Aswang Detective: The Case of New York

RPG Maker strikes again! And lucky me gets to write the first review for this train wreck RPG Maker thing. Aswang Detective: The Case of New York is one of hundreds of low effort RPG Maker asset/construction kit flips spamming the Steam catalog, made with the RPG Maker video game construction kit... in their own words, "Our easy to use tools are simple enough for a child." Unlike most RPG Maker asset flips/fan fictions on Steam, the "developer" worked out how to use one of the very uncommon 3D templates included with the construction kit, and made a "maze" crawler where you fight various enemies in ultra low definition resolution. I guess the 3D modes don't get used much because it takes more than two brain cells to work out. You might think not being a 2D retro pixel JRPG ripoff would be an advantage here, but the implementation is so bad it might have turned out worse than most of the traditional RPG Maker fanfictions. The graphics are like an EGA graphics card that was broken, taken out of the computer, run over on the street, electrocuted, washed, then put back in the PC. I'm talking UGLY. In fact this is the second of these copy + paste RPG Maker games from this devel…

Aswang Detective: The Case of New York is an unusual and ambitious indie RPG that blends supernatural folklore, detective fiction, and classic dungeon-crawling into a dense, genre-crossing experience. Developed and published by Michael Richard Lannon, the game is driven by a bold narrative hook that immediately sets it apart from conventional mystery titles. You begin as a down-on-his-luck detective who becomes entangled in a strange corporate job, only for events to spiral into violence, betrayal, and a near-death experience that leaves you reborn as an Aswang — a creature drawn from Southeast Asian folklore, imbued with demonic power. From that point on, the game becomes less about solving a single case and more about unraveling a web of conspiracies, moral dilemmas, and supernatural truths hidden beneath New York’s surface. The story unfolds gradually through exploration, dialogue, and player choice, leaning heavily into RPG structure rather than traditional point-and-click investigation. While the detective framing remains central, the game is not about following a strict chain of clues in a linear fashion. Instead, players navigate a branching narrative with multiple main sto…