Recent reviews by tredain

Extremely cute and well done game, if you're a fan of Sonic and the cast it's a fun little playthrough with a lot of humor and some fun ideas. Absolute treat from the Sonic team and one of the best April Fool's jokes in a long while.

Kickstarter backer. Fell in love with the game the moment I saw it and it paid off in spades. Absolutely loved it. Great look, great feel, love the characters, love the setting, gameplay was fun and rewarding, story was very decent and a lot more queer than I was expecting (extremely good)

The characters are largely likable and well developed, they sound natural and are relatable and everyone in the main cast gets some good time to shine and grow through the game, it's a treat playing with them and following them on their journey. The world is really interesting and a fun mix.

Combat feels good, though as everyone notes, it's definitely too easy. But that's also partly balanced with items being permanent & reusable.
As for the characters power level, Siobahn's AOE probably could be toned down, once you get it it turns any non-boss encounter pretty trivial (and absolutely hoses the one multi-boss fight) and then Gwen's Rally could either be made more expensive (3 vs 2) or maybe not allowing it to restore a point to herself. A lot of boss fights I usually had Bruce give her an extra turn to pump everyone with a double Rally. Making that harder to do would probably make fights last a bit longer.
Though conversely, with items only being once per battle, I can see why the designer err'ed for characters being too strong as if the battles are drawn out enough you need to rely on the items more, well, you could hit a brick wall (and I'd argue the duel fight kind of illustrates the limitations) But making items consumable you'd probably need a way to grind out infinite seeds

A minor note on money, I kind of wish there was more to buy. At first i was very much a skinflint weighing out purchases, but with no way to grind the game gives you more than enough to buy up every item in the game so don't hold back.

The game is short, doing everything I clocked in about 10 hours, completing I believe all the sidequests, though it seemed like the Octopus should have re-appeared in the end game, I never found a way to get a rematch. It's not a bad length, I obviously wanted more time with these characters, so some more sidequests to pad time wouldn't be a horrible idea. Though thinking on it, I think expanding your time with Lance in the prologue and probably spending more time in the initial city where you meet Siobanh both could've used more filling out. The end game feels very good with a proper amount of sidequests and ways to unlock final skills/gear. But I'd say the introduction, while solid, is kind of bare bones and we could've spent more time there. Would've liked the trading quest to go on a bit longer, it seemed like it was going somewhere or going to reveal something and.. no it just ends and you get a thing.

I quite liked the story. (some spoiler warning, maybe?) Verm's journey is overall well done and we can see influences from a lot of different works like Berserk, FF7, or Game of Thrones. It's a great hero's journey and it was a treat seeing each character grow and spend time with each other. I really loved Verm and Gwen just chatting. Gwen probably ended up my favorite character but they're all pretty close.
There were some soft patches or areas I felt could've been clearer or fleshed out more. The one thing that sticks in my mind is Siobanh being genderfluid. Now the issue isn't that they are, but unless I missed something it's not really brought up or discussed at all in the first half of the game. In the latter half folks refer to them by 'they/them' and then their end game sidequest makes it sound like it was a point of contention, so I'm not sure if I missed something or there was content/dialogue missing earlier on to point this out.
I would've liked the antagonists fleshed out a little more. The grey squirrels are very appropriately jackbooted and we get some insight in why they're just a*holes, but it feels missing why they care about 'degenerates'. I feel like some literature like can be found elsewhere in the game for world building would've been suitable.
Leo in particular feels a little undercooked, there's some revealed and even an endgame quest that kind of peels away some of the myth around him, but for the role he plays and the decisions he makes I think spending a little more time or learning more about him would've been warranted. His fight is pretty awesome though (but as I mentioned, feels like one of the few points players could get stumped if they under prepared)
The Gods are suitably built up though, enigmatic and big and rarely seen in full and the fights against them are probably some of the best in the game.
Probably my biggest hitch with the story is it's anti-authoritarian bent. Sort of. like i agree with it (I mean nothing feels better than kicking literal nazis out windows) But the game leans hard into 'just kill the evil bastards and things will work out', which is fine enough for a fantasy game but the writing seems to want to make it a statement but that's undercut by how simple it makes it seem. Again the midgame handles it okay with some dialogue, the end game I think could've dwelled on it a little more.
The end game in particular reminded me in shades of Suikoden 1 and Game of Thrones. While a lot of it made for some very impressive scenes, it doesn't spend enough on what I think the ramifications are. Though seems like it'd be great sequel bait for the next game to have to explore a Rodentia changed by the events of this game.
As an aside, I quite like Aquila, it was a nice initial twist on expectations that he wasn't some kook experimenting on bodies. I kind of wished it had kept that up and was a little disappointed how it ended up playing to type in the end.
Also was a little confused if Leo's fate was intended to be ambiguous or not. I know what I'd -like-. The game seemed to waffle a bit between leaving doubt or quashing it entirely.

Overall though I loved it. A lot of the critiques above are relatively minor, I had a good time from start to finish and want to see more of these characters and more of this world. I'm glad I backed it on kickstarter and I would back it again in a heartbeat and I look forward to whatever this developer chooses to do next.

Backed the game on kickstarter (I don't think that counts as receiving it for free, since I had to pay to back it)

It's a very sweet and earnest game with a very interesting world and a lot of fun characters. I do think it needs a warning about disturbing imagery, as the end game gets pretty dark compared to the light heartedness of the rest of the game and comes as a bit of a shock.

It's a sweet game and the mini games offer some decent variety and a change from the standard combat of other RPGs. I will say, some of them needed some tweaking or needed to give more hits before failing instead of 1 hit insta "death" (particularly the mothman fight, which has no visible timer and you can very easily get bad luck getting trapped) the mini game difficulty is a little odd, I had more trouble with some of the earlier games than I did later ones, though a couple later ones basically meant I was just losing on purpose to skip. That there's no health and no real penalty besides a minor loss of currency that largely only matters for a few subquests that you can also mostly skip (though I would highly, highly recommend purchasing Bone Insurance). Every area gives you more than enough ways to score enough of the critical themed item to move on so if something is too tedious or hard you can usually skip it and do the other activities to continue and there's no need to 100% everything. I will say the end dungeon feels a little tedious with combat because the currency doesn't matter and there's no real penalty for losing at that point so it just became a matter of whatever ended combat the quickest.

The characters are likable. Oat is a great silent protagonist with his many expressions that sets up some good giggles and then the big reveal in the end is a very nice touch. he talks.
Valentine gets the most air time being the first companion encountered and has the most depth, given she's the one that sets you on the quest to begin with. Her encounter with Spinzo is fun and the two play off each other nicely to show off how different mains/inverts can be and she has a very decent motive.
JPEG is the best kind of corny and his jokes and puns evoke some good giggles. He gets to banter the most out of the cast and it's pretty effective. He has a history that's touched on though it leans a bit on having played the previous game and doesn't really develop it as much as it could have. His intro is sudden and random and a delight.
Dire was my favorite and has been since I first found out about the game. I love his design. He's a sweet cinammon roll and I'm happy I got to play and recruit him. It's funny because he's stuck in his head more often than not so of all the characters, we get to hear his direct thoughts instead of what he's just saying. It's cute. I would say I wish he had gotten at least one or two more scenes, though that speaks to a slightly larger criticism.

Each character is largely highlighted in the area they're recruited then mostly resolves to just background chatter with occasional comments on what's going on at a given time and then come Barkopolis it's all background chatter because nothing actually happens in Barkopolis, it's just a gateway to the end game. I would've liked to see something else happen in Barkopolis, just one more big story scene where the characters get to interact, maybe even with the Prince's henchpeople or something. Barkopolis is a nice area but it doesn't really have anything going on with the larger story, it's just a gateway to get to the end game and I think that's a bit of wasted potential because it seemed like a nice area that could've shone more light on the lore or letting the characters talk to each other more and develop.

The villains are fun designs, but I kind of agree with the notion that they're underused. We get a nice twist and a proper villain, but Spinzo and Ratboy only show up in the initial area and then aren't seen again until endgame for basically cameos. Would've liked to have them show up once or twice more. And maybe given something for Dire's main to do. The actual villain is decent, pretty scary and the climax has a big gut punch surprise. It's a game that wears it's heart on its sleeve and it's a big heart with kind of a mixed message.

The ending gives you a very hard choice after a surprise gut punch. I don't want to spoil anything, save that it's hard to feel good about it. I think it was a very bold choice and caught everyone by surprise, but it's such a massive 180 from the game it feels hard to really internalize it. I don't want to say it's bad because it's a genuine surprise and I think that's powerful and important and the message is ultimately a worthwhile, if perhaps not developed as much as it could've been. But I can't say it's satisfying either, specifically because of what a gut punch it is and I don't think there's a way to really tie a bow on that makes it palatable. It harkens to a twist found in one of the earthbound games, but the difference there was that the twist happened early on so while it was devastating, the game built you up from there with a touching ending and this.. well gut punch is the best way to put it. I do wish you could reload a save instead of having the slot saved over by the ending, but it's a minor issue and I did like the little epilogue and credit sequence.

A couple other minor quibbles would be I would've liked some easier travel between the areas. The game is linear and it would've been nice to be able to go back easier. But there's also not much -reason- to return to old areas except to complete sidequests or collectibles you missed. I'm just a sucker for RPGs where reaching the end game changes or unlocks new things in older areas for you to go back and do, maybe moves stories along in some way so you can see where they progressed.
And then I liked the random text but there's a couple objects you actually need to inspect and so random inspect text is pretty misleading sometimes because some of it jokingly sounds like actual game text. Would've liked to see this differentiated, maybe the 'randomized' inspects were a different color or something vs actual inspect text for 'fixed' objects.

For a bigger game from the developer it shows a lot of improvement and I think they learned quite a bit from the experience. I definitely want to see Bitter make more games. While it doesn't sound like a direct Furquest sequel is going to happen I certainly wouldn't mind a more 'anthology' approach with a sequel dealing with different characters. But I'm curious to see what other games they might make. This was a nice experience, it was crafted with a lot of love and while it's not perfect I got what I wanted from backing it and I would've happily backed it again even knowing the final product. I would recommend it but with the above caveats.

Been waiting for this game for a while. it's very cute, it follows the Night in the Woods style very well, but it can't quite pull off the same charm and wonder that it's inspiration had.

The characters are likable, the setting is quaint (though there's probably a couple too many scenes where 'go to point A' has you run through too many empty screens) The plot is very serviceable up until the final act when all hell breaks loose.

The final act isn't bad, but it has -way- too much going on. For one, Finley's accident was supposed to have a mystery attached to it? It's barely mentioned except for people heckling him about the accident but then suddenly it's Important. it leads into an interesting plot reveal, but it feels like it's out of left field. And then there's the riot. And the mysterious plague. And then the fire. I liked the feel of the climax's circumstances, where you're forced to deal with patients in a crisis, but the set up and resolution don't really work. The last scene before the credits roll is nice but.. again it feels unearned and sudden and like there should've been more to the game for some proper resolution. The photographs in the credits offer a tiny bit as does the post credit scene but it... yeah just all feels unearned. Would've liked either expanding the chapter, let it breathe a little more so things can resolve properly, also maybe tease things a bit better (Like, plot reveal -makes sense- with other implications in the game, but it feels like it's underused/underdiscussed, it's just revealed in the middle of a crisis and is revolved during the credits). Just a very messy ending that really does put a crimp on the whole game.

If you -really- like Night in the Woods style games and the art style is attractive, it's worth a look, but honestly it's probably more enjoyable as just watching someone else play it on a Let's Play run. I can't say i'll be re-playing it to do the other character scenes (like Night in the woods you have multiple points to pick between 2 characters, however, unlike night in the woods, seeing the storylines to completion by picking the same friend every time doesn't earn you any resolution)

Kudos to the team, I'd love to see more from them but with lessons learned from this one. The english dialogue needs another pass, still a lot of errors, and the minigames are still a bit buggy.

Very nice little jRPG style game. It fills a distinct niche, with sci fi/post apoc so rare in the RPG genre these days (outside of CRPGs)

Rather than spells you use different ammo for your guns and attack items to deal damage. It works well enough, though toward the end game there's enough stuff that's basically immune to anything but Pierce it takes a little fun out of it (though you can use other items temporarily to create exploitable weaknesses, you're usually still better off with Pierce). Also I likely missed it but I'm sure there's a few ammo types you simply can't buy (Ice specifically sticks out to me given it was a frequent weakness)

The graphics nailed the gameboy inspired style it's going for and the art style is perfectly suited to the setting and story.

The story, however, is probably one of the weaker aspects. Not that gameboy style RPGs were ever really known for compelling story but the game does a lot of 'tell' and not enough 'show'. It does okay setting up the bad guys as bad guys (besides the main villain who is.. just some guy), but the main cast relies on a lot of 'we're just going to tell you things'. Chel goes from 'money money money' to pretty quickly 'eff those guys, lets just beat them up' as her default modes. Darris never really seems to struggle with his past as much as the game seems to think they make it seem to (the reveals seem very underwhelming). Tarnstrom is mostly there as a perspective from the military side (despite only being a schlubby gate guard for years). Though Penton is probably the most guilty of the game just telling you what to feel about her. She doesn't really do much but just tag along and occasionally tell you something, but the game acts like she does a lot more.
None of them are bad characters, but like the characterization is kind of weak, a few more scenes of development would help, like maybe Tarnstrom was more involved in some of the military goings on, or Penton gives the player reason to doubt her.
The plot does have a decent enough twist and ending. A little more nuance beyond 'government bad' would've been nice but eh, it's a sci fi action game, fair enough.

The only other thing I really, absolutely didn't like was the inventory in combat. The icons look great, but a way to rearrange or sort the inventory or being able to display as just a standard list would go a ways to making it much less tedious.

The character progression was fine, skill points and the gun upgrades feel decent, though a number of the gun upgrades feel a little pointless, to the theme of 'there's little reason to ever choose this one over the other'

Overall though a really decent little game, got my money's worth out of the playthrough and I hope to see the developer do more, this is a great building block and I think there's a lot of potential here that could be expanded on. Direct sequel would be great but another RPG in general from this team would be good too.

Really lovely little RPG, had a lot of fun and it's a solid little play. Story has a lot of nice little twists and revelations, for both characters and the overall plot. Characters are all largely likable and party members useful, equipment is mostly 'better number = better' but it does have a nice balance of choosing between some stats like stacking more defense or speed. Combat system is quite decent, though the ranges on abilities can be a little annoying at times and it gets a bit punishing later on, I ended up just turning off the button timing in combat (though you can leave it at 'everything is minimum good' for an okay challenge) Bosses can be a bit brutal with extra phases or they summon extra minions or a lot of enemies have multi hit abilities.

Climax falls a little flat with an extra twist/revelation I don't think was explicitly needed and kind of takes away from the big fight before it. Final fight just feels kind of anticlimatic.

Wonderful looking graphics, everything looks made with care and character and level design are well done.

Wears it's queerness on it's sleeve, happy for the representation and treats everything as normal. Was a delight to see.

Really hope to see more from this developer, this was an excellent little game and shows a lot of potential for more. Solid B+

Very decent rogue-lite/management sim. For the price and time involved, it's a pretty solid little experience. Art style is very cute, mechanics are all decent. it's kind of a jack of all trades, master of none though as neither the dungeon spelunking nor management side is all that deep or complex. There's some strategy to the early game, like having half priced rituals is really quite handy. But I maxed out the management side about halfway through the dungeon side, with the exception of actually building certain things that required materials from the 3rd and 4th dungeons. The vast majority of sidequests are about accuring holy artifacts to turn in for the different armors which all have big pros/cons to them and are thus fairly skippable as none of them are strong enough to be head and shoulders above the other options.

Would have liked to see a little more complexity to the dungeon crawling, like the possibility for hidden rooms or something. Not a dealbreaker but like there's little reason to ever use the tarot that reveals the map as you really ought to be clearing the whole map for resources and upgrades.

Sim side would've liked to see some way to suspend hunger. It's easily the biggest limiter on your time outside the cult because the more followers you have the faster this drains. Faith and cleanliness can both be managed through either rituals or buildings, but hunger requires you to return periodically to cook or cast a feast ritual so even though redoing dungeons lets you do them 'infinitely' you have to go back to the cult to feed followers if you don't wan to risk them starving to death.

Still, it's a fun little 20ish hours and there's replayability and challenge for those that want it. Easy recommend if you're into these types of games, solid B/B+.

Honestly one of the best times I've ever had playing FF1. It's a classic but it shows it's age for those that remember playing it back on the NES days. The pixel remaster does a lot to curb some of the worst issues with the original, like the inventory or giving easier access to restoring MP or reviving characters. It's streamlined, combat is quick and snappy, the run button is nice, the map features are extremely handy, the translation is okay except for a couple little quibbles. Only thing I dislike about the graphical look is some assets are just very clearly lifted from other games (the airship particularly) and I wasn't thrilled by the new look for the castle in the sky, but these are minor quibbles.

Overall though if someone likes jRPGs they'll likely enjoy this version of the game over others. Highly recommend if you're a Final Fantasy fan.

Super cute little classic point and click adventure. Well made and a lot of heart clearly put into it.

The characters are well written and likable, the animal puns are cute and spaced enough you get a giggle here and there without feeling flooded with them, the cut scene art is great and the normal graphics are generally well made and pleasing to the eye. The story is pretty decent and doesn't go totally as you expect, some fun twists!

Puzzles are generally not bad and you can figure most out with a few tries. There is a pixel hunt or two, but most of them involve the optional collection sidequest so nothing too bad.

Perfect for it's pricepoint and an absolute steal if you get it on sale, so if you like classic point and click adventures with a light plot and humor give it a go. Definitely going to look forward to more games from this developer!

It's a very decent little zelda clone. It gets the style down, combat is pretty similar and it uses a few similar items (bow, bombs, boomerang, etc) It's kind of charming but never quite reaches the level its going for.

It's not bad by any stretch, but it could do better in a lot of areas. There's a relatively large inventory but you don't really need most of it, The combat potions are useful but the normal difficulty is such you can ignore them and not think about it. Honestly once you upgrade the spear you can mostly ignore the sword and the bow is never really needed except for puzzles (which makes you wonder why you even need to upgrade its damage) The deflect spell was kind of novel but it doesn't see a ton of use unless you just want to spam it since it hits in all directions unlike the sword. The sword even gets an upgrade to charge up but it's so slow and can be interupted it's simply not worth it. The ancient spells are sort of interesting but all basically do the same thing, as a kind of screen clear but again you don't really need it given nothing is that hard. The warp charm was neat but comes so late and has so little use it seems like it was added as an afterthought. And then rock salt candles, ether bombs, and seekers are just there. They all have some use but they mostly just sit in your inventory. I did like rock salt candles as an idea, frankly I think they would've been better to save as a late game item because they're ridiculous and strong (and you can murder just about every boss with them)

Boss fights are largely uninteresting, they have some mechanics but honestly I just threw rock salt candles at everything until it died. Admittedly, being able to heal at any point is part of what makes the difficulty so low as it's not hard to keep stocked on breads and fruits. Money is initially hard to come by but it's not too hard to keep scavenging, really you can probably sell most of the alchemy ingredients since by and large you don't need most of what you can make. But once you can access the tournament in Oakhaven Port you don't need to worry about money, ever, because for 20 currency you can repeat any level for tons of items and money. Honestly probably should've been a one and done deal.

The world and dungeon design is okay, it's a big sprawling world with lots to explore and it's not hard to miss some of the side quests and things (I'll admit I missed the lightning spell for quite a while simply because I never bothered to interact with the fountain that starts the quest, not that I think I would've used it much except for the sidequest to upgrade it) It can be a little tedious to get around sometimes, there's a bit of backtracking and just 'okay, where do I go'. You get general directions but there's times later on when you have most of the world open when it's just a bit of slog with how far you have to travel and find the one particular thing you're looking for. It does the typical zelda/metroidvania thing where some things are gated behind getting the right kind of gear, but Ocean's Heart doesn't utilitze it much, I was particularly disappointed with how few places the Flail and the Warp Charm actually open up, they're mostly used in the dungeons you find them in and the final one, there's some very isolated instances out in the world to use them but that's it. The bow and strength charm early on gate a few things but that's about it. I get the sense this was more of a 'well zelda did it' and checked the box rather than really thinking of how to integrate some of these items and gating things with them.

Dungeon design is fairly short and has some okay puzzles, find keys, hit switches, open locks and find treasure, that sort of thing. I would have liked a dungeon map feature but then few of them are really so long you really need it.

The story is, unfortunately, the weakest part of the game. It isn't bad, Tilia is an okay protagonist, but it's all very simple. She wants to go find her friend and Dad, so she sets out with sword in hand. She uncovers a bad guy and despite being introduced fairly early on, Blackbeard remains just a cardboard cut out villain. Not that I was expecting some huge twist or amazing depth, but everything is presented very plainly and matter of factly. The ocean king/sea goddess lore is okay but again, it's all just very straight faced and there's not much depth or surprise. Honestly the whole sword subplot could've been dropped without much issue other than 'zelda had a magic sword'.
There's a kind of interesting evil presence in the world called 'the abyss' but the game never really does much of anything with it except it's where monsters come from and it's used in a sidequest or two.
Again, none of this is bad. It functions well for what it's going for. But its all pretty basic and tropey, a very 'knight rescues princess from dragon' set up and pay off kind of story.
I will say the humor doesn't land very well. It tries to be kind of genre savvy but it's not that good at it (Tilia's basic response to most quests and plot updates is 'well time to go beat up pirates/monsters') There's puns but.. they're puns. The best thing I can say about the humor is it -tries-, the writers definitely attempted to be funny.

Before wrapping up I want to give a special mention to a sidequest later in the game that is just beyond obnoxious. Without warning, you're taken to a new area with no ability to return to the rest of the game and the bulk of your items are robbed from you and you'll spend the next about 30-40 minutes scouring this small island going back and forth retrieving your equipment (which some of it you can miss, particularly the boomerang) and it's just... so so annoying. It doesn't really add much to the story, it does eventually give you one of the best weapons in the game but I -hated- being stranded and losing all my items just, out of nowhere and being locked out of the rest of the game until I finished it.

That said, I'd rank it like a 3-3.5 out of 5. It's definitely not a 'must buy' experience, but if you're looking for a 2-D zelda-like, it's okay for the price range and you can burn a chunk of time on it. If it's on sale absolutely grab it, it's well made but doesn't live up to the potential it has and misses the mark meeting what it was paying homage to.