Mechanic

When Cats and a Cat God help you escape from a SCP-like facility in the dark JRPG Break Wolf [Mechanic]

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Break Wolf is a very interesting JRPG that is entirely set inside a research facility. The amoral syndicate in charge of the structure is amorally experimenting on combining human and animal DNA, creating humanoid hybrids. The poor prisoners only fight in this structure, trying to score high enough not to be disposed of. However, something triggers between friendship and relationship, and from the depths of level B9, a rebellion toward the surface starts.

Break Wolf is very peculiar in several details, from the brutal 1-vs-1 battles to the anime art-style and animation. Gameplay-wise, the game shows quite some deep mechanics and many secrets, including Genes to equip to alter the gameplay, different Routes leading to entirely novel end-game scenarios and abilities, and secret bosses. The items found during the game are also unique and powerful tricks to treasure during the tough boss battles. A Bazooka can easily remove an entire enemy’s lifebar, while a rare injection can provide two free turns. Interestingly, some items change their effect based on the situation or the enemy faced, or they can even be powered up. For example, use noise generators against bat creatures to stun them, but a power-up can be found later on to have the same effect on all creatures. Or try to use a Cryoblaster on cold-blooded creatures to freeze them. Fur burns pretty well if you use a flamethrower, and even more if you throw kerosene the turn before. However, the most unique and bizarre items are definitely cats.

During the escape, one floor at a time, you will find empty cages as items. Using them in battle is pretty useless, only doing minimal damage while triggering a funny conversation, with your healer suggesting to use your fists to fight the enemies. However, you can also find free-roaming cats scattered around the facility. Some of them will willingly join you in the cage, while others must be convinced with meat. But what is the purpose of having cats in your inventory? Well, surprisingly, cats are very powerful and versatile items.

Throwing a cat during a battle against an enemy could have different effects, especially on bosses. In general, cats offer a great distraction, giving malus or free turns where the enemy is not active. Plus, each boss has quite a comedy scene when “dealing” with the cat. For example, the cat will jump onto the back of the first boss, which will run around like a crazy man, offering you an opening. The third boss, instead, is not impressed by the cat, claiming to be a dog person. However, his healer likes cats, and will start to distract by chasing the cat around. Cats really hate the last boss and will attack him directly when thrown. Cats are not only a powerful item to gain free distraction against difficult bosses, but they also provide interesting hidden scenes with lore and comedy. And in a game dealing with extreme experiments, abuses, and violence, these moments provide needed relief. Sadly, cats do not always work. For example, the second boss, a blind woman mixed with bat DNA, loves cats, and throwing her a cat will only make her giggle with happiness.

Regarding cats, the end of Route A hides a funny secret. When venturing inside the sewers of the crow’s bunker, at some point, the water in the middle becomes of multiple colors. If you walk long enough in the water with cats in your inventory, they will mutate! The cats’ icon changes in a composition of colorful cats, a radioactive rainbow of bizarre creatures. The items also change their function, at least for one use. The colorful cats now inflict a huge amount of damage, and also remove any buff effects from the enemy. After being used, the radioactive cats come back to their usual function.

Cats also have an additional function related to a secret boss battle and a recruitable character. In one of the offices, you can find a golden cat statue, a bizarre idol with an even weirder story. A hilarious scene reveals how a crazy amount of the research budget was used to build the statue, in order to hide a powerful ally to help the main character during the escape. But how to summon this ally? Of course, by bringing 7 cats to the statue. After collecting enough cats, the golden idol will indeed summon the Mighty Cat, a tough and ultra-muscular humanoid cat wielding a toy hammer… and covered in blood. The only problem is that the cat will not help you till you show your worth in a fight. The battle against the Mighty Cat is incredibly hard. The creature has 7 lifebars, hits really hard, often buffs its evasion and attack, and has some special attacks, such as The Big Bang Hammer, able to stun and inflict insane damage, or the Radioactive Conversion, which converts contamination into healing and bonus attack. Moreover, while other bosses offer to immediately retry the battle, with the Mighty Cat, you have only one attempt. After that, the Mighty Cat will mock you and disappear. If you are finally able to defeat the Mighty Cat, it will really join your group, offering a powerful item and ability. The Mighty Cat can inflict huge damage to the enemy, plus removing all the buffs on them.

Why are cats so important in this disturbing research facility? First, let’s start with Amoria, the healer of the main character, and the character who starts the escape from the facility. She is a shy and quiet girl who suffered through a lot, with the ability to heal even the most lethal and brutal wounds with a series of thin artificial appendages. Like every character in the game, she was also mixed with animal DNA, specifically cat DNA. For this reason, Amoria has an affinity for cats, and this is why she collects them around the facility.

Eichi is the main scientist creating the hybrids; however, instead of being a pure evil mind, he is a weird and bizarre character wearing a cardboard box on his head. For the main character, Eichi is almost a father figure, even if he is the one responsible for the wild experiments and brutal tests. Eichi is also obsessed with cats. Not only is he the one who created the golden cat idol, but he also claims to have an imaginary cat friend. However, in theory, he sent his imaginary friend to protect Amoria, because she needed it the most. Of course, this imaginary cat could be only a figment of his crazy mind, or maybe it could be the Mighty Cat itself, which, afterall, is quite real. Eichi is also the crazy mind responsible of bringing all the cats inside the facility. Why? Because not only he loves cats but he also want to share them with his test subjects, saying that having cats around will improve the morale.

Break Wolf has an amazing fighting system, with very interesting and diversified items to use during the escape. Specifically, cats are very intriguing items with several applications, from distracting bosses to a one-use nuke and unlocking a secret boss fight.

Play as a werewolf, a maniac, a Yokai, or an abomination in GUTTER the Cursed, RPG inspired by LISA

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LISA is definitively one of the best indie JRPGs ever made, pushing the RPGmaker engine to an impossible edge. It doesn’t come as a surprise that other games took huge inspiration from this masterpiece. Gutter the Cursed is one of these games, set in a brutal post-apocalyptic town where brutality and comedy clash and merge. The combat system is also heavily inspired by Lisa, with combinations of attacks associated with more powerful skills. However, the similarities end here, since Gutter is a hidden jewel of open world and sandbox mechanics. While exploring the city, the player can attack everybody, from merchants to the bosses of the different factions. The game also features many secrets, endings, and two DLCs expanding the world with complex side stories: the Rejected, where the player is a failed clone, and the Perished, where the player is a ghost roaming the underworld.

A deep gameplay element of Gutter comes at the very beginning of the game: the backgrounds during the character creation. The player can decide between different origin stories, each coming with perks and bonuses. Some backgrounds will slightly change the game, making it easier or more difficult, providing unique weapons and skills. Now let’s check some of these examples.

Raised by Snake Charmers makes you fast and resistant to poison, while also providing a pet snake for your adventures: a weapon with 95% chance of poisoning the enemy. Feral Child increases the resistance against diseases and provides the perk Cannibalism, which unlocks special moves to bite the enemies, healing or inflicting bleed. Moreover, backgrounds slightly change when creating a male or female character. For example, a male character can become an Ugly Outcast, which makes you weaker while increasing the evasion rate. Instead, the female equivalent is a gorgeous creature, specifically the Beautiful Harlot, which is similar but also provides the perk Beauty. Other backgrounds only available for female characters are Tomboy and Circus Performer, which unlocks the special skill Throwing Knives.

Other backgrounds can instead drastically change the game, creating a completely different playthrough and affecting party characters. In such a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the main character can of course also be a sick psychopath. The Disturbed Mind background has a huge effect during the game since it affects your relationship with the other recruitable characters. Some characters will refuse to join your party, feeling the evilness emerging from your body. On the other end, another character will become recruitable only when the Disturbed Mind is available. When reaching the Theatre in the main town, the spectacle inside is terrifying. Mutilated bodies all around, but still alive, willingly allowing the dominatrix hiding in this place to hurt them: Malice. In a normal playthrough, this will start a complex battle against the insane woman. However, with Disturbed Mind, Malice will be mesmerised by your “evil aura,” joining the party. And of course, she is an extremely powerful character. It is very interesting that choosing a specific background, among more than 10 others, unlocks a new recruitable character.

While being evil or with a troubled but cool past is not new, the Special Mind background is definitively unexpected. In this case, this origin doesn’t allow any positive perk but will drastically change almost every dialogue inside the game. The main character has huge social impairments, altering the choices into incomprehensible mumblings. As the Abomination background for Gutter the Rejected (below), Special Mind is one of those backgrounds that offers a completely different experience, thus reserved for specific runs after finishing the main game. Every dialogue and choice is in fact far more difficult to understand, and it is difficult to comprehend where “poking your nose” could lead in the conversation.

In Gutter the Rejected, the first free DLC, the backgrounds will go in an even crazier direction. This time, the main character is a cloned experiment that wakes up inside a lab. Foreigner DNA was combined with a human host, creating a specific abomination. For example, having Alligator or Squid DNA in your body unlocks special moves. The main character will gain useful skills to use during the battles, respectively 50% resistance to every damage and tentacles to trick the opponents into falling to the ground.

The Werewolf is another background available in the free DLC The Rejected. Among the many monsters to choose from, the Werewolf is one of the most interesting mechanic-wise. While the main character is still a normal human, at least in appearance, the transformation is intrinsic to the gameplay. During the battle, the character accumulates Rage to perform special moves that, when reaching the maximum, will allow the metamorphosis into a werewolf by using War Form. While the form lasts, the character will gain an insane strength, allowing deadly attacks and combos.

If playing a hybrid clone borne from an experiment that went wrong is already an interesting choice, the Abomination is definitively the most intriguing background of Gutter the Rejected. The Abomination is a grotesque creature borne from pure darkness. The main character will receive incredible powers, including strength, HPs, and special attacks. However, almost every character will be terrified of the Abomination. By playing this background, the player will lose access to many secondary quests, since the secondary characters will be terrified by the Abomination. Some of them will simply refuse to talk, while others will attack the player at the first dialogue. Moreover, the human party member refuses to join the Abomination. This background drastically changes the game, creating a really unique evil playthrough… maybe for a “kill them all” run.

The last DLC, Gutter the Perished, brings the post-apocalyptic RPG into the afterlife. In this DLC, the main character is already a ghost, who now roams the afterlife fighting ancient phantoms while discovering the reason behind their murder. While the underworld can be explored as the main game, roaming the land of the living plays as small puzzles, where you can use ghastly powers or possess people to unlock the next steps of the case. And of course, spirits from different parts of the world are available as background. The ghosts have different skills during the fight, and can solve the puzzles with their specific powers. For example, a Banshee can obsess people with creepy talks, sending them crazy, while a Jinn can enter inside the dreams of sleeping characters. Other ghosts can instead mess with the environment. A Revenant can hijack electric devices… including robots, which can become killing machines. The Yokai are the most interesting ghosts, able to appear in the human world with different forms, from a tiny messy rat to a fearful werewolf.

Gutter the Rejected was released few weeks ago. Meanwhile, I hope for another future DLC to see which other crazy backgrounds will be available.

Grotesque monsters swarming the screen and staring at the player: the Insectmares from Mary Skelter Finale [Bestiary – Mechanic]

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Mary Skelter Finale is the end of the trilogy of dark Japanese dungeon-crawlers. Following for the last time the fight of the Blood Maidens against the immortal Nightmares to escape the living Jail, Finale is a huge game dense in new mechanics. And this time, the escape to the surface will hide even more dangers.

While the immortal Nightmares are still there, ready to chase the party around the mazes till they can be finally defeated (and you can check more about previous Nightmares in this analysis The Nightmares of Mary Skelter: fairytale characters reborn as twisted immortal stalkers), there are far more dangers, including a deranged and sadistic group of bloodthirsty girls: the Massacre Pink (or Genocide Pink in Japan). However, there is also a smaller but even more peculiar enemy waiting to surprise the party while exploring the Jail: the Insectmares.

This new danger comes from swarming enemies that can surprise the party during any battle, literally enveloping and crawling not only on the character but on the screen itself. Like under a sort of living negative effect, when a character gets swarmed by Insectmares, they receive several maluses. These range from the obvious bothering of having the screen almost entirely occupied by crawling creatures, to the impossibility of using any skill, attacking, or even trying to escape. Moreover, Insectmares also work as general malus, lowering, for example, defence or accuracy. And, as an untreatable plague, it is also quite difficult to get rid of Insectmares, which will continue to crawl on the affected character even when the battle ends. In fact, the only way of removing the Insectmares is by using blood, and a huge amount of it, coming or from the enemies critically killed, or by throwing essential blood packs.

The Insectmares are a new level of immune defense of the living Jail. If Nightmares can be the equivalent of macrophages or lymphocytes, actually hunting down external pathogens, Insectmares are more similar to antibodies, enveloping the external elements thus facilitating their destruction. In fact, the Insectmares are linked to the “angry” level of the Jail. Because if you fight or escape too many battles, or are chased by a Nightmare, without satisfying the Jail needs, such as Sleep or Hunger (yes, the dungeons here have feelings, you can read more here: Mary Skelter Nightmares: When the dungeon is a colossal living creature with its own needs), then the Jail will get angry. The higher the fury of the Jail, the higher the probability of being swarmed by Insectmares. This can happen at any moment: when in battle, exploring, and even when running away from a Nightmare. And the fact that this living and permanent negative status can appear in any battle, even bosses, regardless of their specific skills and powers, adds an additional level of anxiety and complexity through the game.

An additional details about the Insectmares lies in their name. While the English translation relies on their general insect-like aesthetics, together with their swarming behaviour, the original Japanese name is Babymare. This creepy name opens a new world of interpretation, somehow implying that they are a juvenile or larva stage of a Nightmare, their “baby” form.

Talking about their appearance, Insectmares are in general colorful beings, usually animal-based, but sometimes they can be more humanoid. However, while advancing in the game, they tend to get more grotesque, resembling animal-carcasses or disgusting anthropomorphic mutations. And yes, the fact that these creatures are literally crawling on you is quite disturbing.

Let’s have now a more detailed look at some of the Insectmares ready to crawl on you in Mary Skelter Finale. Since they lack a name, I simply created an unofficial one based on their appearance.

Stuffed Cows

The colorful cows cover the entire screen, appearing more like silly animations than disturbing beings. Worth to specify that these Insectmares are involved in the first tower of the game, associated with gold and judgment. As previously said, the Insectmares tend to get more and more disturbing in later towers, so, in the beginning, simply accept to be swarmed by silly and colorful cows. But wait, by closely looking, those cows have completely insane expressions, and their bodies look like stitched together. Well, maybe even in the beginning, Insectmares can be creepy.

Humanoid Bees

From one of the first dungeons, these Insectmares really fit their name. In fact, they appear as humanoid bees, with big red lights behind, colorful wings, a dangerous sting, and a set of peculiar humanoid features. The face is completely human, with a dumb-looking expression, pale void eyes, and a disgusting long tongue. They are in general more silly-looking than other Insectmares, but since they are in one of the first colorful dungeons, they still fit in the overall atmosphere.

Carcass Penguins

The penguins are grotesque and disgusting Insectmares, with beaks full of pointed teeth and feral expressions. Their bodies are already decomposing, appearing as decaying carcasses, with the ribs gorily erupting from their chest. At first glimpse, they could look like crows, but at a closer look, they are in fact penguins. This is supported by their appearance in one of the first towers, a cold and frozen environment. The simple idea of being surrounded and swarmed by a flock of these repulsive creatures is sufficient to send a chill down the spine. These Insectmares really break the rule, appearing as terrifying and grotesque beings in one of the first towers.

Eye Moths

The Eye Moths are the common Insectmares in a tower associated with blood and beauty, where gorgeous mirrors are scattered around, and blood is pumping from the ceiling. The moths are of a colorful ruby, to connect them with the blood-related topic of the tower, with a pair of gigantic eyes on their wings. They are quite graceful in appearance, and far less grotesque than the other Insectmares. However, when almost completely swarming the screen, having those giant eyes staring directly at the player creates a really uneasy feeling, almost breaking the fourth wall in a really unsettling way.

Three-headed Horses

The creepy climax of a Saturday-morning cartoon that went terribly wrong, these three-headed horses are probably the most disturbing Insectmares. The horses appear in the circus/carnival tower, a place of deadly games and disturbing beings. And their are really fitting there. The frontal face has a disturbing and insane smile, while the skin of its cheeks grotesquely melt with the other heads. And if you closely look at, the right head has its eyes almost melted inside the other skin. There is not a detail that it is not truly disturbing in this design, including the exposed ribcage with the heart beating inside. One of these creatures is already disturbing enough, but these small guys attack in a swarming and grotesque pack. You cannot unsee those terrifying faces staring directly at you through the screen.

Straw Dolls

One of the last Insectmares, these dolls are truly disturbing beings with nothing remotely cute or animal-based in their design. They live in a tower that looks like an hospital, full of living flesh and hanging ropes, so it is not a surprise that their appearance is so grotesque. The face is the most grotesque detail, composed of hard skin stitched together with red strings, even going inside a porcine nose. The mouth and eyes are completely filled with nails, an extreme and disturbing correlation with straw dolls stabbed with nails in black magic rituals. The limbs and body are simply straw bands roped together. The Straw Dolls are pure nightmare fuel, and simply seeing their stitched faces full of nails staring at you so close on the screen is already a gigantic malus on its own.

When your average JRPG protagonist becomes a grotesque monster: how Ripper Jack in Mary Skelter 2 works [Mechanics]

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The first Mary Skelter was a pleasant surprise, a really dark dungeon-crawler JRPGs, where fairytale-inspired characters are imprisoned in a living environment, forced to fight by using blood. And if this was not horror enough, the gameplay is also influenced by this gigantic living ecosystem (as you can read in a previous article here: Mary Skelter Nightmares: When the dungeon is a colossal living creature with its own needs), while immortal monsters stalk the group like a proper survival horror (and here an analysis about these Nightmares: The Nightmares of Mary Skelter: fairytale characters reborn as twisted immortal stalkers). However, the sequel was released in the west only on Nintendo Switch. Luckily, it recently became available also on STEAM, so more people can try it.

Mary Skelter 2 is really difficult to describe without spoilers. Because for almost the entire game, the player who previously played the first game has no idea of what is happening. In fact, Mary Skelter 2 is altogether a prequel, a sequel, and a remake. And why some things are the same, some will drastically change. This is especially true for Jack, the only male protagonist.

In the first title, Jack was the classical “good boy who cares for a complicated girl” inside a harem of female characters. However, his function was unique and essential, since by managing the use of his blood, the player could avoid the girls to fall into a deadly frenzy. It was an interesting balance: shoot too much of Jack’s blood and he will go KO, but by being too strict you risk that your party will self-annihilate in a bloody frenzy.

Even in Mary Skelter 2, Jack is essentially the same… but very briefly. In fact, Jack will suddenly transform into a Nightmare, a gigantic, obtuse, and grotesque creature barely able to talk. This insane twist will not only affect the story, but will also reflect on the gameplay. Nightmare Jack can only communicate with Otsuu, the new protagonist princess, and will share two turns with her.

The monstrous new protagonist act quite differently from his previous self. But he can still shoot blood to momentarily reduce the frenzy of the party. However, this time instead of affecting his body, the action will have a toll on his mental health. This time, Nightmare Jack has a bar representing his mental health, which will deteriorate the more actions he will take. Of course, there are ways to regain sanity, for example by walking around the dungeons without using his powers. Moreover, Jack can also relax on his own by spending an action to take a Deep Breath, reducing in this way his level of stress. But what will happen when Jack’s mental health completely deteriorates? He will truly become a rage-full Nightmare, attacking indiscriminately both enemies and allies. And yes, he is far more dangerous than any other party member in frenzy.

Luckily, Otsuu has also ways of calming Ripper Jack (a familiar name for his nightmarish version), and can in fact talk to him by using “Counseling,” an action to calm him down. The other girls can also try to Embrace him, hoping to calm him as well. But often, only a single turn of Ripper Jack could wipe out your party. Moreover, if Jack loses control three times in the same battle, there is no way to turn back. It is Game Over.

While hopping between sanity and deadly frenzy, Jack has also other interesting actions. While outside battles, he can use a power that in the first game was of Alice, allowing the player to create a Save Point everywhere, at cost of Jack’s sanity. While in battle, Jack can use a very special power: Nightmare Zone. This attack can change the course of a battle by completely inhabiting the enemy for one turn. But of course, such power will have a drastic effect on Jack’s sanity.

The sudden change of the good-boy Jack into his nightmarish counterpart strongly marks what Mary Skelter 2 is trying to achieve: a huge change inside the comfort of your pre-built knowledge. Everything is similar to the previous game, but there are also huge differences in the plot. What is happening in Mary Skelter 2? This question will need a lot of time to receive an answer. Nightmare Jack is a really peculiar protagonist for a JRPG, not only for his grotesque appearance but especially for his intrinsic danger. Managing the mental health of this character to help the party survive, while avoiding the appearance of Ripper Jack, is an interesting and unique horror mechanic. This is also reflected in the exploration, because if Jack’s sanity is already low, creating a Save Point could lead to your annihilation in the next fight.

Like the previous entry, Mary Skelter 2 offers a unique combination of dungeon crawling and horror, plus some interesting new mechanics, and a twisted plot that is quite difficult to figure out till the very end.

Eat dragon meat or give birth to a dragon: the nefarious destiny of the Witches in Dragon Star Varnir [Mechanic]

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Dragon Star Varnir is a JRPG developed by the partnership of Compile Heart and Idea Factory. In the game, Visual Novel sections alternate with dungeons exploration, moral choices, and turn-based battles. The battles are especially unique since everyone can fly, dividing the battlefield into 3 different levels. While this adds tactical decisions during normal fights, it is even more important during boss fights, because some dragons are so big that the different body parts occupy all the levels. However, there is an even more interesting and unique mechanic, very well integrated into the lore and the world-building of the game that I will describe in the following article.

The world of Dragon Star Varnir is a grim and dangerous place. Dragons roam around, challenging the bravest knights and warriors to control their population, and then there are witches, women with powerful abilities forced on feeding on dragons. In this world where everyone is at war with everyone, there are even darker secrets involved in the dichotomy between witches and dragons. In fact, witches constantly fight the biological impulse of giving birth to a dragon. Sadly, the harsh truth is that every dragon was before a witch that was unable to control this horrible event. Dragons are some kind of embryo or parasite living inside witches’ bodies, a mysterious process that will need a lot of effort for the player to be discovered, so I will minimise spoilers. A witch can control the development of the dragon by eating dragon meat or drinking their blood, a procedure that every witch finds extremely repulsive and disgusting. But when your life is at stake, and the alternative is having your body ripped by a dragon, there is not much to question about. Witches hunt dragons in order to feed on them, delaying their transformation that will generate a new dragon. Somehow, this is an extreme form of cannibalism.

If a witch refuse to feed on dragons for a long time, she will start to starve, quickly triggering the maturation of the dragon inside her. And the ending is not only sad, but extremely painful and violent. After the pain will get uncontrollable, the dragon will emerge from the witch’s body, ripping it apart in an explosion of blood. The newborn dragon will get immediately aggressive and feral, losing any humanity that the witch could have, usually attacking the other witches that before were friends.

The interesting novelty is that this constant struggle between feeding on dragons or giving birth to one is also integrated into the gameplay. This feature will not directly affect party members, since they are adult and veteran witches, which will consume dragon meat on their own. But for the young and inexperienced “Little Sisters,” this is a very delicate issue. These young witches are still fighting against the repulsive need of eating dragon meat, a disgusting practice that will keep them alive. These little sisters are waiting at home while the adult witches hunt food, but every meal is a battle for them. In the beginning, this struggle will be only part of dramatic cutscenes, but then, it will become part of the gameplay.

The Little Sisters need a constant flow of dragon meat or blood in order to retain their humanity and survive. Each sister will have an icon associated with her level of happiness, and the player should take care of it. Because if the face becomes angry, there is a clear chance that the poor little sister will run away to give birth to a dragon. Maintaining stable the mental sanity of the sisters by giving them dragon meat is essential to achieve the best endings. However, the process is very challenging and complicated, and very few details are actually explained inside the game. Because if dragon meat can be obtained by killing any enemy around the world, the timing can become quite a challenge due to a hidden internal clock. Wander, explore, or fight too much in a dungeon, and the next time you will go back home one of the sisters could be on the verge of going insane, because their happiness will constantly decrease with time.

The game should be a good balance of collecting meat and advancing the story, while remembering to leave the dungeon if too much time passed, so the dragon meat can be delivered to the sisters. And there is also another problem related to another metric, because if you “overfeed” the sisters, they will also go insane. After all, who wants to be force-feeded dragon meat if not strictly necessary to survive? Fail to correctly care for the little sisters, and they will run away to give birth to a dragon. Each sister will run to a different area and will transform into a specific dragon, which will roam in that region as a hidden boss fight. So, by failing the quest of the Little Sisters, the best endings will be locked away, but it will be possible to face secret bosses.

The constant dread of playing the game while being worried about the sisters, plus the balance between farming meat and experience knowing that each minute spent in a dungeon could send the sisters mad, transform a common JRPG game into a complex fight for survival. This is a truly interesting and unique mechanic that not only moves Dragon Star Varnir toward more survival-horror atmospheres, but is also well-integrated inside the dark and grim world that was created for the game.

Wacky characters, insane machines and hypnotic mushrooms in “Let It Die”: how to build a lobby in an explosion of style [Mechanic]

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Let It Die is a free-to-play game developed by Suda51’s team, so of course is 100% pure insanity. The main aim of the player is to climb a dystopian tower, fighting monsters, invaders, collecting new items and experience, while advancing each floor toward the top. The combat is souls-like inspired, with a stamina bar dictating the possible moves, light and heavy attacks combined with dodging, and easy ways to die if the enemies are underestimated. If this looks quite standard, everything else is totally over-the-top.

The tower was mysteriously built after a cataclysm on a small island close to Tokyo. Since that time, the tower has continued to grow, attracting different kinds of people. Powerful lords started to live and take control of the tower, building a sick new system where even the dead bodies are brought back to life to fight for them. Meanwhile, adventurers started to climb the tower, hoping to claim the mysterious treasure hidden on the top. The ground floor of the tower is a small shopping mall connected to the metro station, with a fountain in the middle, bathrooms, and elevators. But it is exactly this place that became the base camp of all these crazy operations, attracting the most insane and illegal merchants to open a shop there. And it is exactly the ground floor that works as the hub or lobby of Let It Die.

The lobby of the tower is the equivalent of a small town, with a lot of services and bizarre characters to interact with. Even if many places have standard services, like to buy items or to level up the player, the shopkeepers and the setting are anyway insanely original and plainly weird. Because nothing is as it should be on this floor. The bathrooms are brainwashing prisons, freezers are where clones are stored, and the metro station works as vehicles to invade other players. And these are only the standard things.

Let’s have a look at the most whacky places and services available in the lobby.

Fighter Freezer

Each death in Let it Die is permanent, there is no other way to say it. However, with enough gold, dead bodies can be collected and reanimated. On the other hand, new clones can be produced to rescue the dead body of the previous character, who will be wandering like a bloodthirsty revenant on the floor where it died. Because the lords of the tower are controlling death, and facing your previously dead characters is not a surprise The freezer is where the available characters are stocked, hanging like dead meat on chains. New characters can also be recruited here, or they can be organised for different tasks, for example, to defend the base from other players’ raids. Alternatively, unused characters can also be sent to scavenge and hunt on other player’s floors. They will become invaders, challenging enemies for the other players to face, and they will come back with scavenged materials as a reward after enough time passed.

Metro Front

Let It Die also involves a multiplayer attack-defend the base mode, freely playable by everybody. But of course, also this mode is totally insane. To access the Raid mode, the player needs to talk to a weird-looking robot, similar to a train operator mascot, with a creepy smile on the face and electric blue eyes. The small robot is totally insane, and will direct the player, with the voice full of crazy enthusiasm, to the different raid modes and the power-up for the base: “Thank you for riding with us today.” Then, the attack mode is very straightforward: jump inside the metro and it will bring you directly to the enemy base. The other players will leave their characters heavily armored to defend the base or, if you are lucky enough, it will be defenseless. With enough time available and with the defensors killed, the other players’ resources can be looted from their base.

Prison Bathroom

There is a random and bizarre consequence of the train raids. Sometimes, when another player’s character is defeated, its body will stay on the ground. These characters can be kidnapped and brought back to the base. They will end up imprisoned in the bathrooms, now reconverted in jails. The kidnapped character will be trapped there, wrapped in plastic, and with a visor on their face, totally isolated from reality and in constant sufferance. The characters are indeed undergoing a brainwashing procedure, which has a fixed time to be executed. After the time has passed, the kidnapped fighter will be totally brainwashed and ready to join the player’s team. However, the other player will not stay quiet when one of his characters is kidnapped, and will have the chance to attack the base where is imprisoned in order to free him.

Shop “Choku-Funsha”

The regular shop of Let It Die is probably the less inspired section of the lobby. Here, the player can buy weapons and armors, but also access the R&D section to develop and unlock new equipment using the correct materials. The owner of the shop is a legendary merchant, with the head protected inside a glass, and surrounded in the background by weapons drenched in blood, including chainsaws. The fact that the shopkeeper is definitively too similar to an infamous German dictator doesn’t anyway help in giving more identity to this shop.

Vending Machine “Hernia”

A regular vending machine but with a creepy twist and design. The machine will sell different items that will change periodically, which can be acquired by using different kinds of currency. One of the main forms of payment is called Bloodnium, and it is linked to blood. But the interesting detail is the execution of this payment. Small spiked cylinders will appear like a medieval trap, and the character’s hand will be voluntarily wounded by this instrument of torment in order to extract the payment: blood. The fact that the shop is called “Hernia” is also causing additional uneasy feelings.

Mushroom Club

The Mushroom Club is probably one of the most bizarre shops ever seen in a game, owned by an insane woman. She is dressed only in a bikini, covered with tattoos, with mushroom-like hair and tribal fangs covering half of her face. The legends say that she was a backpack traveler that went insane after trying weird fungi, and now is managing her tribal shop inside the tower. When not working, she will perform a lap dance on a giant umbrella, but her role is far more bizarre. Like a post-apocalyptic shaman, the woman will provide a psychedelic mushroom soup to her customers, which will give very unexpected results. In fact, after trying the different soups, the player will receive adhesives to wear like tattoos on the different characters. Some adhesives, or decals, are only temporary and will disappear with the death of the character, while the premium ones can be recovered even from dead bodies. The scene when the character drinks the psychedelic soup is particularly weird, and the decals will appear from a rainbow of colors sparkling from the empty dish.

Quests: the Voyeur Visor

Secondary quests were generally selected by talking to a cute girl in the arcade room, another section of the lobby that can be accessed from the fountain (check the associated section). However, after an update, quests can now be selected in a more bizarre and peculiar way from the main hub. A visor supported by the statues of two kids now works as shortcut to access the quest menu. The kids look like characters from an old Japanese manga, or from some school propaganda, jumping very happily while working as support for the visor. By accessing the visor, the player can select different quests to complete, from “collect x items” to “kill x enemies,” or sometimes more variegated challenges like complete specific floors without wearing any armor. Interestingly, the visor also works as a sort of voyeur machine. In fact, after finishing to select quests, the player can see the face of the girl in the arcade room. The girl seems unaware of the player’s presence, and she looks like busy watching something and will often comment “No, no , not there” or “He hide what and where!?”

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Experience hardly collected during the explorations inside the tower needs to be used inside the lobby to level up the characters, deciding which attribute to power up, from strength to agility. And of course, to use the experience, the player has to interact with a creepy creature that looks like a living brain combined with a motorbike in a sort of cyberpunk jellyfish. The grotesque creature will directly inject tubes with jacks inside the character’s back, and, in a painfully-looking scene, highlighted by disgusting sounds, the experience can be used to power up the characters.

The Arcade Room

A lobby inside the lobby, the arcade room is a meta-game festival, and another stylish insanity added to the game. As if Let It Die was just an arcade game that the player is actually trying to beat, the Arcade Room works as a place for hints, advice, and to better understand the lore. The different characters will tell you how to get better in the game, like if the player was really asking help from other players. Moreover, a radio can be selected to change the music, while a mysterious machine provides information for the lore of the game in the form of old and distorted VHS movies.

Zanki Zero and the cloning machine: from childhood to dying of old age in 13 days [Mechanic]

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Zanki Zero is a dungeon-crawler with survival elements developed by the people behind Danganronpa. In a mysterious post-apocalyptic world, 8 strangers wake up on an island without memory. This is the beginning of a journey made of monsters, surreal events, and tough surviving. Because being alone on an island will not be easy, and crafting, building, and foraging food will be vital.

But there is another more innovative mechanic hidden in Zanki Zero. The survivors will soon discover, in the most gruesome way, to be mere clones, with the old memories transplanted into new bodies thanks to an “X” button on their bellies, which can be retrieved upon their deaths and used inside a cloning machine resembling a retro arcade cabinet. If this is already a tragic discovery for the entire party, there is something even worst. The lifespan of a clone is only 13 days, not even one day more. Story-wise, in less than 2 weeks each character will die of old age, without a way to escape this terrible fate. Luckily, after every death, the characters can reborn as school kids, starting again the 13 days clock. The imperfect clones will experience this terrible and bizarre fate several times during the game, an entire life in less than 2 weeks, from childhood through adulthood till becoming elders.

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Days in Zanki Zero pass quite easily, each rest or change of floor in a dungeon will move the clock forward of one day, and every few days the characters will enter in a different stage of life. The cycle is quite simple: starting as children around 7 years old, the characters will then become adults in their 20s, then middle-aged, and in the end seniors. The changes are of course aesthetic, with the characters visually ageing at each new phase. This is a really unique feature for a JRPG, not only watching your favorite character ageing in front of your eyes, but also a way to somehow punish fan-service. Because the sexy anime girl that you dressed in a bikini will grow old with the same clothes: reality hits hard.

Of course, the different steps come with huge changes in terms of gameplay. Kids and seniors will have less attack strength, and especially kids can bring less weight than adults. So of course fighting with a group of adults is recommended but it is also interesting how several skills and abilities are related only to a specific age-group. For example, kids can heal over time, while adults can increase attack and defence. Seniors instead can reduce stress over time, probably due to the old age wisdom. This is also reflected in the exploration, for example with small holes and openings that can be explored only by having a kid in the party.

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Ageing is not the only way of dying in a cruel and dangerous post-apocalyptic world. Death is always behind the corner, it could be an illness, starvation, or of course a deadly monster. However, the clones can reborn after every possible kind of death. If we could debate quite a lot about how “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” especially under a clinical point of view, in the case of Zanki Zero there is no doubt that instead “what DOES kill you makes you stronger.” Depending on the way that characters died, after reviving as kids, they will permanently inherit a perk that will make them stronger. Killed by an angry mutant? Next cycle that character will be stronger against that enemy. Dead for starvation? Next time the stamina will reduce slower. A deadly poison killed one of the characters? The next clone will have increased resistance against poison. There are 150 perks associated with each character, for a crazy amount of ways to die, including dying for shame or food allergy. The perks are also associated with cards, portraying comic and macabre images, a mix between retro Japanese games and Fallout’s Vault Boy propaganda.

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Zanki Zero is a constant betting and planning with death. The player should estimate the time to reach the end of a dungeon, or old characters could die along the way, losing all their items and the possibility to open specific doors that need all the characters alive. Often it is better to intentionally kill your characters to make them young again, but this will start the problem of weakening the party with more kids. Also, sometimes it is worthy to sacrifice a character in another horrible way, especially if he or she already collected the perk of dying for old age. There will be disturbing moments when the player will think “should I make starve this character to death or better to sacrifice him to a mutant?” But of course, reviving the characters is not free and the machine will use specific points, and the more the perks a character gained, the more expensive will be to revive him. Moral dilemmas and strategy are constant weights in Zanki Zero, where the player should learn how to comfortably play with death.

The cloning machine has a lot of other functions, including the transplant of mutant organs to gain powers. The survival elements of Zanki Zero are also not secondary to any pure survival game, building an incredibly complex game. But for sure the cloning mechanic, including ageing and the perks associated with death, is a unique gameplay element well integrated into a complex and satisfying dungeon-crawler.

Mary Skelter Nightmares: When the dungeon is a colossal living creature with its own needs

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There are worst things than wandering through the dark and cold corridors of a dungeon. If you think that a claustrophobic and repetitive space made of moistly walls and empty silences was the most terrifying and standard environment for a dungeon-crawler, now you will change idea. Because if the dungeon was instead a colossal living creature, the situation will be far worse. This is exactly the main idea for the setting of Mary Skelter.

While you wander through the dreadful but colorful dungeons, you may forget that you are instead inside the body of a colossal eldritch entity called the Jail. As the name suggests, for the few survivors it is impossible to leave the body of this creature, and they are doomed to endure terrible torture inside this organic prison. The Jail is able to mimic things that assimilated, explaining the peculiar and variegated environments. The creature also possesses a sort of immune system, but of course instead of macrophages and lymphocytes, there are monsters called Marchens, and the immortal abominations known as Nightmares (have a look at one of them here: Monster of the Week: Downtown Nightmare (Mary Skelter) — Surreal and Creepy). Sometimes by watching at the variegate and interesting dungeon setting, the player could forget to be inside a living creature, but the game will find ways to remember it. For example, it is quite common to find healthy flesh pulsing out of the walls, just a small fraction of a gigantic living organism. Sometimes, huge eyes will open on the walls, following the party in a creepy and disturbing way. Also the main objective of the party is quite straightforward: to search and to destroy the Jail’s hearts in each different layer.

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The really interesting thing is that being inside a living organism is not simply a storytelling trick to make everything more interesting, but it is directly integrated into the gameplay. As every living organism, the Jail has needs, both physical and psychological. If the player satisfies one of the needs, it will be possible to access to a specific wheel which allow to win a random reward. If some prices are bonus in battle, more experience or less enemy encounters, other bonuses are more rooted in the setting of the game. For example, one of the most interesting reward is the possibility to morph the Jail body itself, unlocking secret areas or creating complete new floors. To fully explore each level of the Jail will be not only necessary to satisfy its needs multiple times, but also putting extra care while unlocking the “random” rewards. The concept of satisfying the biological needs of a giant monster in order to control its own growth, to explore new floors of the dungeon, is a really innovative concept.

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Which are the biological needs of the Jail and how the player can satisfy them? Of course the primary necessity of any living being is the hunger, and the fundamental need of feeding. The Jail in this sense is not different from any animal and, even as a colossal abomination, it still needs food. The Jail will feed on the fluids of the creatures roaming inside of it, absorbing and digesting the blood that is splattered on the walls of the dungeons. How can the player satisfy this need? In each battle if an enemy is killed in a critical way, it will splat pink blood on the walls of the Jail. By critically kill many enemies, the dungeons will turn in a pinkish slaughterhouse, and the Jail will satisfy its hunger. Other than feeding the Jail, the blood will stain on the walls of the dungeon for the entire game. So yes, practically speaking, a player could turn the Jail into a pinkish hell.

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Another primary need of any animal is sleeping. Also the Jail, an eldritch monstrosity, sometimes needs to peacefully sleep. Only when the Jail is sleeping, the player can take advantage of this situation to satisfy this need. In some specific moments, the Jail will simply fall asleep. This is the only time when the player can fill the sleep bar. Just walking in silence is enough to keep the Jail in its peaceful sleep, increasing the sleep bar towards the bonus. Fighting will of course negate any satisfaction, since a battle is of course very noisy and will bother the Jail’s sleep. However, if the player is able to defeat the enemies without taking damages, this will provide anyway a step toward satisfying this need. For sure a quick and deadly battle is less noisy than a long one.

The third need is more complex and, well, a more delicate topic. Because apparently even for a gigantic eldritch abomination, the third physiological need is the libido. Japanese RPGs will never stop to be a surprise. Anyway, also this need can be satisfied by the player in order to take control of the Jail, its growth, and the relative bonuses. Before being traumatized by what the main characters should do the satisfy the libido of this huge abomination, let’s take a big breath because the solution is not as disturbing as could look. Scattered around the dungeon there are innocent looking heart symbols. Those are called “Emotion Points”, and are the quickest way to increase the Jail’s libido. If you forget for a second the name and the bland appearance of these symbols, the main idea is anyway that the characters are looking for “very sensible points to increase the libido from the inside of a huge organism”. Yes, now everything is really more disturbing.

If hunting for “Libido Points” inside a colossal being is not your daily meal, there is another more direct and less subtle way to satisfy the Jail’s libido. The main party is composed by only good looking girls, often with very few clothes on. If this alone could be enough to increase libido, they also have a more interesting secret. They are not human, but something called Blood Maiden, a class of warrior related to blood. Their true power arises when they get covered in blood. But when they are extremely drenched in blood, they could become corrupted, going into a dangerous frenzy. So what could be the most efficient way to clean the blood from their skin? Of course by licking each other. Japan, what a wonderful land for dark RPGs. This action is however not shown to the hungry player’s eyes, but, apparently, the Jail is instead enjoying the spectacle, since its libido will increase.

Mary Skelter is a dark JRPG with a really unique setting. Not only the player is wandering literally inside the “final boss” for all the adventure, but the player is also directly integrated in its ecosystem, trying to play with the Jail’s needs to control its growth. This is really a unique concept with a huge potential, and a very innovative way to connect the gameplay with the setting. For more info you can also check my review: Mary Skelter Nightmares Review: an innovative dungeon-crawler where fairytales are drenched in blood.

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Fear & Hunger: the many ways to permanently sacrifice the Girl [Evil Quests]

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Fear & Hunger is probably one of the most dark and disturbing RPGs ever made (check my review fir more details: Fear & Hunger Review: a journey in a land without morality for the darkest RPG ever made). The game lacks any morality, and every action falls in a gray or in a completely black zone. Between the many questionable actions and deeds, the fate reserved to “the Girl”, one of the most important and mysterious characters, is particularly disturbing.

The Girl is found imprisoned in a cage in the entrance of the dungeon. Unable to clearly speak and to explain anything, she can be anyway set free. She will then join the party following the main character around. She is practically useless in combat, and will die pretty easily. However, there is a secret behind the existence of the Girl, and only by bringing her to the very heart of the dungeon, it will be revealed. This is not an easy task, even because the game will try to trick the player several times into sacrificing the Girl. Because in the dark world of Fear & Hunger, sacrifices are a powerful currency. And the Girl is one of the most precious coins, so it is not a surprise that many entities will lurk for her soul.

Even without being tricked by a mysterious creature, the player can even simply decide to sacrifice the girl at any offering circle, common spots scattered around the dungeon. The magical circles allow the main character to gain trust with powerful and ancient Gods by performing different rituals. For example, sacrificing one of the party member is one of them. The Girl is the best sacrifice to increase your loyalty with the dark god, unlocking new spells and abilities. Of course the Girl will permanently die, after being sacrificed in a violent and cruel way. In a grim world where party members can be sacrificed to obtain new skills, the Girl could be sacrificed just few minutes after obtaining her, at the very beginning of the game. By doing this, for a cheap but immediate reward, the player will be locked out from one of the endings.

Being sacrificed to please an ancient god is not the worst fate reserved to the Girl. There are other far more grotesque creatures desiring to simply devour her. An example of this is the disturbing Human Hydra, a creature born from the fear and the despair of all the guards of the prison, which tried an horrible ritual to save themselves (you can read my extensive analysis about the Human Hydra character on Surreal and Creepy). The grotesque abomination is hungry, and of course he wants that the player bring him food. What food would eat this horrible creature? Of course the meat of a young girl. The player could think to offer the girl in sacrifice to this monster, hoping in who knows which powerful and rare reward. The Girl is useless in combat, and the Human Hydra looks like a giant and terrible being, so why not?

This time the sacrifice is even more disturbing than the previous one. The Girl will be swallowed by the grotesque mass. She will try to fight back, trying to escape from this suffocating mass, trying to swim out of his body. But the more she tries to escape, the more the creature will absorb her. Till she disappears in the body of the Human Hydra, accompanied by disgusting squishy sounds. The reward of the player for such evil deed? Simply nothing, since the Human Hydra is a dumb and useless being, regardless of his terrifying appearance. Never trust a character in the dark world of Fear & Hunger.

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If you want to watch all the interactions with the Human Hydra, including sacrificing the girl and fighting it, you can watch the video on the Surreal and Creepy channel:

Talking about creepy and mysterious characters, the Pocketcat will surely be on top of the list. This creature, with the head of a cat, acts as merchant hidden inside the mines. He appears to be always extremely happy and full of life, often in a really disturbing and inappropriate way, especially since the world is now a place of evilness and madness. His shop offers really powerful and unique items, from ancient tomes, to powerful enchanted swords. But of course, the Pocketcat is not looking for gold. The only way to obtain one of his items is to offer him the Girl. Because he clearly says that he will accept only “children” as currency. The background of the mysterious Pocketcat can be discovered later by reading books or in specific flashbacks. He is an ancient and powerful being, acting as a sort of Boogeyman in the world of Fear & Hunger, predating on children and trying to kidnap them. At least, compared to the Human Hydra, this time the deal has a reward. The Girl will also not die, and she will not being gruesomely devoured in front of the player. But maybe her fate is even worse this time.

The Girl will appear for the rest of the game behind the Pocketcat. However, she will refuse to speak with the player anymore. Her eyes are full of sadness, highlighting that something truly bad happened to her. Her body is intact this time, but her mind is broken. As always, instead, the Pocketcat is super happy and full of life. According to his own words, he is really enjoying the deal. Whatever this is implying, it is something clearly not nice for the Girl.

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There is one last entity that will ask the Girl in exchange for something. Hidden in the depth of a tomb, behind a complex puzzle, and existing only in another reality, the Lady of Moon will make her appearance from a pit full of green light. She is an ancient deity, appearing as a complex mix of female faces fused together in a jellyfish-like body.

The creature is not aggressive, even if she will talk to the player during a battle. The Lady posses powers beyond imagination, typical of an ancient being. However, she can be easily defeat in combat with one single slash. But she has a better deal to offer, of course in exchange of the Girl. She will completely heal the party, but she will also bring away the Girl forever, dragging her in another reality. In Fear & Hunger, this full heal is not a simple matter of regenerating HP, but it is the most unique and complete form of healing available. During the journey, the characters could permanently lose eyes, multiple limbs, or they could being injured with fractures. All these status effects are permanent, and the deal with the Lady of Moon is the only way in the game to heal them. It is not clear what will be the fate of the Girl after accepting this deal, since she will simply vanish with the mysterious Lady of Moon.

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Fear & Hunger is a really dark and macabre RPG, which offers really interesting a questionable moral choices. Party characters, especially the Girl, can be used as bargain for really evil deals. But not always this is the best choice, because in this dark dungeon, the player cannot trust anyone.

Lisa the Painful: would you bet the life of your party characters in a deadly Russian Roulette?

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Lisa is a dark, grotesque and unique surprise in the world of indie RPG, a game with a mature and touching story. In a post-apocalyptic scenario a dad, Brad, should fight back to rescue her kidnapped daughter, the only surviving woman in this patriarchal society. During the game, the player should face several tough and permanent decisions, but some of them are also integrated directly in the gameplay.

In a particular moment of the game, Brad will be kidnapped and forced to play a deadly tournament of Russian Roulette. Yes, post-apocalyptic wastelands are a crazy place where people get bored easily. After surviving three rounds of the deadly Roulette, once set free, Brad could come back again to join willingly other tournaments. Each surviving round will provide an increasing amount of money, useful to stack on cash early on in the game, with few efforts. Of course, there is a price to pay for joining the tournament.

The lives of your party members are used as bet.

Each round, a party member is selected by the player as contestant for the Russian Roulette. When the deadly game starts, each shot of the gun as 20% chances to kill one of the contenders. If this is the case of the enemy, the tournament will continue and the player will get money. If instead is the party member to receive the deadly bullet, he will of course die. Worst news? Death in Lisa is permanent, so say goodbye forever to the follower that was scarified for the hope of obtaining money. The last round of the tournament is against a fat man covered in scars. He can survive to two shots in the head before dying, making him an especially dangerous foe. Of course, nothing forbids the player to load an old save, on Normal difficulty. In case of Hard mode the situation is different, since save points will self destroy after being used, making saves more rare and permanent deaths more dangerous.

Lisa offers a dark and interesting way to offer money to the player, easily, but with terrible consequences. Even if is true that in Lisa there are dozens of recruitable characters, and some of them are also quiet useless in battle, is it anyway worthy to risk their life for money?

Will you permanently bet the life of your followers for money?

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