This review was written in English and Russian in purpose to save your money and time.

“Unhappy Ever After” is a RPG in a grim fairy world where well-known tales and characters (Alice, Hеnsel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, etc.) were twisted by wicked minds of developers from Warped Tales. Beyond its parody to the fantasy “Unhappy Ever After” also aims to parody the real world drawing on situations that are all too prevalent in our society such as drug abuse, terrorism, and dirty politics.

“Unhappy Ever After” takes place in a dark fantasy land of Twelve Duchies where Emperor’s dictatorship is issued for legitimate power and mages’ resistance is called terrorism.

I’d rather say it’s a mature story that provides a unique perspective on children’s tales while addressing the difficult issues that plague modern society. I really liked the main story and the Twelve Duchies’ background written with subtle humor and usage such adult themes like cannibalism, vengeance, death, substance abuse.


Visually “Unhappy Ever After” is pretty impressive for a RPG Maker game. Game’s graphics and art style are very nice and immersive.
To my surprise developers did their best designing each area of the world beautiful looking (for a RPG Maker game). They tried to make each region (location) is unique and visually unlike other regions. Besides there’re different monsters in each region and every region has its own story and side-quests.

Sure there’re some problems in the game. Although the music is pretty good the sounds are repeating and annoying. There’s no load option in the menu and no in-game map. The developers didn’t hire any proof-readers so there’re some typos, misspelling and wrong items’ descriptions in the game. Every player can see glitches and bugs in the game (e.g. walking through walls, unreachable chests, unequipable items).

But the primary reason for me finally giving up the game after such a long time playing this game (over 8 hours) was a high rate of random encounters (battles with monsters unseen in the screen). ARGH! I couldn’t walk a few steps without starting a random battle! Random battles were every 15-20 seconds while traveling outside town!
And to double my frustration the enemies were auto-leveling up with my party’s level.

The game really needs a lot of polishing but for unknown reasons developers stopped communication with the community and correction the game in February, 2017.

This is a warped tale about “Unhappy Ever After” became an abandonware.

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«Unhappy Ever After» - это RPG в мрачном сказочном мире, где хорошо известные сказки и персонажи (Алиса, Гензель и Гретель, Красная Шапочка и т. д.) были искажены испорченными разработчиками из Warped Tales (Извращенные Истории). Помимо пародии на фэнтези «Unhappy Ever After» также нацелена пародировать реальный мир, показывая ситуации, которые слишком распространены в нашем обществе, такие как злоупотребление наркотиками, терроризм и грязная политика.

Действие «Unhappy Ever After» происходит в стране темного фэнтези - Двенадцати Герцогствах, где диктатура Императора выдается за законную власть, а сопротивление магов называется терроризмом.

Я бы сказал, что это зрелая история, которая показывает детские сказки в уникальной перспективе, обращаясь к сложным проблемам, которые наносят ущерб современному обществу. Мне очень понравилась основная история и общий фон Двенадцати Герцогств, написанные с тонким юмором и использованием таких взрослых тем, как каннибализм, месть, смерть, злоупотребление психоактивными веществами.

Внешне “Unhappy Ever After” выглядит довольно впечатляюще для игры, сделанной при помощи RPG Maker. Графика и художественный стиль игры очень приятные и захватывающие.
К моему удивлению, разработчики старались изо всех сил, чтобы сделать каждую область мира красивой (для RPG Maker игры). Они попытались сделать каждый регион (локацию) уникальным и визуально непохожим на другие локации. Кроме того, в каждом регионе существуют разные монстры и у каждого региона есть свои история и побочные квесты.

Конечно, в игре есть некоторые проблемы. Хотя музыка очень хорошая, но звуки повторяются и раздражают. В меню нет опции загрузки и нет внутриигровой карты. Разработчики не нанимали корректоров, поэтому в игре есть опечатки, орфографические ошибки и неправильное описание вещей. Каждый игрок может увидеть глюки и баги в игре (например, прогулки сквозь стены, недосягаемые сундуки, неодеваемые вещи).

Но для меня главной причиной наконец-то забросить игру после столь долгого времени (более 8 часов), была высокая частота случайных встреч (битвы с монстрами, невидимые на экране). АРГХ! Я не мог пройти даже несколько шагов, чтобы не началась случайная битва! Случайные битвы были каждые 15-20 секунд во время путешествия за пределами города!
А для увеличения моего расстройства враги автоматически подравнивались с уровнем моей партии.

Игра действительно требует доделки, но по неизвестным причинам разработчики прекратили общение с игровым сообществом и исправление игры в феврале 2017 года.

Вот такая извращенная история о том, как «Unhappy Ever After» была заброшена.

This one has elements of greatness, but so far (7 hours in) seems to fall short in several ways. Fighting is both repetitive and boring as you'll rarely find weapon upgrades and your supporting characters abilities are relatively benign (especially Gretel's). That and after 10 levels, both the supporting characters still have access to only the first of their “Affinities/Abilities.” The problem I have is that the game never lets you gain much of an advantage over mobs as they level with you without limits (I've leveled my main character to level 12 and the mobs in the first area have adjusted to be at my level consistently). This pretty much takes away the incentive of fighting mobs/grinding to gain an advantage entirely--that and the fact that you'll struggle to find equipment upgrades which have even a slight impact to your characters' stats.

Additionally, there seems to be many bugs impacting optimization (FPS lags happen often) and many more affecting items and quests (Some items not equip-able, some quests crash the game or aren't always complete-able, etc.). I guess what I’m trying to say is that there is little feeling of character progress so far, and after 7 hours and a dozen quests completed, I would like to see more than I have—which is very little if any.

Another issue I have is the consistent lack of an effective way to heal my party. The game relies mainly on healing stones to top off your characters’ HP/MP and so far I’ve found ONE…near the first town of Driftsburg. This means what money you scrape together will be largely spent on restorative items purchased in town. Mobs drop items frequently, but many of those items are not guaranteed to produce their stated effect (i.e. Healing slime has only a 33% chance to heal your characters for 75 HP…by level 12 you’ll have over a 1000) so they’re not a reliable source of mid-dungeon party restoration by any stretch of the imagination.

On a positive note, the game offers a fairly fresh story with decent writing, albeit a bit macabre and dark (the game’s title should allude to this though). I believe this to be the primary reason for me wanting to continue playing. If you’re sensitive to adult themes (i.e. cannibalism, homosexuality, substance abuse, etc.) you may want to reconsider buying this one, because you’ll see some of that within minutes of playing. Also the artwork is unique, though I’ve seen the same mobs simply rendered in different color pallets and reused to fit different local areas already and I’m only in the first town of the game.

My final verdict on this one is that I WANT to like this game enough to recommend it, but it unfortunately suffers from a lack of reward and character progression, balancing issues or some elusive combination of both. Fighting seems dull and could use some polish—some additional abilities for the supporting cast of characters would be a great start (I get tired of simply attacking with a basic attack with the cat and Gretel in nearly every battle because they have nothing else of import to choose from). Perhaps this observation changes and the game picks up exponentially as I continue through the story, but I’ve seen no hint of this being the case and there’s VERY little information available from the community on what to expect going forward.

Lastly, the Dev seems to be making semi-regular updates and implementing bug fixes so that’s a good start. Though I’m not holding my breath for any major game changes at this point…When I log a few more hours and get a bit further into the story line, I’ll update this review. Until then I would go with a thumbs down unless the things I’ve pointed out in this review don’t scare or bother you.

First Impressions Review
Disclaimer: I was a kickstarter backer for this game.

This is not your average RPG Maker game!

We've all played a lot of RPG Maker games, but graphically this one stands out to me. Though some of the maps are a little hard to navigate over all they look great and have the right feel to them.

As for the game play itself, Unhappily Ever After takes place in a twisted fairy tale world where no one can read, the Emperor is all powerful, monsters overrun the landscape, and people have strange affinities and powers.

After falling through a portal, the very first thing you do is meet Hansel and Gretel. I dare not say more as the flavor of the world is simply too delicious to spoil.

The game is also harsh. There is no auto heal on leveling. Half the items you find have success CHANCES of working. There are healing pillars around, and you will likely need them.

Some of the game is a bit rough around the edges, and there are bugs which need fixing, but its definitely worth playing!

This is my first review and I just HAD to write one for this game!

In short, it's an excellent example of what can be acheived with the RPGmaker engine. It has some flaws, but I'm able to overlook them thus far.

A lot of love and care has been put into the environment of the game. Pleasant music, weather effects, day/night system that isn't annoying, and best of all, well done balancing on battles.

The story, while I won't give away too much, is actually captivating despite the fact that it piggybacks on the tale of Hansel and Gretel. It's not childish, at all. There is a lot of social/political plot work that adds feeling to the game.

For the first time in a while, I actually feel like I can't get overpowered in a game. It forces you to manage your supplies and use all of your abilities strategically to get the most out of exploration. There are moments where I want to keep exploring but I know I need to rush back to a healing totem. Don't let that discourage you though, it's a pleasant experience I think, even for a seasoned gamer/rpg fan. Lots and lots and lots of side quests handed to you early on. There is even a nice tracker on the side of the screen to help you keep track.

I really love how the devs guide you through what to do by story telling. I love the chat options that you get with the characters in your party (similar to the Tales series) that expands upon their character backgrounds. You have multiple options to resolve quests differently using your own morality as a guide. This means the game might have replayability.

Things to note: A couple glitchy incidents, not game breaking, occured. After turning in a side quest the characters sprite split and appeared disconnected.
You occasionally have the option to talk to a character or fight them...you can accidentally select fight very easily :(
There are some passability issues, like shimmer spots that can't be reached because of furniture/foliage placement. This could be intentional, like a teaser, or there's a secret to get them but I have yet to figure it out. Also, as far as passability, there are places you can accidentally walk, like over roofs or on top of objects that you normally can't. Still though, not game breaking. I will most certainly report if there is a particularly bad error though.

One more thing...in the first city you cannot enter the shop at night time. The game has a way of telling you this but it wasn't clear to me at first. I played through a couple dungeons without the pleasure of reupping my supplies :3 Hard mode for a while there I guess!

For the small price point, you really can't pass this game up!

This is an update of my review after finishing 40 hours of the game. I have just killed a big boss and concluded the main game. I am about to start on 2 different DLCs of this game.

Now after 40 hours of this game, I have seen a number of shortcomings and bugs, and will try to write about them in this update, so that I present an accurate picture of the game.

Shortcoming of this game.

1. This game is an ABANDONWARE, like what many other previous reviews have said. It was originally a Kickstarter game, where backers paid money directly to the developer to create this game and some DLCs. The developer got the money, created the game and 2 DLCs and left in February 2017. What this means is that currently there is no tech support of any kind, and there are many small bugs and irritating features which are not fixed. However, the game itself is still good enough to be played, and I have completed the main game. For the price of $6.99, I think it is definitely worth it for me.

2. My biggest complain about this game is the high monster encounter rate. However since the developer is gone and there is no tech support, I just have to bear with it to play this game.

3. There are also several game breaking bugs, like being trapped in a certain wall. However they can be avoided by reloading an earlier save and taking a different route for example. There are also minor glitches in several of the quest. However, I was able to finish the main game and all the quests after 40 hours of game play. I also read up on the forum about possible bugs and avoided them.

4. This game is unpolished as there are various spelling errors and small glitches that will never be fixed since the developer got the money and left. Arrh. It's irritating.

Strength of this game.

1. Excellent story. The story is really excellent, but is a bit on the dark side. It is the story that keep me playing despite all the glitches and bugs. The story just drive me to play 1 more hour and 1 more hour. I just have to find out what happen next. Also there are many dark twists to the game and that create suspense as well. I love that.

2. I love the combat mechanics, the various spells that have to be learn by discovery and not obtained automatically from leveling.

Overall, I will give this game a 70%, and would still recommend this game despite the fact that the developer abandon the game. It is interesting enough for me to finish the game, and I will look forward to playing the 2 DLCs. I will give another update after I spend more time in this game.

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This was my original review after 10 hours.

I normally write reviews after I completely finished a game, or at least spend about 50 hours into the game. However, this RPG Maker game is so much fun that I feel compelled to write about it after just 10 hours of gameplay. I am still really far from completing this game, but am impressed by the quality of the game to write about it comfortably.

What is really fun about this game is the preponderance of quests. Furthermore, many of the quests are proactively thrust upon you, instead of you making efforts to find them. For instance, when you enter a zone, the barkeeper's daughter will come running to you to tell you that her father have some key information for you and you should go to the bar immediately. That will start a quest. Another example would be that your fellow team member would initiate a conversation with you saying that she needs to visit her parents and that will lead you to a series of events which trapped you, leading to another quests. This is a game that keeps you on your toe all the time. There is no need to grind or wait for things to do. In fact, from the 10 hours that I played, I am flooded with so much quests that I am always behind. In the time that I take to solve a quest, 4 or 5 other would have sprung out on their own. Talking about an immersive gaming atmosphere, WOW !!!

The storyline is a bit on the dark side. You are teleported to a fairy tale universe with strange twists instead. Many of the childhood fairy tales that you used to know are presented in this game with strange alternate interpretations.

Visually, the graphics is stunningly beautiful and the gameworld is extremely detailed. I also like the samller (thinner) game font, and the high resolution display. The game also implement many useful features to make life easier. For example you can selectively chose which few quests you want to track and they will display key information on your game screen in the crispy small fonts. I also like the fact there there seems to be no upper limit to the number of quests that you can accept and keep open at any time. I will feel overwhelmed and pressured if I have to drop quests due to any kind of limitations. However, that does not happen in this game.

Another thing I love about this game is that your skills (called affinities in this game) are not automatically given to you when you level, like most other games. Many of the skills, including spells that you can cast, are given to you as rewards for solving certain quests. This enable me to really appreciate each spell, and understand how difficult it was to acquire them.

One of the most fun things about old school rpg is called "chest scumming" and it is present in this game as well. When you come across a big chest, it will give you a key weapon or armor. The type of item in the chest is usually fixed, but that item will have variable statistic. For example a certain overcoat may increase your defence, agility and luck, but the actual increase is variable, and changes with each time you load the game. Normally, I would reload the game a few times until I feel satisfied with the item. As a completionist, this is something that I like and missed in many of the fast pace newer games.

Overall, this particular game does bring back happy memories of the old school rpg that I played many years ago, like Wizardry and Ultima. However, what is nice is also the excellent graphics and useful tools (like quest tracking, etc) that comes with the old school game :)

I highly recommend this game, and know that I will be spending many more "10 hours" in this game as well.

Poorly optimized, leading to lagginess that gets worse as the game runs. This is a known issue, and while it might not affect you if your computer is less of a potato than mine (although I should note that it does meet the minimum specs listed on the store page), I find it kind of ridiculous that one would need a state of the art gaming PC to run an RPGMaker game.

To add insult to injury, after struggling through the choppy graphics for about half an hour, I discovered that at least on Linux, save files are deleted when you exit the game, so you'd have to be able to complete it all in one sitting. I've attempted to contact the developers in order to fix the issue, but received no reply either on the forums or via email.

It's a shame because this seems like a genuinely well-written game with some intriguing twists on classic fairy tales -- but that's meaningless when the technical issues render it basically unplayable.

~ Kimchi Tea Reviews ~

EDIT: I wrote my original review in April of 2017. It is now July 2018 and I wanted to come back and ammend my original, positive review.

I'm dissappointed with this game.

The concept is cool. The sprites and backgrounds are gorgeous. I want to so badly like this game, but I can't.

There are glitches and typos everywhere. The game lags the more you play and it crashes frequently. There was a part early on in the first town where you talk to a guy and he runs off the screen and my computer started overheating and the game lagged so bad that it crashed. When you leave the first area to go to the second, you have the choice to go on a bridge or throught the mines. I picked the mines and there's a part in the mines where you get stuck in the wall and can't get out. I had to go to a previous save and lost a good amount of time. And this is a required thing to do. You HAVE to pick where to go in order to progress the game and one of the options is glitched to hell. It's ridiculous.

And don't get me started on the combat system. It's is an aboslute nightmare with how slow it is, and has a hair-tearingly frustrating high encounter rate.

Oh, and you don't even get a satsifying conclusion when the game ends. Apparently it's just the first half to the overall story. Would of been nice to know that. The second game to finish the story has never come out, and has never been talked about, because the devs? They're gone.

The devs haven't comminicated with the community since early 2017. The game has been abandoned with numerous frustrating issues, and I cannot, in good faith, recommend this game to anyone anymore.

Save your money and spend it on a better game. I give it a 2/10.

(Original review under this bar)

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I ADORE this game. The price is very fair especially for the amount of content you get.

Unhappy Ever After is an RPG that takes place in a fantasy fairy tale world. If you couldn't tell from the title, the game has a little dismal atmosphere (It kind of reminds me of the LISA games, in terms of atmosphere). If you're not a fan of dark comedy, you might not like it.

PROS:

- Nice artwork on the sprites and overworld maps. I love that there's a day/night cycle and that the sun rises/sets while you walk around.

- Battle Screens are clean , easy to understand, and the enemy design is creative.

- The game autosaves when you enter a new screen. You never lose any significant progress.

- The world building. I found myself sucked into the story upon reaching the first town.

- The characters are funny and multi-faceted.

- I love the atmosphere and the dark twists on standard fairytales

- Length. You get your money's worth. It took me 8 hours to get out of the first area because there was so much to do.

- Sidequests. Lots and lots of sidequests.

- It's not super easy, but not frustratingly difficult. I like that there's a difficulty slider that you can change at any time.

- You actually have to use your items. I have an issue with item hoarding when I play RPGs and end up never using the stuff in my invetory. Not the case here. Healing spots a rare, so you need to use your potions.

- I like the replayability factors. There's lots of alternate ways to finish the quests. You also have to choose what 3 affinities you want Sophia to focus on. So I already have an incentive to play the game again.

- The devs seem really nice, and actually listen to feedback.

- It's only $5.99!


CONS:

- There's no map. It'd be nice to have a map of some sort. I found myself getting lost a lot, and sometimes the directions are unclear to where you need to go.

- I've noticed some typos. It's nothing major, but it is a little distracting.

- It's hard to tell where you can/can't walk because of the scenery. Also NPCs will walk in front of me sometimes and prevent me from moving.


I give this game a 9/10. Definitely worth your money if you like RPGs.

It was fun for about a half hour, until I got to the first city and then it started to jump frames like crazy. I dont know why, everything else runs fine, fallout 4 runs perfectly, but this game makes my computer freak out. I was really looking forward to diving into this game, and will try again in the future after I've scoured forums trying to see if I can get it to work, and hopefully I wont be left Unhappy Ever After...

This is an edit of my earlier review. Initially, the way the monsters leveled with you, along with the lack of gear, made the battles very long and tedious. However, within days of posting my review, the developer has made several changes to the game that eliminate many of my negative comments. First, there is now a difficulty setting. Those who want the much more difficult battles, can have them, and those who want a bit less of a grind feel and a more casual experience can select the very easy or easy settings. I've tried them out, and it's like a completely new game. Even in very easy mode, the battles still require a bit of strategy and take a little time, but they are nowhere near the length they used to be. Monsters will be a lower level than you and do far less damage, which means the constant need for health items is also greatly diminished.

As for the game itself, beautiful graphics and environments. There was a lot of thought and a lot of custom detail that went into this game, making it a delight. On top of that, the story revolves around a very dark and twisted fairy tale world. I love it, but, it might not be everyone's cup of tea. So far, the game delves into many dark topics and violence is a key element. It really is an amazing twist on something normally for children, and the dark side of fairy tale characters is delightful. Just a fair warning--don't grow too attached to anyone. I haven't finished the game yet, but anticipate more devastating loss, and I actually can't wait to see the twists and turns the story takes.

Another thing I really enjoy about the game is the way that abilities are set up for Sopie, the main character. No earning them by simply leveling, but rather you have to find certain things in order to gain new skills. On top of that, you have to make choices. There are six types of magic that Sophie can learn; however, to gain strength, three of those will have to be sacrificed.

As for your companions, their skills are called "affinities," something everyone in the fairy tale world has. This means that they will have an affinity for one thing or another, and nothing else. As far as I know, they don't gain any new skills as they level--whatever they have is it. This means that you often have to think through how best to defeat certain kinds of monsters based on the skills your companions have and on what the monsters' weaknesses are.

With the changes in place--and the fact the developer readily listens to feedback and implements regular changes and updates--I would definitely recommend this game. Especially if you like things a little more on the dark and twisted side.

I really like RPG games, I have played this game for 63.5 hrs and still continue, and yes, I really enjoy this game, maybe the beginning of playing this game feels heavy when I have to raise the level and make money, but over time it becomes easy and fixed challenging, my advice for those who like RPG games by playing casually you can buy this game