The Elquest | The Legend of Immortal Dremond

"The Elquest" is a very good mid-length classic old-school JRPG with turn-based (side-view) battles that I can recommend to anyone who likes these kinds of games and doesn't mind that the game was made by utilizing RPG Maker (VX Ace) software. In this game, the demon Dremond conquers the kingdom of Soharia and threatens to invade the rest of the world. Hideki, the former prince of Soharia, and his friends are forced to start a journey that takes them all over the world, following the footsteps of past heroes in order to find a way to stop Dremond. Despite a few twists, the story is pretty standard, but it's good enough to get the job done. What makes the story really shine, though, are the character dialogues between the initially spoiled, later rather naïve and idealistic go-getter Hideki, his loyal guard/sidekick – or rather "straight man" – Nice, love interest and "tomboy" Ellie and "gentleman thief" James in particular. Even though the player won't be able to prevent some tragic events, the tone is rather light-hearted in general, and many of the dialogues are funny, even outright hilarious, especially when examining objects in town, which means thorough players aren't only rewarded with items when searching through everything. Apart from only a few minor mistakes and oddities, the English translation (Italian seems to be the developer's first language) is excellent and thus supports the competently written dialogues. Most new RPG Maker games these days are developed by using RPG Maker MV or MZ, so I was sceptical at first, but "The Elquest" utilizes the RPG Maker VX Ace software to its fullest, which makes it one of the most polished RPG Maker VX Ace games I've ever played (alongside two of my most favorite games, "Forever Home" and "Shadow Fate"). Many different features are set up to keep the player occupied (in a good way), which can all be used to make the party stronger. Apart from leveling up party members through earning EXP in battles, there are: crafting (combining different materials to create new items), upgrading (making equipment stronger - blacksmith), strengthening (another form of making equipment stronger through items gained by destroying other equipment), enchanting (changing an item's properties by randomly adding a beneficial "suffix"), transmutation (making certain weapons - that have been upgraded to the maximum - "epic"), a multitude of equipment options in general with many different effects for up to ten slots, gacha items ("Wonderboxes", "Mystery Chests" etc.) that let the player obtain a semi-randomized item, "codes" that must be discovered in-game and can be used in the options menu to obtain certain equipment, different classes with different skills (that can be changed later, though doing that requires a rather difficult to obtain item), permanent stats boosts by dining at an inn, a bestiary, which details the monsters' weaknesses and drop items, collection lists (completing them nets fantastic rewards), leveling up weapon types etc. through usage in battle (thus gaining certain passive abilities, mostly the ability to use the weapon type with any class), and even different formations ("schemes") that provide different (dis-)advantages in battle, but are hard to obtain (though it's worth the effort, since only the final two formations allow the player to let all 6 playable party members participate in battle simultaneously). The same can be said about the battles, which include the usual strategic characteristics, like (de-)buffs, status conditions, elemental weaknesses, evasion and critical hits, and so on. The dungeon design, which includes the occasional "puzzle" (mostly pressing switches or pushing boulders/crates), is pretty good, though I would have been happier if the dungeons had been longer and more complex (and the world map larger). What the game - despite 10 "explicit" side quests - lacks in length, though, it makes up for with many well-hidden secrets and its love for detail. One example: In one certain house, the player receives an item by examining a cabinet. Examining the cabinet again triggers different dialogue, and after having traded that item, the player is rewarded with additional (different) dialogue when examining the cabinet again. Since NPC dialogues are also updated at certain intervals, the player is incentivized to interact with their surroundings multiple times and at different times. Unfortunately, a few nitpicks prevent the game from reaching true greatness. First of all, the level cap is only 30. It takes a while to reach it, and it's totally fine for players that undertake a (sometimes challenging) 15-20 hours playthrough. For completionists and powergamers, though, the level cap is way too low. Which leads to the next issue: Everything in the game is expensive and rare (including very low monster drop rates), especially upgrading equipment, but money is hard to come by. When spending 60 hours on a playthrough like me, a level cap of at least 99 would definitely be more motivating. Sadly, some (very few) things are permanently missable, including one-time-only dungeons and several permanently missable Steam achievements (partly depending on your in-game choices). In this regard, the game is rather old-school, but it always rewards the players' efforts - let's hope that many players obtain the elusive "Dropper" formation, which significantly boosts drop rates, as soon as possible. A few bugs here and there can still be found, especially considering that many players won't engage with the overwhelming amount of features and equipment options on a deeper level, but the developer is active on Steam and quickly fixes all reported bugs. Despite the aforementioned nitpicks, I highly recommend giving this game a try. As a fan of the genre, you won't be disappointed, since "The Elquest" is several times better than, for example, all the third-party crap on Aldorlea.

i'ts a good Story with interesting characters. I just wish the drop rate was a bit higher, even though there's a small aid available for that. :)

Another bad one. Out of nowhere, you have to beat an arcade shooter to progress in a RPG. Didn't anyone think that was a bad idea? You already have an established combat system.