Videogames

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.

Demoniaca Everlasting Night Review: a dark and mature beat ’em up metroidvania

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Castlevania Symphony of the Night (SOTN) is probably the best Castlevania ever created, so no wondering that future metroidvania often used it as main inspiration. Sadly, right now the series is practically dead, and between the many indie metroidvania, very few of them have a comparable dark and gothic atmosphere. Demoniaca is the project of an Italian team, inspired by SOTN but bringing its own identity into a really dark and grim world, with a small amount of violence and nudity. Other than a mature and violent world, Demoniaca is also offering a deep and innovative combat system for the genre, and a beautiful pixel art. But I will talk about that shortly.

Demoniaca tells the tale of a girl abandoned half dead by a group of demons in a mass grave. Her blood got mixed with the one of demons, and she is able to heal and reborn as half’demon. She will follow her own revenge path while trying to stop a catastrophic ritual in a huge tower full of demons. Along her path she will face terrible monsters, huge bosses, and will also meet weird characters. The pixel art of the game is very gorgeous and complex, especially for characters, enemies and bosses. There are a lot of effects on the screen, sparkles, lightnings and also characters appearing during specific summons or attacks. Also in some cutscenes or after loading a new area, a zoom function will better highlight the characters, providing lot more details. The music is fitting with the general atmosphere, with rock tracks based on a strong guitar, which will accompany the player while exploring the dark depths of the tower.

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The combat style of the game is very peculiar for the genre, and it is also very deep. Basically it is based on fighting games such as King of Fighters or Street Fighter, with the four basic buttons connected to different kind of kicks and punches. While progressing through the game, the main character will unlock new moves, to be executed as combination of buttons. Some new attacks are also able to open hidden areas or to progress in the game. There is also a parry function, which allow to reduce or to completely waive the damage received by the enemies. The combat system is deep and appealing, but quite difficult to master and to practically apply, often reducing to spamming the most effective  single attack against a specific enemy.

The RPG side of Demoniaca is well developed and integrated. The main character is able to level up with experience, to collect souls as money to buy new items, and can equip several accessories. There is a huge quantity of items to collect, from rings or necklaces to boost the statistics, to more peculiar items which will expand for example the information on the mini-map, showing also the movement of the enemies. The items can be collected from hidden chests, but also the enemies will sometime drop special necklaces or rings. The emphasis is however not on obtaining new weapons, but on discovering new combos and attacks to practice and to perform them.

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Demoniaca is a really challenging and punishing game, with a huge step in the difficulty after the first boss. The enemies punch hard, with strong and fast attacks, usually lot faster than the main character. Also flying enemies are particularly nasty and difficult to fight or to simply avoid, since often they are almost immortal and with very narrow space between them. Demoniaca also feature an old-school save system, based on finding save points. So forget about autosaves or checkpoints and go to save often, because if you die then you will lost lot of progresses. Of course these are not negative side, but it worth to mention that people looking for an easy metroidvania will find in Demoniaca a real challenge. Instead, old-school players will probably love it.

The enemies are interesting in both design and attacks, with a lot of variety in each new area. The bosses are huge and challenging, usually providing long and strategic battles. Even regular enemies are quite hard to defeat, and it is very important to discover their weak points, even if sometimes this is not too obvious. For example, a huge robot fighting with a telekinetic knife will make the main character into pieces, especially because its attacks are unblockable, till the player will discover that the telekinetic knife can be punched-back to avoid any damage, if executed at the correct moment. Each enemy is really a unique surprise. A small and apparently useless enemy can inflict the status “Retro”, reverting the graphical style of Demoniaca into a retro gameboy-like aesthetic.

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The characters show also a peculiar design, going from aggressive demon-like human, to mysterious being such as the Boxman. I am particular fan of this character, a weird and mysterious being wearing a cardboard box over his head, teaching techniques and appearing in the most unexpected situations. For some reason he really hates crows, but this is another story.

The game is full of small secrets, and has a lot of back-tracking, in the good metroidvania formula. For example, some secret areas or events can be accessed only later by using a specific ability. There are also super strong unique mini-bosses, marked on the map with a star, which are usually too strong to fight when met for the first time, and they need to be revisited again later in the story. The game is full of references, especially of course to Castlevania, but also to King of Fighters, for example in the main character sprites. I was also surprised to see some enemies very inspired by Doom, especially by the Pain Elementals and the Cacodemons.

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Sadly there are some negative sides in Demoniaca’s experience. The background is a bit static and repetitive, compared to the level of details of characters and monsters. The game is also really challenging, but with the correct items and with practice, every challenge can be overcome. The controls sometimes are not so responsive, especially during the platform session, which can be a little clumsy. However the game was released only few days ago and the developers look really responsive, so the majority of these issues could be solved in future patches.

Demoniaca is an interesting dark metroidvania, with nice characters and enemies, together with a deep combat system inspired by fighting games. If you can overcome the challenge, Demoniaca can be a really rewarding experience.

The review was based on a free STEAM key provided by the developers.

Interview with ” The Game Kitchen”, the Spanish team behind the dark metroidvania Blasphemous

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Blasphemous was one of the most successful Kickstarter’s campaigns, and one of the most awaited indie game of 2019. The gorgeous and detailed pixel-art caught almost instantaneously the attention of the press and the players, but there is a lot more in Blasphemous‘s world other than the graphic. The game is a really dark and gruesome RPG metroid-vania, with a strong horror background, especially for the grotesque enemy design. The world of Cvstodia, land where Blasphemous is set, is directly influenced by Catholic religion, creating a unique, twisted and disturbing atmosphere, where religion meets horror.

The Game Kitchen is the brilliant Spanish studio behind Blasphemous, previous authors of the horror point and click saga of The Last Door. Using as inspiration traditions and celebrations from Spain, this independent studio was able to create a really unique and dark world, and one of the most mature and original metroid-vania ever created.

I had the possibility to ask some questions abut Blasphemous to the Game Kitchen. In the following interview, you will find details on how the world of Blasphemous and its creatures were created, the traditional influences of the team, and what are the future plans for the game. If you want to know more about Blasphemous, I hope you will enjoy the following interview.

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Q1: Thank you for your time and for the opportunity. Blasphemous looks a really promising game, with an interesting and unique setting. As an action-platform, Blasphemous is very different from your previous titles, the horror point and click adventure saga of The Last Door. How the idea behind Blasphemous was born?

A1: (Enrique Cabeza) Sorry for my English in advance. After The Last Door we needed to lay the foundations for a new project and after a lot of testing we felt that the next game should be different and could attract a wider range of players but, more importantly, that the game would be very attractive to ourselves as developers. At that time the team was extremely small and the project was going to have a minimal budget, but after the Kickstarter campaign, everything changed and we were able to increase the size of the team and the budget considerably. In addition, the success of the Kickstarter campaign indicated that the game was attractive enough and that we were heading in the right direction.

Q2; Which are the biggest influences for the design, the lore and the gameplay of Blasphemous?

A2: Well, gameplay influences come from games like Castlevania, Strider, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Metroid, Dark Souls or Devil May Cry. We wanted to mix Hack&Slash combat styles and progression and exploration of the metroid-vania genre. In terms of lore we have followed the heritage of the Souls saga format that we love so much, but really the stories are inspired by legends of our city Seville of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and mystical religious writers such as Santa Teresa, Gonzalo de Berceo or San Juan de la Cruz. 

Q3: What was the most challenging part of the developing?

A3: From my point of view, the most challenging thing has been to unite the artistic part of the game with the combat design with the giant bosses. That’s probably what caused us the most nightmares. We’ve learned a lot about how not to do some things.

Q4: Spanish traditions, folklore and culture seems to have an interesting influence in the world of Blasphemous. How much Spanish traditions influenced the world of Blasphemous? Could you make some examples?

A4: We realized that our own city, Seville, was full of interesting and unique elements that could serve to create our own dark fantasy. The cultural richness of the city is enormous from the artistic, architectural and historical point of view, so we felt that we were doing an honest job and our own. 

For example, one of the Spanish painters whose works have influenced us the most is Francisco de Goya because he has a series of dark and macabre paintings whose atmosphere fell in love with us and that fit perfectly into the tone of the game we wanted to create. Seville is full of religious art with hundreds of years of antiquity. One of its most important traditions is Holy Week which is truly spectacular. Really, all these works and traditions are not lived here as something merely religious, but it is something cultural and traditional, and a part of our DNA.

Q5: From the title to the world itself, Blasphemous clearly integrates religious figures and symbolism, for example Michelangelo’s Pietà for one of the first bosses [Figure 1]. How did you integrate religious topics in a horror environment?

A5: Much of the religious art, especially that of Andalusia, in southern Spain, is very dark and gloomy. Seville is full of religious iconography that represents suffering and tragedy in a unique way. I think it was a good decision to inspire the art of the game in all this art and heritage of southern Spain.

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Figure 1: Boss inspired by “La Pietà” of Michelangelo

Q6: I am a personal fan of the creature design of Blasphemous, especially one of the bosses: a gigantic blindfolded child lifted by a humanoid dark creature [Figure 2]. The design is really terrifying and unique, is this boss still part of the game? Could you provide some details maybe about the background or the battle against this creepy foe?

A6: We don’t want to give many clues about it because inside the game the players will be able to find a lot of information about all the characters and the world of Cvstodia. We think it’s better for players to find and discuss the whole lore of the game. We have published a two hundred page art book explaining the artistic influences and creative processes that have given rise to all the creatures and characters in the game. I hope you find it interesting!

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Figure 2: One of the most creepy and disturbing bosses of Blasphemous

Q7: Let’s continue to talk about the unique creature design of Blasphemous. Which is your favourite monster or boss so far? Why?

A7: I think Crisanta is one of my favourite bosses, the design of her armour is very iconic, also the girl climbed to the giant is one of my favourite enemies and has turned out to be one of the most shocking for players, is inspired by one of the most important Spanish paintings in history and the universal painting ‘Las Meninas’ [Figure 3]. One of my favourite characters is Desamparados, the woman in the painting that appears in the Blasphemous comic “El Arrodillamiento”, which is published in Steam, I think is one of the characters I enjoyed most designing and writing.

Q8: How are you balancing the difficulty of Blasphemous? Will it be more difficulty levels or maybe a New Game+, in the way of Souls game for example?

A8: Yeah, there’s a New Game+ on the way. The balancing in the games is something very difficult to achieve and I think the gameplay designers of Blasphemous have done a tremendous job. Hopefully we can even improve this aspect in future updates with the help of the community.

Q9:  The world of Blasphemous looks a really interesting place to explore. How much focus will be on the exploration and on the search for secrets? Just to have an averaged idea, how big will be the map in terms of hours to be fully explored?

A9: It’s complicated to say. I think we’ve introduced a lot of rooms to explore and secrets to discover with the budget we had. There are players who complete the game after thirty hours and others much earlier.  However, we have plans to add more and more content to the game which we hope players find very satisfying.

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Figure 3: Artwork of the creature inspire by “Las Meninas”

Q10: My obvious last question will be about the future of the game. Are you planning to support the game after lunch, with DLCs for example?

A10: Yes!! We are already working on new game content as well as correcting and improving existing aspects of the game. Blasphemous has just started!

Final Remarks:

I would like to thank the Game Kitchen, especially Mauricio Garcia Serrano and Enrique Cabeza, for the great opportunity and for their interesting answers. As probably many other fans, I am also curious to discover what monstrosities will be lurking in the future DLCs. I want just to remember that Blasphemous is available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and also STEAM.

Most dark, scary and creepy bosses from Castlevania saga

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Castlevania is one of the most famous platform RPG, so famous that, together with Metroid, created the genre metroidvania. The gothic setting has some horror elements, especially in the design of the enemies or in some specific sections. Demons, skeletons and giant abominations are classic creatures, but mixed with a twisted Japanese design conferring to Castlevania a really interesting and wide set of enemies. The bosses are especially interesting, huge and terrible foes sometimes bigger than the screen itself. If some battle are against very regular creatures, some of the bosses are nightmarish beasts which could be proper enemies of a horror game.

In the following article you can find the most scary and creepy bosses of Castlevania saga, according to my taste. At the end it will be also a boss from the recent Bloodstained, spiritual sequel of the almost deceased Castlevania saga. Be ready to jump into nightmarish castles, where the vampires are the last of your problems.

  • Balore – Dawn of Sorrow

A hulking abomination with a green skin, wired teeth and a metal mask surrounding its head. The boss design is the classic “creature” from a gothic setting, probably the subject of an experiment, but with an overall disturbing design. The creepy monster uses the brute force against the main character, unleashing the fury of his giant fists.

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  • Puppet master – Dawn of Sorrow

Maybe it doesn’t look from this image, but this is where the nightmares are born. A huge wooden puppet, mixing into the design a sort of skull together with a spider, hanging from the roof. The Puppetmaster’s eyes move in random directions, bulging out in a really disturbing way. It also has a giant mouth full of pointed teeth. The fight is also really horror-oriented, thanks to its disturbing attacks. It will often regurgitate from its mouth half-dozen of flying puppets, which will attack the player. But the creature has also another peculiar and deadly attack. It will create a puppet clone of the main character, and it will try to push it inside an iron maiden. If not destroyed on time, the player will exchange place with the puppet, receiving a huge damage from the iron maiden.

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  • Menace – Dawn of Sorrow

Final boss of the game, the creature is a really colossal zombie, one of the biggest bosses of the saga. The design is full of details, interesting colours and forms. Organic and inorganic merged together in a really scary giant. Human faces are morphing like organs in its body, for example in the mouth or in the knee. Also the skeletal face shows an extra set of jaws, just to highlight its feral behaviour. The boss will principally use its size to smash the player, but will also summon from his body creepy flying parasites.

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  • Gergoth – Dawn of Sorrow

A sort of zombie dinosaur, and one of the most scary bosses of Castlevania. The skin is almost melted, probably because the undead body is rotting. There are wounds and bones opening everywhere, while the tale is missing a half. But the most terrifying element is only shown during its beam attack. The creature will pull off the skin from its face, revealing the muscle and the bones above it, before unleashing a deadly beam. The fight takes place in a very tiny space, and it is difficult to avoid all its attacks, especially a cloud of toxic gas.

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  • Eligor – Order of Ecclesia

A colossal centaur protected by a heavy armour, and full of weapons. The monster is like a gothic version of a tank or an aircraft, heavily protected and a fully equipped. The most creepy details is that the armour is covering something organic beneath, something probably made of twisted meat. The only apparent detail of the abomination lurking under the seal of the armour is a giant eye in the helmet. The design is simple, but effective to create the idea of “something wrong”. The boss is practically an entire level by itself, and the player can jump around while destroying the many weapons and avoiding blades and arrows.

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  • Maneater – Order of Ecclesia

At a first glance, this creature is only a mass of skulls with their tongues out. However, the truth is far more grotesque and disturbing. The tongues are instead the body of huge parasites, which inhabits the giant skulls. The boss fight takes place inside a huge chapel entirely made of skulls and bones, just to add another creepy detail. The boss is sadly a quite standard fight, and will mainly attack by regurgitating bones through its mouths.

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  • Behemoth – Portrait of Ruin

The upper half body of a Minotaur, horribly cut in the middle. The organs are exposed, as part of the spinal chord. The creature will drag around in the floor, in an almost pity way, trying to charge at the player. There is something almost sad in the torments that this creature probably endured, but combined with its aggressive behaviour , it creates a really creepy boss.

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  • Scylla – Symphony of the Night

A water monster with a very peculiar design, far from the Greek creature that inspired it. The monster is composed of a naked female figure, fused at her belly with 3 wolf heads, which then evolve into a mass of tentacle-like snakes. The design is not only innovative and bizarre, but also a bit disturbing in how so different animal motifs are combined together. The boss has many independent attacks, coming from the different parts, and she is also able to raise the level of the water, trying to drown the main character.

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  • Granfaloon – Symphony of the Night

A giant sphere composed entirely of dead bodies. Of course this abomination could only be the final boss of the underworld section of the Castle. The reality is that the amalgam of bodies is only a shell protecting the real creature, which is composed of tentacles, able to shoot energetic rays. The most creepy detail is that while the player is damaging and removing the shell, the dead bodies will fall on the ground to attack the player, like a rain of tormented souls.

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  • Beelzebub – Symphony of the Night

This is really where the nightmares were born. Beelzebub is a boss that will surely stick in the memories of any player, especially for the gross and disgusting design, more than for the batte itself. Basically he is a giant rotten corpse, hanging and dismembered by several hooks. The creature is huge and divided in many body parts, which should be destroyed to finally kill this grotesque demon. Even if the main boss is virtually harmless, many giant flies will protect their master by attacking the player. Nothing prepared the player, at the time, for the vision of this gory and grotesque abomination, which for sure can be considered the most disturbing boss of any Castlevania.

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  • Special Mention: Bael – Bloodstained

Bloodstained is not an official Castlevania, but it is the recent spiritual sequel made by the original creator of the saga, after Konami abandoned it. The true final boss really deserve an inclusion in this article. A ring composed by three heads connected together by long spiral necks. The first head is a zomb-ish devil, with a creepy expression on his face. The other heads are a hellish cat and a disgusting giant toad, both fused together to create this aberrant abomination. The demon lord can cast many magics, can create a lava pool, attack with a chainsaw-like tongue, and can also bite the main character.

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Monster of the Week: the Collector (Darkest Dungeon)

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Origin: Darkest Dungeon

Appearance: A creature born from the worst nightmares, the Collector is an eldritch undead horror who enjoys to collect human heads, and probably also souls. The creature is taller than a human, wearing a long, old and yellow robe, aged and ruined. His head  is a grinning skull shrouded by blue flames, protected by a metal cage, which is similar to a torture instrument. The Collector is an embodied nightmare, who hides his creepiest secrets below his coat. Heads and souls of all his victims are merged together in a disturbing amalgam of blue eyes and painful expressions. His body is entirely composed of this mass of twisted souls that he collected, in this way, each new piece of the collection will become a part of him. Another disturbing detail is that he will show the grotesque hell that is hiding under his clothes only when using the attack “Show Collection”. The Collector is so proud of his collection that wants to share it with the new adventurers. A taste of the tormented hell that will wait them, when they will become part of the collection.

Background: The creature is a restless collector, always obsessed to increase his collection with new and exotic pieces. The only problem is that his collection his composed of the heads of the many adventures unlucky enough to meet him. Since he is always hunting and searching for new trophies, there is always a constant chance to meet him randomly, while exploring the dungeons of the game. He will especially target groups of adventurers with their inventories almost full, probably to collect even more rarities from their bodies. Facing the Collector at low level is a nightmare, since the creature is a tough and peculiar foe. Even alone, he is a dangerous enemy if faced at low level, able to damage the party and at the same time to heal himself. However, the most difficult part of the battle is the ability to summon 3 allies, using the skill “Collect Call”. This is also the most creepy ability of the Collector, since his “allies” are the screaming disembodied heads of previous adventurers, supported by their own spinal cord. The Collector will summon pieces of his own collection to help him in battle, with the aim to defeat his opponents, consequently adding new elements to his morbid collection. The three heads show different abilities. One of them is the warrior, able to attack while moving quickly on a temporary ghostly body. Another one is responsible for guarding the Collector, by shielding him from damages. The last one, the female, is instead responsible to buff and heal the other creatures, making the fight even more unbalanced and difficult to win. As macabre ending, after being defeated, the Collector has a chance to drop a dirty bloody bag surrounded by flies… which of course contains the remains of a disembodied head from his collection.

 

“Cthulhu Mythos RPG The Sleeping Girl of the Miasma Sea” review: fight or flight in a horror JRPG inspired by Sweet Home

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Cthulhu Mythos RPG The Sleeping Girl of the Miasma Sea (or Cthulhu Mythos RPG to simplify) is not only one of the games with the longest name ever, but an unexpected call back to the first horror JRPG ever created: Sweet Home. For people that doesn’t know it, Sweet Home was a game created by Capcom in 1989 for NES. If the plot was merely about a TV crew trapped in a haunted mansion, the game has instead really unique gameplay elements, such for example the permanent death of the party characters. Thanks to strong horror elements and a punishing gameplay, Sweet Home is still remembered as the precursor of modern horror games.

Many years after, Cthulhu Mythos RPG could be intended as an indie spiritual sequel to Sweet Home. From the aesthetic, to the complex gameplay focused on the correct amount of horror elements, many things in Cthulhu Mythos RPG are a homage to Sweet Home. But there are also many new interesting and complex mechanics to provide to Cthulhu Mythos RPG its own identity. Cthulhu Mythos RPG is apparently part of a series of indie JRPG quite famous in Japan, but this one is the only one that got translated to English. However, the saga looks interesting, so I hope that also the next entries will be translated. Just by looking at the main art, I feel curious to check the other titles.

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As for Sweet Home, also in this case, the plot is really an accessory. Four teenagers decide to challenge their braveness by exploring a haunted house, and of course things will go wrong. The characters are not very deep in terms of personality, from the scared schoolkids to the mysterious policeman, but are instead very different and peculiar in terms of skills and utility in combat. A girl knowing karate could become lethal if equipped with a brass knuckles, while a bizarre nerd can easily learn new magic and possess an item that allows to save everywhere. There are lot of possibilities and combinations, and it is exactly in these role-playing elements that Cthulhu Mythos RPG really shines.

The skills are a deep and interesting feature, able to create a variegate and replayable experience. Not only different characters have different skills, but also at the very beginning of the game, the player can select between a huge lists of skills to create the main character. They are very variegated for utility and applicability, with some of them that are useful in combat, others to avoid enemies, to explore easily or to access to new areas or events. For example, Martial Arts allows the player to be deadly in combat, while Hide or Navigator are useful to escape from combats. But the most interesting skills are the one that allow specific access to otherwise hidden areas, such as Jump, Climb or Swim. These skills also improve the replayability in another run, since a different party could access to different areas in a new play.

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The game also features a sort of internal system of achievements. The interesting thing is that each achievement has points associated, based on the difficulty to obtain it, which will increase the starting points used to select skills. The more the achievements obtained, the more the points during the character creation.

Cthulhu Mythos RPG has even more features that improve the replayability. For example, during the dialogues, the player must often decide how to advance in the game. The choices are quite important and heavy, not only selecting the characters composing the party, but also to decide which area to explore. This means that, in a single play-through, the player could not explore all the areas or the events, since many decisions are mutually exclusive. The multiple branches also affect the ending and, according to the forums, the game features around 4 endings. Worth to specify that there is also a powerful secret boss that can be challenged only after obtaining all the endings.

The combat system is simple but anyway satisfying, and players with enough knowledge of old school JRPG will instantly feel at home, with turn-based combats and random encounters. If each character has his own core skills, it is also true that they could learn new spells by using books, or could be personalized by equipping new weapons. The monsters are very interesting, with a nice pixel art. If at the beginning they are more Gothic inspired, such as Zombies or ghosts, or grotesque things, such as a Mass of Cockroaches, later in the game they will evolve into more Lovecraftian creatures.

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The weapons are also interesting and quite deep. Handguns and bows uses ammo, while silver weapons are the only ones that can damage ghosts. In Cthulhu Mythos RPG the health is not the most vital parameter, but it is instead the Sanity. Facing a monster for the first time, or specific skills of the most creepy creatures, will damage the Sanity. When this will receive too many damages, the characters will go crazy. It is important to heal Sanity promptly with items, or it could be too late. The Sanity of the party could be also damaged while exploring, for example after finding something terrible and shocking.

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Cthulhu Mythos RPG could also be consider a survival horror, not only for the Sanity system, but also for the items management. Each character has only few spaces available to collect items. When burdened, old items could be left on the floor to be collected again lately.

In Cthulhu Mythos RPG, running away and escaping from the mansion are a real and often suggested possibility, especially in a game featuring the permanent death of the characters. By running away, the player can start again the game by keeping all the levels and the knowledge collected. This feature is very interesting and useful. Your party went half-crazy? Run away and try to face the mansion again. Normal difficulty is not so challenging, but in Hard Mode this feature could be very useful.

The game is not perfect, especially from the aesthetic point of view, which is very simple. The backgrounds and the rooms are sadly empty and void, making often very difficult to navigate the mansion, especially without a map. The music and the dialogues are also very minimalist. However, fans of old school horror RPGs will find in Cthulhu Mythos RPG an interesting indie title. The new mechanics, such as the legacy mode, the different endings and choices, are very interesting and will keep the game balanced and replayable.

The developers provided a free key for the review. I would like to remember that the English version of Cthulhu Mythos RPG The Sleeping Girl of the Miasma Sea is available on STEAM.

The Bloody Captain of Diamond City: the story of a baseball superhero searching for the absolute fame – Fallout 4 [Characters, Diaries and Stories]

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This is the first issue of “Characters, Diaries and Stories”, a collection of fan-fiction stories regarding peculiar RPG characters of my own invention written as tales, but based on the action of the actual character and together with screenshots. I would like to promote in these articles the connection between character creation, fictional tales and free roaming games. I will also add in future articles describing videogame session/mission written as diaries of the main characters.  As first article, I will tell the story of a character I played in Fallout 4, creating for him a story together with screenshots. I hope you will appreciate his dark tale of a superhero in search of the absolute fame. 

In a world ruled by radiations and mutants, where mankind is wildly living in almost barbaric conditions, the memory of baseball was able to create a hero. Well, or at least this is how it started.

Diamond City is one of the last light still shining in the wasteland of Fallout 4. The city was built inside a baseball stadium, a sport long forgotten but still integrated in this new culture. Many people born protected and inspired by the Baseball, safe inside the wall of the stadium. Several people watched at baseball like at a forgotten art, a discipline to be mastered to achieve the true power. And our hero was one of them.

Inspired by the baseball statue outside of the city, he started his travel to master the ancient art of baseball to become the hero that the city deserved. Thanks to the help of a local business man, who was running a baseball museum, our hero started a long journey toward a gym with ancient baseball artefacts. His dream was to find gear able to provide him the strength and the power to actually become a superhero. The travel was long and harsh, but our hero learned how to fight and how to survive in the Wastelands. However, the tragedy was behind the corner.

He was resting in an abandoned house, very close to the gym hiding the forbidden baseball treasure. The site was empty and silent, but during the night, a green light broke the darkness in a small burned forest in front of the house. A glowing Deathclaw, irradiated from toxic wastes, was staring at him in the night. Huge and green, with horns and long claws, a proper demon born from the contaminated wastelands. Our hero used all his weapons to face the creature, but the fight was lost since the beginning. Scratches and wounds opened his body, while he screamed with all the possible pain when his body was ripped open and irradiated. The Deathclaw flew, thinking that its job was done. But our hero was hard to kill.

Half dead, wounded and irradiated, he laid in the empty house for who knows how long. Suddenly, his wounds started to heal, while his body recovered from the trauma. Surprisingly, something changed in his body and now the radiation wahealing him. He couldn’t believe what was happening. He really gained a superpower, and now was immune to radiations. Following the enthusiasm of this new epiphany, our hero reached his destination: the baseball heaven. With effort and time, he was able to build armours, masks and weapon using baseball materials. He wore the head of a mascot to hide his identity, while learning how to fight with baseball bats. He trained to transform a common baseball ball into an explosive, or how to attach circular saws to a bat. A standard baseball uniform became his bulletproof armour. No, not only a simple armour, but a superhero suit. After months of training, he finally came back to Diamond City as the hero he was supposed to be: the Bloody Captain of Diamond City. Or just for friends, the Captain.

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Now it was time to truly build his name, fighting the evil and achieving heroic challenges and epic deeds to reach the absolute fame. It was time to become a superhero not only for himself, but for the people around him. After all, he was immune to radiation and a master of the ancient fighting art of Baseball. While criminals and gangs were fighting using military weapons and guns, he was fighting only with his baseball bat. Dozen of criminal lairs were cleaned up by a crazy guy wearing the head of a bear and wielding a baseball bat. But strangely, he was really difficult to kill, and with time his name started to be on the mouth of the every criminal.

But for the Captain it was not enough to be only the scourge of the criminal underworld. He wanted to be a hero, responsible of legendary deeds that a common human could only dream of. He started to use his legendary baseball bat to challenge colossal and ferocious creatures in deadly duels. Of course the trail of blood and fights started with his revenge against the Deathclaws. The Captain was able to defeat in close quarter combat, after a deadly and brutal fight, several Deathclaws by using only his modified baseball bat. He was now the real alpha predator.

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But this was not enough. The next opponents were really colossal creatures, such as the Mirelurk Queens. The Captain was able to track one of this ancient beasts, and was able to inflict the final blow with his faithful bat. Deeds and epic challenges continued, but his name never became a legend in the mouth of everyone. He was able to control the atomic power, unleashing a rainfall of bombs on the main quarter of the most notorious gang: the Gunners. The Captain took also control of several weapons of  mass destruction, including an old submarine and some cannons. He became a hero even more powerful than the statue that inspired him at the beginning.

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He also never forgot the ancient art of Baseball, that was always part of his deeds. A museum of baseball was opened by him, showing the hugest collection of balls and bats. The technique called “Manrun!” was also perfected by him, who was able to send humans directly flying in the sky with one hit of his bat. He also achieved to build the biggest baseball field in the world by positioning baseball bases on the extreme corners of Boston.

But it was never enough, and his name never became famous such as the notorious Silver Shroud or Grognack. The alcohol and the grudge became his hideout. The fault of his failure was in the hands of the other heroes, for this reason he started to discredit them. First thing, he found ancient clothes of Grognack the barbarian in a comic shop. He hired an incompetent sidekick to dress as Grognack, always making him fail in every deed, always hurt and exposed to the enemy fire. Second, he challenged Silver Shroud by freeing his city from crime, taking his name and role but dressing anyway with his iconic baseball uniform. But this was not enough, so he started to impersonate them by dressing with their costumes, to discredit and ridiculed them. It was never a hard deal, sometimes he got drunk dressed as Grognack, or he broke a window as Silver Shroud.

But whatever thing he made, it was still not enough for him to be a legend. He was famous, but was not “The Legend”. Nobody was making radio shows or writing books about him, he was a minor celebrity according to his own eyes. Something in him broke, and something new born in his mind. When the atrocious crimes started in Diamond City, he couldn’t believe a human being could be responsible of such monstrosity. At the third killing, the local newspaper started to address the killer as the “Deathclaw Ripper”. The serial killer used a homemade Deathclaw’s hand to make his victims in pieces, with a inhuman barbarity and a sadistic violence. He also always left on the scene of the crime a real severed Deathclaw’s hand.

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The city was shocked by this rampage of violence, but the guards couldn’t stop him. The Captain placed all his effort to catch the criminal, but the Ripper was always one step ahead of him. For how much he tried, he was never able to collect a single clue. The crimes continued and our baseball hero became the worst nemesis of the Ripper. The citizens appreciated his effort to catch the monster, and he became the most beloved hero of the town, often collaborating with local authorities.

Of course, a part of him always knew what was happening, especially when he found the homemade claw full of blood hidden in his own house. His mind just couldn’t accept that he had another personalities, something so dark and evil that was harvesting the people of the city, something arising from the traumatic attack of the Deathclaw. Because what every hero needs, it’s an evil villain to stop.

He continued trying to catch the Ripper, but always failing. Of course: who could be able to catch himself?

Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters Daybreak Review: fighting creepy ghosts at “hide and seek” using science and your senses

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Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters could look like a visual novel with beautiful draws and interesting animations, but there is more than this. I have to say that Tokyo Twilight is a very pleasant surprise in these years, where Dark JRPGs are very rare. Behind the visual novel facade lies an interesting JRPG with a completely innovative system and a set of creepy and well designed enemies.

The plot of Tokyo Twilight is focused on modern day ghost hunters, who relay on technology and science to exorcise the spirits. The environment and the lore is very believable, trying to provide scientific explanations on what the ghosts are. For example, ghosts emit positive electrical charges, for this reason iron and salt are effective against them, or how the sewers are not only dumping away human wastes, but also their negative feeling, creating a sort of underground ghost highway. Everything helps to create a believable modern tale around ghosts.

The protagonist is a high-school student with the gift of seeing ghosts, who will become part of an independent and underground ghost hunting agency. The plot evolves along several chapters, each one with a different case to investigate and a main ghost to exorcise. The chapters are quiet independent between each other and are integrated like the episodes of a serie. Each chapter has also a specific theme and a name, usually associated to rock songs such as “Stairway to Heaven” or a classic “Highway to Hell”. There are also alternative routes and party characters that could be missed permanently, if the wrong choices are made in an episode.

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The game is a well balanced mix between visual novel and JRPG. The visual novel aspect is integrated in the daily tasks of the ghost hunting association Interacting with characters is due through an alternative visual novel mechanic and it is used to deliver the plot. The combat elements are instead based on an innovative and bizarre JRPG system, combining good planning, guessing, and skills.

The graphic of the game is really well done, with gorgeous hand-drawn characters and enemies. The backgrounds are instead made with blurred real pictures, which low down a bit the sense of immersion. The main hub of the game is the office of an occult journal, which is brilliant for details and care. New characters and items will become part of the environment, while progressing in the game, creating a vibrant and alive location.

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The creatures design is simply great. It was not an easy task to made a game based only on ghosts without going repetitive, but luckily Tokyo Twilight succeeded in creating a deep and variegated bestiary. The ghosts are very different, principally divided into dead humans and creatures, or object possessed by an entity. Each ghost is not a simple deceased version of what was in life, but something more twisted, eerie and bizarre. A doctor has his body composed by radiographs, while a truck has a huge scorpion-like tail that ends up in a creepy hand. The enemies are also very peculiar in battle, both for attacks and behaviours. Ghosts can travel through water or electrical plugs, giving an unexpected twist to each battle. Status effects are quiet common, many ghosts are able for example to poison the player or to totally terrify the characters, with terrible penalties. If you want to see more ghosts, you can check my previous article: The Creepy Ghosts of Tokyo Twilight — Surreal and Creepy.

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The battle system is really innovative and interesting, but it will need time to be truly mastered. Before trying to exorcise a ghost, a planning phase can be used to place different kinds of traps in the map. Salt can be used to block the way of a ghost trying to imprison it, while other traps will attract or inflict status to the enemies. After that, the action phase will play directly on a minimal tablet-like interface. The party members can attack, move or use special abilities by consuming AP points. The more the APs, the more the actions that a character can manage each turn. The most difficult task during the exorcism phase is to understand where the ghost could be, since they are invisible entities for most of the time. On the planning map, red “X” would mark the possible positions of the ghost, but it is not a guaranteed hit. It is up to the player to remember the places where the ghost could be, and to check them during the action phase. Even after being identified, a ghost will move each turn on a possible pattern, continuing the “guessing where the ghost is” game. Lot of time you will stare at your team missing all the planned attacks because the ghost moved exactly in the only possible square that was not covered by your planning. This could be frustrating also because each battle has a maximum number of turns (or minutes) to be completed, and usually the number is very tight. Wasting a complete turn for a random evasion could be tragic, since passing the deadline means game over.

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The game is difficult and challenging, both for the complex mechanics and the strength of the bosses. However, with time, the game can be mastered, understanding how ghosts will move and unlocking new skills and APs to help in the battle. The ghosts can also drop new weapons and armours, which would change a lot the possibility of success in battle.

Between the visual novel phases and the exorcism of the main ghosts, the player can also access to secondary quests through the website of the agency. These secondary missions are battles against other ghosts, which can be variable for difficulty, time limit and location. More than quests, these are the equivalent of random encounters and are useful to level up and collect money and items. It is also fascinating to do secondary quests just to face and discover new ghosts, which will update the “Ghostpedia”. Honestly, I was so into facing new ghosts that for almost all the game I was over-levelled, without having to rely on traps to defeat the main bosses.

The plot is delivered instead through a classic visual novel system, but with a twist. The choice system is delivered in an innovating and peculiar way through the integration of emotion and senses. Basically, you have a first wheel to select an emotion, such sadness or friendship, using the corresponding icon. A second wheel will instead decide “how” the emotion would be expressed, with a touch or even licking, for example. This could be very cryptic, and sometimes could be very difficult to make a choice that would not end up in a very bizarre reaction. The system is however truly unique and it can be used to create funny or serious situations, since there are plenty of combination. Just imagine how the play-through could change by answering with “licking” to all the dialogues. Many important choices are also delivered through classic binary decisions.

Between a chapter and the next one, there are also many activities that could be explored in the office. Different websites can be visited to buy items or to understand more about the lore. Free time could be used to do shopping or to interact with the other characters, raising your affection meter with them. Training is also a very useful alternative and can be done by selecting a partner. This could help to build up skills necessary to plan the battles and to have more rewards, but could be also further exploited to learn the battle skills of other characters.  There is also a board card game that could be played in the office against the other characters, a funny and complex alternative for a mini-game.

The are really a lot of secondary characters, each very different and interesting in battle. However, I found the majority of the characters quiet flat and easy to dislike during the dialogues, usually embracing bad stereotypes, such as the gay character who loves to remove his shirt and try to kiss the main character.

I played the STEAM version of the game and I really enjoyed it. Many people complained for the controls, but playing with a pad I found it very easy to manage. The only negative things are the Achievements, which are very funny and interesting in the VITA version, but for some reason got cut-out from the STEAM release.

Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters is an innovative game that mix brilliantly visual novel and JRPGs. It is a difficult game but very rewarding after being mastered, with a really interesting enemies design and a gorgeous art-style. If you want to try a different and dark JRPG on STEAM, this is one of the best alternatives right now.

The creatures of the Line: classic paintings under mutations

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The Line is a weird and original indie-game, a sort of queue simulator set in a dystopian world. In this article I will focus on the bizarre creature design of the game, but if you want to know more about it, you can find more information in my review: The Line: waiting in a queue was never so extreme and bizarre .

The combat system is turn based and optional. It is possible to entirely avoid any fights, jumping the queue by waiting or bartering. The art-style of the game is bizarre but effective. All the characters are made as a sort of classic art collage, creating a strange world where classic art meets horrible mutations. Because the characters show their true face only during the fights, especially while attacking. If some huge abominations are dangerous by simply looking at them, a normal man repentantly attacking by throwing another head or with a hidden tentacle, it is even far more creepy.

Below you will find the bestiary of the Line, including only the creatures that I find more interesting. Some of them are portrayed during an attack, especially if it is showing their twisted nature. The name of the creatures are arbitrary invented, except for few ones. Many creatures are also not present in this list, including other aberrant peasants or animals, such as squirrels and crabs.

  • The man with another head

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If this man looks like a normal well dressed aristocrat, one of his main attacks will highlight his twisted nature. From one of his sleeves, the biting head of an old man will emerge, connected to scarf like a grotesque tentacle. The man is on of the most dangerous common enemies in the first area of the game.

  • The mother and the infant

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To continue with the bizarre classicism, the mother is another example of painting under mutation. Apparently simply a mother with her infant, she is however able to attack in really bizarre ways. She can attack with her clothes, which will mutate in a sort of bloody tentacles made of fabric. Also the infant can directly attack by throwing different kinds of beams.

  • The woman with dogs

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A weird woman wearing an eye-patch and a long coat. She is waiting in the queue with her little dogs. Also in this case, her twisted nature is revealed during the attacks. The dogs will mutate in a sort of amalgam of fur and teeth, very deadly and scary to watch. This enemy is quite rare and she could be faced in the second area of the game.

  • The messiah of tentacles

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This guy looks very similar to many paintings of Jesus during the Renaissance. If this half naked man could look an easy foe, also since is showing very few HP, he can be one of the most aggressive enemies. The man will completely mutate, when attacking, in a mass of tentacles and snake-like appendages. This is something that Cthulhu would be proud of! This man is one of the most common enemies in the second area.

  • The plague doctor

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A big man dressed in red, with a black hat and a plague-doctor mask. The figure is already intimidating by his own, but when will attack with his mask like a beak, it will get even worst. This enemy is very rare and could be faced only in the third area of the game.

  • The huge mutant

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A colossal abomination similar to an alien made of swellings, mouths and tongues. The monster is difficult to describe and to contextualise, but will act as fist boss of the game. The monster has lot of HP, but its attacks are quite weak. Its favourite attack is a protruding mouth, which will bite the main character like a proper Xenomorph.

  • The big wolf

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Another mandatory fight that will act as boss. The big wolf is a huge black canid, already intimidating in its normal form. During the attacks, the creature will mutate, morphing its body in a agglomerate of jaws, opening below its belly. A not so difficult fight with an interesting creature.

  • Swinemantis

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Here we are entering in the land of the bizarre. This mutant was introduced after a patch and, as the official name says, it is a combination of a pig with a mantis. Everything is well balanced into the design, creating a weird creature but somehow quite believable. The Swinemantis is a mandatory boss in the forest.

  • The Wall

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The last free update of the Line introduced a secret area where to face several hard bosses. Many bosses not only have an official name, but also a background. The dystopian city home of the Line was devastated by multiple social and natural cataclysms, and these bosses are their embodiment. The Wall represents a wall that was built to isolate the city. The huge wall is connected to a ancient roman statue, which will be the one attacking. The Wall is a terrible boss with a massive amount of HP, creating the most tiring fight in the game.

  • The Rain

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The Rain is the official name of this horse-humanoid creature, embodying the natural and toxic disaster that plagued the city. The creature has several arms, each one wielding a bizarre weapon, and he is not afraid of using them. The boss is probably the strongest attacker of the game, able to inflict massive damages if not killed quickly.

  • The Hunger

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The Hunger is the most interesting of the secret bosses. The monster is a sort of dinosaur, made entirely by living bodies fused together. The idea is creepy and well executed, creating one of the most emblematic creatures made using a collage technique. The creature is the embodiment of a deadly famine which afflicted the city. Probably people turned into cannibals, and this is why the monster is made of conjoint humans.

Monster of the Week: Uterus (Fear & Hunger)

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Origin: Fear & Hunger

Appearance: Uterus are yellow mannequins swarming through the past version of the ancient city of the Gods. They are all female automata, moving with clumsy and slow gestures. The yellow body is altered by a white skeleton-like structure, especially in the torso, making them look similar to anatomy mannequins. Their breasts are exposed, while the pants are broken, highlighting the sexual nature behind the creation of these creatures. Their yellow skin is strong as iron, impossible to remove and really difficult to damage. But the most creepy detail regarding Uterus lies exactly in their abdomens. A small creature called Embryo lies peacefully in a hole in the belly. Each new turn during the combat, the Embryo will fall, grow, and will crawl toward the party (as you can see in each sliding picture). Before attacking, the Embryo will resemble more a big and fat infant, or a dwarf, but for sure is very far from a harmless baby.

Background: Valteil was a human who ascended to the role of New God of Enlightenment. He was obsessed with creating artificial life using different methods, giving life to set of automata with different functions in the Ancient City. For example, Uterus was the one designed to satisfy Valteil’s sexual desire. According to the official lore of the game, every night Valteil summoned a different Uterus to his room, for obvious purposes. It is entirely possible that the Embryo was born from the relationship between a God, Valteil, and an artificial creature, the Uterus. Probably, the true experiment behind the existence of Uterus, also judging from the name, was to generate new life from an artificial body.

Regarding the fight itself, Uterus is a very peculiar and twisted battle. While moving in the map, Uterus is really slow and easy to avoid. Also during the fight, many times Uterus would simply waste her turn to “dislocate the joints”, making only a disturbing sound. When attacking, Uterus uses her rusty claws to inflict very few damages, but usually causing infecting wound, which could lead to lost a limb due to the infection. The real treat behind the Uterus fight is the existence of the Embryo, combined with an insane amount of HPs. If the arms of the Uterus are easy to cut, making her virtually harmless, the creature will continue to fight even without a head. When the Embryo will start to crawl on the battlefield, a creepy and pressuring invisible timer will crawl inside the player’s mind. What this horrible thing will do? How many turns before it will do something? Each new turn, the Embryo will get closer, while crying in a terrifying and disturbing way. Both Uterus and Embryo have a really huge amount of HPs, making them almost impossible to kill early-on in the game. After an intense crying, the Embryo attack will surprisingly not damage the bodies, but will directly harm the mind of the characters, inflicting a huge damage. A simple attack of the Embryo could send a character completely crazy. Uterus is a really interesting and creepy creature, with an intense fight based on concluding it really quickly to avoid going insane. Uterus is an enemy that is better to avoid.