The website:
http://lun.cjb.net/Recently (ok, a few months ago), I discovered that the RPG Maker 2000 program is actually quite popular in making fan games. To me, it had always been a thing of great potential that I could never get myself to understand. Thankfully, others suceeded where I failed (and really, I didn't try).
The guys at Crestfallen Studios (check the website above), after making the series Crestfallen through RPG Maker 95, began a project called "The Way," a six-part epic RPG about life, death, and one man's obsessive journey for love.
Yeah, I know, RPGs get a bum rap for being kinda dull to play. You just kinda walk around and fight random encounters until you're treated to some wonderful motion capture CGI sequence that looks better than the rest of the game. With that, let me say that this RPG really is no different in that respect. You still have to go through the tedius monster fights, but, like the classic SNES RPG Chrono Trigger, you have to make contact with a monster to do so, so it's avoidable.
Once you realize that your characters are immediately replenished after each battle, it becomes apparent that you're not supposed to care for these fights. They're just a means to an end. The purpose of this game really is advancing the story.
Upon first starting, the plot of the game doesn't seem all that interesting. The protagonist, the sole survivor of some horrible wolf attack as a boy, sets out to find his childhood love, who disappeared during the attack, and could very well be dead.
As the protagonist's journey continues, he runs into a variety of characters, each with their own interesting backstory and abilities, just like any RPG. The difference in this one? Characters leave your party as the story progresses, either by having something else to do, or by being killed.
This game really gets better as you get to the following chapter, which are never really that long. Each one takes only a couple hours to go through.
It's amazing how much effort and maturity is in this game. In most RPGs, You work up your characters into invincible fighting machines capable of defeating the big hulking demigod in the final stage. In "The Way," you really get a sense that your characters are mortal, and anyone can die at anytime. This really is the only video game where I've ever had a concern for my characters.
It's really a shame that an RPG made on a relatively simple game-making program can outdo its big budget "official" video game cousins. Square, makers of Final Fantasy, as much as I love their games, should take note from Crestfallen Studios and attempt an RPG with this level of maturity.
Another thing that sets this apart from "real" RPGs is its use of bloodshed. Usually in an RPG, you'd see your tiny pixilated man swing his tiny pixilated sword at another tiny pixilated man, who will blink a few times and turn into a "keel over" graphic. In "The Way," when a character is killed, usually horrifically murdered, we're given quite a bloody scene, which disturbed me after years of seeing tiny pixilated men blink and keel over.
That said, I can't wait for the sixth and final chapter (assuming they can tie up all the plot lines in one more set of a couple hours) to come out, as the bodies began to pile in a very Shakespearean fashion in Part 5.
I can't reccomend this just to RPG fans. Anyone who enjoys a good story and can bite the bullet through the usual RPG gameplay is guaranteed a treat. "The Way" really is not only an amazing video game with a deep, engrossing plot, but it's free.
