The Secret of Varonis

awesome

A shameless (good) Final Fantasy Legend knockoff and I'm here for it.

Super good jrpg. Sometimes, it turns out all you need to make a great game is to just eat another game's homework (in this case, Final Fantasy Legend), throw in a healthy dash of QoL, minor refinements to the mechanics of that game, and there you go. Really enjoyed having a unique set of requirements for "leveling up" each character class, the Gameboy aesthetic and soundtrack, the atypical setting and characters, and a difficulty curve that never felt worse than "moderately challenging".

This is FFL1+2 / SaGa 1+2 with QoL. Must play for any SaGa fan.

Very fun old school RPG. Based on the early Saga or FF legends game. Even though it seems basic there is quite a bit of room for expression in your builds which I very much appreciate. Story is definitely basic, but doesn't over stay it's welcome which is appreciated. Enemy visual variety is lower than I'd like, but at this price it hard to complain. My only real nit pick is I think balance between the races isn't perfect. Espers felt very strong needing low investment in funds (I used the 1100g wands almost the entire game to amazing results.) Less slots for gear getting abilities from fighting as well so they have low cost and where the first to hit max stat before human even had a chance to buy their way there. Humans are solid I loved having one but they feel more balanced due to the cost involved in buying stat ups and more expensive gear. Had some points they were strong or weak depending when/what I could buy. Robot felt a bit lack luster. Sure they can be built a variety of ways, but they just felt like they cost a lot but never hit the same level. Monsters are more for fun I think and the preset is hit and miss with them. Over all a wonderful time filled with nostalgia and a surprisingly fun little bit of JRPG turn based combat.

Final Fantasy Legend 1-3, but especially 1&2 are some of my favorite games of all time. Also known as SaGa 1-3 in Japan, and the series that would come after these games, they absolutely captivated me in a way that helped me get into JRPG's overall. Secret of Varonis is made by people who love them just as much, if not more, than I do. They fundamentally understand what made these games special, and build upon them. There's numerous quality of life features, ranging from expanded clarity of mechanics, to controlling how espers/mutants level up, etc. Truly, this dev team gets it. I would recommend this game to anyone who wants to experience a very unique set of mechanics where your party gains 0 exp or levels, yet everyone experiences growth and powers up in their own way. Even now, I can imagine different party comps to take care of certain things I didn't get to tap into too much. Also shout out to this being run at RPG Limit Break 2025 for making me aware of this game. I had never heard of it until it was run there, and I loved my time with this game. I cannot recommend this enough.

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!

Enjoyed the game.