Legends of Perren: Task of Malice

I will begin by saying that this game was developed for the RMN 10th birthday event, in which the challenge was to make a game in 10 days or less. Given this, the game is not terribly long; it only took me about 6 hours to finish.

**Disclaimer**
I will try to avoid too many spoilers, but there will be a couple. If you do not wish to partake in said spoiling, finish the game before you read this review.

The theme of the challenge is old school, and this game presents as a very typical retro-jrpg style entry if you look at the main plotline; which can be summarized as: "Evil Gafsk Republic seeks control of the 4 elemental crystals, you must stop them or all hope is lost, oh no!" The 4 elemental crystals (earth, fire, water and air, natch) are correctly identified by the game author on the main page as old school plot devices called McGuffins (sometimes spelled MacGuffins). Metaphorical broken bridges abound, as in you can't advance to the next dungeon unless you have the correct item. Again, tried and true old school.

The game itself is done in RPG Maker 2000, which automatically lends some retro, been-there-many-times charm. The sprites, music, tilesets, sfx, are all completely stock as far as I can tell. Battles are utterly devoid of any need for strategy, your characters will learn all the magic they need to deal with any foe as they level up. Elemental weaknesses do exist, but there is almost no point to attempting to exploit them as all battles right up until the final boss can be won with this basic formula:
1. Is your level, thus your HP, high enough to withstand the pounding per round ? If not, go level up a little more.
2. Cast your most powerful single target spells at enemy, if you don't have enough magic, just attack.
3. Don't worry much about status effects except poison, and even then only in the early game for the most part.
4. Heal using items and/or magic when needed.
5. Rinse and repeat.

Those of you reading this might be feeling that there is another shoe that needs to drop. You would be correct. Here, and I want to make this a point of emphasis for why I scored the game as I did, is the reason this game rises above a simple basic little grinder with no reason to stand out otherwise: creativity and a sense of humour.

It starts with the introduction of the main character, Malice, who is a reaper, but not a reaper in the dark, ominous sense, but rather, one of Death's assistants, who is currently in training. Death himself is too busy so she must handle this, even though she really does not want to. The second character you meet is a blob who cannot speak English but wants to join you for unknown reasons. The third character to join you is a self described 'hot' battle angel named Erica, who forces her way into your party. Just because. Really! The fourth character who rounds out your lineup is called Junko, who turns out to be your only healer, and also the daughter of the man who builds you an airship once you have provided him with the proper item to make it work of course. He forces his lazy daughter ("time you stoppped mooching off me") into the party, then moments later in a cutscene after your party walks out of the room, he admits in a small soliloquy, that he will miss her and wants her to be safe.

This game does not take itself too seriously when it comes its characters and writing, which produces many humorous moments. There is lots of racy, suggestive dialog, even a little mild profanity, and after playing most of the game I realized why I was enjoying it so much. I was entertained, and it stayed that way right to the end. There were very few issues with bugs (I think I only found 2, and not terribly serious at that).

I recommend this to anyone looking for an quick little old school RPG diversion that comes with some smiles and laughs served up on the side.