Fake Happy End

Fake Happy End is an odd variant of dungeon RPG with the exploration all being done on what would be the minimap in a more typical entry in the genre. Nonetheless, it manages to be a fairly solid indie RPG with charming characters and a fairly interesting combat system. To get my major nitpicks out of the way first: It's a fairly short game (by the in-game timer, my first playthrough took 5:37:22, my second playthrough took 2:49:54, my third playthrough took 1:34:11, and the postgame content took 47:46, for a total of around 11 hours for a 100% clear) by RPG standards, but not one that overstays its welcome. There's also a few puzzles with non-obvious fake hints, which I feel are somewhat unfair and likely to frustrate players, even if they find out the real solution. Thankfully, none of them are required to proceed through the main game. The combat system is interesting, but ultimately felt a bit limited. Characters and enemies start each fight with 5 energy and regenerate 1 point per turn by default, up to a maximum of 10, with abilities costing 1-7 points. This is interesting insofar as it makes managing your energy an important part of combat and allows you to predict what en…

I actually kind of enjoyed my time with this game. It has an interesting overworld system not usually seen in RPGs that allows for some alright puzzles, and the RPG elements, though very standard, are still fun. That said, I can't recommend it. I liked it a bit because I like RPGs, but the average player probably will not. The first thing of note is that the gameplay is sort of eclipsed by everything else. The story is okay, if a little confusing and cliche, but a lot of players will probably be put off by the cringeworthy dialogue, terrible art, stolen monster designs, and wholly unnecessary sexual themes. I mean, I get it if you want to play a porn game, but this isn't even a porn game. There's no sex, there's just a developer who inserts his own sexual desires and fantasies into a video game. If you're embarrassed by that one socially awkward weeb kid in high school, this game will make you cringe. A lot of players will be made uncomfortable enough by all of that they won't be able to enjoy the gameplay, which is why I consider it secondary. If the above doesn't bother you, though, then you'll find a game with alright gameplay. There was clearly not much effort put into design…

Story: The player character is an ordinary citizen who is suddenly able to see a strange tower that looks like a lopsided jenga stack, but nobody else can see it. Upon entering, they fall into a trap door and get attacked by an OP monster, only to be saved by Karin, a human who can also interact with the tower. The two eventually recruit two more people who can see the tower so they can traverse the increasingly dangerous stratums and solve its mysteries. Since the party often returns to the outside during the journey, there will be some slice-of-life scenes and relationship/dating events. The dating scenes and relationship scenes add a lot of replayability due to how they show another side of the party members, and one of them will have a ton of references to Alter A.I.L.A. Genesis. I'll admit I was caught off guard by Mishika's date, where some of the choices are actually there to fake out people obsessed with making perfect sim dating choices. Gameplay: The dungeon crawling mechanics are a nice twist on the usual Etrian formula that I'm used to. There are no random encounter and only symbol encounters, which means careful observation of enemy movement patterns will allow th…

It's good.

It honestly baffles me that a game this fun is flying under the radar of so many steam players. Short version, buy this game. If you like Persona 3 mystery fighting, Etrian Odyssey dungeon style mapping, and typical Visual Novel goodness, this game is a perfect blend of all three and then some. Now the reason why; Fake Happy End is about a group of four random teens that are exploring a tower suddenly appearing in the middle of their town, that no one believes is there, much less try to go anywhere near it. The teens face monsters as they climb through the tower levels, but are strangely and suddenly adept in casting magic to defend themselves. Mysteries about the tower and its purpose become clearer the further they climb. The story has a visual novel feel to it. Text reads out through dialogue exchange and the MC's internal thoughts, but sometimes it mixes things up by shifting character focus to one of the heroines when the team splits up. You also get to make choices that can affect the relationship between your teammates. By the way, they're all girls who can have the option to date. Art is a bit of mixed bag. One of my main complaints is that the MC, who you can rename ear…

Kind of pissed that this game only has 7 reviews after all these years. It's better than at least 98% of RPGM games on steam. Neok, wherever you are, hope you're doing well.