Wolfsong is a very short RPG made on the RPGmaker engine- an oft reviled piece of software that allows people to create their own games through a myriad of templates. The battle mechanics, UI and most likely the code underneath is all stock RPGmaker. On top of this boilerplate, Hyptosis has affixed hand-drawn assets and an overworld system that one does not often see in these sorts of games. I have to say, it is hard to play through a game that does nothing transformative to the RPGmaker templates. In this case, there was just enough to keep me playing. The initial hour or two of the game promises something very grand and ambitious- an adventure of a young woman who has decided to buck traditional gender roles, become a warrior and see the world. Midway through the game. however, it becomes clear this was TOO ambitious and the developer runs out of steam. From then on, it becomes nearly indistinguishable from the loads of RPGmaker shovelware out there. This was a big disappointment to me, but I at least commend the effort- it is still offering a roughly 6 hour or so campaign for a dollar.
The creative aspect to an RPGmaker game is definitely what you are looking for when you want to commit to it- the worldbuilding, the art, the characters, and the dialogue are the most important part. You have to stick the landing here if you want people to sit through hours of the same battle system you can find in hundreds of others. The art is rough, but indicative of clear effort on the part of Hyptosis. The custom spritework looks solid overall; and the hand-drawn art (which comprises portraits, some in-game CGs, and in-battle sprites) is inconsistent, but looks miles better than the generic stuff that comes bundled with the software. The characters themselves are endearing, and a significant reason as to why I wanted to see this whole thing through. There is the inkling, the roots, of character development for its cast that would certainly have been wonderful if the game had more time and more budget. I love Cinnacat especially, the game's "mascot" character. You can see the developer wanted to flesh him out to be more than just a cute face with a quirky personality. The same goes for many of the colorfully designed cast.
Unfortunately, much of the plot threads and stories these characters offer are left hanging. The entire world is explicitly described as "well-established" by the developer. You don't get much history, and the worldbuilding is mostly done through random lines in the dialogue. There are ton of exposition dumps, some flashbacks to tangential storylines, and references to a large and bustling world. This is supplanted by the overworld map, which is huge. Yet the overworld map is largely window dressing, just like the stories I've mentioned. It is in reality a big open space with a sparse few point of interest you can actually visit- many of them only seen once, and many more just optional "dungeons" you can grind in. I cannot fault the developers for not being able to recreate Final Fantasy and its encyclopedic worldbuilding here. There is always the issue of budget and time. However, if you're looking for depth in this area, there is sadly none. Considering this game most likely won't have a sequel (despite some dialogue lines to the contrary), anything you would want further explanation for is mostly left to your imagination.
I understand the limitations. But you can only go so far to make a game look and sound like one of the SNES greats before those limitations start to unravel the experience. When there is no real weight to the story and the games story progresses at a breakneck pace, in the end, all that is left to rely on is the combat. There is no other gameplay element- no minigames or anything of the sort. Just stock standard RPGmaker gameplay. To be brutally honest, it sucks. There are so many glaring balance issues that make the progression badly paced. If you're a stickler for quality JRPG combat, I would not bother with Wolfsong. There are some cool gameplay ideas, but as mentioned, it is mostly boilerplate RPGmaker combat. And with that territory comes a lot of issues, especially when the developer clearly took no time to avoid common pitfalls for games made with the software.
One notable decision by Hyptosis was to do away with random encounters; arguably one of the greatest black marks on the pedigree of traditional JRPGs. Instead, encounters are contained within roaming enemy sprites on a given map- most can be bypassed completely, though certain encounters are forced if you want to open a chest or pass to a new area. Upon leaving the current area, enemies automatically respawn. This allows you to grind as much as you want. This approach is pretty good from a design standpoint, allowing you to traverse an area with minimal encounters if needed or grind as much as you want. However, the implementation is still flawed. Oftentimes, there will be a cluster of enemies impeding your path, forcing you into multiple encounters. In the earlygame, this is very easy- the entire first 3 hours of the game are trivial.
Yet, the game soon falls into the cardinal sin of RPGmaker games with an unnatural difficulty spike midway through the game. Everything hits way harder and is much harder to kill in turn. It is RNG-based who gets targeted due to no hate/aggro system. This is compounded by the maddening design decision in which every encounter is static- walking into a specific enemy will always have you fighting the same battle no matter what. At this point, nearly every enemy encounter is comprised of two giant tanky enemies who can heal themselves for several hundred a turn, surrounded by less bulky enemies who hit really, REALLY hard. Essentially, this formula never changes because each enemy encounter is static. The developer ran out of ideas at this point, so they copy-paste the same encounter to every enemy in a given area. This becomes a mind-numblingly boring slog that you are forced to go through because of forced encounters or high density enemy placement. You can run away, but it does not matter if the enemy is blocking your path to progressing the game. Because every encounter is the same, the battles NEVER change. And because of how inflated the enemy stats are, you must complete the same tedious actions everytime. This continues right up until the final boss fight.
It is not hard- trust me, it isn't. It is just very tedious. Your main character can replenish the entire team's MP for no cost, so you just do that at the start of every turn, have your casters do their most damaging aoe, have your healer heal, repeat ad nauseum. This is how every single encounter goes from the mid to endgame. The only time this formula switches is when you are forced to use a party without your main character. Yet this specific sequence in the game is where I came closest to just giving up and uninstalling. All you have to do is cast a certain characters' skill that makes your entire team dodge and counter everything, have the enemy kill themselves trying to hit you, use a MP replenishing skill ONLY this character has, rinse repeat ad nauseum.
You do this same song and dance until you are told the final battle has come, do the very same thing to kill the final boss, and the game finishes with some text on the screen and some setup for a potential sequel that will most likely never be realized. In the end, I was just disappointed there wasn't more to the game. For its asking price, I am appreciative of the effort that went into realizing Wolfsong. But it was clear that everything this developer wanted to do, wanted to set up, was held back by the resources they had. Beneath the charm and nostalgia for old-school SNES it wants to evoke, is just another fairly generic and poorly balanced RPGmaker game.
