Prodigal

bro I be at the library nonstop fr she must hate me

This game's off-putting at first, it starts off slow while also throwing a lot at you at once, but the initial friction was in some way engaging for me, and ultimately had a fun experience with the game as a whole. I quite enjoyed the world and its characters (except the protagonist, I don't typically like silent protagonists), the central hub is very cozy which blends nicely with the main adventure gameplay. I was pleasantly surprised with the puzzles, throughout the main story you only get like 4 items, but the puzzles were great at utilizing them. There's a built in hint system for general story progression which I got a lot of help from (I tend to forget or simply not understand objectives in adventure games), but it wasn't so straightforward as to make the exploration boring. I got during the post-game, even with the hints, but I could see myself getting back to the game.

A great game. Reminiscent of the very best 2D Zeldas, with loads of hidden content and a clear passion for the craft. Highly recommend giving it a go. But why can't I marry Wren, though?

内容比预期的要多的类塞。 美术和音乐都相对复古，中规中矩。 地牢相当多，设计的也算中规中矩吧，稍微吐槽一下本作的谜题设计，很多地方的解谜包含了大量多余元素作为干扰项，而最终的实际解答过程可能相当简单，并且后期有了某些能力的情况下，很多的谜题可以通过极其简单的方式通过，让人不禁怀疑作者是不是忘了自己做了一个可以让角色位移两格的能力。 最特色的玩法是可以和各个女角色谈恋爱，其实也就是把其他类塞里的支线任务换成每天和女孩对话时不时跑腿积累好感度，还算有点意思，但不多。 内容确实是挺多的，一般推荐吧，没类塞玩了可以试试。

关卡设计真的一坨，玩的时候也没有汉化（目前有国内汉化组，但是版本更新了之后，目前的汉化也失效了），剧情为主的游戏没有本地化，就冲这点就真忍不住要打个差评。整个游戏的侧重点都在城镇与npc上，冲着战斗买的游戏结果看了五个小时的剧情，战斗内容完全没难度，地图系统也很拉胯，主世界地图也没太多设计，解谜有一些看得出来是想稍微设计一下的，但是大多数的谜题真的没啥设计感，收集品上直到假结局打完了，很多东西收集起来也不知道有什么用，不太喜欢看剧情的人真的完全不建议原价买，五块钱买的就算了（

Amazing game! Very reminiscent of Oracle of Ages: puzzle-based levels, 2D Zelda style combat.

Very good game akin to Link's Awakening!

整体是一款比较常规的类塞尔达作品。关卡设计水准平平，大多是设计不算严谨的变种推箱子式解谜，创意与打磨都比较一般；怪物种类偏少，BOSS 战设计普遍拉胯，整体迷宫探索体验只能给到及格水准。 亮点在于精美的人物立绘，丰富充实的支线内容与隐藏收集要素，有点意思的情感养成系统，完整扎实的世界观架构。 7/10

Progidal is a very polished top-down Zeldalike with village-life-sim, optional romancing elements, and dungeons with enemies and lots of sokoban-like puzzles. You take control of a character who returns to his hometown and must try to rebuild his reputation while helping the townsfolk deal with problems and threats. Pros: - Pixel art style is very reminiscent of the Game Boy Color era. - The writing is great. Conversations felt natural and progressions with getting to know the villagers felt authentic. Choices felt meaningful. - Sokoban-like puzzles in dungeons are clever and have great synergy with the game's items (though they did start to get a bit tedious towards the end) - Postgame has LOTS of optional dungeons and collectibles to obtain. - Did not encounter any glitches that negatively impacted gameplay. - Pixel-perfect graphics. Cons - Trade sequences can be completed all in one go by speaking to all the villagers one after the other. MC felt like an errand boy, and the overall sequence did not feel well integrated to the story or adventuring. - No autosaving (but you can save anywhere, and the game prompts you to save when you try to exit). - Enemies don't drop health items. Whatever HP you enter a dungeon with, that's all you get. - You can "overfill" your HP bar by praying at the Church, but each prayer action only overfills it by one tick. Praying 5+ times just to give myself the max HP before a dungeon is tedious (and uses up a lot of the ingame day). - Some occasional minor graphical hiccups with sprite layering and jitter, but nothing serious. - Combat is very simplistic (just mash the button). Enemies are almost never a threat, and most barely even react to your presence and just walk around randomly, which may be by design given the lack of health items. - Villagers have routines that follow a day-night cycle, which is cool, but they do this by warping around the village at different times. This can make finding/following them a bit of a pain. Sometimes you'll see a character indoors, then go outside and find the character has suddenly beaten you there. YMMV: - Bosses are all unique but are also EXTREMELY easy. Mash the attack button and you'll finish most of them during their second vulnerable period. - The depth of the village life events and romancing options are less like Zelda and more like Stardew Valley or Story of Seasons. I enjoyed it and thought it was well done. But if memorizing villagers' names, commonly-found locations, and understanding their role in the story, does not appeal to you, then you might not fully enjoy this game. - Music is fine for a quiet village or lonely dungeon, but simple. Claire a la Mode's music (more recent game by same developers and composer) surpass this in every way. TL;DR Prodigal is one of the best Zeldalikes I've seen, but the strong focus on village life and getting to know everybody in order to fully enjoy the game may not be for everyone.

Evaluation: Interesting adventure RPG with deep lore. Experience: This is a story-driven RPG where the main plotline centers around the player character, but much of your time is spent uncovering the backstory of the world. Most of the characters are rather shallow, but likeable nonetheless. The real draw comes from the worldbuilding lore, which clearly has had alot of time an effort put into it and is what makes the game shine. Gameplay wise, there are puzzles and combat. The puzzles are pretty interesting, though frustrating in a few places, and the combat system is subpar, with most enemies serving mainly as annoyances and the bosses being pretty trivial. Suggestions: Recommended if the worldbuilding aspect sounds interesting, and if you're willing to put up with some janky mechanics. Despite its flaws, this game is good at capturing the player's attention and making you want to find out more. While the game contains nothing inappropriate, a few characters are killed off permanently, so I wouldn't recommend it for children unless they are okay with that.