The Secret of Varonis

awesome

a loving homage to the Final Fantasy Legend series and early works of Akitoshi Kawazu. Humans, espers, robots, and monsters are all fun to use, and the vignette settings are fun twists on familiar bits in FFL games. Recommended for fans of 8-bit RPGs and QOL improvements!

A shameless (good) Final Fantasy Legend knockoff and I'm here for it.

A love letter to Makai Toushi: SaGa !

Very fun old school RPG. Based on the early Saga or FF legends game. Even though it seems basic there is quite a bit of room for expression in your builds which I very much appreciate. Story is definitely basic, but doesn't over stay it's welcome which is appreciated. Enemy visual variety is lower than I'd like, but at this price it hard to complain. My only real nit pick is I think balance between the races isn't perfect. Espers felt very strong needing low investment in funds (I used the 1100g wands almost the entire game to amazing results.) Less slots for gear getting abilities from fighting as well so they have low cost and where the first to hit max stat before human even had a chance to buy their way there. Humans are solid I loved having one but they feel more balanced due to the cost involved in buying stat ups and more expensive gear. Had some points they were strong or weak depending when/what I could buy. Robot felt a bit lack luster. Sure they can be built a variety of ways, but they just felt like they cost a lot but never hit the same level. Monsters are more for fun I think and the preset is hit and miss with them. Over all a wonderful time filled with nostalgia and a surprisingly fun little bit of JRPG turn based combat.

Pretty cool and somewhat difficult Gameboy style game!

This is a well done game. It plays like the old final fantasy legend games but has several quality of life features that can be toggled on or off. Can be played on older computers and the steam deck.

Super good jrpg. Sometimes, it turns out all you need to make a great game is to just eat another game's homework (in this case, Final Fantasy Legend), throw in a healthy dash of QoL, minor refinements to the mechanics of that game, and there you go. Really enjoyed having a unique set of requirements for "leveling up" each character class, the Gameboy aesthetic and soundtrack, the atypical setting and characters, and a difficulty curve that never felt worse than "moderately challenging".

Enjoyed the game.

[b]Full Disclosure[/b]: I am already a SaGa addict and full adherent to the Kawazuismo game design ideology. This game is great and a terrific SaGa-like that folks like me will really enjoy. That said, do beware that a lot of the in-game stuff hews [b]uncomfortably close[/b] to its source material, to the point of literally copy/pasting item/class/skill names from the original SaGa 1+2 (AKA Final Fantasy Legend 1+2). Now, those items/classes/skills work differently than the OG, but noting here anyway. It emulates those original games incredibly well, for better and worse! I already love SaGa, but my normal disclaimer here for those that have not been initiated into SaGa applies! Varonis is reasonably accessible, even explaining the damage calculations of each weapon and how stats play into skill use. Success requires you to think deliberately about your builds and how they work together across your party - this kind of gameplay isn't for everyone, but for a game this cheap, it's still worth recommending if you're interested! That said, I would recommend Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven as a more accessible entry point into SaGa. But Secret of Varonis does a lot to demystify the game systems and also help new players. Regardless, hard recommend to anyone into retro RPGs or someone seeking a new RPG experience!