Trials of Proelium Remastered

Trials of Proeleum Remastered is a fun, charming RPGMaker experience, thanks almost entirely due to the main duo, Letha and Yoni, and their budding relationship throughout the otherwise just okay story and combat. I cannot stress enough how much love the developer put into fleshing out our two leads. Beyond just their interactions in the main quest, which are often quite humorous, there are countless opportunities for Yoni and Letha to just talk and get to know each other. You can ask Yoni what she thinks about every location in the game and get a unique reaction, or you can ask about her past, her hopes for the future, her thoughts on philosophy, what kind of foods she likes, what her cup size is (Letha, you horndog!), and so much more. There's even a dedicated option to ask her about a completely random topic, such as whether she'd rather be eaten by a slime or a frog, and new lines seem to be constantly added to that option depending on quest progression and choices you make during said quests. Of course, you also learn a lot about Letha from these conversations, and she is just as well-rounded a character as her companion. Beyond that, the duo can go on dinner dates, or soak in a public bath, or go ice skating, or kick back on a beach with some beers. Watching them interact with and learn about each other is 100% the highlight of the game, and if you don't find yourself enjoying their relationship, then the rest of the game probably isn't worth your time. Speaking of their relationship, there are several choices throughout Letha and Yoni's conversations which influence how it progresses. The duo can remain platonic life partners (boring), but if Letha keeps flirting with Yoni, the two can eventually become lovers and get married, complete with wedding rings and a ceremony. This opens up plenty of new dialogue, including a whole area dedicated to exploring what they mean to each other and how their new life together will work. It's pure teeth-rotting sweetness that I won't spoil any further because it deserves to be experienced. Yuri truly is the purest form of love. The actual plot of the game is nothing to write home about. Defeat the five other Masters and become empress. There's self-contained stories in each of the Master's realms that serve to expand upon the world and its people (some more so than others). You can choose to kill the bosses as the tradition demands, or spare them. Sometimes this changes minor things in the story, but sometimes it doesn't, and at some points the game acts like Letha's been slaughtering them all when she has not killed a single one. I'm not sure if the ending changes if you kill them all instead. Overall, the story does its job fine and is a good excuse to have Yoni and Letha travel the world together. The actual RPG part of the game, while not awful by any means, is by far the weakest part. Unlike some other games using this engine, the problem with combat isn't its simplicity. In fact, the game gives you quite a few ways to customize your heroines (and Samuel too, I guess, though he isn't a permanent party member so why bother?). Letha can equip four different weapon types, each coming with unique skills, and you can swap between them during combat to adapt to the enemies you're facing. Equipment can be upgraded both with stat-enhancing scrolls and craftable orbs which offer various bonus effects. Enemies have elemental weaknesses that can be exploited, and you can fine-tune your equipment to guard against certain elements if you know a boss will use it against you. The problem is that the game never feels like you need to do any of this because of its lack of difficulty. With random encounters on but with no grinding, I was still massively overlevelled through almost the entire game. Full heal consumables are cheap and plentiful, meaning the best strategy is always just to equip your strongest beatstick, spam your best attacks on cooldown, and chug one of your infinite potions if your mana or health gets low. I don't think I lost a single battle. It might be better to turn random encounters off and rely on quests and forced encounters to level up if you're looking for a challenge. All in all, if you enjoy girls' love and can stomach RPGMaker combat, I wholeheartedly recommend giving this game a shot. Yoni best girl.

What an overwhelming surprise, a true gem in the rough! Trials of Proelium is a light-hearted yuri/shoujo ai(optional) JRPG-style adventure game filled to the brim with passion and very noticeably made with love. While it does suffer some typical RPG maker jank that you'd expect from the engine, there is far more detail and world building than I expected from a game of its kind, and I am incredibly glad I ended up giving it a chance and playing it. It helps that it has a demo, of course! Absolutely worth the money at such a modest price, and I'm only halfway into the game so far! At most! I have been avoiding RPG maker games for years because a lot of them have pretty terrible quality and level of detail. If I hadn't made an exception here, I would have truly missed out on a genuinely fun adventure. The writing's cracked me up a number of times, the characters are a lot more endearing and enjoyable than I expected, and there's optional romantic and yuri subtext in some interactions that I, personally, am a total sucker for. Honestly, I only have a few possible gripes that come to mind, based on my current playtime, and neither of them are truly a bad thing. The first would be pacing - because the game is open world, the player can freely choose where to go, which is in its own way an incredibly good thing. It makes the adventure more akin to a series of mini-adventures as part of a larger overarching plot. At times, it can feel like I am actively playing a slice of life manga! However... This also means there's not really any challenge or difficulty to speak of, and the flow of the story can feel like it's progressing in skips and jumps, with periods where nothing is happening and then suddenly a lot of things happen, all at once, and then they're over again just like that. In fact, the dual protagonists' relationship can at times feel like it's developing "behind the scenes", and it would have been nice to have them grow closer over the course of the adventure a little bit more visibly than what they currently do. The precious few bonding scenes you do get between them are absolutely delightful, and it left me craving more like it so badly that I ended up looking up manga with similar themes just to sate that craving. Most egregiously, some regions of the game feel like they have far more content, , lore, characters and character interactions than others. A very noticeable example of this is one of the very first islands you can travel to, which comes complete with entire cutscenes, a large array of side characters with ties to the rest of the game world, and even a temporary party member who comes and goes at other times during the game! (Hi Squalus! You're almost my favourite character, but unfortunately Yoni is a thing! But I think that's okay, because I know you really like Yoni too.) Compared to this, Some other regions can feel a little bland and empty - you walk in there, there are no NPCs to talk to worth mentioning, and you just walk up to the region boss and fight them, just like that. There is only one genuine complaint that comes to mind. ... I want more! I don't want it to end! That's it, that's the complaint. I don't want to have to say goodbye to Yoni and Letha... The developer's later games have gradually climbed an escalator of horniness, making them less approachable to players like me that aren't good with adult content. Still, Trials of Proelium scratched an itch for a very animesque, wholesome fantasy adventure in a detailed, well-developed world and setting focusing on themes of friendship (and perhaps more?) in a sweet, but satisfying way. I really hope to get to play more like it someday, whether it's from this developer or others. If I'm lucky, they'll feel drawn and inspired to make more like this again someday! In the meantime, I think I might let myself be convinced to try the next game they made, so that I can have more of the kind of atmosphere their writing and worldbuilding sets the stage for. Big recommend from me! It's changed my mind about RPG maker gamers. I wonder what other delightful stories and experiences might be out there, waiting to be discovered.

Great and cute game. The worldbuilding is amazing, you really feel the story advancing and your choices changing the world. Letha and Yoni relationship is really cute. The combat is great too. I really would like more yuri games that aren't just visual novels, just like this one is a really good RPG. Overall I have no complainings about this game, it is really good and cute.

It's a great RPG with a side light-lesbian theme. If you never played the original, definitely get this one instead, as it adds more stuff. Otherwise, if you did play the original, then I should warn you: there is not enough content to justify a purchase here. In this case, I only recommend buying if you want to support the devs or when it's on sale.