This is genius. Even though there are a lot of "in" jokes that I didn't get because I haven't played the games you reference, I still appreciate all of them because I've been gaming for decades. The broader jokes about bugs, de-bugging, cheats, characters, and the genre in general are terrific.
Great satire, brilliant dialogue. The only thing I didn't like were the main-character's "this item doesn't work here" lines. They were too snarky, and I'm seriously fed-up with that whole. "Just... no" habit everyone has gotten into.
Some things made me laugh out loud. I adored the philosophy section, especially part with Zug. The dialogue when you solve his puzzle is sublime. The composer appearing in-game was cute too. I also liked the wizard scene. For some reason, I hear the main, red-headed wizard sounding like Mandark from Dexter's Laboratory. The forest trolls and the Dwarf and the princess were also highlights. In fact, so were the guards. The bald one was designed well. He had a funny expression and great dialogue.
For some reason, I was waiting for a Python reference. Something about the humor.
Even though you bash the artwork, I thought it was well-done. The characters all look humorous, and oddly familiar (your intention). The animations and expressions were effective, right down to the little pauses in reactions. A lot of developers don't consider that level of choreography. There's an overall surrealism to the experience, even once you're into the game world, the mood keeps getting broken by anachronistic characters.
Music is also good. It was a little too loud, but I enjoyed the layered tracks. Great ambiance. Good that you didn't fall into the trap of making it too silly.
The puzzles are also fun. A lot of things that seem like glitches are part of the game (such as the item you have to duplicate... I was ready to write an angry review about a dead-end in the game until I realized what you were getting at).
The three endings are appreciated, as they bring replay value. Lots of great medals too.
Sadly, there are a few drawbacks. As one of the reviews says below, skipping through all the cut scenes can be like pulling teeth if you've played before. Due to the timing of the humor and the choreography, it can take a long time to get to the action. And while I appreciate the ability to click through the dialogue, sometimes it's not enough. Worse, there were times when clicking through can hurt you. Because you designed the dialogue menu to disappear when you click away from it, hurrying through words by clicking fast can lead you to end a conversation before selecting a choice, or selecting the wrong choice. Also, I found that it was too easy to accidentally skip a piece of dialogue in the duel scenes, making it nearly impossible to know which word to choose.
I was also frustrated by the fact that the game pauses every time you click outside the window. This is a great feature for a shooter or a platformer, but this is not a game that moves in real time and requires little to no reaction timing. When aiming for options at the bottom of the dialogue menu,
items in the inventory, or arrows at the edge of the screen, it was simply too easy to miss and accidentally pause the game. Repeatedly. When that happens, you have to deal with a rather large ad window and a bunch of options.
How about the option to load a saved file in-game, rather than having to reload the page?
There were a few real glitches, too.
If you have a pirate hat, then get the pirate king taken away, when you try to get onto his ship a phantom voice says, "Where are you going? This is MY ship!" (or whatever words he says) as though he was still there.
I had one a save-game glitch. When I reloaded, I noticed that the file had no screenshot, although the play time was there. When I tried to load it, I got a black window. After a few seconds, the game rebooted.
Because the game can be so time-consuming, I think it should auto-save. Once, I accidentally clicked an outside link, lost the page, and had to start from scratch. The auto can be separate from the player saves, so the game can still saved in a chosen state to explore different endings. But every time I had to reboot, I wished the game picked-up where I'd lost it.
The "You're a Hero" medal didn't open up the first time I won it. I had to reload my save game and fight the duel against in order to get it.
Mechanical errors. In the end, it's a great game. Clever, polished, and funny.
Hope to see more from you! Keep rockin'!