Ikenfell

This is the first time I’m crying over a game. I love it with all my heart and I’m really glad I gave this a chance, since it’s not my favorite genre. I’ve been playing games for more than 20 years and this is my favorite game, thank you so much to the devs for making something like this

So he’s a game that’s proudly gay. I’m going to be leaving the story for last this time as I can’t talk about it without spoilers and I have things to talk about. Not in the “Dear God, what were thinking!” kind of way but more “I think this needed another draft to iron out the bugs.” Presentation: So apparently the composers for Steven Universe made this OST. I never watched it except for one episode but I did hear a few songs(Mainly the movie ones) so I have no proper opinion on it other than I enjoyed the songs I liked. Got some pretty good tracks here too like the Snatchers theme, the Dueling club, the character themes or just walking around the main courtyard. There are also some vocal tracks which are great like “It’s Showtime” or “Paint the World. But I’m going to be a jerk and say I’m disappointed that not all your party members have lyrics to there themes. I mean Rook gets a song that only used for an optional fight but not Nel? What did they ever do to you? They’re a precious little bean. As for the art, it’s really good. Each location is well detailed and the character portraits look adorable and expressive. Sure some portraits have to be cropped but at least enough was saved so they can show what emotion they are supposed to be expressing. Battle sprites also look good with some good animations, no issues there.If I was to nitpick, it’s the face on the overworld being blank. It kind of rubs me the wrong way. Gameplay: During my first playthrough, I was expecting to be negative on the dungeons saying they are too short. But after sometime to think about it, I was a bit more accepting of the dungeon length. Dungeons are split between puzzle dungeons that focus on puzzles and mazes like the Astronomy Tower or the Dorms and combat dungeon that are shorter but are filled with stronger foes like the Basement or the library. I still think some dungeons are too short like the alchemy labs or the garden cause my reaction to getting to the end of those was “I like these puzzles. These are fun. What do you mean it’s over?” But I think it’s time to talk about that combat. It is placed on a 12X3 Grid where you have to move your party into position to hit your enemies. You don’t need to worry about MP, you just need to be in a spot where you can perform the spell and when you perform one, that you get the timing down to get a good rating for more damage or when you’re defending, to reduce it and even ignore status effects. Also there is friendly fire, so that’s another thing to watch out for. Some enemies overlap with what they can do but you got a healthy team of enemies to battle with in each encounter. You got short range, long range, ones that can cause status effects, ones that can lay traps, one that can fly over traps, and a few special cases like that sleepy frog that only attacks after being hit. And of course there are the bosses which I see some people complain about and I see why since while there are some unique bosses like Gilda or Beacon, most of the bosses feel the same after a while. But to be honest, Bug Fables has a similar problem with its bosses feeling the same and I have seen worse and more boring bosses in other games. Story: Maritte is an ordinary girl of unknown age who comes to Ikenfell to find her sister, Safina. However, as she approaches the school, she starts getting fire powers. Apparently, weird things are happening in school at the moment so Maritte along with her sisters friends and enemies try to follow her sisters trail and figure out what’s going on. Okay, there is no way I can talk about this without spoilers so spoiler thoughts, It’s fine. Characters are enjoyable with Gilda, Perty and the duo: Ibn and Bax being standouts. The optional content warnings range from serious stuff like trauma and self harm to stuff you wouldn’t think needed one like hoarding. There’s a pretty good musical number that thugs on the heartstrings. And if anyone tells you that the LGBT+ is forced and shoved down your throats, they are lying to you as it’s very casual. Like people are NB and nobody bats an eye. Okay Now spoilers. While I think this story has serious issues, none of it seems to come from a bad place. Aside from being openly gay, the villain isn’t an irredeemable monster that they want us to forgive but a tragic figure who suffers from survivors guilt. The Q-slur is used but in the proper context for naming a powerful health berry so I’ll give it a pass. Maritte doesn’t forgive Safina for the crap she pulled and starting this whole miss. And the finale is a big FU to the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope. My issues with the writing is that I don’t think they double checked their work. Going through a second playthough with a critical mindset may expose some of the plotholes like Bax saying they were sent to find Safina and Headmistress Aeldra but later he says that Aeldra sent for them to find Safina even though she already caught her and Bax seems to know where she is. And this goes for minor things too like when you have to go to the Archive to find Bloodwyn but when they get there, the party says they are looking for the librarian. It also doesn’t help that the second half of the game drags a bit and loses the central plot hook of looking for Safina. We spend the first half of the game following her trail, looking for clues to what happened to her and what she was up to. And by the second half of the game, the story shifts drastically to about Aeldra and saving the world which doesn’t have the same emotional weight as finding the sister who turned out to be the jerk who caused this mess. Now I like Aeldra and I understand they wanted to make a legit anti-villain with her, being motivated to protect the school from a monster that killed her friend without realising that what she’s protecting will doom them all. But she lacks the connection to the main party that Safina has like not telling her friends she had a sister which makes Mari feel like crap, bullies Gilda, ghosted Perty after she was physically and emotionally scared, made Nel feel unwanted when she was keeping her and Rooks relationship a secret, and of course destroyed the Summerstone without telling anyone why. But by the end of the game, she feels like an afterthought. She’s there under a sleeping spell on the way to the final boss and her ending feels very unsatisfying. Verdict: So issues with the main plot aside, this is still a fun RPG. Just remember to check the settings. 7/10

It’s criminal how under-appreciated this game is, please play it if you get a chance!

Прикольная рпгшка про сильных женщин, единственных ласковых черных мужчин среди них, все по канону, все соблюдено.

Ich habe das Spiel wirklich genossen, ein schönes Spiel in Pixel Grafik mit wunderbarer Musik und einen netten kleinen Plot. Ich kann es wirklich nur empfehlen.

A lovely retro-style RPG with good writing, interesting characters, and an imaginative setting.

An amazing, cozy rpg mixed with those cool timming mechanics of the Mario&Luigi series and a "chess"-like arena for every battle. Honestly a must play. Stop reading this and buy it right now. Absolutely worth at full price. You can just feel the love the devs put into this game from the very beggining, and, holy shees, some of the reveals and mysteries in this game are.... *chef kiss* Also, even tho its is a relaxing experience for the most part, some of the endgame bosses are actually hard lol idk if my line-up was weak or too strong ([spoiler]Maritte + Gilda + Petronella[/spoiler]) but I found myself needing a couple tries for 2 of them. Very strong point: The puzzles. Idk, some of them weren't very easy xd I felt smart solving them on my own. I L O V E that, sometimes, some random NPC dialogue was the key to solving them or finding secrets around the school. The oooonly bad thing I could ever say about this game is the fact that animations take too long during battle (?) Maybe some kind of fast forward button for animations that do not require input would've been great, but I do understand the decision of not implementing one