i fucking hate this game. 5 stars though because yeah
Author Comments
Choose one of four heroes, proficient with swords, spells, and skills to fight through a horde of monsters on your quest to find the lost amulet and your fortune. Learn new skills and spells during your adventure, or acquire items which will help you survive. First time players are recommended to read instructions below first.
Press Enter to open Pico-8 menu, use arrow keys to move and X/Z/C to options. Use left and right arrow keys to change volume levels.
SKILLS:
- Search: Locates secret walls and traps within range
- Stealth: Teleports player randomly around map
- Smite: Powerful attack on all creatures surrounding player
- Turn Undead: Powerful attack all undead within range+3
SPELLS:
- Teleport: Teleports player randomly around map
- Detect: Locates secret walls and traps within range+2
- Mapping: Reveals map
- Healing: Restores player back to full health
- Recovery: Restores player back to full stamina
- Fireball: Moderate attack on all creatures within range+3
- Firebolt: Strong attack on one creature within range+3
ITEMS:
- Tome of Magic: Player learns one spell not already known
- Tome of Skill: Player learns one skill not already known
- Potion of healing: Restores player back to full health
- Potion of stamina: Restores player back to full stamina
- Potion of mana: Restores player back to full magic
Game Controls:
- Arrow keys to move/attack
- X or V to use skill/select menu
- Z or C to open/close menu
- Ctrl+M to turn off sounds
- Enter to open Pico-8 menu
Menu Controls:
- Arrow keys to select option
- X or V to select option
- Z or C to go back to previous menu
- Ctrl+M to turn off sounds
Generic Pico-8 Controls:
- Toggle Fullscreen: Alt+Enter
- Reload/Run/Restart cart: Ctrl+R
- Mute/Unmute: Ctrl+M
- Player 1 defaults: Cursors + ZX / NM / CV
- Player 2 defaults: SDFE + WA
- Enter or P for pause menu (while running)
Mobile Controls:
- Very similar except in the virtual handset the O button represents the Z key
Controllers:
- You can use any game controllers recognized by SDL with PICO-8
this gives me good old vibes.. even though I never had experienced it before.
cool
Hmm, it's a cute little retro game, but unfortunately it might have been a little too retro for me!
It certainly is charming to see these games and I do think they effectively capture what old-school RPGs might have been like: particularly their limits. Reminds me of people who make NES games and ensure that it will genuinely fit on an NES cartridge and obey the palette limits and all that jazz. However, playing through them was an exercise in frustration as it just felt overly simple to the point of being boring and I was constantly stepping on traps with no way to know except from memorization. The little things that could've added some excitement, such as special effects for your abilities, gathering items and equipment, satisfying combat feedback, and a quest or sense of progression, were totally absent here and made me lose interest practically immediately.
As a side note, I was confused at the inclusion of two separate games: at first, I thought the idea was that two RPGs would be mashed into one for an interesting combination, not just two completely separate games. While it was certainly novel to see the technological difference between the two RPGs, like seeing one from the Atari 2600 era and another from the 5200 era, it felt like quantity over quality for me as both of them suffered the same issues.
I suppose take it as a compliment that you might've too effectively captured the boring, bygone era of old-old-old-school retro RPGs! I'd like to say I'm old enough to appreciate them but I came in around the Nintendo era, not the Atari era, so I'm missing that nostalgia which could've helped.
error code?
Credits & Info
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- 15,802
- Faves:
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- Votes
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- Score
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3.70 / 5.00
- Uploaded
- Nov 4, 2022
- 5:43 PM EDT
- Genre
- Adventure - RPG
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Frontpaged November 4, 2022