The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time

The game didn't sit well with me especially with possibly the longest title I've seen. The "game" itself is just a turn based JRPG in disguise but it's actually a puzzle adventure where you play as a [spoiler]disgruntled leaker hired by a game dev?[/spoiler] I'm not entirely sure of the meta narrative whether it's supposed to be a celebration of JRPGs (Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, etc.), a critique of remaking games itself, a documentary of game dev life, friends turned to enemies, the consequences of finding conspiracy in everything or any type of meaning at all. The gameplay mostly insists of solving puzzles via reading a nostalgic manual of the SNES era with writings and torn up pages scattered all over the code of the "game" to then place symbols both in 3D & 2D. It also uses FMV type scenes to tell more of its narrative and is used as a game mechanic itself for solving puzzles since the devs of this meta experience hide all sorts of secrets inside and outside the "game". My problem is that unless you're really knowledgeable about glitches then some of the adventure aspects will leave you lost for hours smashing walls and the puzzles get even more abstract as …

It's an interesting game. But ultimately I think it fails as a satisfying puzzler. One key element of a satisfying puzzler is rewarding curiosity and cleverness. But in this game, if you're curious and clever, you'll soft-lock yourself by sequence-breaking the game. Let me explain. This game is based around a fairly linear intended sequence. If you follow the intended sequence closely, the game will feed you clues and hints. But what if you make an unexpected connection? perhaps you notice a link between the names of two items in your inventory. And you know one of those items is used to open a certain kind of door. Hmm, lets see if the other one can do that too? Boom, you just broke the intended sequence. And you skipped many essential clues and hints! It can be difficult to get back to the intended sequence and recover those clues. This happened to me a few times. Mostly I was able to get back and recover the clues I missed. But it felt like the game was punishing me rather than rewarding me for figuring something out. In the worst instance: I somehow reached some kind of gauntlet or challenge event. In this event, it is very difficult to go back and gather missed clues. But …

such a nothing game. boring battles, boring puzzles, boring story.

amazing

I came for the goofy premise, but was shocked how deeply the story resonated with me. I absolutely love the antagonist, who steals a student game project and doesn't seem to understand what it is or why it was made. It's kind of like The Beginner's Guide in that way, only more of a farce.

A very fun little puzzle game in the framework of a retro JRPG. A love letter to games and gaming culture, good and bad!