Boss Project III

Preamble
This was a cakewalk.
I played Ephiam's first Boss Project, my thoughts on it summarized here, and this was just a leisurely stroll through the park by comparison. The first in the series had a finite supply of items, powerful 5 and 7 hit attacks, a gaggle of status effects, a shitty party member, and to top it off, the game just LOOKED hard because Hard is a defining characteristic of the 8-bit era.
None of that means III is a terrible game, though.

Visual: 2/5
I'm curious as to why Boss Project III has the font for damage numbers and recovery numbers set to a nearly identical color. Using kentona's Hero's Realm as the baseboard for this little side project might be the principle cause, but this game is a much different animal. All of the bosses have something or other that heals them, and I need to know what's doing what. The slightly bluer tinge when healing doesn't cut it.

Otherwise it's a near-perfect snapshot of the 16-bit Final Fantasy era. I say "near" because FF4-5 chars are fighting FF6 enemies, and the style differences are immediately apparent.

Audio: 2.5/5
Ephiam knows how to pick music.
Or maybe it's kentona who does, since the BGM folder has the entire soundtrack to Hero's Realm.
Nah. I've played enough Ephiam games to vouch for him. He knows how to keep your eardrums pleased and your imagination stirring. Here, his choice of audio flourish hails from the Star Ocean 3 soundtrack.

There were a few minor foibles to speak of in the form of volume differences and the final boss BGM opening (and repeating) with a sharp static noise. With Boss Project III being as short as it is, these little faux pas are more noticeable than they should be.

Storyline: -/-
There's no storyline. None at all. The bad guys say some unintelligible bad guy gobbledygook, but that's just Ephiam reminding us he has a keyboard.
There were characters though! Like my last foray into Boss Project land, I think a proper introduction is in order.

The Posse
Valcon - This guy is the spiritual successor to The Knight from Boss Project 1. By that, I mean he sucks. Being a Black Knight, he has a dark fighter motif going on, but it doesn't do him any good. Let's fight the Forces of the Darkness with Darkness. Yeah, okay. Just another good reason why I wanted the recovery and damage fonts to be more discernible.
And the final insult? His Dark Sword actually inflicts "BiKill" on enemies, which is the strength doubling status condition. That's right. If Valcon whacks an enemy with his sword, their Strength will double.
Ugh.
Renton - Renton is a badass. He looks like a dweeb, and I'm sure much sand was kicked in his face when he was Level 1, but that was before he learned Fire/Ice/Lit 6 whereas the rest of the world doesn't even know there are 4 & 5 variants. He has a nasty prank to play on you, the player, though. It comes in the form of his most powerful and expensive spell : Black Flare. The spell description says "Heavy Damage, but makes the enemy stronger". How much stronger? It doubles all their stats, effectively supercharging them. If you cast it, expect to be immediately destroyed.
Otherwise his spells are cheap, reliable and always useful. Keep on rockin', Renton.
Alicia - Alicia's a strange one. Her Cure spell Cures, her Life spell Lifes, and her Esuna spell Esunas. That much is normal. The fruitcake aspects lie in her buff spells. They're expensive, they single-target, they wear off quickly, and they occasionally miss. Hello? Buffs aren't supposed to miss unless they're delivered by something randomized like a Bard song. But here, Alicia's classical white magic buff spells frequently fail. I suppose it's still better to try your luck with a 50/50 chance to buff a party member if the alternative is Defend. Did I mention her Staff attack heals more enemies than it hurts? I kept track.
Still. She's the healer, and healers are always welcome.
Kira - Kira's the only one who doesn't have some ass backwards help-when-it-should-hurt skill. In fact, he has 999 Attack like Valcon but attacks four times compared to Valcon's two, has max Agility, has a Ninja Star skill that always damages regardless of boss invincibility gimmicks, has the world's most amazing Scan skill, and always goes first which lets you use Scan and develop a strategy before the battle really begins.
The reason he's so awesome is obvious. He's Akira from Hero's Realm. The 'A' was dropped from his name because he's doing this Boss Project incognito, but I see through his clever disguise.

Gameplay: 1/5
Like I said at the start, this was a piece of cake.
I examined my characters, their equipment, their skills, remembered to turn the ATB to Wait, then started off the campaign by immediately trouncing Corbenik. Kira's Scan tells a player way more than they need to know, which removes almost all of the challenge from the battle.

In Boss Project 1, your items were severely limited. Battles were fought at risk of wasting items due to inefficient combat. Not so in Boss Project 3. When you're finished a boss, just open the Inventory and spam everything until you're maxed back out. If anything, you might be in for an ugly surprise if you try being conservative and use Alicia's healing magic.



What? Didn't I also mention, among all the other unconventionalities, Alicia's screwball Heal spell that restores lots of HP to the party, but also Slows them all?

In spite of this handicap, the Goddess of Life and Death, known by her friends as "Jo", went down easily. So did Riffles and his dinky contraption. Good ideas, but wimpy implementations. Shadow Master was the only one to give me a Game Over. He's fast and hits hard physically, but is manageable under ordinary conditions. What sent us over the edge was when stupid Valcon smacked him and inflicted Bikill. Thanks, jackass. His newly doubled attack power made short work of the party.

Anyway, round 2 was a joke. Turns out he doesn't actually have a lot of HP. Heptopus and his pokeballs joined the ranks of the defeated soon after, and finally the last boss, more impressive in his recolored spriting than his battle prowess, accepted our beatdown.

Overall: 2/5
This was easy. Too incredibly easy.
The only real hangups were when I wanted to use a skill but there was some darn collateral damage I had to consider. Alicia's Slowing Heal spell for example, or Valcon's normal attack, or testing Renton's elemental magic for damage (often healing inadvertently).

One thing I will confess; I found this bizarre party fun to play. I wouldn't mind seeing them, or a similarly designed group, in a proper RPG.