Отзывы

• gamedeal user

  Nov 27, 2021

  Good gameplay, clever puzzles (but not too difficult). It can fall into that JRPG rut where you develop one overwhelming strategy, but discovering that strategy is an enjoyable exercise. As long as you're pushing forward instead of obsessively grinding, you'll enjoy a fair challenge. In that same vein, I like the design of the secret bosses, and never felt like I was just slamming my head against a brick wall. The story is fun and simple, with some hooks that tie into some kind of crazy multiple timestream storyline that I'm still exploring. It isn't Lord of the Rings, but I don't consider that a slight, and it's a fair bit better than a lot of other overwrought stories enamored with "deep" philosophical navel-gazing. Plain, but enjoyable characters.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 15, 2022

  I finished the game a while back in ten-odd hours and here's my thoughts: for a game made with the default graphics, it's fine. The writing isn't anything to write home about and the romantic subplot is non-existent despite pretending to be there. The balancing is wack; the most fun I had was finding out that one of Uno's skills is effectively infinite MP and makes longer fights actually fun. Speaking of the fighting; it's awful. Worst and most prevalent part of the game was the persistent excuse to be called a JRPG that is the RPGMaker combat system; both Celestial Hearts and Knight Bewitched use it incessantly and it's boring and the devs of either RPGM or the game know is because there's straight up a "play for me" button. The fighting system wouldn't be so annoying if not for the long grinding sessions where you have to make sure the auto-battle can do the battles itself or you spam buttons yourself. Since the auto-battler doesn't know about Uno's skill or [i]any[/i] slightly complicated strategies, you can't trust it to do even small battles. Grinding btw, is effectively 90% of the game's runtime (or at least that's how it felt), just grinding levels to get to the next scene or region; I'm not good at games but at least some JRPGs like Bravely has the gall to allow you to do side content while grinding. It's the devs responsibility to make the grinding feel aimed, but in this case it doesn't feel like it is at all. The story is cliche and boring; it felt like the story just kept trying to trump itself until the ending where I don't even remember what happened (though Celestial Hearts was nice enough to tell me what happens even more after the ending, though that was disappointing in and of itself and once you touch the book it's unskippable). The villains felt like paper cutouts aside from one exception in the badly named Alduin who has both a puddle's wroth of depth and a name straight out of the Elder Scrolls (and I could never take him seriously because of his name :P). The subplot I mentioned before is all over the steam page so much so that the person who wrote the page deems the game a "Casual Yuri JRPG" which is an overstatement seeing as the yuri is hardly noticeable and hardly developed. There was one scene where I straight up thought "oh, if they have a development scene here, it'd work so well" but then the scene ended as I was having that thought. The "Yuri" in this "Casual Yuri RPG" boils down to a relationship that feels unearned and uncooked, I'm fine with casual yuri in the way that the yuri itself is causal but this was moreso casual in the way that the developer forgot to write it and just shrugged before continuing. Elsewise I have little more to say; the game is perfectly fine, it's story is underwhelming, and the yuri moreso but it's still fine. I play nearly anything I can that has yuri in it I only finished this to get the yuri and was disappointed there was so little to say the least. The story was so forgettable that I mostly remember the jab at steam summer sales and Uno's infinite MP skill. If you're playing for yuri: go play something where yuri-goggles can get you further. If you're playing for a casual RPG: this is an okay pick.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 28, 2022

  Its not bad, just exceedingly and unimaginatively average. You play a knight who, after refusing to kill a misunderstood witch, is banished from the kingdom in the middle of an end of the world crisis. It is a fine homage to classic RPGs in terms of plot and combat, and extremely well-polished... ...but that's it. This game suffers from the curse of not being special enough to be that interesting, whether that be so good or so bad. Its combat is fine and balanced, but isn't particularly imaginative for the genre, nor is it overtly satisfying or deep. The story is written well, but generically. If you ever played a JRPG before or watched an Anime, you've seen all these plots and personalities before, which makes it so you don't really get attached to the characters or their quest. The only thing worth mentioning is that the protagonists are lesbians, and while it isn't shoved down your throat like so many other token characters, I didn't find their relationship any deeper than a 6th grade crush. This may just be the pessimist in me talking but, because the romance is handled so surface-level, I can't help but think the romance was chosen moreso for advertisement than to actually tell a story about gay characters (Since, let's face it, the giant banner of two girls kissing is gonna draw eyes, as well as insinuate content this game doesn't cater to but so many others using the engine do). This all leads to an overall shallow experience. I can't tell if the game was made shallowly, just another cog in the "CONSUME CONTENT" machine that is oh so prevalent today. Or if the creator truly is passionate...just not imaginative. My only "true gripe" with the game are the constant mazes. Every location that isn't a town is a maze and it gets old the 2nd or 3rd time. I might've been able to push myself through it if I was invested, but I wasn't. The game's cheap and it will give you your classic RPG Dungeon Crawler fix for a few hours. But that feeling passed for me, and left me wanting more than the game could deliver.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 30, 2022

  I Wanted to be nice to this game and like it. I really did. I wanted to be wrong about every assumption one can make about a stock asset RPGmaker game with a half naked protagonist. However, that was not the case. If you want a good story or engaging characters or world building, go ahead and leave. There's nothing for you here. The gameplay is the only thing worth playing the game for, and you can find gameplay that'll scratch the same itch anywhere else. It's the epitome of "nothing special". Granted, I haven't finished the game, but I am struggling to find a reason to keep going. I've put 6.5 hours in as of writing this review, and I may still attempt to slog through the rest just to see if maybe Somehow it gets better

  First, the good. Because it is there!

  Enviornments: Moving around the world feels fine, and the dungeons are designed well for the most part. As far as I've seen the puzzle design is serviceable enough and does what it needs to. Getting to explore so many different continents and islands later in the game was a fun decision, even though it made figuring out where to go abit harder. Towns are layed out nicely and make sense, and arent just 6 houses lined up with the only differentiating feature being a sign, so that's nice. There's flowers and nice little touches trying to make the world feel like a world people could live in. Gameplay: What you see is what you get: rpgmaker combat. It's balanced well to where it's fun, though I'd suggest against marathoning it or having one long grinding session unless you want to beat your head into a wall since you really want to think about each encounter if you want to get through it faster and with minimal loss of resources, so it can get exhausting. It does it's job well and the way you can customize your party's stats and movesets with armor and weaponry is fun to play with and set up a winning combo. It feels alittle overpowered to have every character have SOME kind of healing, since it makes potions practically obselete, but in some battles I can see why it's necessary. The bosses are pretty fun but don't drag on so long I want to close the game forever. Exploration:Exploring new places and checking every nook and cranny is rewarded with all sorts of fun items, whether its a simple ether or a powerful new sword. The secret rooms are also fun to find. It's nice when you're rewarded for being curious.

  My complaints:

  Characters: All dull and lifeless cardboard cutouts. The only character with a crumb of depth is Uno, the obvious favorite child of the dev. The story is simplistic and generic and there's zero intrigue that makes me want to keep playing and see how it turns out. And now with where I am in the story, I have the feeling we're about to see more of the dev's golden boy get backstory in a way that isn't an infodump unlike the main couple. Ruth's a very simple "Good and Lawful" kind of character. Gwen is mostly the same character but occasionally Spunky and wants to Do Crime and often it feels more like the writer wants a funny thing to happen and nobody else fits the joke. Stray is a kid with dead parents, and wants to Do His Best and Be Useful. He's just a young anime protagonist personality but atleast he has the fact his brain isn't fully developed as a reason he's Like That. Exploration: only rewarding on the most basic level of "oh a new area" and "oh boy an object". Areas are designed competently enough but aren't appealing to look out due to the graphics being mostly rtp from what I can tell. NPCs have one piece of dialogue each, most boring. Nothing changes ever. It feel sterile. I can understand it to a degree given the size of the game world, but when your are spending several in-story days in a town and the local preacher has been binge drinking 24/7 every day you've been there it looks stupid. Also a minor gripe that's more my issue than anything but the environment is entirely un-interactable. There could have been alot of characterization to add by simple interactions with objects in the world like "oh this reminds me of xyz" or "oh this is cool!" or maybe lore/worldbuilding snippets. But there was nothing. It adds to the lifeless, empty feeling of the world. Story : It's all very generic like other reviews have gone into so I won't dwell on the larger plot. Though the entire Thing of Gwen being a witch (which apparently she isn't, she's an alchemist) feels more and more idiotic as the plot wears on and the KING'S MAGE is constantly trying to kill her and have her "tried for witchcraft". The game never really explains what being a witch MEANS in this world, whether it's something you're born as or something you inherit or something you have to learn and actively participate in. It also doesn't exactly explain how being a witch is inherently evil. The only reason she's called a witch is because an old man (who gets outed by his wife as being a dumbass drunk and THAT is why he got sick) got sick after drinking a healing potion from her too fast and a horny man who gave her some blood willingly and then kept telling people it was stolen. This all happened in a tiny villiage. How did two people with minor gripes about a woman end up being not only a big enough deal the KING hears about it but also she is due to be killed for the crime? There's lots of worldbuilding that's just shoddily done or nonexistant. it doesn't feel like an actual living breathing world. It's forgettable. The Gay: It's whole selling point to try and set it apart from it's peers is the "yuri" and it feels like it was just tacked on as an afterthought to sell games. The "romantic" dialogue is generic and awkward and feels like a very early first draft. The chemistry is minimal and not interesting because the characters are as one dimensional as humanly possible. I will give props for the attempt, as sad as it is to watch. While I know the dev probably had good intentions to include respectful gay representation, the fact the half naked protag and her eventual girlfriend kissing is used to market the game feels exploitative. The way the game's advertized makes it seem like the love story is front and center, and that it's important. But it's not. Don't sell your game on the basis that it's gay and then have the romance plot be completely on the sidelines and so minimal. This appears to be a running theme in Joshua's games: using lesbians as a marketing tactic. I'm sure he isn't meaning to, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If you want to include gay characters, please do. But don't call your game a "yuri rpg" solely on the basis of having a half baked romantic side plot. In conclusion: if you just want the gameplay, go for it. If you're so desperate for an rpgm game with lesbians you're willing to put up with actual Crumbs, go for it. If you want a game that has an original bone in it's body, you won't find it here. And if you want actually good gay representation and writing, go somewhere else. This doesn't have it. This game is like the stale white bread of gay representation. I really hope this dev learns from his mistakes and does better in the future. Looking at the reviews and the general store pages of his other games though, it seems using gay women to promote the game and being unable to actually write the romance between them is a running theme. I hope the most recent project Absinthia breaks the mold and proves to be his best work yet.
• zZz

  Mar 24, 2023

  S U M M A R Y Knight Bewitched is a traditional turn-based JRPG which is part of The Knights of the Ambrose Saga and is similar to the likes of the 8 and 16-bit Dragon Quest and Phantasy Star games but adds some unique mechanics to the age-old formula. It contains both the original Legacy Edition as well as the Enhanced Edition but this review will only cover the latter (moreover, the former is vastly inferior in all aspects anyways). Overall, I recommend it because it is decent and does what it sets out to quite competently: the gameplay is simplistic and nostalgic, no grinding is required, it has a good length of 12-20 hours, the graphics are delightful while the artwork is high-quality (albeit over-sexualized), the soundtrack is satisfactory (although a few tracks really stand out), and the story is cliché — you certainly won't find any "game of the year" material here. That being said, it is worth noting that the love story between the two main characters feels tacked on, shallow, forced, and unnatural.

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  A C H I E V E M E N T S The game has 15 achievements, over half of which require you to play the Enhanced Edition so don't bother playing the Legacy Edition. Almost all of the achievements will require you to visit the optional dungeons and defeat their bosses, complete most sidequests, and explore each area for secrets and collectibles.

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  R E V I E W

  Gameplay

  The gameplay is standard for the genre but is nevertheless fun and is surprisingly deeper than the traditional turn-based JRPGs of yonder past for a number of reasons: - It makes use of the standard elemental weaknesses and resistances but also has a "class" system for enemies whereby each one has their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, "Spellcaster" enemies take extra damage from physical attacks but reduced damage from magical attacks while "Tank" enemies are the opposite; - The equipment in the game provides additional skills or spells for the characters to use which adds another layer of depth; and - It makes copious use of status effects which adds a bit more tactical depth to what would otherwise be a stale gameplay loop; however, the combat UI becomes so cluttered as more status effects are stacked on your party or the enemies and it's difficult to see which ones have been inflicted on whom. Outside of combat, the world is relative sparse except for a number of secret areas that you can discover. Although you can't interact with most objects in the game (such as bookshelves, crates, pots, etc), you sometimes can in specific rooms or during certain cutscenes which is confusing and seems like an odd design choice — it should have been one or the other. The game also has a few bugs here and there but I spoke with the developer and they said that they have no intention of updating the game any further unless a game-breaking bug is reported.

  Graphics

  The graphics use delightful 16-bit pixel art that is standard for games made using RPG Maker in which the character sprites are cute while the world is colorful and vivid; however, the part that stood out the most was the artwork for the character portraits which is amazing and really well drawn but every female character is over-sexualized.

  Sound

  The music is composed of standard and mediocre fantasy JRPG adventure music with some purely ambient tracks for some of the dungeons but the Kickstarter room and the end-game boss themes are exceptionally good. The sound effects are sharp, thematic, and immersive.

  Story

  The story is very cliché: the heroes rise up to save the world from a villain and the epilogue hints at various things to set up for a sequel and future events. The writing is serviceable but nothing special, although sometimes the facial expressions of the character portraits don't match the tone of the line that is being said which is actually quite jarring and lessened the gravity of quite a few scenes for me. The characters are the typical archetypes but are nonetheless enjoyable to spend time with; however, I found that the yuri love story between the two main characters felt tacked on and as if it didn't develop naturally because of the shallow and superficial nature of their interactions, the lack of real and meaningful development between them, and the alarming speed in which their relationship progressed given the real-time length of the game. Furthermore, there is one scene that completely undermines the nature of the entire relationship but is immediately explained away using a flimsy excuse in order to keep the love story intact. Although this scene could have been used for actual conflict, personal growth, and character development, the whole issue is instead glossed over and the main character moves on as if nothing happened which feels forced and contrived. The yuri main characters, along with the over-sexualized artwork, make me wonder if it was all done for marketing rather than for a real attempt at a tale of love with actual substance. And it is worth noting that both of these themes are present in most of the developer's games...

  Miscellaneous

  The game allows you to re-bind some, but not all, of the keyboard controls which is quite annoying but at least you have the option of changing some controls unlike many other indie games (particularly RPG Maker games) out there. Some NPCs also break the fourth wall by referencing real-world events and companies such as Gamestonk, Twitter, and Steam which is incongruous and doesn't feel like it belongs in the game. In fact, one entire town is dedicated to mocking Steam's sales and is partially named after its founder Gabe Newell. It feels like the developer added these either as social commentary or as light-hearted humor but the former ends up feeling like they're just taking jabs at various topics while the latter simply falls flat because it's so out-of-place and completely breaks the immersion of the setting.

  Conclusion

  Although it isn't anything special by any means, it's decent enough at what it sets out to do in terms of gameplay and I had a lot of fun with it. That being said, I was also hankering to play a traditional turn-based JRPG and it undoubtedly fulfilled that desire quite well. I could definitely have done without the artificial and unnecessary love story, the awkward social commentary, and anachronistic real-life references though, and was hoping that the love story would have been much better than it was, but I came for the nostalgia, gameplay, and the adventure and got more than I bargained for due to the slightly deeper gameplay, great graphics, and some surprisingly good music.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 28, 2023

  I found this saga through the last game Absinthia and it made me rediscover the love for RPGs that I had lost years ago. The game is excellent, good story, lovable characters, some comedy, a map with plenty things to explore and above all some twists in the combat system that brings a lot of freshness to the already achieved nostalgia. Price is also cheap. ESP: Encontré esta saga por el ultimo juego que salió Absinthia y me hizo reencontrar el amor a los RPG que había perdido hace años. Respecto al juego es excelente, buena historia, personajes entrañables, algo de humor, un mapa con bastantes cosas por explorar y sobretodo algunas vueltas de tuerca en el sistema de combate que aporta mucha frescura a la ya lograda nostalgia. El precio es barato.
• RStarphoenix

  Jul 10, 2023

  I have a complete playthrough I am posting on my Youtube. You can find the current episodes on my playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuVHSXI0XDqiAJmpq9P-RjKgqdn7ymmrK (This review is based on the original Legacy Edition, which is playable with the current version.) This game has a solid story and starts out with a relative bang. Following Ruth's journey is a fun experience and a majority of the pacing in this game is done well enough that you need minimal grinding for experience. There's plenty of little gags and humor sprinkled in to offset the downtimes searching towns. Being a JRPG-style game, you expect bonuses battles that'll test your ability, and the game doesn't disappoint in that regards. The secret bosses offer a solid challenge and I met with the game over screen fighting a couple of them due to their sheer power or their uniquenesses. The game is far from perfect as this is an early work from this developer. The typical mistake of giving too much equipment exists in this game due to trying to provide secondary effects; you will run into far more options than you will probably realistically use especially with the weapons. I have not played the newer Enhanced Edition, but from what I can tell parts of it are almost a different game so playing through both is recommended, which is a great bang for your buck (considering off discounts it is $4.99 USD). And if you decide to play all of the games, this series shares history so later games will reference this one (which gives the entire Saga an amazing interconnected feel even though they are standalone games). Do recommend.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 21, 2018

  Goodgame.. It's a typical RPG with a traditional story. a kind witch ,a decent knight ,an teenage archer,and a smart assassin.oh,there's a paranoid mage,don't forget him.. together ,they try to stop the world from doom.. but the love between the main characters is the really fun part.. i just like love storys like that,beautiful like a fariy tale..
• gamedeal user

  Apr 22, 2018

  I'm having a love hate relationship with this game. It is so very well done, the graphics are lovely, sprites are amazing, and gameplay is rewarding. Some of the puzzles are my issue, but in a good way. Very few are simple, all require some thought to be put into them. I definitely recommend this game. Story line isn't bad either. Can't wait for more frm Joshua!
• gamedeal user

  May 2, 2018

  I'm really bad about reviewing games, I do it so rarely, but I feel like this is one that really deserves a friendly thumbs-up. In many ways, it's exactly what it says on the tin. It's an RPGMaker game where you have a knight player character who ends up stuck in a party with a witch. They fight evil and travel the land and maybe a few romantic things happen along the way. There are lots of games on here that are aggressively positive about having openly gay content. But there's something delightful about a game that plays it so straight, if you'll forgive the pun. There's no confusion or shame about it. It's just a part of the story. And that's great. The game isn't totally perfect. With only four characters, you have to kinda figure out how to min-max your party, but there are some interesting ways to essentially switch your characters "jobs" once you understand the equipment system. Also, if you lose track of what you're doing, there are certain places where it gets a little tricky to find your way. After obtaining the upgraded Sylvanaras, I was supposed to go back to the sisters, but no one tells you that after the first time. So I wandered for a good two hours or so. But it led me to complete side-quests, so it all worked out anyway. Seriously, if you read the description and it sounds like your kind of thing, go ahead and get it!