Phantasmata

RPG Maker strikes again! Phantasmata is one of hundreds of low effort retro-pixel 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." Like all RPG Maker "games", this is essentially a bunch of low quality/canned assets from RPG Maker coupled with a cringeworthy high school anime club fan fiction. However, it's worth noting the assets have had some palette swaps and are accompanied by some absolutely crap attempt at "art" which makes me think several art galleries must have taken out restraining orders against the "developers" of this RPG Maker construction kit hack job, leading them to resort to paying $100 to dump RPG Maker garbage onto Steam. The artwork here is terrible, it's a blend of old retro pixel "art" used as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics, and some of the most amateurish MS-Paint/"Baby's First Wacom Tablet" style drawings I've ever hurt my eyes on. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget to arrange someone who can do graphics properly, or lack of talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game i…

Let me preface this review by saying that I really enjoyed playing this game for a multitude of different reasons, and it was well worth the price to experience all of the things that this game had to offer, even in its early access not quite finished state. I'm gonna talk about all of the good things about this game before getting into the nitty gritty. Like most of the reviews would tell you, the atmosphere and tone of the game is really what sells it. It's not quite like any other piece of media out there and the combination of different art styles, charming writing, and surreal settings alone makes it worth picking up and playing for a while. There's a lot of different recruitable characters that you can find and get to join your team with a myriad of different skills and personalities, and beyond that there are mechanics that allow you to further power them up and tailor them to your liking. The music never misses and it's always very high energy, featuring a lot of really neat jungle/breakbeat/EDM inspired tracks. If you like weird rpgs with unique aesthetics and lots of weird little quirky things sprinkled in then you'll really enjoy what this game has to offer. Here is wh…

I like the unique art style and the edgy dialogue, but unfortunately I have to recommend against this game. The combat relies on a timing gimmick to achieve max damage which becomes quite tedious when it's used for every single attack. It also feels like there are too many battle encounters put in as a way to extend game time. I encountered a crash that lost my progress, and on reflection, I did not want to replay to that point or beyond. I got the gist of the game, and I know there is more fun to be had elsewhere than slogging through endless combat with that timing gimmick.

Great little RPG! a bit on the easy side, but that's not a complaint! less time focusing on trying not to lose and more time focusing on the story! 8/10 :)

I really adore this game so far, it is very colorful and all of the character designs are very intriguing. the dialogue is fun, very tongue in cheek i do think it is worth getting on sale if you can, at least while it has been a few years since an update, but it is decently playable in this state

cool game