UPDATE: One of the major areas I was originally uncertain about (whether combat ever gets any easier) has been answered - it does, for the most part. It's still challenging, and harder than average, but the almost-unwinnable situation I described from the opening combat sequence of the game has thankfully not been repeated yet. Doesn't mean I haven't had to retry fights, but they were merely hard and not unfair. So if that's something that's keeping you on the fence, I wanted to pop in and add this update to what I'd originally written.

As an avid fan of Lovecraft and Lovecraft-inspired games, I was immediately attracted to the idea of an old-school RPG set in a Lovecraftian environment. We've had adventure games, "shooters" (or at least, first-person games) and strategy games based on the works of the gentleman from Providence, but no straight-up RPGs that I can recall. The Dark Stone from Mebara therefore seemed to fill some void in the gaming world.

I've not played a great deal of it yet, but here are my impressions so far:

Graphics:

Yes, they are 2D. But they are really rather good for 2D - certainly, the games looks better at fullscreen than, say, Gemini Rue. The graphics most resembled Arcanum's, to my eye, and although 3D graphics have evolved to the point where we now have good levels of detail, there will always be something artistic and interesting about 2D graphics done well. Not a 5 because there are some oddities - a secretary standing inside of her chair instead of being seated, etc.

Sound:

I like the music quite a bit. Sounds good, very atmospheric and does a good job setting the mood. It is perhaps not particularly original in concept, but well-executed all the same.

Story/Writing:

Haven't gotten that far yet, but the story so far seems a bit different from other HPL-inspired games, so points for originality and for tapping into the "unknown from beyond" theme of Lovecraft's that was so central to his work, instead of simply focusing on the horrible monsters (though those are in plentiful supply as well). The dialogue and descriptive text is functional but well-written.

Gameplay:

I died 5 times in the first fight before finally winning on a lucky critical hit. Going to hope that the recent changes to difficulty plus gaining some levels will help here. The first monster one-hit killed anyone that wasn't guarding, and confusion would usually cause one of my own party to kill the other remaining member. Probably the first monster should either hit less hard, or not use confusion. Smelling salts didn't seem to work when I used them. On the positive side, movement is easy, interface is simple, and I'm used to the old-school notion of interacting with everything to see if anything is there.

Overall:

I would recommend this to those with a fondness for Lovecraft or for old-school RPGs. Very little in the way of hand-holding, so if you've only experienced games that highlight all your interactable objects and tell you everywhere to go, you're going to need to put your big boy/girl pants on for this one. The only area with which I have any qualms is the difficulty, and it's possible those concerns will be alleviated as I move onward in the game. As far as 2D, old-school games go, as well as in filling the need for Lovecraftian RPGs, I'm definitely encouraged by the Dark Stone from Mebara.

Fun short game. The fights were challenging, much tougher than I expected, and the storyline was neat with lots of great homages to Lovecraft's works.
Your main character is a detective, that should give you a (ha) clue of what to expect; examine everything. The difficulty of finding everything may put some off, but if you're stuck, it's probably because you haven't examined everything or haven't from the right side. Pay attention, there are little details that may be easy to miss; it doesn't just hand you the answers.

My playtime: 02:24:12 (based on in-game clock, last save after the final boss).

The Dark Stone from Mebara is an adventure, turn-based RPG Maker game with unusual storytelling. The story tells about a mysterious dark stone that has a connection with other beings.

Pros:
- Multiple story branching that leads to a game over screen
- Optional learnable skills that can be taught to anyone
- Game is more focused on exploration than combat

Cons:
- Unable to buy healing items after you leave the first town
- Some items aren't obvious enough that it can be taken
- Puzzles require trial and error
- Some areas are too dark, especially the last dungeon
- The game becomes slow in some areas

No.
Even though the game has a unique story, it doesn't seem that the dev put a lot of effort into this game. You might spend hours looking for an item because it's not obvious enough. People with OCD also might have problems with the game's mapping.

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Although I usually don't mind with this, the game's mappings are terrible. You'll see a lot of areas that look like they are passable although they are not and some areas that are very dark that you hardly can see anything. I know that the setting is nighttime, but you don't have to make it that dark.

Unlike most RPG Maker games, the story is told through third-person. Yes, there is a dialogue box and all, but the text tells the story - even though someone is talking - in third-person. Although this bugs me at first, it helps me to imagine what happened in the story and I enjoyed the game more because of this.

Since the setting is in the 19th century, the characters are talking formally. I didn't have any problem understanding the dialogue because of this even though the story confuses me at some point. The ending is also vague that I have a problem in understanding what happened afterward; it might be because the devs want to end the story with open-ending though.

The only thing that I enjoy from the game is the minor branching parts. There are times when you're asked to answer a question from a series of options. Sometimes, you'll get a game over screen when you answer the wrong thing. I enjoyed seeing the cutscene that happened before that.

Exploration
You'll explore everything in an area and talk to people to progress the story and move to a new area. As I said before, some areas are very dark that I had a hard time seeing a walkable tile and/or an object that you can take. Sometimes it's also too vague to know where to go next and the game doesn't provide any hints or the like for something like this. I ended up spending a lot of time interacting with everything because of this.

Battle
You'll control three party members by the time you have your first battle. The battles are tough at the very first part in the game, mainly because you're not leveled enough. Saving and loading will be your best friend because you won't be able to buy healing items and/or "sleep at an inn" to recover your HP and MP or something. However, random enemies are mostly the same throughout the game though so you shouldn't have a problem if you are leveled in the first few areas.

Boss
There are ~3 bosses in this game. All of them can be defeated by attacking-the-boss-until-it-dies strategy. The final boss is a bit harder than the rest although that's mostly because of the item and/or status ailment cure limitation.

Skills
Aside from some skills that you can learn as you level up, there are also skills that you can learn from a book. These books can be obtained throughout the game and you can assign the skills to any party member. The thing is, these skills require MP (called Sanity in this game) to use and it's hard to recover it unless you use items, that are scarce to begin with.

Puzzles
The game also has some puzzles where you have to place something in a certain order. The thing is, the clue is too hard to understand so you'll more likely solve it by trial and error.

Problems
There are a lot of collision errors in this game and one can lead you to a black screen. The level up HUD also becomes annoying because it shows up on the screen right after the battle and you can't press any button to skip it even though you can still move and do other things. The game also slows down in some areas that the main character skips some frames when he is walking.

This is a problematic adventure game with a unique story and minor turn-based battles. The game also offers a lot of minor story branching that leads to a game over screen.

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This game have two positives: Story and soundtrack. The story is heavily H.P. Lovecraft inspired. You follow the three people of the Pendleton Agency; Monroe, Webley and Pendelton, in their attempt to understand a murder which ultimately takes them to odd places and fights with insects and cultists. The graphics is partly, just awful. Characters move like mannequins (their knees don't bend) and it's the same with enemies of different species. The characters you control, move in a very stiff manner and the ones you don't move walk around like mental patients going through cars and tables etc. The combat is turnbased and doesn't hold your hand one bit, it's hard fight, with little to no way to heal your characters early on, so make sure you save often, because you will need to reload fights. Another thing that might annoy you, depending on your screen resolution is that there are no settings in the game, none. You can open a website pdf as a manual, so you at least can get fullscreen, meaning for me, a slightly bigger screen with a black list around it (I have 1920x1080) and there nothing you can do about it.

Even with a story I would have liked to finish, I can't put myself through the rest of this just for the story. It really feels like 95% of the effort was put on the story, and the rest thrown together so you can play it. If you like difficult games, with a good story and nothing more, wait until a steep sale. The rest should stay away. 3.6/10

While The Dark Stone from Mebara is not a terrible game, I still don't recommend it to casual players.

It has decent writing and a somewhat interesting story, but the game is hard like hell. There is a high chance you'll never be able to unfold the story, because the fighting is very hard an unbalanced.
As far as I see it, you have only one chance on stocking healing items in the game: which is right at the beginning of the game. I missed this chance, so it's game over for sure.
You run into random enemies every few steps, which hurt you for 1/4 to 1/2 of you health every hit they land. Furthermore, my own characers miss frequently, so only every second attack will actually hit an enemy. I need 2 to 3 hits to kill them. I might be very unlucky, but I didn't get any item drops either.

The game is too frustrating for me to continue or start over from the beginning again, because aside from the mentioned issues it is kinda laggy. My character moves very slowly.

I recommend this game only to players who look for a serious challange. They will might have fun with the game. Or to card collectors, because the game has trading cards.

Pretty good game if you like a good Lovecraftian story. Themes of hidden knowledge and madness. Some detectives from the thirties get involved in a case with a mysterious black stone...

Pros- Good story and charachters. You're forced to use imagination due to graphics. JRPG style battles can be fun.
There are some cons. Not very polished. Bugs and poor graphics. Must save often (manually). Looking for items there are few hints (eg just try every bookcase in the room for the book).

Okay so not an awesome game but if you like the theme, worth it. Otherwise not outstanding and a little expensive for what you get (maybe five or six hours long).

Some may find something in this game. It is a kinda dark and spooky rpg, but it is not very interesting.
It is not even that cheap for what it brings.

There is really not much to see here, and I'm not even saying anything about the art style.

It's not that bad, but I don't recommend it unless you are looking for a challenge. It has a good atmosphere, but it could've used more playtesting. The difficulty is unbalanced at several points and there's a few broken scripts. It's possible to softlock the game by using an item before you should.

Any Lovecraft fan will love this little gem, it is greatly inspired by Lovecraft so we have that going for us right of the bat. The game itself though is quite difficult in the beginning, combat can get deadly fast but it does get better the deeper you go into the game so it gives you purpose here, not just run and gun kill everything,

The graphics may be just 2D but they are rather beautiful for 2D and can be thoroughly enjoyed with nice sound and music to accompany the game that fits together nicely.

The story and the athmosphere is nice but the game is full of bugs so I can't recommend it.