Cult of the Dragon

Another flop made by "Solohack3r Studios". I should have known better after having played the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that was "Beast Slayer", and I'm certain now that giving people second chances is a waste of time. In this game, you choose one of 10 different starting characters/classes, and then you go around killing cultists (in boring turn-based battles) in towns (in an "Open World" approach) that want to awake an ancient evil dragon. No overworld exploration, no opportunities to grind as far as I can tell (which, if I'm right, results in a limited resources playthrough, so beware), other party members might join later, but I hadn't reached that far before I rage-quit. Silent protagonist, the "Hero" Reeve that I chose starts without skills and can't even rest for free in his own home, mundane NPC dialogues, no hidden items (only a few "sparkles" here and there). It's such a bland experience. Freedom to explore doesn't mean anything if there isn't anything worthwhile to explore. At least there's one upside: If you want to explore the "sample maps" that come with the RPG Maker (MZ) software, this game contains them all (and mostly unedited). Individual mapping and area design are the core attributes of good RPG Maker JRPGs, and this game relies as heavily on premade maps as it's heart- and soulless. I chuckled when I noticed an "inn" sign outside the "King's Manor" in one of the first cities (this is what happens in low-effort projects), but this kind of oversight is deadly when it comes to immersion. Of course, this game is littered with bugs, too, but who expects low-effort projects to be bug-free? And no, I'm through with being a post-release beta tester, so discover and fix the bugs by yourself, dear developer. As you can see, I obviously don't like this developer's "style" (if it can even be labeled as something like that), but I'm absolutely convinced that this developer's games are objectively bad. People that, contrary to me, haven't played hundreds of (RPG Maker) JRPGs over a few decades, can nowadays easily be tempted into buying crap games like this one. Thus, I'm concluding my damning review with this appeal: Be smart, rather learn from my mistakes than from your own mistakes. Don't buy this game. You shouldn't drink salt water just because you're parched.