Franzen

play as a fat chud and his weirdo gf ands its peak. the soundtrack is 10/10 ..... and its free

Good free way to burn about 10 hours. The story and characters have a decent amount of depth for a game as short as it is. Dialogue is decent although the secondary villain is a bit cartoonishly evil. The setting, art, and story are this game's strongest selling points. The tension between the different nations and races in the game was well established and led to a satisfying conclusion. Franz and Leflas also made for a cute and unconventional couple although I would have liked it if the story explored their past more. The interface is a bit clunky and there could be some more variation in battle mechanics. You can also abuse the daemon cores in the game to quickly become an unstoppable juggernaut although this is only possible about halfway through the game. Tune your expectations on item variety based on the game's length although I would have liked to see variation between the types of equipment each character can use. There are also mechanics that seem vestigial or just outright not present. It advertises a unique leveling system but all it is is that you use items you win from boss battles (and later on you can buy them) to improve stats. Besides farming gold and item, there is zero reason to interact with any non-boss encounters.

nothing too crazy, fun little rpgmaker game

ORIGINALLY PLAYED ON ITCHI OH: I usually don't write reviews since barley anybody reads them but I gotta hand it to scumhead. They created a unique rpg game. One of a kind treasure in a sea of mediocrity trying to mimic old games and not having a voice of their own. Franzen does the opposite. It embraces it's gore, crazy, silly, and chirpy aesthetics combines them with fair and challenging gameplay and incredible pixel graphics unlike I have ever seen. I could talk for hours about the love that was poured into this story, the fleshed out characters and the themes that were explored here (and yes some moments were cheesy but the outcome was executed nicely.) Please, if you got the time, a few hours, half a day, give Franzen a try. You won't regret it. It's worth it.

(NO SPOILERS) Summary: Franzen is a turn-based RPG set in a dystopian-steampunk world. Explore themes of empathy and politics as Franz and Lefsa Dellia work to uncover the truth of "The Scream". Meet a cast of colorful characters and fight bizarre creatures in your journey through the world of Branzen! ------------------------------- What is in the game: A short semi-linear RPG game with one ending but some side content. ------------------------------- Thoughts: I really enjoyed this; it's a simple game with a great story and world. The art is amazing, and the music is great. The story is really nice; it's a nice and simple story but a good one. The worldbuilding is what takes the cake; there are so many little things you can pick up on from the NPCs and your environments. It's just so good. I really think you should try this game out even if you don't typically play RPG games that much. ------------------------------- Mid PC Optimization: While I had 0 issues, I have heard there are incompatibilities with some machines with this version of RPG Maker; there seems to be a guide on Steam for getting this game running if that's the case. ------------------------------- Time to Beat: ~4-5 Hours. ------------------------------- Price: ☐ Buy it full ☐ Wait for sale ☐ Don't buy it ☑ Free It's free; if it sounds interesting, why not give it a try? ------------------------------- Graphics: ☑ Amazing ☐ Good ☐ Average ☐ Bad ☐ Awful The style is amazing; there is not a single piece of bad art in this game. I adore the steampunk/medieval style. The different creatures all feel so unique. The game can do so many different vibes. I can't really describe how good it is; imagine the pictures on the store page but lasting for 5 hours in a big variety of areas. ------------------------------- Gameplay: ☐ Very Fun ☐ Fun ☑ Meh ☐ Bad ☐ Awful It's not bad, just nothing special, a normal RPG Maker affair, exploring, talking, and battling. I will say a pro it has over a lot of other RPG Maker games I have played is actually being difficult at times; however, said difficulty isn't very balanced throughout the game. One fight will take a few tries, then another will be a cakewalk. ------------------------------- Music: ☐ Amazing ☑ Good ☐ Average ☐ Bad ☐ Terrible ☐ None I really liked this game's soundtrack; all of it fits the style really well, and the fight songs are awesome. A definite highlight of the game is the music. ------------------------------- Bugs: ☑ None that ive seen ☐ Not impactful ☐ Negatively affects gameplay I didn't run into any. ------------------------------- Side-Notes: None

Not a blasting gameplay but the atmosphere is fascinating.

Great little JRPG for an unbeatable price!