Zeran's Folly

EDIT: Kind of neutral on this game still, but I know I'm only still playing it because I don't have a lot else to play at the moment and it's cons are kind of outweighing its pros, so I'm switching to a negative. Overall not a bad game and fun to play through, but does have its downsides. Cons looks longer than pros because the pros are fairly self explanitory, while I want to make sure the cons are fully understood. Get it on sale if you're really on the fence. PROS: *A 2d action platformer that isn't total butt. I've seen metroidvania thrown around a few times, but Zeran's Folly is a little more action and movement based because of how it throws in physics to movement and abilities as well. It also carries over to some of the attacks, which make it fun to try and line up a shot through movement and timing. * I think this is fully a one-man project? I may be confused but that's worth mentioning, considering all the art assets and music for the game. The music is alright, but I normally play with music muted on games just because I like catching up on videos while I play games. * The visual charm of an early 2000's furry webcomic. We all like to pretend that we're beyond it. We all like to pretend that we aren't heavily invested in the fictional world someone's created that has people who's species name is just "radish" or "blueberry" and it's just accepted and part of the local culture. But sometimes fun things are fun, and it's genuinely fun to see the world and glimpses of the world that come up through conversation. Despite horribly murdering essentially every problem they come across, all the characters are pretty cute. * I see some stuff about "obvious loading" in the reviews, which means maybe I'm lucky in when I got this game? It's honestly a pretty good "pick up and play" game for when I wanna kind of mindlessly plow through stuff. CONS: * A lot of stuff is just. Not explained, or badly explained. I'm not talking about the story/lore, which kind of natrually fills you in on stuff through casual conversation (although to be honest a glossary/lorebook would be useful), but on the basic stuff about your character's abilities and what they can do. The most of an explanation I've gotten about a characters's abilities is one cutscene that let me know a character could double jump, which honestly wasn't even the most mechanically unusual thing about her. I had to guess at a character's ability to do an aerial dash, and I surprised myself by learning she also had a launcher, which. I guess could be interesting if you're the kind of person who likes playing as you go? But that's not a great addition to my next con which is * For a game that relies on physics and the characters kind of being floaty a lot, there's a lot of weirdly pixel perfect platforming challenges, which deffo makes the floaty controls a pain in the ass. I enjoy a good momentum based platforming move as much as the other guy, but I also enjoy when those platformers don't also give me an overly small point to land and move on. Platforming challenges are easily the most irritating part of the game, because they slow everything down to a stop while you try and get a character to move to a specific place without giving yourself too much momentum that you throw yourself off, also you have like two seconds after you land to try and set up your next jump which requires a charge attack for momentum but not too much momentum, etc etc. * This game is like a 2000's furry webcomic, which is to say, horny as ♥♥♥♥. "But wait, random stranger," you say, already cranking it as hard as you can, "I too am very horny all the time!" Well, good for you and all that, but this game is just. Overly horny. And not even like funny horny, like one of the first bosses you throw down against (who's apparently a cameo from a previous game the creator did? Again, a lore book would be real helpful) has the punchline of "he's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ his sister!!!" which through repetition and explicitness goes from "may be funny" to "the creator was hard as a rock writing this" real fast. It's kind of the way it is with all the sexual humor. Too much and not even an entertaining too much. It's also thrown in pretty stark contrast with most of the playable characters being relatively innocent as people, as you're just a simple amnesiac with no real sense of right or wrong, and meanwhile everyone around you is talking about their giant juggs and how much they're horny for the sex making. It was really cool to sit through a character describing an elaborate rape scenario while recruiting an 11 year old girl, then afterwards going "well you probably aren't going to rape her. You're now her legal guardian" in a scene that's less funny and more *rapid slapping noises* * In a semirelated and also unrelated note, boss fights are irritating and I know I'm only getting through them because I'm on easy mode. A fair bit of them have instagrapples that throw you to the ground and damage you (or, in the case I just did a while ago related to the point above, angrily humps you) without much of a chance of responding. Maybe there's something I can do to avoid these, but I genuinely don't know how because the game refuses to tell you without you experimenting and finding it out yourself. Most anything that can close you in to attack ends up getting you hurt as well, because nobody really has any "tells" or lulls in their attack pattern to take advantage of usually, they just go as hard as possible until one of you is dead.

I followed the development of this game as soon as I knew about it with lots of enthusiasm. The whole game (programming, art, story, etc.) has been done by a single guy which is rather impressive, as it feels quite polished as well, I especially like the soundtrack. A clueless guy with axes, a magical rat child, an overly attached girl with purple hair and a tough dragon girl go on an adventure together. The story is linear and obscure, but the dialogues are fun to read if you're into that kind of humor. They don't really give you different options, but the characters itself are very interesting and adorable, both NPCs and the playable characters. Features like rings and talents are great for giving a feeling of progression, and the different outfits are cute and cool to personalize your character. The gameplay itself is fluid and satisfying. The different abilities of the playable characters are interesting and fun to play around with. You can play this game in a fast pace if you don't play it the first time, as you have to know the levels when you don't want to run into spikes, the camera alone doesn't give you enough information from time to time. The puzzle elements and enemies in the levels are interesting and well done, but they are reused/reskinned often. Sometimes, the game makes me want to smash the gamepad into the screen, but in a good way. It is kind of difficult, as the distance between two savepoints is high and you will have to do the same content more than once. The puzzles itself are fair, even if you have to find out the mechanics first by yourself, as there are too few hints. Also, regarding the controls: Use a gamepad, the support for keyboard and mouse is not good enough (yet). I'm a typical keyboard and mouse player but switched to the gamepad really fast. All in all, I would really recommend this game if you're into Sonic-like, challenging games and weird humor. If you're offended quickly, don't play it, you may be raped by a furious gorilla.

Zeran's Folly is a bog-standard Metroidvania with floaty controls, constant pauses for loading, obvious bugs, and an irritating generic soundtrack. In addition, while the game states it contains "crude/suggestive humor," what it actually means is rampant obscenity (not even dirty jokes, just flat-out offensiveness for its own sake). I got as far as the first boss fight, against half of an incestuous brother-sister couple who went to great lengths to make their exact motion-by-motion itinerary clear. (I got through said boss fight effortlessly because half the time when I hit the guy once it registered it as four or five hits.) This feels like a high-school student's programming project, with dialogue written by a potty-mouthed nine-year-old.

Well here's a surprise. A game I bought on impulse turns out to be one of the best platformers i've played in years. The graphic style is cute and detailed, large sprites and well animated. Enemy types are repeated but have a different look based on area and the different areas are unique and interesting. The music is seriously kick ass. From thematic tunes to metal rock, it's worth buying for the soundtrack DLC alone! Combat and platforming in a metroidvania style is this style of game's bread and butter and few do it better. Control is fantastically fluid, tight and responsive, the game is also nicely challenging, but in a very fair way. No dodgy hitboxes or cheap deaths here, if you get hit or die it's because YOU screwed up , end of story and there's almost no other games I can say that about with such certainty. Swapping between different characters with different abilities is key to traversing the levels and finding secrets and boss patterns need to be learned, really learned in intimate detail in order to beat them on the harder difficulty. Your mistakes and inept bumblings are punished >Hard< until you get with the program, but like all good games you progress a little farther and do a little better each attempt. All the characters have distinct and likeable personalities and the cutesy atmosphere is offset by some hilariously blunt innuendo and a few heartfelt sentiments that help flesh out the world. Throw in some casual nudity and you have a fairly adult themed game that's a refreshing change from the other kind of 'adult' game that relies on blatantly sexualized characters and constant gratuitous pop culture references. Zeran's Folly is a fantastic game that I bought on sale, I would have gladly payed full price for it had I known how good it really is. If you like platform games, difficult games, adult themed games or just good games in general, then you need to get this ASAP.

This game is a gem. The story manages to be both heartwarming and hillarious with injections of lewd here and there to create a great experience. The characters each have unique personalities and easy to get attached to them. The gameplay is solid. You can move quickly or take your time. The music keeps you pumped. Being able to swap between characters opens up a range of skills and methods of play, including the equipable ring system. The dev is on top of fixes when bugs crop up and as of the writing of this, still adding content to the game. This game was a really nice surprise

As a rule of thumb I don't really bother with platform games these days. So, to make me do so now takes a very, very special game. Zeran's Folly is an extremely pleasing game to play that is full of charm, wit and lewd lines that are sure to make you smile if not smirk. I really liked the ring system which lets you customise different aspects of the game and gives you an incentive to farm enemies for gelder (gold) and exp to increase your ring power total cap. Each of 4 different characters have different playstyles which helps in certain situations but always remember that no matter what you do or say..... Abby = best girl. There are no real negatives that come to mind but do be prepared to have some sneaky, sneaky enemy placements and traps that will make you rage! Part of this is due to me being utter ♥♥♥♥ at platform games though, haha. Myroid (the dev) spent 4.5 years making this game by HIMSELF and fixes issues extremely fast. If you don't buy this game I'll have to murder a kitten. In all seriousness though, it's a great game and one I'll come to again in the future when more DLC is released.

The game is filled with interesting characters and settings accompanied by humorous dialogue. The game runs great for me and I have no issues with it's performance. The transitions are quite smooth and the game flows well. I recommend this game if you’re into fast paced platforming with a mixture of fun combat styles. There’s a playstyle for everyone!

Gameplay is okay, but it's definitely on the janky side. Most exploration and combat feels pretty lackluster, but it works. Story is fine, it could even be pretty good if not for the characters... which brings me to, the character writing. The main issue with the game is that the only thing written for any of the characters is sexual assault "jokes". When they don't "joke" they try to have sex with and/or rape each other. There's basically nothing else going on throughout the game in terms of characters. Avoid it like the plague.

An enjoyable 2D adventure action game, Zeran’s Folly has been a surprise hit to me. This is a mature game, in that it has quite an unfiltered approach to its writing that is for an adult audience. For me, the writing had a nice mix of dark humor, mature scenarios and feel-good moments. Not only that, the gameplay is a fluid experience of platforming action to get through a variety of levels with distinct thematic looks and enemies. The accompanying music has a healthy mix of various melodies, such as soft and hard rock, each heard in appropriate settings. Overall, this made for a great and memorable time that I would recommend given one isn’t easily offended. After all, one can try the non-updated base game for free on the developer’s website to get a feel for it. The story features Lone, a mysterious individual that has a drive to retrieve seemingly random artifacts, in the hopes that will it help recover his memory of his past. Along the way, he meets a variety of individuals that help him in his quest. He’ll meet a lively rat-child with a knack for magic, a risqué radish girl with neat melee shadow attacks, and an out-going islander sea-dragon warrior with hard-hitting spear attacks. Lone’s party can further be expanded upon as content is continually introduced over time. For example, one can currently recruit a quirky girl who loves explosions and science. Lone’s quest is not a simple fetch quest though. There will be special encounters and revelations that will change how his adventure unfolds. The storytelling employs a variety of scenarios that is not typically used in mainstream storytelling. One can be offended by them; however, these aren’t used without purpose. Sometimes, it’s a form of dark humor, other times it’s a nefarious mature scenario that has a more positive outcome. I really enjoyed how Zeran’s Folly pulled that off. Regardless of being jarred by certain scenes, they all gave flair to the characters. Most characters have a unique persona; hate them or adore them, the writing allows one to make such judgements instead of feeling nothing for them, and that was great to experience. If a scene is offensive, I recommend to simply move on and see where the story goes. All in all, the story was very well done with quite a bit of emotional moments, and it’s worth sticking to it to the very end. As one starts the game, one can choose between Bard Mode and Marauder Mode. The difference mainly being, besides earning a different completion steam achievement, is how equipped one is in the beginning of the game. The game was originally designed for Marauder Mode, which means starting with only 4 hearts (the health bar) and that's it. While I found Marauder Mode to be a doable fun challenge for the early-mid game, I fully support choosing Bard Mode for a lot less frustrating beginning. In Bard Mode, one starts with max heart count, beginning hip-flasks (used to refill hearts) and are automatically granted many rings that would’ve been found (or bought) throughout the game. Enemies are unaffected, but it's a lot easier to focus on the story this way. The story does not change at all in either difficulty. Rings help augment the player in a variety of ways such as earning more gelder (the game’s currency), refilling hip-flasks, mitigate environmental hazards, etc. There are also rings that just change how the game feels too without affecting combat, such as adding a pixel retro look to the game. It’s important to note that upgrades to hearts and hip-flasks are a permanent purchase, and hearts have a max of 10, while hip-flasks can have a max of 99. Gameplay consists of exploring a variety of areas that either act as a base for non-player character interactions or action platforming. For character interaction, one could cycle through each of the party members to experience different reactions from various individuals. In fact, it’s encouraged if one wants to fully learn the party’s abilities called talents. Not only that, a lot of the soul of this game comes from interacting with a variety of characters, not just cutscenes. Characters can have very entertaining dialogue depending on who is actually doing the talking in the party. For the action platforming segments, each of the party members have unique attacks to defeat monsters in the level. Lone, with his focus abilities (charging the attack button for stronger attacks, not unlocked immediately), has a sort of Sonic the hedgehog approach with a spinning attack and fast movement. Simply press a button to cycle through the party members and discover how different they are. Each of the party members has talents, which can be toggled to change how their movement and abilities work, usually for the better. These talents can be earned by either paying individuals for it or talking to the right character to earn it for free (there’s only one way to earn a talent, so explore). The boss fights in the game are quite exciting as well. They all have a pattern, and depending on how equipped the player is, it can be a challenge. Whispers stones are used to save progress in the game (only one save file), and one is always located outside a boss fight. Besides the boss fights, standard enemies have a unique variety. Some shoot projectiles, and others will blitz the player. While the many enemy types will be re-used throughout the game, how they look will greatly vary based on location. This variety keeps things refreshing throughout each zone that is explored. The level design itself emphasizes careful use of navigation, avoiding hazards such as pits and spikes. These won’t be instant-death, but it will be damaging. Chests are scattered throughout the levels, which can contain things such as quest items (like keys), gelder, rings or outfits. Outfits are cosmetic attire changes to the party members, and can be used for alternative dialogue options for certain character interactions too. It’s almost like an easter-egg interaction when it happens since it is rare. The music is one of great instrumental variety. Besides soft and hard rock, there are deep arrangements that resonate a dark ambience. There are upbeat arrangements that portray a serene ambience. Some arrangements are slow, and some are fast, all of which is used in a very effective manner. It all depends on the location and the mood of the scene. It’s used in just the right ways, and getting the soundtrack is a worthwhile way to experience it outside of the game. As more and more content is introduced, that also means more original music for that content to boot. There are so many unique tracks, it’s beyond impressive just how dedicated Myroid-Type Comics is to create an audio experience with as much detail as the story and gameplay experience. This passion project has so much going for it, the most impressive thing isn’t the game itself, but the drive the developer has, for not only making this game, but to take input from others to improve it, and to expand upon it with a variety of additional content. With the steam version, one can already see the fruit of that labor with the Path of Flowers and Terna Island Assault. Both of those optional activities were quite memorable to me and it greatly enhances the base game in a variety of ways. The upcoming Necro Pits will be a rogue-like experience with procedural generated dungeon crawling. All these updates are free, which alone is worth mentioning given the modern microtransaction era in gaming. One can easily follow all progress on Twitter and YouTube. The developer is more than willing to discuss anything through e-mail too, be it bugs, story questions, or just general commentary. Thanks, Myroid-Type Comics, for making Zeran’s Folly a memorable unique mature experience full of lively characters that was well worth my time exploring to the very end. (Due to character limitations, look in the comments for additional commentary.)

This game has two difficulty settings: "playable", and "blatantly untested nonsense". You'll find no enemy movement "patterns" in this game, just a screen-filling bombardment of erratic, unavoidable silliness that isn't actually possible to "get the hang of" because nothing has actually been programmed with any kind of consistent rhythm. That aside, be aware that the "fullscreen" menu option in fact means "specifically 1280x720, and nothing else" while the "borderless fullscreen" menu option means "your monitor's native resolution". The game looks absolutely terrible and heavily aliased at anything above 1280x720, though, due to the fact that each and every art asset (and you can see this for yourself in the "ZeransFolly/data" folder) is a fixed-resolution PNG where said resolution is exactly enough to look good at 720p, but no more. I have no words for how moronic of a design choice this is for a 2D title released in 2017, but it is perhaps at least partially explained by the running joke of a game engine used (SFML). SFML is I'd say best described as "what you get if you ask a bunch of Alzheimers patients who were really good at OpenGL before they got Alzheimers to design a 2D game engine". No, your s*** isn't "Simple And Fast", you incompetent buffoons. F*** off with your fixed-function glMatrixMode BS. It's a pile of lazy, poorly-performing garbage that hasn't been remotely close to "good enough" since like 2009 *at the latest*.