Manafinder

Cozy and nostalgic. There are a lot of games that mimic the look of the 90s, but Manafinder is one of the rare games that actually feels like something from that era. What I mean is that the simplicity of its battle system, the length of the game, and the complexity of its dialogue provides the experience beyond just the graphical fidelity. Besides just the nostalgia factor, Manafinder has excellent world building and a fairly engaging plot with some actual nuance to character motivations. There's just enough choice too to allow for player expression, and this is solidified with the 5th chapter representing a lasting consequence of your choices. Manafinder also uses bright colors and pleasant pixel effects to reward the player for exploring and progressing. I could argue that there isn't as much depth here as something like Chained Echoes, but if it had more depth it would lose its nostalgic identity. Maybe the audience that appreciates that feeling is aging out, but it's an audience I'm certainly a part of.

[i]' Anyone out there who has been requesting more games with a dog as a companion, you're prays has been answered. Rejoiced.'[/i] Manafinder, a game whose entire premise were you only control 2 playable characters: a female that uses a range of different weapons and magic, and a Bullmastiff called Scar, who is very loyal, fighting alongside you in battles against terrifying beasts of all sizes and types. Sometimes, keeping the gameplay in concept as simple as that is all you need to do to make it engaging and intuitive. Saying this game is a love letter to JRPG is an understatement. It's particularly thee goseph of gaming. It doesn't try to chase after current trends or do whatever is popular. This is a game doing its own thing, paying homage, almost like you'd time-travel to the era of games it is inspired by. All of which makes for a charming, authentic experience made out of the goodness of the developer's heart. It may not receive as much exposure as I think it deserves, but at least it's a very solid game adored by most of the people who have played it, ticking most of the boxes of what games like this should do: having inventive combat, original audio with an identity, helpful sidecharacters, beautiful pixel art, some quirky characters, fun sidequest, ambition lore and importantly option to pet your pets. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3290909742 [u][h1]Setting[/h1][/u] Manafinder takes place in a harsh, flat planet filled with vicious beasts terrorising human civilisation. The only way people can combat/defend themselves against them is by using a range of different weapons and abilities gifted from the gods. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3627588630 But the main form of protection is by harnessing manashards formed and scattered around the planet, granting them living beings magical powers. The people who collect them are known as manafinder (which is who you're playing as, hint by the name if you didn't get it until now). [u][h1]Story[/h1][/u] As these manashards are scarce and most people rely on them for safety, manafinders are tasked with locating, finding, gathering and returning as many manashards as they can back where they were requested from to use them mostly to create a protective barrier so that more harmful elements cannot go in, and any humans and animal companions can come in and out without any problem. That's particularly the main quest of this game, where we play as a female who was mystery exhile from the kingdom for unknown reasons forces to defend herself and find a new place to make as home evenutally becoming a manafinder herself to contribute. There's that, alongside some other conflicts that occurred, and more world-building, which I won't get into, but I promise, you would certainly be invested in it and the deep lore, which is something I haven't anticipated from a game like this. It's definitely a welcome one for the devs to put in the work in that department, which I think made their game a lot richer than without. If anyone here is worried about the religious aspect, I subtly mention it. Don't worry about it; it's not preaching at all. It has a whole new type of religion for entirely different gods that were created just for this game. The religion is used to drive the plot forward, add lore and to have an interesting way to upgrade your character with skillpoint but selecting which upgrade you want between gods. [u][h1]Combat and Gameplay[/h1][/u] [h3]Best boy, Scar:[/h3] Now onto the first part, the combat. Speaking of combat, yes, Scar is a good boy, and yes, you can control him, but not like you would expect in most RPGs. You can control whether he should attack or defend, or who he should attack, but you can't select a specific move for him. Sometimes he will heal himself by being on guard when you tell him to be defensive, sometimes you tell him to go all out, but he doesn't attack the enemies you want him to. I love how this game tries to make it as realistic as possible instead of making it too gamey. I'm sure most of us owned a pet at some point in our life even if they weren't around for long, and I'm sure you know they don't follow our orders 100%. But rather, doing something entirely different from what you told them to do or get distracted elsewhere, no matter how well-trained they are there's always that moment. Thankfully, it's not as punishing to lose in combat; you just need to remember to save occasionally at a save point, so this mechanic works, so yay, this was incorporated well in this game. The only negative is that I found Scar as useful in the endgame, lacking in some stats and more skills (which he could have done more of). I found that it was best to ignore him in combat and focus more on protecting myself and defeating him, because you can change command for Scar when you die, so it is said that I had to change my gameplay because of how weak Scar was towards the end. [h3]Afflicting:[/h3] Unlike most RPGs, weapons such as axes and swords act as afflicting, meaning different enemies are weaker or stronger against certain weapon types. Furthermore, all weapons only have one attack and special moves, but they are all different from each other, like one weapon only doing heavy attack or another being able to inflict poison or attack multiple enemies at once, but only dealing a small amount of damage. You can also imbue yourself without the cost of your turn with different elementals to make yourself stronger or weaker against other elementals' attacks. As you can see, there's some real strategy when it comes to this game that is both familiar and unique when it comes to combat, making it a breath of fresh air, giving some depth that makes it more enjoyable, especially if you have played other RPGs and you're looking for something new. [h3]Manashard:[/h3] I've mentioned manashards a couple of times, so you're probably wondering how they affect the combat. Each magic requires a certain number of manashards to be used as a resource cost to cast. To gain manashards, you need to gather them outside of combat scatter throughout the map, but don't worry, this game is very generous with where you can gather them. Secondly, most spells don't cost that much (around 1-20), so you probably still have a couple lift without even trying to conserve some if you manage to finish the game (I believe I have around over 180 lifts in my playthrough). I found they're not really essential in most combat, just something that's always nice to have as an option skill to use when you're in the pit of trouble. [u][h1]Conclusion[/h1][/u] In conclusion, Manafinder is an all-around solid game with a lot of charm to speak value to being original, and trying something new. I think I said what I needed to be said about this game. I hope this convinced you to try it out or recommend it to someone else who you think may be interested. If anything, I do hope this review brings more awareness to help people decide if they should get it or not (preferably the latter). https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3290909913

I didn’t really know what to expect by looking at the screenshots, but this is a real gem! Runs great on the Steam Deck! Would recommend this one to RPG enthousiasts. *pets Scar*

Great game! I really liked the dog as a helpful and cute company. I do not play games like these often but I can play this game comfortably on my mac & steam deck.

Imagine Final Fantasy Mystic Quest if it had actual combat and gameplay beyond "Mash A for 10 battles in a row on world map." 2-person party with the other party member being a good dog. You pick your weapon to attack with each turn, with each one having bonuses for different enemy types (e.g., spears do bonus damage to fish, bows do bonus damage for birds). Encounters are all found on the field and have a long respawn timer- kill everything on the way to the boss and you'll probably be fine. The highlight of the game is the boss fights. Superb pixel art with monsters that fill the whole screen. They aren't especially difficult, but they make you actually use your items, defend command, etc. Fun minigames. I like the bartending game and the carnival races. Two very minor gripes so far: 1. Game runs beautifully on Steam Deck, but there's an early game prompt that shows the wrong button for running. It only says to use the Shift key. You can use X on the Deck controller. You can also toggle auto-run, so you don't have to hold a button. 2. The air horn that goes off for leveling up is kinda annoying.

It's a fun mid-length rpg. If you explore, double back and find everything then you will annihilate everything. Auto save is good, let's you retry battles you lose. Reminded me of quality older titles like Crystalis and Secret of Mana. I'd put it on the slightly more casual side of rpg's. Basically no real grinding unless you want. Visible enemies, fast travel, good quality of life features. Maybe the only downside is since I went slow and found everything I'm not sure if there's much replay in it for me. Still a good game, definitely on the upper end of Rpgmaker games.

This game is a triumph. I've always been a fan of old school jrpgs and this game really surprised me. While it clearly draws inspiration from Phantasy Star IV, this game manages to bring a lot of unique ideas to the table. Long story short, you can clearly tell that this project was a labor of love. Big props to everyone on the team that brought this game to life! Balance issues aside (Lookin' at you, Tonfa!), this is definitely a game that I will be playing through a second time, especially since the game offers multiple endings. Highly recommended!

It's worth getting both endings!

good classic JRPG-style design. Manafinder is a throwback to the days when games didn't hold your hand, without being overly hard or obtuse like many titles of that era could be. fans of games like Earthbound or possibly the digimon world games on the DS should find things to enjoy about this very charming title that is absolutely worth the price.

Really have liked it. Simple game that is well fleshed out. My only complaint is that it is hard to sell which way the current is going when doing boat puzzles. Similar feel to Pokemon Red, Zelda, Final Fantasy.