Whispers in the Moss

Dropping an early review to help boost the game to more eyes, but I've played enough that I don't think my views will drastically change. First off, it's a gorgeously crafted retro experience. My first thoughts immediately point to the Dwarf Fortress intro but as a full game. A huge point of the charm is exploring this text art world discovering all the new dudes with their lavishly crafted portraits and running into more creatures in the bestiary filled with familiar and unique critters. An excellent accompanying soundtrack as well. On the gameplay side it's basic but fitting, each character has some unique archetypes to fill on top of the standard attack/magic/item paradigm. There are optional hunts and secrets that offer a fitting challenge. The story also seems pretty standard, but it's sprinkled with the dev's fitting sense of humor, and its fitting for the holistic retro approach. Please consider giving this game a shot! It dropped hot into one of the biggest months in indie games and at the same time as Skald, a much higher profile retro RPG.

This is my first ever review posted on Steam in nearly 20 years. If you used to play BBS door games, you will feel right at home with this game. If you are 40+ and want a hit of nostalgia, pick it up.

This game is an absolute gem - the ANSI interface is well crafted and a real throwback to the good old days of the 1990's but at the same time the music, gameplay and pacing nail the mid 90's sprite JRPG feel. Kudos!

First ANSI art JRPG I've seen, and quite possibly the first one, full stop. It's obviously a labor of love, and if you are or were ever into textmode games, you will get a kick out of this. Equal parts ZZT, Zelda, Questron, Final Fantasy IV and GORILLA.BAS. Get it, ye one-eyed willies!

The ASCII and ANSI artwork give it a distinguishing look. Gameplay seemed aligned with the typical JRPG tropes. Haven't played long enough to get too deep into the story and get to know the characters but seemed interesting so far. Did a first impressions video recording of the gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY-17Yskz1c&ab_channel=psenough

'Artisan retro RPG' sure fits well as description. This isn't Nethack with it's one character sized characters. Figures stand tall and look great considering it is all just glorious ASCII art like this is the 90's BBS. View is overhead so trees and rocks obscure the view many times on purpose to hide those routes forward and loot chests. Couple of hours in and it's a delight. Graphics are clearly made with lots of attention to detail and it's quite easy to follow what is going on at the screen all the time. Controls are simple after ingesting the tab and a/d to roll over to sub-menus. Space to select and cursor keys for movement. That's about it. Story is interesting and forces you to find places and people on your own. No quest markers here or big over world maps. Secrets and secret locations can be found making this a pretty low-level 'i just stumbled into situations' kind of RPG experience which is never bad in my books. Quite recommendable for those who can stomach the old school 'artisan' graphics and want a proper RPG.

Summary Cooked with time, skill and care, a traditional role-playing adventure delights with it's personal graphics and superb game system. The story is not that bad, either. Good Graphics are uniquely beautiful, music is well crafted and ambition is unmatched, considering the chosen visual style. A successful breath of fresh air from the past, with modern additions. Bad Could be difficult for some players to get into. Could use some small quality of life enhancements. Highly recommended!

Can really recommend this game! i find the ASCII graphics very charming, it reminds of ZZT and 80’s roguelikes but feels more lively and less flat in design than those. Really happy to see a modern game in this style. The music complements the retro fantasy atmosphere. i can’t comment much on the RPG aspects, i generally play puzzle and story driven games and avoid games with much combat, so all i can only say it’s not annoyingly hard :) and that i appreciate the option to save everywhere. There’s a lot of story and adventure and it certainly isn’t just grinding.