The Secret of Varonis

I cried at the ending.

A remix/mashup of a sorts, that is also an original story, of the first three SaGa games, i.e. the Final Fantasy Legend series. It captures the gloomy and sometimes psychadelic mood of the first game, while also featuring a captivating mysterious story, much like the second game. Mechanically, it combines features of both, and also improves upon them in various ways. In short: Great work. More please. I'll play as many of these as are released.

Never played SaGa games, so I didn't have any previous experience with this style of JRPGs. Progression and balance are excellent, it was very interesting to juggle different characters and figuring out the whole team composition. I do generally enjoy grinding in JRPGs to be overprepared and it was a blast here. note: the games gets a little on the easier side towards the end. Story is pretty minimalistic, but writing is surprisingly entertaining. I liked the characters, some worlds had interesting gimmicks, the main plot is engaging. I mostly play JRPGs for the plot and I don't have anything bad to say in this case. Neat. The only frustrating part for me was that one overly complicated dungeon in the middle of the game, where I spent a little too much time flipping switches and going back and forth not knowing what to do. Not sure if it was me only problem, but it's the only annoying part I found. Very good game, highly recommend.

The developers nailed the GB aesthetic with the graphics and sound. They were able to portray a variety of worlds using limited colors and chiptunes. They even added the Game Boy Color touch of changing the palette during the startup screen. Game-wise, I think the difficulty is just right. Combat flowed well and there are a variety of options for different skill levels. Most monsters felt fair and the bosses had identifiable patterns; nothing too cheap or unfun here. Between talking to townsfolk and the hint system, I was able to figure out where to go without much trouble. My only complaint is that some of the maps felt too huge. I spent a lot of time wandering around figuring out where to go, so an automap option may help. There's also a certain dungeon where the menuing felt repetitive and the backtracking was painful. At that point the game made me less curious about the next adventure and felt more frustrating. There's also a few bugs, but the creators are active on Discord to rectify them. From what I can tell this is the developer Wombat Logic's first serious release. It is an impressive one. I look forward to what this group will create next!

The choice was to play FFL2 for the 18th time, or buy this. If you have the same dilemma, pick it up.

[b]Full Disclosure[/b]: I am already a SaGa addict and full adherent to the Kawazuismo game design ideology. This game is great and a terrific SaGa-like that folks like me will really enjoy. That said, do beware that a lot of the in-game stuff hews [b]uncomfortably close[/b] to its source material, to the point of literally copy/pasting item/class/skill names from the original SaGa 1+2 (AKA Final Fantasy Legend 1+2). Now, those items/classes/skills work differently than the OG, but noting here anyway. It emulates those original games incredibly well, for better and worse! I already love SaGa, but my normal disclaimer here for those that have not been initiated into SaGa applies! Varonis is reasonably accessible, even explaining the damage calculations of each weapon and how stats play into skill use. Success requires you to think deliberately about your builds and how they work together across your party - this kind of gameplay isn't for everyone, but for a game this cheap, it's still worth recommending if you're interested! That said, I would recommend Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven as a more accessible entry point into SaGa. But Secret of Varonis does a lot to demystify the game systems and also help new players. Regardless, hard recommend to anyone into retro RPGs or someone seeking a new RPG experience!

a loving homage to the Final Fantasy Legend series and early works of Akitoshi Kawazu. Humans, espers, robots, and monsters are all fun to use, and the vignette settings are fun twists on familiar bits in FFL games. Recommended for fans of 8-bit RPGs and QOL improvements!