Fortress of Hell

Fortress of Hell is a bit of a departure from the usual fare of the old style rpgs that Alforlea is so well known for ---- and it is an incredibly refreshing difference that takes us on a remarkably fascinating journey through a puzzling, foreboding, and exciting investigative search for missing persons that will have you completely captivated. In the game you can choose which pre-formed party of explorers (of 4) you want to play and begin the adventure at the fortress entrance gate. So it begins with an immediate battle and the action never really stops. The Fortress is huge and you must explore everything to pick up all the items you will want to have ---- every crate, closet, barrel, corner, and slot you see needs to be looked at. As you move through, you will be given more of the story and will become more acclimated as to what to do, where to go, and how to deal with the various twists, turns, monsters, and girls to save, etc. It is still an old school type game with all the usual mechanics you would expect with monster battles, bosses, weapon collecting, leveling up, equipping.etc. But the game allows you to determine what course of action to take in whatever way you choose as you go from one location to the other in its well thought out layout. It is long and involved and keeps you wondering what will be the next thing to discover. The game play is seamless and runs very smoothly. The music adds to the mood of the surroundings without being overbearing, the characters are fun and interesting, and the challenge level (on normal) was just right for me. So, you are getting a different sort of challenge that is highly entertaining, and features the imagination and know how that you always get from Aldorlea.. A terrific game that I recommend. (BTW, the Strategy Guide is available for only a little bit more, and it is designed in a way that it really helps without spoiling anything.)

Fortress of Hell is an RPG Maker game, but one intended for a mature audience. Its heroes are all grown up, frequently vulgar/cynical, and there will be plenty of sarcastic remarks.Also the theme of the games is quite depraved. While I’m not well versed in the state of RPG Maker games in the 2010’s, the combat system in this game seems fairly good, rewarding the use of buffs and debuffs, and requiring some management of TP/MP. You won’t be able to simply spam skills and spells even in normal mode. Thankfully most of the enemies can be dealt with mere weapon attacks, once your party has leveled up a bit. The progression of the heroes contain numerous points, where you have to choose one talent out of 3 or 2. The description of the outcomes are sometimes too vague, so you might end up with an underwhelming upgrade. Not that it matter that much, on normal difficulty the game can be easily completed even with subpar choices. The game claims up to 4 playthroughs with different parties, each around 3-4 hours. Maybe without a walkthrough, just departing after freeing your girlfriend it takes that much. However, if you follow their walkthrough to witness everything, and fight all the fights to level up as much as possible, it will take considerably more. The Brutus party took me more than 7 hours, the Laxius party more than 5 hours. My third playtrhough was for the “evil invasion” scenario. You have to investigate the statue with the “Don’t trust Me...” inscription with the Laxius party, then investigate the evil skull in the revealed chamber. After departing the fortress with the Laxius party, the “evil invasion” scenario will be unlocked. It has a nice change in the mechanics, too bad there are a lot less dialog in it, especially in the first half. You will probably want to revisit that revealed chamber as soon as possible with your evil party, as things change after further investigating there … .This playthrough lasted a bit over 3 hours. It is the only one without a walkthrough, and after the Fountain of Veritas I thought I have got stuck. Thankfully I have found that the secret ladder has been activated somehow, so I could finish this scenario too. I skipped the Hamilton party, seems to be the hardest one, and I didn’t want to play through a fourth time. The location and the enemies remained the same for all parties that I have played, but the dialogs will be unique each time. Also some bosses will appear more than once for the Brutus party, but will be dealt with right at the first time with the Laxius party, or outright skipped during the evil invasion. To my great surprise I found the banter in the Brutus party more entertaining than in the Laxius party. Especially in the first half of the Laxius playthrough the dialogs felt tepid. The second half gets a bit better, but even then I enjoyed the Brutus dialogs more. I have naturally played the game with the help of the DLC playthrough. I have played through Laxius Force I and II without one, then I have bought one for the third installment. After seeing what difference that makes, I wouldn’t consider playing through an Aldorlea game without a walkthrough. While Fortress of Hell is merely a fraction of the content in the Laxius Force games, still you will find keys that open doors in some other part of the game. Without a walktrhough you might wander around aimlessly quite a bit before finding the correct door which should be opened. Also there are optional parts, which you will likely miss without explicit directions. For example to get the treasure with the Laxius force party, the Brutus party has to do some very specific things. Without that your quest for the optional treasure with Laxius party has failed even before the start. Also for the Brutus party the walkthrough will direct you through the available places in an order which won’t lead you to overly difficult fights or in the case of the optional fight with fire elementals it will explicitly tell to leave that for later. As an RPG Maker game, it should run stable for you. For various reasons I have played it not on my default Windows 10 computer, but on my weak old computer with a Linux OS (was forced to replace Windows XP because Steam wasn’t supporting it, but didn’t want to burn a Windows 10 license for such an obsolete hardware), where it can be run only through the experimental Steam Play / Proton layer. There it crashed frequently, especially in the Guest Patio for some reasons. I had to save paranoidly frequently because of this. Granted OBS was running in the background, recording the gameplay real time with software encoding on a mere Core 2 Duo E8200. The good news is that the game can be played through even on a Linux system, with some patience. I wanted to add the derpy Sarah achievement to my achievement showcase (not because of this game but to show my appreciation to the Laxius Force trilogy), but as of the writing of this it is not possible. Steam seems to treat this game as “untrusted”, and prevents the displaying of its achievements on the showcase. Guess I should be content that it allows for me to unlock the achievements at all.

This is a gave with some neat implementations of character progression, as well as presenting four scenarios where different parties explore a large dungeon with different motivations and experiences. All four parties play very different too. Really funny game too, but has very intense themes. Gaiden game in the Laxius saga.

Aldorlea Games surprised me here with a much darker, even mature, themed game as we are used to from them. And it's a pleasant surprise. It's certainly one of their best games. The story may be cheesy as hell but... cheesy in a good way. And yes the game is dark but it's also spiced with a lot of humour. The dialogues are, off course, cheesy but that fits very well here. Obviously a lot of thought and effort went in to this production. The castle just looks wonderful, a lot of attention was spend to the decoration and the looks of each screen and it shows: it's one of the better looking RPG Maker games out there. Aldorea once again proves that you can make a pretty looking game just with stock material. I just love the darm atmosphere and the immersion it creates. The soundtrack, that I think comes from an RPG expansion music pack, was very well chosen and adds to the experience. What makes this game shine though is the layout design of the castle (very nice mapping jonb here) and the battle system, which is standard classic JRPG stuff, but the balance is done so well. You don't need a fancy battle system if you manage to find the right balance and they truly found the sweet spot here: not too difficult but certainly enough of a challenge. This in particular is not an easy thing to do, splendig job here. The difficulty is perfectly do-able but hard enough (certainly early on in the game resources are very scarse so you need to be careful with every health or mana potion you spend) to make this a survival game where you have to manage your resources as well. The game takes place in a single location: a castle that has girls captured as slaves (you have to find them and set them free), that's pretty dark as a theme and it even has some Pasolini "Salo" vibes... but the excellent humour lightens it all up. You play with a pre created team but... there are 4 (or 5?) teams that you can play with it in different scenarios. Each scenario takes place in the same castle but with different characters and a different story. In the beginning of the game you can choose from two teams, after you win a game another team & scenario becomes available. It took me aproximately 7 hours to complete the first scenario (which was probably the longest one) so you get a lot of value for money here. Highly recommended, just don't expect a deep story but it's a lot of fun. 7/10

Completed this game 100% , on the maximum difficult, here's my review: The gang is back! Lots of fun, the Laxius Force crew translated well to RPG maker vx Ace. Really wasn't sure id enjoy the multi party playthrough the same dungeon concept, but i actually really did. Really liked Brutus' party actually almost as much as the main laxius crew. The weaker party writing was good too, and it's design to just be more focused on 1 easier objective makes the dungeon less repetitive. And yea its not so repetitive feeling at all as there's tons of unique dialogs for the 3 very unique party to see how they react to each event. As well as plenty of equipment slots and cool unique equipment to customize your party often as you go. Interestingly they all go as if they are. Missing the aldorea staple of lots secret rooms, (there's a couple that sort of quality, but they don't give the usual popup notice they are special) but it makes it up for it in the game does have some very interesting secrets. Including a whole 4th secret campaing. Won't spoil it but its very unique , fun and surprising. My old minor complains: The art is AWESOME. But the field view sprites... Look nothing like the characters proper full art. Random for example looks like a complete tiny short little boy, while the girls are taller and also don't look great. Nash looks okay. Brutus' party looks decent. But yea I really would of prefered you just imported the same ones used in the RPG Maker XP games. I get it's a different engine and some retooling needs to be done to get them to work in VX Ace.. But it's entirely possible as there is a tool available to convert entire XP games to VX ace with everything fully working and the tallers sprites looking correct. The Laxius Soul ones look good enough tho even those i Still prefer the RPG maker XP look. It's just so classic and the various updates the characets get to match there new armor matches there full art so well where as yea, not at all in this game (and only vague in Soul) Really quite a perfect spin off to enjoy before you playing the epic Laxius Soul. (Which i know Aldorlea wants to keep exclusive to their site for some time, but would really love to see a enhanced edition of it on steam at a later date after the majority of long time fans haev already scooped it up on the official site, with added achievements and maybe a Legendary difficulty mode since i found insane/nightmare a decent challenge, but not really very "nightmare" ish, so an even harder mode for another playthru would be cool.

Okay, this game was a sight for sore eyes, after waiting for a follow-up on the Laxius Power series. I definitely did not expect to find Sarah this way, but I have to admit that she has a habit of ending up in chains LOL Features that open up after finishing a team, storylines that intersect and depth to our brilliant Laxius Team. I have nothing wrong to say about this game besides WHY ONLY 4 TEAMS?! I need to know. Hope this is answered in Laxius Soul lol

I don't know if it's fair for me to leave a negative review or not. I haven't been able to play the game to see how it is. No mater what I try to do the controls just won't work for me. Only a couple keys work: Enter and Exit (I think) and moving in one direction, that's it. I can't recommend a game that I can't play because the controls don't work on my pc.

Currently only 0.56 cents almost feels like a scam for what you're getting. Yeah this is part of the Laxius series, but honestly, this game can be enjoyed even without having played those games. Witty humor, good gameplay, nice enough graphics (RPGM, non-RTP) and a good enough story. Definitely a must buy, and At prices like these, it's ridiculous not to own it.

To sum it up, Fortress of Hell is a fun, but brief return to the Laxius universe that fans of the series won't want to miss out on! While only a couple of the Laxius games are available on Steam at the time of writing this review (3 Stars of Destiny and Fortress of Hell) there's quite a lengthy history to this series, dating as far back as the early 2000s in the freeware RPG Maker 2000 days and spanning over 8 games. Chances are, if you browsed freeware sites back then in search of RPGs, you would have come into contact with at least one of Aldorlea's (formely Damianzeking's) games. And typically, the Laxius games have offered expansive, open worlds filled with quests and an engaging narrative. The older games were certainly rougher around the corners, especially with English not being the developer's native language, but the games more than made up for it with the sheer heart and enthusiasm to create a compelling RPG that lay within every map. Flash forward almost two decades (what is TIMEEEEE) and the developer has kept at it ever since, honing their craft and releasing commercial RPG Maker games now and making a living from doing it--which has been heartening to see! As it's not often that indie developers can keep afloat this long, especially in such a niche area as traditional RPG Maker experiences. Which brings us to Fortress of Hell--the most recent game in the Laxius series, 8 years from the release of the last game, Laxius Force 3. As the name might suggest, given it isn't directly labelled as a Laxius game, it's more of a spin-off than anything else, and intended as a sort of feature-length sidequest more than anything. It takes place after the events of LF3, and I'm not quite sure if it's going to be serving as a bridge to the next game in the series (Laxius Soul 1, coming out this summer if all goes well, hype!) but tells a compelling tale of its own all the same. The basic structure of the game is as follows: you pick a team of characters from several available squads (with a secret team or two that you unlock along the way) and then lead them through the eponymous Fortress of Hell. And the best way I can describe this fortress is something like a nightmarish fantasy version of the horror move Hostel--essentially serving as a place where the rich can indulge in violent and horrific fantasies as they murder and do god-knows-what to people the poor people roped into this establishment. Despite the rather grim setting and atmosphere, though, the actual tone of the dialogue and story is quite campy and doesn't take itself too seriously. Each team you choose from has their own reasons for breaching this fortress. Whether it's to save a loved one who has fallen prey to those that run the place, to find treasure, or to even attempt to bring down whoever is at the top in this mad house. This essentially means that different teams will see different parts of the fortress, and encounter different events as a result--ensuring that multiple runs through the place feel fresh and that you're not just repeating things several times over. The teams range from familiar faces (like Random and friends) to new characters made exclusively for this game, which in true Aldorlea game form all have very expressive personalities and amusing dialogue exchanges. It's quite amusing seeing how the more normal, everyday characters react to things present in the fortress compared to the likes of Random who has seen it all at this point and simply rampages through without a second thought. Gameplay is fairly standard as far as RPG Maker titles go, utilising VX Ace this time around compared to the previous games built on XP. There's nothing too ground-breaking about the combat, though it is tightly paced and balanced as you'll dance back and forth between attacking, healing and buffing with characters that each have their own specific skillsets and uses in a range of scenarios. You'll navigate pretty well-rendered maps that utilise a gothic horror-esque tileset, with plenty of variation in how they're put together. Enemies are present on the map, with zero random encounters. There's a range of secret areas and items to be found for those that poke around enough, rewarding you with items and gear that will further help you progress. That being said, though, the game has a very 'survival horror'-esque feeling in how you manage your resources, with no rest points or inns present. Every healing item you use really does matter--as you can't grind for resources or easily buy things. Which can certainly make some playthroughs stressful as you find yourself running low on supplies in especially tense fights--but I imagine that's by design. New equipment is quite rare to find, too--but at the same time, that makes the gear you find that much more special and meaningful as an upgrade to your characters as you go along. It just means that those expecting a more traditional style of RPG may be disappointed as a result. Given the game expects you to play through the fortress multiple times over with multiple teams, the total playtime per squad is short and sweet, totalling to about 3 or 4 hours per group, depending on the difficulty you've chosen and how thorough you are with exploring. Some teams have less to do than others, too, following a set checklist of goals before bouncing. There's some degree of persistence at play, too, between unlocking a hidden team, and a specific goal only being achieveable by doing several things between several teams as they leave clues/hints for one another. It's nothing too complex, but a fun use of persistent variables all the same. Overall, Fortress of Hell is a short and sweet RPG that doesn't overstay its welcome, and I feel offers up something for both old and new fans of Aldorlea games alike--as while there's ties to Laxius things, I don't feel it's absolutely required knowledge to play, especially as the Laxius connection is really only with one team, and the rest are exclusive this game with their own stories to tell. So if you find yourself with some spare change and are looking for something new to play with a fairly unique setting as far as RPGs go, you can't go wrong with Fortress of Hell!

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