Tag: RPGMaker

#WeeklyGameMusic: Main Theme (To The Moon)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

Returning back to indie games, this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic is the main theme from the narrative game, To The Moon, developed by Freebird Games. The music is composed by the main developer themselves, Kan R. Gao. It’s an oddly optimistic track for a game surrounding around a creepy, privacy-intruding technology.

To The Moon is an interactive story starring Dr. Eva Rosalene and Neil Watts handling a dying wish of an old man named Johnny Wyles. As the title implies, Johnny wants to go to the moon…or more accurately, wants to believe he went to the moon. Naturally, Eva and Neil’s memory-rewriting machine takes care of exactly that: they can adjust Johnny’s past memory to cause a chronological domino-effect of other memories to be adjusted with this new detail. When the duo asks why Johnny wants to go to the moon, though, he answers he doesn’t know. Faced with such ambiguous details, the two attempts to rummage through Johnny’s past to find what convinced him to go to the moon, and what they can do to change his (internal) history.

Gameplay-wise, To The Moon contains very little interactivity. One can explore in an RPG Maker world and talk to characters to learn more details about side characters (and Johnny’s wife). Collecting the right thing, or speaking to the right person continues the plot of the story. A very simple game with a move-at-your-own-pace story and no lose conditions.

To The Moon is available on Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Miller House (The Witch’s House)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

#WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music.

What better way to start a romantic month with an RPGMaker horror game? Accelerated heart rate is easily mistaken for love and all that. Anyway, this week’s music is a free music called Miller House, composed by Presence of Music.  It’s used effectively during a shocking plot twist from a Japanese horror game called The Witch’s House. A twist so good, it makes every M. Night Shyamalan plot-line boring.

The plot of The Witch’s House is deceptively simple. A young blond-haired girl named Viola wakes up in an opening of a forest, and finds herself stuck in a very unfortunate situation.  The forest itself is too thick to pass through, and the passage that it creates only leads to one of two dead ends. One end is blocked by an enchanted and stubborn set of rose bushes that can’t be cut by a machete; the other leads directly to a haunted house. Without much else to do (and being encouraged by a creepy, talking black cat), Viola dives right into the house.

It’s worth noting that for most first-time players, the house will kill Viola within the second room she enters. Yup, it’s that kind of game. As a defenseless girl, Viola will very frequently get hanged, poisoned, crushed, decapitated, eaten, fall, and other wonderful ways to die in this surprisingly detailed game. This game relies on a trial-and-death mechanic to solve every puzzle, although the majority of the puzzles do provide cryptic hints. Similar to other RPGMaker horror games, The Witch’s House also has a few chase moments that, due to its rarity, is shockingly effective at making the player’s hair stand on its ends. It’s rare to find a game that utilizes jump scares well, yet still feel fair and possible to beat. Just be prepared for all the blood and gore: this game does not compromise.

The Witch’s House is a freeware PC game originally developed in Japanese by Fummy (ふみー). An English translation of it exists as a free download at:
http://www.vgperson.com/games/witchhouse.htm

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Title Theme (Orchestral Arrangement) (Ib)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

#WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music.

Welp, I’m in the mood for a RPGMaker horror game.  Here’s a pretty darn good one, with a simple but moving narrative, forgiving horror mechanic, and very likable characters.  KaRASU’s rearrangement of kouri’s Title Theme does a great justice to Ib‘s use of juvenile perspective to increase its creepiness factor.  Welcome to Ib‘s mystical art gallery, where the lead character’s 9-year-old innocence can’t save the gallery’s dark influence on her sanity.

Ib is a 9-year-old girl walking around curiously through the legendary Weise Guertena’s art gallery with her parents until she comes upon one large, very immersive painting.  It’s at this moment that the lights turns off, all visitors (including Ib’s parents) disappears, mysterious writings starts appearing on the walls, and the paintings starts to animate and even make creepy sounds.  Amidst the horror and confusion from all the commotions, Ib finds herself staring at a floor installation depicting the ocean that’s begging her to jump in.  And so she does, into the prideful, distrusting, and envious world of Guertena’s finest works.

Ib is a story-driven RPGMaker horror game that is thankfully tame on both story and horror.  This surprisingly well-balanced adventure involves avoiding enemies while solving very clever puzzles, and learning more about each character that joins your party.  While the game is very forgiving, with a unique 5-hit-point health meter depicted by an image of a rose, the method of recovering health is very limited.

Ib is available on the PC for free.  An English translation of this Japanese game can be found here: http://vgperson.com/games/ib.htm

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