Thorne - Death Merchants

30 Minute Quickie Impressions: It's well done. You can tell they spent a lot of time making it. It's easy to get surrounded and die. The combat is fast-paced. It needs another round or two with the spell checker. It's currently $1.79. That's a large order of fries. Go for it. You don't need those fries anyway.

Thorne is an interesting idea for an RPG Maker title. It's set in a dark fantasy setting as opposed to your standard anime looking world. In fact, the world feels more like something ripped from a George R.R. Martin book! So, the setting is incredible! Unfortunately, that's where my enjoyment ended! The English version of the game is full of spelling errors! Nearly every paragraph has a few misspelled words. In fact, sometimes it is difficult to understand what exactly the characters are saying. This to me, is a game breaker in an RPG! If a game rips you out of your immersion, so you can try to decode what the characters are saying, then it's NOT a good RPG. A role playing game, should allow you to lose yourself into the fantasy world. This however does not. The controls seem awkward, and even moreso when using a gamepad! The second battle in the game, pits you against 4 enemies. The enemies are easy enough to defeat, but they are on you quickly. They can and do push you all the way to the back entrance of the map. Forcing you to fight them while locked in the corner since the only way out of the entrance passage is up....and up is where they are standing. Overall, the game had potential, and could have been good. It just infuriated me more than entertained me.

[b]Thorne - Death Merchants[/b] is a very simple game, it plays like most RPG Maker games but instead of having turn based party combat, Thorne’s combat is real-time and very fast paced. It really caught me by surprise, it features some nice changes to the default sprites of RPG Maker and it plays in a very different way when compared to other games made with this engine. It is also worth saying that this is the first part of this series but still, the ending is not abrupt or anything, it leaves room for more events to unfold and the story of this part is done, it doesn’t end in a cliffhanger or anything like that. Before elaborating on some key aspects of the game, I think it is important to first mention some things that I didn’t enjoy about Thorne. The first one is obviously the lack of voice acting but I guess that for a small indie studio this is somewhat hard to put into a game of this scale. The second complaint I have is the fact that a lot of times, it is not very obvious where doors are located when they are on the sides of the screen. Since you have no 3D view they just look like another corridor or dead end, if you get close enough though you’ll go through that passage and proceed to another room. That said, I did find myself a couple of times looking for a place to go when in fact I just had to run against the wall, so to speak. [h1][b]Story:[/b][/h1] You play as Crow, a well known mercenary, and you start your journey in a prison cell being interrogated by a guard. You’re being accused of killing someone in a nearby village and so you are explaining to this guard on how you are not guilty of this crime. This how most of the game takes place, you play as you are telling your story to the guard. Without spoiling, the overall story is pretty decent. What appears to be just another set of simple jobs for a reputable mercenary such as yourself leads to a series of events and mystery concerning the little village of Hollow Lake. The villagers ask for your help because the local noble has been ignoring them and locked himself in his mansion, leaving the villagers defenseless. It is up to you to help these people and investigate a series of murders that have been occurring. [h1][b]Gameplay:[/b][/h1] The game is pretty simple and therefore there isn’t much you need to know, and what you need to know is explained to you early on. For combat, it plays like an action RPG of sorts, A is your melee attack, S is your ranged ability and Q is heal. When you’re low on HP you can use Rage which gives your attack a little boost but requires you to rest at the inn in order to be able to use it again. The game offers atleast 2 different ranged abilities, daggers and molotovs. The game doesn’t hold your hand, you can go after the main quest if you choose to do so or you can just go on different paths and explore the world. The game rewards exploration because while exploring you can find different kinds of loot. Even though the game has a lot of items for you to find that either heal you or cure certain ailments, I never found myself using any of these because there was simply no need. Sometimes, when you kill an enemy, they will drop loot bags but you can also acquire loot merely by walking through the levels, some spots might have something hidden. The game has its own menu where you can check your different stats, equip or use items, check your quests, the usual. Still, while the game has various different stats for your character such as strength and agility, the game doesn’t tell you what these do and how they affect your gameplay. [h1][b]Overall thoughtst:[/b][/h1] The game features a small but nice soundtrack and the writing is fairly decent even though there’s ocasionally some spelling errors in the dialogue. Combat is serviceable along with level design. Still, for me the story makes up for all the less good aspects of the game. In the end Thorne - Death Merchants is pretty good for its price and I’m looking forward for the next parts of this series.

My favorite genre of game, the rpg, I remember fondly my first rpg, the amazing Final Fantasy 7, Cloud and his merry band of terrorist (yes they were terrorist, but back when the game first released terrorist meant something totally different than it does today) I still recall being amazed, the graphics, the sounds, the mini games, I couldn't play the game enough, I put well over 100 hours into FF7, and that was my first save.. other amazing games the suikoden series, who could forget Breath of Fire 3, even Shadow Madness (called one of the first American RPG's by Game informer.... whatever that meant) So what do Final Fantasy 7 and these other amazing games have to do with Throne - Death Merchants.. not a single thing, except they are both members of my favorite genre and they are all amazing games.. Well then, shall we move on with my review of Thorne - Death Merchants? Aside from the main character being named Crow, and the name of the fort, nothing else was related to Game of Thrones, so I removed this section [b] The Story [/b] The story starts you off as Crow, a man shackled in a keeps dungeon. He's bloody and retelling the tale of a murder!!! Did Crow commit the murder, was he framed? Did the butcher, the baker or the candlestick maker frame him??? That is what we'll get to see first hand as you relive the story that Crow tells to his jailer. I'll expand upon the story as I move through the game... [b] The Gameplay [/b] The game play is different from many of the other rpgmaker games out there.. it's made using real-time combat as opposed to turn based combat. I certainly don't mind the real-time combat, It felt out of place for a game using this type of engine, although I did quickly adapt to it, and quickly grew accustomed to it. After nearly an hour of game play I have to say real-time combat had me more immersed in the game, it felt more interactive, rather than just snoozing through battles pressing the attack button, I was more apt to pay attention during combat, and the combat had an air of difficulty other games made with the same engine don't have. All the normal rpg options are there, items, equipment, quest, status, the game had an added selection called encyclopedia, this section gives you a brief description of the enemies and NPC's' you're met throughout the game. (handy addition and helps with immersion). Another difference between Thorne and other games, is armor, you don't equip armor in the game, instead you equip accessories, which increase your stats, you can equip 4 different accessories. Another really useful option is the auto loot, no more toiling away checking every barrel/crate/pot/bookshelf. The items are automatically looted by using sprint, can make finding all the hidden items fairly simplistic. A few tips to keep in mind... if the game starts in a tiny window, use alt + enter to bring the game into full screen mode. Some useful default button's if you're a controller user (xbox 360 wired) You can remap the buttons but these are the default selections Y is the attack button, A is the run button B brings up your main menu X is used for interacting with people, and options in your menu. LB is used for range attacks RB is used for switching which ranged attack to use Backspace/select is used to heal [b] Pro's [/b] Fun and interactive combat, Start to a great story contoller support (yeah i'm that guy, who loves playing his rpg's with a controller) Auto loot ++++ Music is pleasant The game is fairly difficult, and requires more than just looking away and choosing the attack option [b] Con's [/b] Lots of grammar and spelling mistakes (I suck at teh (intentional) spelling and grammer, but I'm not selling a product) Unresponsive controls are the bane of this game existence. Action rpg's are fine, but the combat needs to be adjusted to allow far more fluid attacks, and magic.. no reason exist why I should be full MP, press the button and have no magic come, no reason exist why I should press the sword attack button 5 or 6 times before my character eventually attacks.. [b] The Verdict [/b] So the meat and potatoes of any review is the verdict, was the game worth playing, and if it was worth playing would I recommend it for other gamers... The short answer is absolutely.... The long answer is.... [b]ABSOLUTELY!!!![/b] if you aren't into THESE types of rpg's, then odds are the charm and quaintness will be totally lost on you. If you have a natural bias against RPG maker or old school games you'll most likely not enough this game at all... (but hey it's cheap and has cards so maybe even you can find a use for it.) For those who appreciate a well told story (albeit with some spelling and grammar issues) you'll do well to pick this up. It certainly won't have 50 hours of gameplay, but for 3 dollars what do you expect. You'll play it, you'll love it, and you'll be wanting the developer to finish up the story (This seems to be an episodic game where you'll get a part of the story now, and then after development is finished have the option of buying??? (not sure) additional episodes to finish out the story) The game took me a little over 2 hours to complete, the developer is planning on making this an 8 part game, thus far the game has a pretty good foundation on which to build.

I loved to play RPG Maker games, especially those that has good storylines and that have some unique features that is different from the run-of-the-mill type games. Well, I had a wonderful time with this game, Thorne. The game mechanics is very unique, as we do not have he regular leveling, or armors, etc. What it has is a single weapons, and a number of different accessories slots. So, it is quite refreshing. The fighting itself is also different as well. Instead of turn-based, 1-action-per-turn combat, you actually move your character around to try to avoid being hit, and press the attack button (direct combat or range combat) to try to hit the enemy. So the combat mechanics is slightly different. Another really interesting thing is the 22 Steam achievements. Although you can finished the main quest in 2-3 hours, I actually spend 10 hours, playing the game 3 times, and trying to figure out all the different achievements. This is because the activation of certain events are not too obvious and trying to figure out how to trigger them is part of the fun of the game. There are also different type of exploration puzzles, hidden items, partial keys, etc, that make the game interesting as well. I loved this game. The only shortcoming that I can think of for this game is : IT IS TOO SHORT :). However, as I understand it, this is Part 1 of an 8 part episodic game and that we would be able to carry forward our save game to the next episode. This is really excellent. Furthermore the price of slightly more than $1 for such a game is defintely worth it!! I love this game, and would look forward to buying and playing all 8 episodes. Keep up the good work, developers... and I definitely recommend this game.

Imagine if you will some company from the 16-bit era tried to make The Witcher. Congratulations, you just imagined Thorne in a nutshell. A real time RPG with an enjoyable story, and optional side quests if you want to spend a little extra time in the country of Rowen. I look forward to other episodes coming out.

Thorn - Death Merchants is a Nintendo-syle game that presents a challenging - almost too difficult - series of challenges for you and your character in a medeival-fantasy environment. There is a mixture of puzzle-solving, combat, locating hidden items, exploring, and light roleplaying (not really much in the way of dialogue choices though). This is one title that i really wish there was a 'sideways' thumb as opposed to up or down. Here is my summary list of positives and negatives; + Doesn't pull punches on the dialogue - adult humor and swear words are common + Interesting mix of characters in the game + Interesting plot and premise + Fairly large amount of content that I could tell (I haven't finished it yet) + Satisfying mix of inventory items you can use + Low priced game - Difficult, sometimes frustratingly so - Your avatar often gets humg up on the terrain (have to wiggle back and forth to get unstuck) - No full screen. This was a huge minus for me. - A large number of typos in the dialogue - No auto-save; prepare to save often or prepare to replay large amounts of already-played content I'd change this review to 'positve' if only it was available in full-screen. If you like the old-school games like Legend of Zelda on Super nintendo, you might enjoy this. Fans of full-screen, 3d, full-immersion, 'modern graphics' games will not be impressed however.

[b]Thorne - Death Merchants[/b] is an action RPG based on the RPGMaker engine, and the very beginning was quite a shock to me, based on the language and innuendo being used. I was surprised, but I will make note that this is a mature type of game. It's more along the lines of something like Secret of Mana in terms of the style of action RPG gameplay. Anyway, you start as a captured prisoner, and you begin to tell your story of why you are not responsible for the current crime they are holding you for, and the parts where you are moving about and interacting with things are the flashbacks from the past as you tell the story to the officer in the place where you are being held. It's not too terribly long, and can be finished in one day or so, depending on how long one would want to play for. The price of the game makes it much more appealing for the content. I think it's definitely a reasonable buy. Here are my basic impressions and overall ideas on the game itself: [h1]Pros[/h1] Interesting dialogue with the more mature word choices in many parts. It's different and was unexpected, so I really like it in a refreshing sort of way, though it is a bit overdone. The wolf you get is great, although I cannot always find him. I enjoy the whole process, but I'm not too sure if doing things besides searching raises any sort of affinity or affection or whatever you'd call it. It's not super important, but I thought it was fun searching for items if I was letting my magic or health raise. You can either attack on the screen, or damage with projectiles for a distance attack. The meter gradually decreases as the battle goes on, so you cannot spam the distance attacks. It's still a great addition to the regular attacks. Most of the music is not very invasive, and doesn't seem to bother me at all. Bordering is done well on this one. I haven't found many areas where I can go beyond the edging. There are some blocks of empty space that I cannot walk through, but most borders are solid. For its length, the developers made the pricing very reasonable. Often I see games that are much too expensive for the length of time they take to finish. I'm not really sure what all I missed, but I did not even pick up every achievement on my initial run from start to finish. [h1]Cons[/h1] No real directions on where to go for the quests. I was unsure which way was the right way for a lot of the quests. No map of any sort, either early on. I like to be able to tell where I am in relation to what is around me. [spoiler]There is a map you get from a treasure chest a bit later on, but it only shows some general regional areas, and isn't a whole lot of help. [/spoiler] Wolf won't always appear where you want it to, so it can take several tries to get it near you when searching. Clunky stairs. You can't move diagonally with some sets, and have to move up then left or right, and you sort of get stuck as you're moving along. Some grammatical errors, which is understandable, but nothing too difficult to understand or anything. [h1]Other Thoughts[/h1] The story itself is a strange one, with a bunch of twists and turns. There is a lot of cursing throughout, which I found kind of interesting for this style of game. I'm not really used to it, honestly. Overall though, it worked for the story. It did seem overdone in some parts though. It's not incredibly long of a story, and there are not a whole lot of quests. You'll probably not level up very much either. It took me a few minutes to find out if I had points to level up with, and how exactly to go about it. The battles are not very difficult, and you can heal a good bit, plus use items if necessary. It is possible to pull a few enemies out of a group and kite them a bit until they die, while you wait it out to regain health and magic (which is used for your distance items). You can sort of escape from battle when you get far enough away from anything attacking you and regenerate your health, then go back to the area to finish off any enemies by using this sort of method, though. All in all the game sort of ends abruptly in a way, though I was kind of feeling it wrapping up. Hard to know for sure with RPGs as some are very long. This one would have been nice going a bit longer, but it's understandable after finishing things up why it ended where it did. I thought it was interesting, and very different than the usual kind of RPG I've played. I thought the story was rather interesting, though I wish there was a little more. Still I'd definitely recommend this game for anyone looking for something that is fairly short and not too tough to play, overall. Not too tough to get used to playing, and entertaining overall. The grammar could have been edited a bit more, but I could still understand the idea behind what was being said. My overall impressions though were that this was a good game, and I'm glad I got to play this! Definitely worth a try in my personal opinion. [b]** Disclaimer: I was given a key to review the game. This had no impact on my rating**[/b]

A lot of problems make for a poor package. Combat and menu's are extremely clunky. Full screen looks poorly stretched. Natural window is tiny and cannot be resized through convenient means. Writing actually isn't bad what I played of it. Payed a buck. I wish I hadn't but not enough to refund it. I just recommend caution before purchase.

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