. Then his adventures will bring him to fight against those who captured him and also against many evil beings and monsters, but I bet that this isn't a real surprise, is it?


Yeah yeah, sure thing! You and your little soldiers already failed once, by the way!

But since this is an action game, story doesn't need to be too complicated. Surely the commands aren't complicated at all: you move with the arrow keys, 1 is for menu and you have just two other keys that correspond to the left and right hand, where you can equip various items you will find during this exciting adventure.
In the beginning there are just knives and bombs, but later our hero will find also hammers and magical items, and that's when the game starts to become interesting.

Yes, because probably the weakest part is the beginning: you start with few knives and the soldiers have crossbows (that have a longer reach than the fat pirate's knives) and swords (that hits hard), and there is no key to jump to avoid projectiles, so considering that enemies respawn... it was a rather frustrating beginning. To tell the truth this was probably because in the beginning I still had to master the game, AND that area is also revisited later (so the presence of strong enemies makes sense!), after finding the wooden mallet (that is the first melee weapon) and leaving the prison on the flying ship the games suddenly becomes pretty cool!
Why? Oh because in the first town you get to solve an optional puzzle, collect butterflies, and even playing a vintage computer game inside a wizard's house (yes, this is a game inside another game)! Oh yeah, many of these activities are totally optional and some are even useless, but the mount of detail is amazing. I mean, it's nost just a "Ghost and Goblins" clone in which you run and shoot enemies... it's a more complex adventure with minigames and different action sections. For example travelling the map is done piloting the flying ship, shooting and avoid dragons! It's epic, and it works!


Ok, it's boss-killing time and as usual these guys are huge! Wish me luck against this cousin of Cubone!

Graphically this game look prety good! I admit I am impressed by the use of the various sprites and resources. I guess not all of them are RTP, but often this is the case for both what concerns music and graphics... and these are used exceptionally well to create a believable sidescrolling game that I don't expected was possible with an engine made for rpgs like Rm2k3. Also the non-rtp-sprites and custom backgrounds match really well with the rest of the envidoments and locations.

Speaking about explorating these maps, clearly you can usually just move left and right, while up and down arrow keys are used both to climb and descend stairs, talk with people or aim up or down, and this last function will be necessary especially when fighting bosses, that are huge!

Luckily our hero is tough and can survive some attacks (there's indication of his HP and MP, and the bosses life points are displayed too), but even if killed he will respawn at the last save point, with no real penalty or loss (except of time wasted, of course). Difficulty is challenging but not extremely hard, it's a well made adventure game with a lot of content and items. The effort and care made in this game is noteworthy, and the final result is...
... well read the verdict, ok?


Hey! I solved a puzzle in this cozy village and found a hidden bonus reward! Neat!

The Verdict
The Infinite did an amazing job with this game! It's a wild adventure that will see our chubby pirate turning turning himself into a skeleton, turning enemies into chickens, and perform other cool deed I won't tell you not to spoil the game! Anyway there is space for improvement in two parts: the first is the story, the bad guy has its powers and goals, but our silent protagonist and the supporting cast could have been more detailed (still, this is an action game, so this is not a terrible problem). The second issue is that in some levels it's not clear what you are supposed to do, and being this a game in which different mechanics are being introduced as you progress, it's mandatory to experiment, just don't expect to always receive a clear indication on what you should do next!

I admit that I had a lot of fun with this game, and it was like playing one of these old colorful Amiga platform games of the 90s that merged shooter sections to adventure parts introducting also NPCs that required finding items. Yes, this is an old, classic concept but rather unusual for an rpgmaker game. To conclude, in few words is this good?
Yes, it's very good. 4.5/5!