Hey guys! Remember how last time I did one of these, I threw a big pile of games your way, because there was just too much stuff out there and I couldn't choose? ...Yeah, well, here we go again. But hey, at least it's themed this time! Over the last few weeks I've played a whole mess of clever, simple, or downright weird RPGs - all leftovers that I didn't get to from the Assemblee Competition, from which I featured Realm of the Mad God, and on which voting just wrapped up this week. Rather than pick one to focus on, I've decided to highlight my favorites in... RPG-PALOOZA. Hold on to your wands, kids!
That was a figure of speech. Please put that away.
A glance at the screenshot above should bring back fond memories for anyone who cut their teeth on the classic Western RPG - the Wizardrys, the Bard's Tales, the Might & Magics. It speaks of taking a party deep into a perilous dungeon, fighting for their lives to gain riches and fame untold. The twist of ro9 is that you aren't controlling a party. You're controlling 9 completely independent rogues... all at the same time.
The Assemblee entry of Justin Smith (crackerblocks on TIGSource), ro9 gives you only the arrow keys and the spacebar [for pausing] to simultaneously control all nine adventurers as they plumb the depths and fight for their lives. It's a fascinating and sometimes infuriating mechanic, as pressing forward to attack with one character necessitates moving each other character forward, even when you really, really don't want to. Keeping your rogues from going down a ladder to a dungeon level they can't handle yet is maybe the game's biggest challenge, but there's a lot of satisfaction to be had in leveling these characters up and watching them trounce their enemies.
A word to the wise - the most surprisingly difficult enemy I encountered? Giraffe.
ro9 is a tiny Windows download that you can find right here.
This submission by "Ivan" to Assemblee takes us a little bit less far back in time, and harkens much more to the straightforward action RPG rush of Diablo than to the more careful tactics of Wizardry. It also took home the honor of winning the Assemblee contest, so bravo to Ivan on that! I think you'll agree that his victory was well earned, after giving this a spin.
Bitworld really is a full package - taking control of a Knight, Wizard or Archer, you'll hack & slash (or magic-bolt, or arrow-pierce) your way through a range of foes on your way to the bottom of an abandoned dwarven fortress. The action is tight, the music is catchy, the classes play very differently from each other, and the graphics are adorable - seriously, you need to download this one just to see the procedural walk animation. It's awesome.
I didn't survive terribly long with any of the character classes, sadly, but I recommend trying the wizard to get the most versatile experience - while the knight can only swing his sword or block with his shield and the archer can only fire arrows, the wizard has both an ice bolt to freeze enemies with and a magic missile for destructive power. I found the strategy of retreating to fire off ice bolts and then advancing my attack really engaging, and the game also employs a perspective-flipping mechanic to keep you on your toes. I wish the lighting hadn't been quite so dim, only because I would've been able to admire the simple aesthetic more, but really, this one is a must-try.
Bitworld is a 12MB download for Windows or OSX - go get it here.
With all of the kind words I had for Bitworld, Dungeons of Fayte (which was the 2nd place prize winner in Assemblee) is actually my favorite game out of this roundup. In some ways, it's the most traditional RPG out of all of these games, but in others, it's different from most everything else I've played.
The game's author (against whom I will not hold the moniker "pulsemeat" - we all make bad choices sometimes) describes Dungeons of Fayte as "a mash-up between Zelda: Four Swords and Princess Maker", and as bizarre as that sounds, it's quite accurate and a joy to play. Supporting co-op for up to 4 players, which sadly I didn't get to try, Fayte plays out on a strict timeline. You have four months to prepare your hero(s) for the coming of the evil Bone Lord, at which time you must defeat him or die trying.
Each month, you'll get to choose four week-long actions for your hero to pursue - beat up thugs for the local constable, maybe, or work as a farmhand - which will raise their stats and earn precious coin. You'll then get a chance to tackle one of the game's dungeons, earning you further treasure and letting you try out your class skills (classes may be swapped out each month, for a fee). Build your avatar up enough over the four months, and you may win the climactic battle at the end. I didn't, but you might. Combat plays out differently depending on which of the 12 classes you're playing as, but generally works on a dodge-and-counter mechanic, and there's a wide variety of enemies and scenery to enjoy. Also, one of the training regimens? Drinking in a tavern. How awesome is that?
This game will be staying on my desktop for awhile, because there's a LOT to see here. It's the largest game in this writeup, at 20MB - Windows download here. I recommend running the "DoF (Fuzz Scaling).exe" executable, as the "DoF.exe" one put ugly black boxes around the characters on my machine, but try both and see what works for you.
I know, you're tired, I gave you a lot to look at, you want to go home and give this all some time to digest. I'm sympathetic to that, but stick around for one more. This one's quick, I promise.
Mr. Kitty's having a lousy day. His owner constantly puts him down, he has no friends, and now he's been told that if he doesn't come back with some milk, he's out on the street. Luckily, he's only a loaned blaster and a somewhat-epic adventure away from proving his worth to the world.
If it isn't clear yet, Mr. Kitty's Quest is the least traditional of the RPG's in this list, though its WASD + mouse-to-shoot control scheme does in some ways resemble Realm of the Mad God from a few weeks back. pgil's action adventure sees Mr. Kitty braving the menaces of Dog City and its surroundings in search of coins to pay off his weapons, macguffins to satisfy pointless quest requirements, and, of course, the all important gallon of milk. Light fun is poked at RPG cliches throughout - I got a chuckle out of seeing a note left on an empty house saying "I'm not home, please don't take all my stuff!" (I took all their stuff.)
Sadly, an alpha transparency bug in Game Maker made parts of this almost unplayable on my machine, and I didn't finish it, but it's still unique and fun enough to be worth taking a look at - hopefully you won't run into the same problem. This Windows download will only set you back a few MB - go pick it up here.
That's it for now - hope you guys enjoyed. I definitely came out of this feeling that Assemblee was an awesome contest, and some really great games came out of it. I'll be looking forward to finding out what the next wacky idea TIGSource comes up with will be; whatever it is, you'll probably read about it here. See you next time.
"Free And Worth Every Penny" is a column I collaborate on with Mike Bellmore at Immortal Machines. This piece also appears there.