Another Crusade

[i]Another Crusade[/i] plays like a student JRPG project. I think with some more interesting areas, balanced combat encounters, and less punitive systems, [i]Another Crusade[/i] can be polished into a fun experience for more players. This game does some things right. Among them: [list] [*]The timed-hit system is a wonderful means of adding engagement to turn-based RPGs. When this game was announced, very few games anybody heard of (outside of Paper Mario) were using it. [*]Multiple weapons for each character with unique animations and timed-hit windows. [*]This game has excellent enemy design and emotive animations for each. [*]There's some really good music tracks! [*]The battle stages look pretty good. [*]The developer has been engaging with the community. They are aware of certain issues with their game and have just dropped an "Easy Mode" where the timed-hit windows are wider, the player is stronger, and enemies have less health. [/list] Unfortunately, there are a lot of issues that make the game frustrating to play: [list] [*]Timed hit windows in [i]Another Crusade[/i] are very tight, difficult to discern, and punishing to fail. [*] Spongy bosses. Some areas are maze-like gauntlets of spongy enemies and multiple "run away" attempts required to successfully end a fight you don't want to have. Worse, because enemies are faster than you are, they will re-instigate the fight multiple times. [*] Frustrating platforming, lack of persistent drop shadow. [*]Irritating dialog [/list] Things that could have improved my experience: [list] [*]More testing during development. [*]Full range of motion. [*]The character's drop shadow should be clearly visible all of the time. [*]Regular mobs should never be faster than the player, or we should have more time to get away from them if we are [i]tired[/i] of dealing with them. [*]Just say no to humongous mazes. There may have been a way to make it work, but this wasn't it. [*]Slightly larger "Perfect!" timed-hit window. [*]I wish that the developers hadn’t attempted to copy one area from [i]SMRPG[/i] so closely. [*]Stackable items or unlimited items for the inventory screen. [*]Some areas would have benefited from smaller, more intimate rooms that showcase one or two good ideas than the sprawling map design the game currently uses. [*]More showing, less telling (and less fourth-wall-breaking). [/list]

I hate to give this a negative review because I love the idea of a Super Mario RPG tribute game, but this just too janky to enjoy. The game just kind of "starts" without any exposition or anything but we supposedly play as a renowned, powerful warrior who starts off at LVL1 with noob equipment, I guess? People know who we are but we seemingly know nothing about the world and things just happen to/around us, there's not much dialogue (literally a silent protagonist) or motivation to progress the game. On Normal difficulty the inputs felt impossible and inconsistent and easy difficulty didn't improve them, it just adjusted damage calculations (IMO). It truly feels like every attack is completely random. The lack of a map or any kind of modern convenience make this game difficult to navigate as most maps are just giant, generic sandboxes with minimal collectables scattered in the corners covered in dust. The enemies are unimaginative and by the time you learn their (difficult) attack timings, you're ready to move on to something else. My personal dropping point was the ice castle boss, I kept getting wiped out, didn't have revives and did not feel like backtracking through the entire level just to buy revives from the previous town. I don't like giving up on games, but I felt 0 motivation to continue with this game because I was not enjoying the game by this point and I was not confident that things would improve. Overall, I do not recommend playing this game. I found it extremely difficult and boring and a few times shifted between feeling extremely frustrated to falling asleep while playing. As appealing as this game looks, just remember that this is not a Paper Mario = Bug Fables situation, this is a Pokemon Go = Garfield Go situation. Just save your time and money and replay Super Mario RPG if you're getting that itch again.

The timing window for attacking and defending is very unforgiving on "Normal" mode. The enemies already act faster than you in battle, hit 2 or even 3 times as hard as you do and they start pounding you with status effects by the third area on top of everything else.. instead of the game itself being challenging, it completely relies on your ability to get down the timing of attacking and defending or else you'll be met with the Game Over screen over and over and over. The game itself is an obvious throwback to the SMRPG SNES days with the diorama style battle sets and general art direction and even the spells work similarly by mashing X or rotating the joystick to increase spell output.. it really is lifting almost everything from SMRPG and where SMRPG was way too easy of a game even for its time, this game is the polar opposite being needlessly punishing and 99.9% of the entire game is completely reliant on the awful timing window. It's a shame really cause it's a decent little game if you play it on the easier story mode, but the game becomes a joke in terms of difficulty and it's not like the story is going to be winning any awards any time soon so there's no real incentive for me to lower the difficulty because I don't feel like it's detracting from the overall experience. I'll keep plugging away at Normal mode and eventually see it through to the end but the timing window is absolutely garbage if you consider how brutally difficult the boss battles are right from the get-go (bosses dealing 30+ dmg when you only have 30-40 max HP) you have to choose to constantly burn through whatever little healing items and spells you have to prevent a Game Over or somehow manage to string several Perfect guards in order to attempt striking back.. it's just unfair. I'm going to recommend against this for the average RPG/JRPG gamer even though I'm perfectly fine with being hard headed and pushing through despite the obvious imbalances. I suggest reading [url=https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198450557661/recommended/2016190/]this negative review[/url] to get a more in depth analysis of the frustrations this game has to offer.

I feel like this game deserves some more attention! It's a pleasant homage to Super Mario RPG, a bit brazenly in some ways, but that was enough to draw me in and keep me interested. The puppetlike aesthetic is neat, and I appreciate the devs adding in an Easy mode, because hoo boy those timing windows are brutal. Easy does seem to change them to more reasonable windows, and tweaks damage as well.

In the 27 years it took Nintendo to remaster Super Mario RPG there were some bangers in the same vein for sure, but few capture the fascination and challenge as well as Another Crusade did for me. It's a turn based RPG heavily inspired by SMRPG, a love letter to the story, characters and fights that made the original such a beloved title. 2025 edit. This is literally SMRPGs "Claire Obscur" in terms of difficulty. The artstyle has a very unique puppet aesthetic that makes everything both charming and a bit unsettling at times. I'm a bit biased as I later found out it was made by a mexican developer and some particular in-game references (like one of the hidden boss fights) make no secret of it. If you have good memories of SMRPG or enjoyed the remaster. Give another crusade a chance, please. It is criminally underrated and deserves a lot more attention than it got.

Its a good game, but naviagation is a PAIN. This game desperately needs a map. I have no clue where to go half the time. That mixed with the difficulty make it a slog to get anywhere. There's a lot of potential here because I do like the gameplay. I would easily change my review if I could simply be pointed to a guide that can help me out. That being said I still recommend it

I dont even know how this game ended up in my library Boring imo

Un juego muy práctico para hardcore fans de RPG por turnos, muy similar a SMRPG. Para ser un indie maneja muy buen nivel, la música está genial, me agrada la dificultad, en lo personal prefiero una muy buena dificultad para desquitar las peleas. Tienes el fácil y el Normal. El timing lo dominas rápido, solo queda acostumbrarte a las animaciones. Si tuviese que añadir algo, sería bueno que se añadiese una opción para el remappeo de Botones para la versión de Steam para poder jugarlo a comodidad. De ahí en adelante, muy buen indie.

This was fun! I never would have known it existed if Sierra Lee didn't call it out. Basically here is the deal: there is a solid game with a good core gameplay loop, it's just in the middle of a lot of unpolished or janky content. If you can get past a few things, you will probably have an overall good time, but I can see how these would be dealbreakers for some. Difficulty: I think it isn't so much that the game is too difficult as that it's too unforgiving at first. The first area is rough while you're still getting the hang of the controls and the game early on throws you into hard bosses with no time to practice a new character/weapon. But once you get all your tools, the difficulty is actually reasonable. Timing: The timing of many skills just feels wonky. It's not that it's too hard because I tried playing in Easy Mode and still had a rough time training myself to press the keys at the right times. It's just weird to adjust and doesn't have the right intuitive feel. Maps: They're unnecessarily large. Absolute worst is the game's equivalent of the Bowser's Castle 8 Door Challenge, where the challenges are spread out among screens and screens of empty rooms for no reason. So why would you put up with this? Because the core gameplay is good! It's the fun of Super Mario RPG but with more of a challenge. There are a good number of enemies in every area with all kinds of different attacks and it stays an enjoyable time throughout. This game has a TON of references to SMRPG. I think it's best to just embrace it and the silliness. So what if they recreated the sunken ship dungeon? It's clearly done with love, and their version of the "PEARLS" puzzle is very competently done. I made it a game to find all the parallels: the second character has weapons like Mallow, the third has Geno-like skills, the fourth is literally just Red Bowser. The plot actually becomes more serious than you'd expect once you get deeper into the game. I wish they had done less 4th wall breaking and more characterization in order to match this, but it's still a decent time overall. Like SMRPG, the cutscenes are not long at all so they won't overstay their welcome. In short, this is a somewhat unpolished gem that deserves more attention. :)

Another Crusade has it's charm and an interesting story that unfolds overtime. Starting you off as a lone Knight named Rai, making his way back home after succeeding in saving the world from the Dragon King... only to see a meteor shower rain down on the lands causing magic barriers to spawn, barriers that lock anyone inside and outside. As you play through the game, you learn more of what these barriers are and who was pulling the strings of the initial war between the Humans and the Monsters. The Gameplay is very much similar to the classic Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, especially with the battles featuring it's Timed Hits system. When you attack or defend, hitting the attack button at the right time will make your action more effective. Learning to quickly adapt to when to attack/defend is KEY to playing the game. There's a few other benefits and secrets you can find, mainly the Crystals that offer permanent buffs for your entire party. And as I've played and completed the game on it's default Normal Difficulty, you'll NEED to search for these Crystals. It's fortunate that on the world map, you'll be told how many crystals and chests you can find in each area. The game's also a bit grindy as you'll find yourself camping near the Check Point for a quick recover as you mow down nearby enemies and level up. The game also has little side quests, thought these are not logged in, but rather you simply talk to any townsfolk to get a little hint of what they seek and later on you'll likely come across the thing the quest-giver mentioned. The look of the game has a nice style with all the characters portrayed like Wooden Puppets or Marionettes, with a few standard environments you'd expect to see in an RPG, like a mine, a swamp, a forest maze, even a pirate ship. Some areas are more or less unique like the Frozen Castle, a village full of Monks, and the golden farmlands. The bosses look and feel unique, especially the two secret bosses you'll unlock near the end of the final area of the game. As this game was backed up with pledges, some of them even cameo in the game as characters of another world, finding them is very beneficial for the endgame shop (8 in total) The music is simple yet effective. Although I'm not sure any of these songs will be very memorable, aside from maybe one of the villages. As of this review the game received an update that offers an Easy Mode in the Options. And I would recommend it to folks that want to play this game more casually or have never tried a game with a Timed Hits mechanic. I've hardly come across any bugs for the game, save for at least one when the game crashed down in the mines. Thankfully I didn't loose much of any progress thanks to the autosave. I completed the game in about 27 hours and I wouldn't mind playing through it all again. 7/10 A decent take on the classic RPG games