Border Mountain

So far I played for 5 1/2 hours (offline). These are my impressions of the game so far. Story: Well like the Dev wrote "find your own way" There is no big story. Just walk from your camp to dungeon a than back, restock and buy new equipment and walk to dungeon b....and so on. Your Party: The usual suspects: fighter, magician, and thief. Not once was there a connection between me and any party member. Graphic: urrgg. If you played any RPGMaker game before than you know....endless tube-like passages. Otherwise, there are hardly any NPCs, and if there are, some just stand around and don't talk to you. Only the merchants and the few guides speak. Fights: No need for elaborate tactical battles. Just unleash everything you've got. Only the mage recommends switching between elemental spells. [b]BUT[/b] Be prepared to fight endless battles. Every few seconds, the next random battle occurs (no visible opponents). What's particularly annoying is when you've taken a detour to open a treasure chest containing a fantastic 30g and have to fight for minutes (on the way there and back). But wait...if you one of those players who always sends his entire party out in the best possible equipment... well, let me tell you, you'll be spending hours grinding to get the money you need. One of the less well-thought-out ideas is the skills system. There are two types. The first consumes mana, while the second requires points that are increased by fighting... however, it seems that only normal attacks count towards this... and these are practically useless against the enemies. Consequently, I didn't use them once in the entire game. One interesting point is, that there are transportation crystals in dungeons and towns. So you can grind some, than warp back to camp to heal and be back for more grinding. Fun fact, the party get lost in an underground world and must seek a way back...but they can still use said crystals (only an intelligent adventurer would use it to skip the whole finding a way back). In conclusion, I can only say: There are dozens of better RPG Maker games, some even free. It's a shame once again that Steam doesn't have a more nuanced rating system. I give the game a 5/10 (but just barely). At least it has no bugs (except that some parts haven't been translated and you're presented with Chinese characters...but it's playable). Edit: Update So I worked myself up to the last enemy. Playtime with hours of grinding: 9 1/2 hours Level Cap is 30. Long before that you don't gain any new skills/spells so doint that only gets you a few points for attributes and HP/MP. And believe you, you'll need it!!! The last enemy is an dragon. And he is cheating. If you reduce enough points from him he goes franzy. That means he can act several times...and his spells can whip your whole party out. Particularly bad if it paralyzes or confuses your party at the same time. Now my final voting: Sorry, but I can't recommend this game any longer. It's just a grindfest without any real story. No connection to your party or any of the (few) NPCs. Only at the very end you'll find a trinket that reduces the rate of encounters (like I said before...fights every few steps).