The Edge of Allegoria

First of all, this is a very good game. However, it's a game made with a Gameboy era Pokémon vibe. So as I see it, comparing the two is unavoidable. Also, make no mistake, this is the most degenerate Pokémon like game you will ever see. It also has references to lotr, final fantasy, pulp fiction, Jay and silent Bob... Even Carlton Banks will dance and look good in it, among other things. So yeah, definitely not for kids. That out of the way, let's criticize what needs to be. Gameplay: I get the classic old-school vibe, I really enjoyed pokemon red/blue on my Gameboy as a kid, but there were some improvements made even in classic games that could drastically enhance the quality of life here. The the character progress system is very interesting, the player have a wide range of items to master, and each time you master something, you permanently gain something. Amazing right? Except after a while it's hard to remember what does what. That's specially troublesome when optimal gameplay depends on matching skills to combo. Classic Pokémon games had evolved into showing the power and accuracy of each move while you are battling, some games even have short descriptions. And quality of life get a big hit in Edge of Allegoria for not having one of those improvements. Everytime I want to select a new gear, I need to enter another menu to set my skills just so I can read the related skill description again and figure out what it does. It's not like the game is ruined by it, but the experience would improve significantly if we could have ways to reminds of what move does what while battling for example. Story progression: This is the biggest thing modern Pokémon games lack: A good/clever narrative. And that's the easiest way to make Edge of Allegoria shine. Which the author does builds the experience upon. Main story bosses have their own cutscenes, and those are accessible anytime after bearing them. Dialogs and funny, provocative and adult themed. The experience on that regard is indeed quite refreshing. However, what the games win in wittinesss, unfortunately lacks in an actual progression that makes sense. Initially it feels like we are in an open world with some restrictions to direct the player in a certain way. But different from Pokémon, some restrictions don't really make sense. While in Pokémon you can't enter a city because a guard wants a bribe, in EoA you can't progress because your dog is sleeping on the way or some random dude is singing a song. While in Pokémon you need to arrive a certain city and obtain an item to bride the said guard. In EoA to deal with your dog you need to... God knows? Games like Zelda masterfully offer problens players can't fix at that time, but we can trust the game will present a solution later, mostly in a form of either a tool or a new power. What EoA does is present the same problem, but with random solutions. Sometimes is something obvious, like defeating a boss. But sometimes it's about talking to the same npcs you already interacted with just because a Queen vaguely told you to do so. I get the road needs to be blocked, but I can't help to feel that an omnipresent dog/singer is just a lazy solution. The first minutes of a game are very important to present what the game has to offer. EoA shows you how to fish, gives a taste of what an pokemon game for adults would be like from npc dialogs and points you in the direction of some Goblins. Then I started to notice how transitions felt like big empty corridors with random chests along the way. Exploration in this game can be much more interesting than already is, the potential is all over the place. Music: Pokémon has one of the most genius tunes, it's frankly legendary. The music makes you tense in battles, apprehensive in ghost towns, curious in caves. And fans been hearing these tunes for years. It's a very difficult job to do anything related to those feelings. EoA does a very good job in creating those atmosphere, but as much as I want to compliment these, some tunes feels too short. Gameboy games usually had this feel where you can't listen to the same song for long until going crazy, and pokemon had some good exceptions to this. I was hoping EoA could be the same. But sometimes I just felt fatigued of listening the same short tune for hours. I might as well just be getting old and cranky, so take this with a grain of salt lol Conclusion/tl;dr: If you ever had a Gameboy, is at or over your 30's, like Pokemon games and ever wondered how playing an adult version of it would look like: this game is for you. The dev is very active and I really respect him for it. If he ever reads this, I hope he takes this as suggestions from a fan rather than a hater. I really appreciate the effort and i perfected this game with a smile on my face.

Was a fun game but I didn't complete it. Got stuck and didn't feel the need to go further. Can't say id recommend but im sure somebody out there will enjoy it.

difficult but fun with plenty of adult humor

I enjoyed my time with this game. The jokes are funny and the combat has a suprising amount of depth.

El juego NO está en español de España, está en español de "Latinoamérica", cuando en esta página dice lo contrario. En fin.

An old-school JRPG in the vein of Dragon Quest (or Dragon Warrior) for the NES and [i]significantly[/i] smarter than people will give it credit for due to its prevalent sense of humour. All of the old-school boxes are checked, along with quality-of-life improvements that weren't available at the time -such as a verbose and often amusing bestiary (check the Mimic entry) that actually nudges people over to where an unmet enemy might be found. It also has the best final boss fight in all of gaming, period. This is genuinely one of my favourite games and I thought that I didn't enjoy this style of game anymore. I love the fact that I'm wrong.