Kor

Good ideas, but really bogged down by slowness and delays, and by a combat system which feels like it is constantly punishing you. The combination of forcing you to wait all the time, and then basically killing you for not having lightning-speed reflexes, is more than a little ironic.

slug

If I had played this on an actual GameBoy in 1999 I’d be a better person today.

Old school gameboy goodness. Pokemon meets Mavis Beacon teaches typing.

lack of autosave is NOT a feature

I was introduced to this game as being reminiscent of the early Pokemon games (from a graphics and UI standpoint), but I was still somehow not expecting it to be as nostalgic as it is. Not only does the art style generally remind me of some of those earliest videogames I played, but the music (created by Lewmoth) brought me back to various other games of a similar era. The button combos to execute attacks reminded me of classic fighting games. The ability to assign stat increases upon level up is, of course, a standard RPG feature. I'm sure there are other influences that I haven't seen yet. Some more modern or seemingly innovative choices I've noticed: the option to play with the intended difficulty setting or on a story/narrative difficulty; the warper to move beyond "out of bounds" areas is very fun; the sheer number of color palettes you can choose from to play in; the turn-based combat is actively engaging since you need to press buttons to execute your moves; being able to mix and match schools of moves which all seem to be pretty well-balanced. It's clear the creator cares about putting out a game that would be enjoyable and that he could be proud of. More than worth the price of two coffee-based drinks from your cafe of choice.

An excellent and well-polished game. Kor faithfully captures the magic of playing Gameboy games as a kid while also managing to be a creative and unique game in its own right. I loved exploring the world and interacting with everything; basically all of the items in homes and stores, for example, have their own unique descriptions. The story and world building were well thought-out as well, and I enjoyed learning about the world of Kor as I explored. Intentional difficulty was also harder than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise; I felt like I really had to think about how to allocate my stats and skills in order to win some of the harder fights. A lot of love was put into this game and you can tell. Kor was great and I'm excited to see what Goadstool does next!