Cubenen Gardens: Befriend

Wonderful little RPG with good writing and a lot of heart! I loved the deep battle mechanics each character had and I loved the charming character and enemy designs.

nothing special

A cute little game crafted with love. I like the worldbuilding and gameplay.

[Disclaimer: I know the creator of this game and have been following its development for a long time. This may be a little biased, lol!] I really enjoyed my time with this one. It's rough around the edges, but the story kept me hooked and the combat system made me think in a way that a good number of indie RPG's don't. I really enjoyed Michael as a protagonist. They are a very flawed person with a very callous attitude and a TERRIBLE bedside manner [spoiler](just ask Ix, whoever they are)[/spoiler] but they also have a strong sense of justice and a drive to make the world a better place. It's fun to see their development throughout the adventure- both positive and negative. The other characters are quite fleshed-out, too. The way their relationships and histories play off of each other and inform the way they act and the decisions they make feels very natural. It's clear that the developer is someone who draws from experience. Their designs are very charming, too. The tone of this game is quite tense. The party gets trapped in a situation that feels hopeless and cruel, and it only worsens as the plot progresses. [spoiler]You really feel for Michael when they begin to have mental breakdowns, and it makes it really cathartic when the other shoe drops and Caswell starts helping you out.[/spoiler] The pacing of the story is rather odd. The game is frontloaded with an introduction that allows you to talk to an assortment of shopkeepers who have long-winded conversations with the protagonist about the politics and goings-on of the world they live in before the proper adventure starts. [spoiler] My assumption was that these characters would intermingle and play a part in the game's main plot, but they do not reappear until after the final boss. That's not to say they're irrelevant, though, since they do establish things that are paid off later. Though I would have liked to have adventures with these characters, they would definitely have thrown a wrench into the game's stressful tone. The story is quite backloaded as well, with entire characters being introduced during the second and third act. Most of them work, since characters like Caswell and Seaglass are spoken about by other characters in the game, but some sort-of seem to come out of nowhere. This game has no intention of hiding that it's intended to be a small part of an ongoing saga. A number of threads are left hanging for later.[/spoiler] The combat in this game surprised me, as well. There is no "escape" feature and the party members (with the exception of Johnnie) have either no main attack or a pitiful one, so the game forces you to strategize with the spells at your disposal. It never gets brutally difficult, but it's engaging to have to put thought into the quickest way to dispatch any group of enemies. The mapping and dungeon design in this game is a little rough. There are a lot of areas where it's easy to get turned around, and sometimes it's hard to tell what pathways can be walked through. Many of the early dungeon rooms are a bit too big for their own good. That said, some of the dungeons are really tightly designed with puzzles that are well thought-out and fun to solve. The character visuals in this game are quite well done. Vadapega's spritework is stellar as always, and really sells the personalities of each character. Every artist brought something to the table, with dozens of expressive sprites. I do feel that they clashed a bit with the muted RPG Maker assets, however. I would have liked the environments to be a bit more colorful, even if the game has a dark tone. [spoiler]the locker room dungeon felt like a nice change of pace, and was probably my favorite stretch of the game.[/spoiler] Overall, Cubenen Gardens: Befriend is a very intruiging game, and one that left me wondering what direction the story was going to take. I thought the characters were really interesting and relatable, and I would definitely recommend this one to people looking for an outlandish RPG. It's definitely one to chew on.

This game is something that I found by complete accident while scrolling through itch.io for any games that might seem interesting, and I am so happy that I bought and played it! It was a wonderful experience. The characters are likable and well-written, the story was good, the gameplay is easy but engaging, and although some of the visuals can be a bit rough-looking, the ones made specifically for this game all look great and give the characters and world a lot of emotion and tone. In fact, even the more default textures were always incredibly charming, in my opinion. I think the only cons I can think of are the fact that the game is a bit rough around the edges. Namely, [spoiler] some of the transitions between chapters show up in a rather awkward way, sometimes involving scenes not properly fading in and out into each other, and I did notice a number of typos and misused words here and there in the dialogue and monster descriptions. Additionally, I couldn't seem to figure out how to scroll in some of the monster descriptions without closing the window, but that might just be my lack of modern RPGMaker controls knowledge. I'll admit that I'm mostly used to games made with RPGMaker 2003, but not so much other versions... [/spoiler] But these are all very minor things! Yes, the game is absolutely worth playing. I loved it, and I hope others will, too :) P.S., I've noticed that this game seems to be a part of a larger universe that the creator seems to be working on. You can find other Cubenen Garden stuff as well as other works by the creator here if anyone's interested: https://shepherdarmory.me/project-type/games-literature/

Fun & simply chill little game. Characters are very cute and colourful, and the battle/fighting system is fun too going up against various monsters with different quirks and abilities. Still got some chapters to play on through, but I have so far being enjoying myself and look forward to exploring this game further. I do recommend checking this one out if you like your good ol' 2D styled rpgs.

I found out about this game from seeing posts about its progressing development over the years in the Dragon Drop Discord server, and it and the character designs interested me then. So, for a few years, this game had been on the back of my mind from seeing it there. I got around to actually playing through it myself recently, and I loved the story and characters! 💚 I also quite liked the gameplay and a good amount of the music used. The primary location the game takes place in is intriguing (in large part due to how mysterious it is!), and it was fun to learn about the world and its politics across the writing. The only cons I can mention are pretty inconsequential. There's small mistakes with the text (in particular, a few subtle grammar mistakes across the dialogue, and how the text cuts off for some of the robot's information), some tiles that should be walls that you can walk over, and a few music tracks have noticeably louder volume to them, but I only noticed any of these a few times each, and they were never disappointing or game breaking. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience, and thanks to it, I'm now invested in the gardens that connect us all!