Last Quest IV: The Prequeling

Hello, adventurers!
Welcome back for another glorious Rpgmaker2000 game, this time it's
Last Quest IV: The Prequeling, a little jrpg made in 2015 by Backwards_Cowboy for the Golden Game Mak contest held to celebrate the official English release of RPG Maker 2000.

In this game we play as Larz, a young warrior from a peaceful little village that has to investigate the nearby Forest Temple, where something bad happened... probably some monsters' attacks. Helped by a young healer, Aeva, sent by the king of Castleton, he explores the place, but when she comes back the discovers that his village was razed to the ground! What's worse is that it seems that the deed was done by the soldiers of Castleton sent by the king! And then the adventure begins, but there may be a real bad guy behind the king, and, you know this is... the PREQUELing!


The game includes random battles, some avoidable encounters and the inevitable boss battles! But hey, look, that's a critical hit! Well done, Larz!

Last Quest IV: The Prequeling is an event game and for this reason is a pretty short (30 minutes) adventure jrpg that includes three boss battles, three party members, three towns and... four dungeons! Yeah that's weird, they should have been three, of course but nevermind!

Game uses both random battles and avoidable touch battles with walking/standing enemies seen on some maps, in any case do not worry because combat is pretty easy, levelling up is a breeze and the enemies aren't really threathning, not even the bosses (except in the beginning, when the characters have a handful of hitpoints and just one skill). What's even better is that you can find some items (accessories and armors) that grant immunities to some really annoying statuses (poisoned, blinded), so as soon as you equip them you will be safe for the rest of the game (that's pretty short anyway). I never needed to buy healing potions or other consumables (pay attention! These are sold inside the inns!) and I just spent my money on equipment, because you will find inns and wandering clerics that can heal you, besides Aeva, our "portable cleric", of course. The arrival of the third party member (another warrior) for the last third of the adventure will make things even more easy, but that's ok, it's a short game, it's a prequel, this isn't a full Final Fantasy epic adventure!

Now the visuals: the game uses the classical Rpgmaker2003 Rtp assets, with the usual battles without battles and front view of the enemy sprites, but this was a limit imposed by the contest. What I can say is that the Rtps are used surprisingly well, since all maps are pretty small (no "huge empty rooms syndrome"!) but compact and detailed, even it there are rarely some interactions available with the surroundings. Anyway they're still good, villages and dungeons are pretty small but nicely realized and includes some little self-contained stories, like tone one of the "clueless kid" and the "zombie guard". Cute, little and funny additions!


The tower of the big bad is near! But it's not time for spoilers so let's skip to the...

Final Verdict
Last Quest IV: The Prequeling is a cute little game with no real serious flaws (I found no bugs or problems, except maybe that's pretty short and quite easy, but are these real problems?) that should not be taken seriously since the theme of the contest was to create a little adventure that revolves around classical cliches and tropes. The result was pretty good, I think, it's a short but solid classic rpg that (especially towards the end) turns into a parody of jrpgs. A pretty good event game!