Hellooo!
Polixiuhs is another game made for the 2016 "A Halloween Horror" event. Anyway unlike the game I previously reviewed this isn't an adventure game even if it cleary still belongs to the horror genre. It's instead a sort of dungeon crawling game inspired by... Pacman! Oh yes! This was made with Rpgmaker2003 by Superstroke, a developer that made other brilliant games such as Sideways, a game I played and analyzed years ago in one of my first reviews (probably one that someday I'd like to re-write, since I think I should've been more generous).

Polixiuhs is the name of a cathedral, and it's the place we have to explore while playing the role of Galath, a Sentinel from the Kingdom that was sent against his will to that place. His mission? Retrieve an ancient relic known as the Cornucopia. Unfortunately our friend Galath knows that many brave warriors were corrupted by the evil influence of Polixiuhs and lost their lives in the underground complex below the cathedral and he does not want to be one of them...


That little devil may look cute but no... he's lethal!

Polixiuhs is a really good looking game that uses a 8-bit graphics that used FF1 style edited tilesets and charsets (with a limited palette consisting mainly on red/white/black, and some shades of grey and brown). The final look is that of a cute and creepy dark fantasy world that shows some influence from Castlevania... and Dark Souls.
This also looks like a sort of coin-op since we start with three lives and losing all of them means game over. And no, saving at least in the beginning is not an option!

But why did I mention Pacman? It's simple, as Galath we wander the darkness of labyrithine dungeons holding a torch that only illuminates a small surrounding area. The goal is finding the Cornucopia, but like Pacman we collect small dots that in this game are golden coins, necessary to buy useful items such as weapons or extra lives from the merchant in the first room of the cathedral.
Now, when we collide with an enemy, the game rolls a dice that is added to the power of the weapon (called POW, that is initially 0). IF the total beats the enemy power (called DC or Difficulty Class), congratulations, you survived. IF NOT you lose one life and respawn in the first room.
Fighting isn't the best option, in fact the obvious strategy is to learn the enemy's patterns and avoid them entirely (but that's not very easy due to the restricted field of vision).

Anyway the game is not all here: there are codex to collect and other abilities, but I'll let you discover that by yourself.


Oh no an undead! Good roll, unfortunately without a weapon it' a defeat! Sigh!

Final Verdict
Polixiuhs is a good looking and really atmospheric game, solid and well done with apparently no bugs or issues, except maybe for the unforgiving difficulty for the simple gameplay. But we cannot deny the charm of its retro graphics. The game has also a really nice creepy, dark and tense atmosphere despite the cute 8 bit graphics, because you know that these creatures are lethal! And three lives aren't much!
In the end this is a good game, probably not for everyone (I'm sure that really few people are going to complete this game!) since its particular unforgiving gameplay may discourage all but the most calm and cautious (And stubborn, of course!) players, but still this is a very well done interesting little game.