The Forgotten Forest

The Forgotten Forest, developed by Dylan Wentz, is one of many RPGMaker games purchasable on Steam… but if you’re looking for a scary and (or) dramatic experience crafted on this engine, I’d say you’re better off looking elsewhere. You play as Rebecca, a simple girl leading a simple life. With her mother’s death, she finds comfort in her father, who seems more than capable of raising a child. But, as the story quickly unfolds, that’s where things go downhill; not just for our protagonists, but for the game as a whole. You see, The Forgotten Forest is anything but subtle. Almost instantly, in the midst of a school day, Rebecca’s class is greeted by a strange old woman whom none of the children know. She proceeds to tell the students of a cursed forest nearby… and that’s it. That intro alone sums up the style of this game’s story. It’s very random. Plot twists and conflicts will just spring out of nowhere, and before you can blink, something else has already happened. For example, after Rebecca returns from school, she sits down with her father. Only seconds into their meal and there’s a crash at the door. The father explains that he owes some men money, or something. My reaction: “…… ok…..?” After escaping the house and running off into the woods, that is where our game begins. Now, there really isn’t too much to say about gameplay. You collect items, solve puzzles, and that’s about it; pretty standard for most RPGMaker games. But your objective throughout these puzzles is not always clear. It got to the point where I’d collected 10 random puzzle items and I had no idea what to do with any of them. Oh, but there is one thing that really, really pisses me off: Cheap Deaths. They. Are. Everywhere. I must’ve died at least ten times due to completely random scenarios that were unavoidable. The game has heart, I know so, but I just don’t think it’s worth your time or money. However, I believe this dev is totally capable of making something great, had there been a little more time and effort put in. But until then, we’ll just have to wait and see.

My First Play on Launch Day & Review Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAcUxJu7oGc Bah, this game defines EXACTLY the reasons that people seem to despise RPG maker games that continue to flood Steam. Even at $1.49, it makes you feel like the developer is laughing all the way to the bank. Too many things make absolutely no sense 45 minutes into the game, which was much further then I wanted to play this. Boring, uninspired, senseless plot makes this project feel like the developer rushed to push out a game for Steam to try and make a quick dollar, err or $1.49. I give the game credit for some pretty good random scares, sound effects or monsters that dart wildly in front of or behind you can surprise you. However this just feels like a tacked on gimmick to try and convince you this game is worthy of a good RPG maker game.. it's NOT! To the Moon is a great RPG maker game, this is just more RPG Maker "muck" that leaves you shaking your head and asking "why?" over and over. My score is a 24%, even at the price tag of $1.49. I want more then my $1.49 back, how can I request a refund of my TIME as well through Steam?!? Stay away, even at 90% off and 14 cents, this game isn't worth it. Sorry dev.. try again pal, and next time don't try to push out a game in a week, eh?

Before dozing off to bed and finally being able to rest after playing this nonstop from 2 am to 5 am, I figured I should write a review while it's still fresh in my mind. First of all, did I enjoy this? Yes! Is it something everyone can enjoy? No. I'll pass on pointing out the good things for now and look at the bad things throughout, so that I can get started with how to improve it. First of all, it's full of bugs, and some scenes seem a lot like rip-offs from other rpg horror game(ex: in the opening you learn that your mother died and you ask your father to go visit her grave tomorrow). There was a lot of frustrating scenes in it which were really hard to figure out on your own. No clues were given for them what-so-ever. One example is when in the mansion I had no idea I could fill the bottle with holy water, and I had no idea I even needed holy water! The game does not tell you ''go get holy water'', no, it just leaves you alone wandering around trying to find what to do next. It also has a lot of tile and clipping errors. If I had a penny for everything I could walk over in this game, I would be one of the richest men of my country. It also has a lot of spelling and grammar errors. At times sentences aren't started with capital letters, and at one point in the game you see that the word ''orphan'' has been spelled as ''orphin''. The maps are empty and bland, and unnecessarily huge, and there are a lot of tiles error like I mentioned. Why did the bookshelves have additional bookshelves below them? It did not make sense, and there were gaps too. Light effects felt cheap, most of the time they went over walls and they had no blur to them what-so-ever, and that's not how lights work in real life at all. You can also interact with things even when not facing them. Also the final scene with lots of monsters was just, way too hard. It took me like 50 attempts trying to get all endings(atleast I didn't die at all with the true ending X3). The game also teaches you that angel statues save, however later on there are angel statues in the game that don't do anything. If they won't do anything, why did we learn about them? One other thing is, the developer does not know how to remove party members from the looks of it. [spoiler]Even after he died and when you fell down the well[/spoiler] Jacob is still in your party, and also, one game breaking bug I found is when you go to the room where you place the dagger after forging it, returning to the big library will cause the flashback to reset. So why did I like this? Honestly, no idea myself. It had lots of flaws, and needed a lot of polishing, but something about me just really wants to like this game. Is it my sense of being way too easily impressed? Is it my love for these kinds of games? Something about it really drawed me into it, and I thought it was really bad, but in the same time I thought it was good. Honestly, with a few bug fixes and a little more dialog improvement this could be made into something great. It really has that potential. I did a 3 part let's play on it, and I will share the playlist when all parts are done uploading. It had good scenes, and some parts that were actually pretty good, like the library and the crypt. Although I don't see how [spoiler]Jacob died. All Rebecca had to do was move down 1 tile and because she's an idiot Jacob pushed her out of the way instead, and if you tihnk of it, if Jacob can move up three tiles to save Rebecca she should be able to move down one tile too[/spoiler]. There were some nice death scenes along the game but also some that are plain lame. For example in the sewers if you enter a room you will be killed by a goblin. No warning was given for this at all, and you did not get to save before it either. I could clearly see that this game follows WilliamTheUnproPro's Let's Make A Rpg Horror Game tutorials on youtube, and one map is just a plain rip-off of it. http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/52923/locker/copy.png Again, I'm saying it. This game isn't for everyone. This isn't a professional rpg maker game that really stands out, it's very amateur. If you do not like buggy games made by newbie developers don't get this, but I played it and liked it quite a lot, despite the fact of pointing out more cons than pros.

Do you like instant death? Welcome to the game where investigating things is a game of Russian Roulette. Maybe that box has a key item you need? Or maybe it will just instantly kill you. Oh no! a monster is coming and you have have several hiding places to choose from. Only one will save you, the rest are sure to have the monster find you and kill you. Which one is the correct one? Well, you just have to pick one and find out, and you have 6 seconds to choose! That sums up about every situation in the game pretty well. Choose, investigate and die because you chose or investigated the wrong thing.

I very much liked this game! (Sadly my play time is off due to a PC change and lots of distracted/afk time; I'd say it took me a solid 3-4 hours though.) The story up first I found a bit confusing then I had a bit of a *ding ding* moment. :P As for the game play it's self it's pretty smooth I don't recall getting hung up on and pixels, the puzzles were pretty decent though there was one I needed to check the guide for (that thankfully the dev had provided :D) All in all a pretty good game that I'd say is definitely worth a dollar.

The Forgotten Forest starts off with a little girl asleep in some grass, awoken by the wind blowing. Why yes, Creator, I HAVE played The Witch's House! To be fair, at least here she's just at school and is called inside from... recess? Truancy? It's very unclear. This is a good indicator that the game is ah.. 'inspired' by some of the more popular RPG Maker Horror games. Along with the tiny price tag, it's clear this game isn't going to be the next Ib, or something. One scene the was sort of interesting was right after the introduction. An old lady walks into the classroom, and begins rattling on about how The Forgotten Forest is super evil, not to go inside it, and then talks about a bunch of strangely specific myths about it. The Rage of the Ghost, Mansion of Blood. Sounds likes Levels to me. Anyway, then there is kind of an okay spook moment when a kid asks who the hell she is and why she is telling them all this random stuff. Then a kind of jumpscare and we fade to Little Girl going home. It gave me some hope, alright? Of course, this is kind of undermined when Little Girl goes home, and her father randomly tells her some debt collectors are coming to take her away moments into dinner. Thanks, Dad! Naturally, the only was to escape is into the evil forest everyone lives beside. I think they were asking for it, honestly. What follows is an almost comedic journey through Wonderland if it was like a Disney spook tour. I myself asked "Why?!" outloud at a few random things happening, and even Little Girl asked the same thing. With my newfound connection to her, I decided to get her out of this alive... After seeing all the cheap deaths to get the maximum amount of game out of this. The gameplay is ok, I guess. You find things to rub on other things to create progress. Sometimes rubbing a thing on another thing kills you because reasons, and you need another thing. If you've played any other RPG Maker Horror game, then you've played this. There are a dozen or so areas where you can walk on the wall because they weren't made solid, or something. The 3 Endings are less based on how well you do in the game, or saving people, or anything really. When you are in the last area, there are 3 Things, and each one gives you an ending, so you can see all 3 in like 10 minutes or so. Anyway, it's worth a grab if you want to spend 2-4 hours on something to get your creative juices flowing for a roleplay character. Or if you just like these sorts of games THAT MUCH.

So far I am enjoying this, but I am terrible at remembering things, so sometimes it gets a little frustrating. Otherwise, I like it. Here is a Let's Play I'm still going through. I'd probably have an easier time if I weren't rushing as well! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVsxSc4XjX8&list=PLHZrhJMYb0R3dJugwY9rsPkzNKvD2AFKS

Tags: Adventure - RPGMaker & Topdown Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library TLDR Clunky. Inane plot and dialogue. No RPG mechanics. Endless keyhunt. Rough and lacks polish.Low visibility radius and poor level design. Horror factor did not hit. Trial and error gameplay with instadeath hotspots

I like it. There are some parts of the game that was hard to figure it out. And the endings are well hidden. Nice rpg story. :)

History is interesting, accompanied by a good soundtrack. I did used a guide to help me locate the objects. I found some puzzles a little annoying and frustrating. The negative point I found in the game was the gameplay, as for example if the player moves quickly to go to another area the passage stops working.