Pillars of Dust

Received the key for free from a friend of mine and I must say this game is far better than expected! Excellent soundtrack, smooth gameplay and a great story. There are no random encounters all enemies appear on the screen which is nice as I'm not a fan of random battles. If you are a fan of old NES/SNES RPG's look no further!

Decent short RPG that doesn’t waste much time. RPG mechanics are bit undercooked (difficulty is pretty low) and the self-aware humor wasn’t my cup of tea, but if you want a nice, cozy and simple time, go ahead. It deserves more attention.

Decent retro adventure, neither amazing nor awful but deserve to be played more. A short 8 hours or so adventure, separated between two intertwined protagonists. More humorous than serious, easier than harder. Difficulty scale pretty well, early on you can blindy attack, beside the bosses, late game regular enemies could defeat you. The game does have many secrets and, because it's separated in chapters, easily missables. Beside one collectables, the game tell you how many secrets in each chapter at least. It is usally breaking pots, bookcases and barrels but sometimes a fake wall or a shiny sparkle on an object. No random battles, enemies are visible on the map so you can evade them but as far as I could tell you also can always run from regular battles. No need to grind, you don't gain experience, you sometimes gain stats from fighting enemies and also from collectables. There is also some minor replayability with the secrets but also because you can pick the order you play. Sometimes there are some minor differences in some chapter depending on the character that play first. Some unique areas, some both might visit and affect each others.

Fun little retro JRPG! Easy game but enjoyable.

A lighthearted and fun RPG with lots of secrets to find.

Fantastic RPG. I enjoyed the story. The mechanics were good and unique. Looking forward to more game by this team.

This is a fun, simple, unpretentious JRPG romp. It's worth the price in every way, especially if you're looking to get a quick 8-bit fix. Story-wise, the characters are hilarious - especially the NPCs. I was particularly fond of Gregg's opening chapter and the final town - lots of great flavor there, as well as plenty of dorky easter eggs along the way. The combat is straightforward and balanced to be mostly breezy and smooth, with the exception of a few nasty boss fights where you can really flex your mastery over the game's mechanics. There's a particularly fun boss fight where you can feed it a special item and deal a ton of damage - discovering this on my own felt very satisfying. The dungeons are well made and don't overstay their welcome. I'd say I preferred the dungeons on Carlton's side, but Gregg's side more than made up for it with its colorful characters. Each chapter has a slate of bonus objects to achieve. The more of these you complete, the better your MP economy will be in the final chapter. Complete 'em all and you'll have enough MP to spam the nastiest of the AOE spells! Visually, the game received a nice overhaul recently and the textures look great. The map design is very barebones and no-nonsense, which isn't my cup of tea, but it doesn't detract from the game massively especially due to the genre and tone of the project. Perhaps my favorite element of the game, though, is the soundtrack in all its chiptune glory. These are catchy themes that toe the line between classic NES scifi and fantasy, much like Retreaux's other project (For a Vast Future). Much like the rest of the game, nothing sounds grating or annoying, and no song overstays its welcome or makes me want to mute the project. Definitely pick this up if you have 5-10 hours to spare and have a NES/GB-era JRPG craving. The speedrunner achievement is more than attainable on a second run, and you could even get it on your first run if you're quick and repeat some slow segments.

Bro, these chiptunes be BANGIN'. And Bobby? He's looking swole A. F. Really, all this game is missing is some chicken nuggies. Oh wait, it's got LOTS of those! So if you want a cool, neato-burrito, retro-style time, I would recommend Pillars of Dust.

A good game for getting into that old school JRPG groove - easy-playing, so to speak. Great chiptune soundtrack also!