Aveyond 4: Shadow of the Mist

The entire Aveyond series is wonderful well written, thought out and composed. I have completely enjoyed all of their games. This is what others in this class of games should aspire to be like.

Great game, played this before and am replaying again its so much fun, lots of quest and things to find and do

Aveyond was right in the heart of the Indy RPG maker craze and Aveyond 4 continues a line of solid games. It's not really special or unique, but it does the usual things well. In Aveyond 4 the hero of your story is "Boyle The Horrible". Boyle is a retired villain living in a dark and spooky community for the former villains. But when his pet wolf is taken captive he embarks on a quest to save his faithful companion. The world may or may not be saved along the way. The story is well-enough told in cartoony way. I laughed and I've smiled and I've really enjoyed my time with the game. It isn't an emotional roller coaster, nor is it a literally classic. It's lighthearted, alot of the jokes landed for me, and theres just enough plot to keep me motivated. Mechanically, if you know RPG maker or classic JRPGs you know what to expect. So I'm not going to go deep into anything but just call out a few stand-out features good and bad. On the good side, every character is a completely unique playstyle. The main character charges special moves with normal attacks, the witch has MP, the white fox has unlimited use of skills, the paladin is all cool downs etc. It's a really cool system that makes each character feel unique and original. On the flip side of that coin, not all of the moves are balanced. I find myself using the same combination of moves battle after battle because they work and the others don't. This wouldn't be a major issue except that the combat is legitimately dangerous (I'm on hard). One bad RNG roll and you'll lose a character... meaning you can't afford to play with weaker options. My healer? She has 3 other moves that will never be used. It's worth noting that while moves aren't balanced, the game is surprisingly decent on the combat front. I've never felt like I've outleveled a challenge. Every combat is dangerous, but this leads to a tactical feeling more than anything negative... at least when you have a party of 3+ people. It can be a little too harsh when Boyle doesn't have a healer to keep him alive. The other major negative on balance is that the gold rewards are absolutely pitiful. The XP is great, but I find myself skipping shops because I can't afford new armor or weapons. I'd need to clear a dungeon 2-3 times to get one piece of equipment at times. I sure as heck am spending my precious gold on consumable items. The economy is just overly harsh for the light comic tone of the world. This is made far worse because MANY quests involve making a cash payment. I can't imagine this game without the respawning enemies that come from hard mode. Oddly though, Boyle's upgrades has the opposite problem. His upgrades are so few and far between that every time I reach a new shop, I have enough to purchase EVERY skill at once. So instead of a slow buildup of strength, its stairs. I don't really play with skills because I just get all of them. Really, this is probably my biggest complaint with Aveyond 4... progression on a power front is just too darn slow. You rarely unlock new skills, you rarely unlock the Metroivania abilities to older areas, you rarely find new stuff. I didn't have even a full party until about 9 hours into the game. The progression just leads to long stretches of sameness followed by brief moments of "Woohoo this is great". If I was to describe the feeling, "It feels like a great 20 hour RPG that takes 40 hours". I assume this comes off sounded really negative, so I want to explicitly say this is a really good indy JRPG. I've enjoyed the vast majority of my time here and I feel more positive about it than negative. This is the kind of game that I would have eaten up 20 years ago when I could afford to spend forever on one big RPG. I'm just old now and vastly prefer short and sweet experiences.