Venaitura

Really needs some QoL... Avoid until then.

I definitely recommend this game if you're a fan of the 8 bit era of games. Pros: - Really good story. I was surprised at how in depth and even philosophical the story got - Having the ability to choose so many classes and all vary greatly makes it very customizable and has great replay value - the quality of life improvements such as the monster zero item which allows you to turn off random encounters is really nice when you want to or have to backtrack - even though the tracks were a bit short, the songs were were quite good - the enemy designs were fantastic. Incredibly unique and interesting and sometimes creepy as heck - the ending was PHENOMENAL. Such a great way to cap off the game. Very bold and well done. Cons: - can be obtuse in where you need to go, especially the last two areas - can be frustrating with how many status effects random encounters can throw on you

A great NES-style RPG with some modern quality of life features. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys the older Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest games. It can sometimes be a bit difficult to figure out what you have to do to progess the story, but the developer has published a basic walkthrough that can be consulted if/when this happens.

Venaitura is practically a love letter to the early Dragon Quest styled RPGs. From the 8-bit visuals to the town designs, and the party selection featuring a dozen classes, many of which have both male and female designs not unlike Dragon Quest III. People who've played JRPGs from the 80s will almost certainly be hit a feeling of nostalgia and comfortable familiarity despite being a completely new game. Made, to my knowledge, by a single person it has fairly tight focus on everything. The battle mechanics work well, and the variety of party members allows for a healthy degree of replayability and challenge if you're so inclined. Personally speaking, I had a Savior, Spellslinger, Companion, and Combateer which worked fairly well for the entire game. My only regret is that the Combateer definitely felt like the weak link of the group; their skills weren't terribly impressive for most of the game and their magic defence was somewhat lacking compared to the other three. The story is broken up into chapters by way of different landmasses, such as the medieval region of Little Brittin or the Nordic land of Ragna Rock. It's honestly fun to see the different inspirations and influences f…

Editing my review now that I went back and beat the game proper, but initially I got about halfway or so through this game then got distracted by Look Outside and forgot about it. Tried coming back on my old save but I was so lost and confused so I just made a fresh save and played it from scratch. This game is just a really good, really solid retro RPG. If it has any kind of major hook or gimmick, I'd say it's how awesome the equipment is. Even within a limited scope of an RPG maker game that usually boils down to resist or weak, a ton of the equipment is super interesting and super fun. Not only do lots of weapons have special modifiers and interesting stat trade offs, but a lot of them also have lore behind them. It's like mixing the cool weight of finding secret weapons in something like final fantasy with the itemization of an ARPG like diablo. Past that, the story is engaging exploration is fun and there's tons of interconnected secrets. I thought beating the game might've been the key to unlock half of the secrets I couldn't crack but it doesn't seem so. If you're hungering for an old fashioned RPG with lots to do and find , can't go wrong with this one. Heavily recommend.

https://youtu.be/t83viRFtFoI Surpassed by future games this is more of a proof of concept than a strong enough title to stand on it's own.