A fun jaunt. A lot of good customization in your party and cast but not as expansive as you might want to really explore them. Hard mode is a good reason to really dig in without being overbaring like insane modes of the past games have been. Graphics are a treat.

Seasoned RPG fans looking for something lighter to chomp down on should take a look, but this feels like a great game for a young kid to try to play through.

If there's one thing I want to communicate here, it's that there is an excellent sense of pacing in the classic RPG gameplay-to-story ratio. Generally, nothing ever drags or goes on for too long before you're onto the next thing. The same approach informs their writing and approach to jokes - maybe not everything lands with you but that's fine, you won't have to dwell on it long.

TWML is a fun game to play, the battle system is a clever refinement of Cosmic Star Heroine with an absolutely gorgeous visual style, the dungeons are straightforward without feeling like you're completely on rails, the enemies vanish when you kill them so you're not fighting endlessly tedious battles, it's well-designed. I'd have preferred more control over my party construction more often, but I understand them's the breaks. Not enough Paulina :(

The story is a mixed bag with an exceedingly fun premise. I won't recap what you can read in the game description. The choice to make the sections in-between dungeons be visual novels is an idea, but honestly not my favorite thing. I understand that it speeds up creation, since designing wholeass towns and areas and flags and shops and events takes up a lot of time and if it means we get more cute microRPGs instead of a more involved experience, it's a fair trade-off...but I'd also have liked the chance to do more roaming with the gang here. I'd love to see TWML's cast return at some point, but it's enough to be left wanting more. No point in reviewing something for what it's -not-

And ultimately that's my point here. The simple truth is, if you like RPGs, you should play TWML. Not every story is an 80+ hour epic and it doesn't need to be. I'd love to see more titles like this. Short, punchy and fun.

ALSO the music is fantastic. Didn't mention that earlier, but it deserves an addendum.

🎭 Well, this is definitely not a game for everyone, but if you love mahou shoujo, JRPG and for some reason have read the most famous works of Shakespeare, then there it is! This is a playful incarnation of a daily animated series with an episodic structure. Don't expect depth or massive interactivity. It has funny dialogues, fancy plots and heroines with bright char traits. The presentation is top notch, the art & music are so beautiful. Most of gameplay is the skills equip management (lol, if you like it). The dungeons are small, and the battles are quite intuitive and sometimes predictable. A small and relaxed adventure for a couple of evenings. Only for fans of the all above.

I always look forward to a new Zeboyd game. The magical girl/Sailor Moon-like turn-based game with some slice-of-life reading was a perfect weekend game. There was very little exploring with only a few chests per area, but the game felt designed to keep pushing the player forward in the story. The music and graphics are awesome, with always a lot of references to their past works. Thanks for another great game!

Zeboyd are good game. But this one got a game breaking bug that if you save in the hub between level, quit the game and reload, it will bring you back at the point of the first area, the snow one. You'll be at the same level that when you saved before the bug occurs so what I tried is to go through the chapters once again just to find out that everything been triggered and that I was locked there...

If it's patched, I'll come and change my review, until then, you're warned of this.

A new game from Zeboyd, you know I'm there! And this was such a fun game

This game is about as long as Cthulhu Saves Christmas and it's just as Linear. However given their statement on this video, that's meant to be the point these days.

The Graphics for the main game are basic but it's fitting for the Genre. Also they have dropped the random battles with on screen monsters to avoid if you want to not fight (And you still have the option to start a battle through the main menu). The fighting system is identical to CSC too which I've enjoyed but I can understand those who may not like it. The Animation for the transformations are incredible...except I'm always stuck watching them every single time which can get very tedious.

The story is clever, and they provide "Translations" for the Ole English of Shakespeare...but a lot of the translations are jokes and very silly ones at that.

There isn't a LOT of replay value but you will enjoy the story enough you'll want to play it again eventually.

There is no New Game Plus mode...yet but given how they patched it into CSC later on I'm certain they're do that here eventually.

I say the game is incredible for the price range and is entertaining for all ages.


VIDEO REVIEW: https://youtu.be/wuw9pJPowqM

To preface this, I loved Zeboyd's earlier titles. Cthulhu Saves The World was great, and I enjoyed Breath of Death and the Rainslick games as well. But around that point onward I just feel like some of the spark's been lost. Cosmic Star Heroine lost me before I had finished half an hour. I love magical girls so I thought I'd give them another shot on this one, but I can't say it was worth it.

Right off the bat, I wasn't a fan of the battle system. Zeboyd games feel like they're trying way too hard to make battle systems that are innovative rather than ones that are good. There's a whole elaborate system about skills that recharge and hyper mode timers that are different for each character and can completely change what your abilities do. But rather than letting me feel powerful for using the system to my advantage, it just left me feeling like I had to jump through hoops in order to get what other games would consider basic functionality.

(As a side note - this game also follows that modern trend of refilling all your HP/skills/items after every fight. I hate this trend because it takes away a big part of what I enjoy about JRPGs, which is resource management. You don't have to ration out your MP dealing with smaller fights and save your big hitters for bosses, so every fight ends out playing very similar.)

At least the game has an Easy mode so you can steamroll the fights if you're not interested. But from what I've seen I don't feel like the story would be worth the time. The pacing is absurdly fast, meaning none of the characters get a chance to develop beyond one-dimensional tropes. You've got the main character, the nice one, the sporty one, and so on. Events like 'oops we got pulled into an alternate dimension' happen and are discarded never to be mentioned again. Anything that isn't combat gets cut down to the bare minimum and it's jarring to follow.

To make another comparison, I want to bring up Cthulhu Saves The World again. CSTW's cutscenes didn't have many moving parts for engine reasons, but to compensate it had comic book like cutins to show things happening. It was simple and barebones but it helped the plot come alive. TWML instead uses the gameplay sprites with zero animation, and panels that change ever so slightly each time you advance the dialogue box. It just makes the whole thing feel lifeless in comparison.

But Fiona, I hear you say! The plot doesn't have to make sense! It's a comedy game, remember? It just has to be funny!

Valid point, person that appears when I forget to take my meds. But this brings us to the biggest problem I have with TWML: A lot of it just plain isn't funny.

They make a big deal of the 'Ye Olde English -> Modern' translator, but it's mostly used in a predictable and childish manner. A lot of it isn't even used on actual text from Shakespeare plays, but made-up 'Ye Olde' prose by the devs that then gets some agonisingly sarcastic translation. "Poison met with Antigonus and he fared worse for the meeting" becomes "Poison poisoned Antigonus", for example.

The two original plays I got to see were similarly unfunny. A Comedy Of Errors gets boiled down to 'people get confused for other people' and then that joke gets turned into a nonsensical play about baseball (because there are errors in baseball, get it?) and an even more nonsensical play about computer programming.

Zeboyd has always tried to do tongue-in-cheek meta humour, but in my opinion it worked better in the old games which were very obviously based on NES-era RPGs. You knew the formula, so the meta joke was pointing that out or subverting it. Here you have the protagonist talking to the player/Bardolator/Thespian for no reason whatsoever, and whenever it happens the whole scene screeches to a halt while you answer actual questions about Shakespeare plays.

This isn't a game about JRPGs anymore. It's about Shakespeare and magical girls. Those two topics are rife with potential for meta humour. You could have multiple Shakespeares running around to reference the common theory that William Shakespeare was a penname used by multiple authors. You could point out that the drama club conveniently only has female members because a magical boy would mess with the formula. But instead we get only the most base level jokes about Shakespeare plays, and it feels like the devs don't respect the works they're supposedly inspired by.

I've rambled long enough, but what I'm trying to say is that Zeboyd feels like they're not aware of what they're good at. They did really well in the self-referential JRPG element, but spreading beyond that they still try to rely on jokes that no longer apply. They put a lot of effort into a complex battle system, but that just makes it feel like a hassle rather than something fun. And the technology hasn't advanced at all since CSTW ten years ago - if anything the cutscenes feel like a big step backward.

There IS the occasional joke that manages to land, but overall I can't recommend playing this. If Zeboyd wants their new games to hit the same spot CSTW did, I feel like they have to bring some new ideas to the table. In this world of endless isekai anime, making jokes about JRPG mechanics just doesn't cut it anymore.

Basic RPG with phenomenal music. Very linear nearly no exploration. Short and didn't overstay it's welcome. Not bloated with useless content like a lot of JRPG's. Some comedy. No gear or weapons to loot. Definitely took inspiration from Sailor Moon. Didn't provide much of a challenge. However I enjoyed my time with it, 100% in under 8 hours. It was a decent game. 7/10

Overall: 7.5/10

TWML is a short RPG focused on Shakespeare and magical girls. Sounds crazy? It is, while no knowledge of Shakespeare is required, you will probably get more of the game if you have experience with his work.

Music: 8/10

Pretty solid overall, every now and then it became repetitive, however, considering how short the game is, you can’t complain. There are also some voiced tracks, those are amazing.

Visuals: 6.5/10

Most of the points here are due to the transformation sequence. The game maps look nice, even though they are kind of generic, and the enemies are pretty much copy – pasted.

Gameplay: 7.5/10

The gameplay is really simple and streamlined. You fight, recover all your health after each fight, gain experience and earn traits and abilities. I liked how most abilities are one use only and then you need to recharge them. Same as hyper (being super magical) or a few other statuses. However, AOE attacks seemed really lackluster and there were a lot of terms and usefulness that you needed to really dig-in to understand its utility.

Story: 8/10

Simple, direct, Shakespeare tales or worlds are in danger, and, as the drama society and magical girls, you are in charge of saving them. A few other things happen, but for me, the best part of the game is the dialogue. Not only is it super fun, I loved how you have ye olde English, and with a simple push of a button, you can also read the “modern” version of what it would mean.

I was ready to love this game. It felt like it was doing most of what Cosmic Star Heroine got right, but with a more appropriate sense of its own scale. It gave off echoes of being inspired by other games I liked a lot. I can't really explain why, but its sense of humor somehow managed to land with me in a way that Zeboyd's other games did not.

Then the game threw Miranda at me. She was both insufferable as a character but also changed up the game mechanics in a way that just wasn't fun. But I figured that with the game's rotating cast, at least I'd only have to put up with her roughly half the time. Then the game forced her into the party for nearly every dungeon, right up to the point where you can freely swap your party members around.

It feels petty to say that one character eroded all of the initial good will the game built up. And she probably wouldn't have, if I ever felt like I got a break from her. But by Chapter 7 or so, I was yelling at the screen to stop making me use Miranda. By the time I got the choice to not use her, the well was already so thoroughly poisoned and I was so fed up that I could no longer find that initial interest.