Cursed Crown

Good day,
and welcome to the review of another classic game, even if this is a 2017 retro themed Rpg made for RMN's 10th anniversary RETROMANIA event. So it's not exactly and old game like other I reviewed not long ago, but a quite recent game made in like an oldschool dungeon crawler adventure of the past, even if with some cool features and additions.

The plot is not very original: Thaelin was ruled by a tyrant wizard-king that was later defeated by a party of four heroes. But the evil man was apparently hard to kill, as most shady characters that deal in dark arts, and the vengeful mage cursed the land of Thaelin, so a new team of three adventurers lead by the protagonist (played by the player, of course!), are now tasked to reach Thaelin Castle and save the realm. How? Finding Thaelin's Cursed Crown, hence the title of this adventure!


Fool! Do you think that some words will deter us? You need bigger threats!

Cursed Crown is a little retro rpg adventure that sees our party of four leaving town (after stocking consumables and preparing for the quest, of course) to visit different dungeons. But first you have to select the other members of the team (from black mages, fighters, pirates, ninjas, clerics, and knights), since there are six different heroes with four special abilities each that the hero protagonist the recruit: all of them have strengths and weaknesses, so choose wisely! You can also customize a bit the characters selecting gender and appearance, then you will be ready to begin! Oh yes, you have also to select the difficulty, but do not worry too much since there is an item to drop it later, if the game is too challenging! No need to restart (anyway once dropped is permanently dropped, mind this)!

Anyway also the gameplay is classic: the conga line of four daring heroes will explore various maze-like dungeon that are filled with treasure and useful items (the Alchemist in town is able to create free items from some simple recipes) but also random encounters and obligatory boss fights! The trick is that fights makes heroes level up, BUT this means only increasing the life points, they do not get new abilities or skills, and the only way to get strong is improving the equipment, weapons and armors.
This is pretty interesting, also no need to have an obligatory healer (anyway it's suggested to have at least two combatants and one magic user, anyway the hero protagonist possess magical attacks), since healing items are pretty cheap and loot is generous. Also you may use money to auto-level up characters so you may also try other character classes.

Graphically the game use cute sprites (that apparently were specifically made for a previous event, so it's unlikely you've seen them before) and a "greenscale" palette that recalls the Gameboy graphic style, even if there is an occasional splash of blue in some occurrences during combat. Music and sounds are also pretty retro and well complements with the rest of the game, there are also varied themes for the combat encounters so it's pretty well done from this point of view. Finally the dialogues and story: all speak in ALL CAPS, like I expected from an old rpg, and the story is simple enough, but... but... there is that unexpected twist at the end of the game that leads to the New Game +, and was totally unexpected! Well, play and see!


Let's see, what can we use against this big bad triple wolf? (I know, it's called cerberus!)

Final Verdict
Ok, this is a pretty simple game and one that some players probably my not like due to the old school feel and system with random encounters and labyrinthine dungeons. But come on, this was made in ten days and it's pretty impressive, polished and unique. It's not perfect (but those flaws were also present on the old games it represents) but for an event game called "RETROMANIA", I think this was a success. Also that final part... WAIT no spoilers! I will gest tell you that it's so well written that made me go from a 3.5 to a 4! No ok, not just bcause of that, anyway if you want a simple, old style dungeon delving adventure to keep you entertained for about three hours, well here it is!