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For Games Ranked 5–2
5.
Hinterlands: Pilgrimage
by
TheLordThyGod
Release Type:
Original Release
Fuzzy Description:
In a busy town filled with culture and religion, a young hero enters his coming-of-age moment when the elder asks him to help an old lady solve her rat problem. The elder’s command leads the hero into a series of give and takes, where this person needs this thing, and that person needs that thing, and getting that thing means the hero can get this thing, and before we know it, we’re stopping evil in its tracks (more than likely).
Average Score:
(actually tied for 3rd)
Total Voters:
Highest Rating:
8 (three votes)
Lowest Rating:
6 (three votes)
Achievements
Achievement
Top Heavy
-No vote for Hinterlands: Pilgrimage fell below 6.
Achievement
Working for Experience
–Hinterlands: Pilgrimage is extremely cheap with its battle experience rewards. It takes many victories to level up.
Achievement
Even Steven
–Hinterlands: Pilgrimage received an equal distribution of votes among its scoring range (6-8). Three people gave it a 6, while three gave it an 8, and four gave it a 7, ultimately solidifying its score at an even 7.
Achievement
Fetch Quest 2018
-Much of the game is built on a series of fetch quests that somehow work and keep it fun even if you do sometimes want to yell at the NPCs to get their own junk.
Achievement
Junior Triplet
–Hinterlands: Pilgrimage is one of three games to tie for third place. It’s the lowest ranked of the three-way tie because it has the fewest number of 8’s to keep it competitive, but this is an easy position to argue because it’s also the only game in the three-way tie not to fall below 6 (the other 3rd place games, Rolling, Radical Revolution and False Skies, each received a single vote of 4 and 1 respectively).
Achievement
Best Town
–Hinterlands: Pilgrimage is in no way the best looking game in the Heart of the OHR 2018, but it does, perhaps, have the most action and personality in a single town. Whether you’re looking for a place to shop, a place to worship, or a place to interact with odd animals, the hero’s hometown has it all. Want to show your skills in an exhibition fight? Check. Want to find amulets, pet balloons, or make cheese? Check. Want to visit the town’s sewer system to keep its rodent denizens in check? Check. It may not be much to look at, but it sure has plenty to do, and it’s hard to get bored when exploring all that it has to offer.
Achievement
Junior Tracker
-Other than Kaiju Big Battel: Fighto Fantasy, Hinterlands: Pilgrimage makes the best use of quest and lore tracking in Heart of the OHR 2018.
Achievement
Top Heavy
-No vote for Hinterlands: Pilgrimage fell below 6.
Achievement
Even Steven
–Hinterlands: Pilgrimage received an equal distribution of votes among its scoring range (6-8). Three people gave it a 6, while three gave it an 8, and four gave it a 7, ultimately solidifying its score at an even 7.
Achievement
Best Town
–Hinterlands: Pilgrimage is in no way the best looking game in the Heart of the OHR 2018, but it does, perhaps, have the most action and personality in a single town. Whether you’re looking for a place to shop, a place to worship, or a place to interact with odd animals, the hero’s hometown has it all. Want to show your skills in an exhibition fight? Check. Want to find amulets, pet balloons, or make cheese? Check. Want to visit the town’s sewer system to keep its rodent denizens in check? Check. It may not be much to look at, but it sure has plenty to do, and it’s hard to get bored when exploring all that it has to offer.
Achievement
Working for Experience
–Hinterlands: Pilgrimage is extremely cheap with its battle experience rewards. It takes many victories to level up.
Achievement
Fetch Quest 2018
-Much of the game is built on a series of fetch quests that somehow work and keep it fun even if you do sometimes want to yell at the NPCs to get their own junk.
Achievement
Junior Tracker
-Other than Kaiju Big Battel: Fighto Fantasy, Hinterlands: Pilgrimage makes the best use of quest and lore tracking in Heart of the OHR 2018.
Achievement
Junior Triplet
–Hinterlands: Pilgrimage is one of three games to tie for third place. It’s the lowest ranked of the three-way tie because it has the fewest number of 8’s to keep it competitive, but this is an easy position to argue because it’s also the only game in the three-way tie not to fall below 6 (the other 3rd place games, Rolling, Radical Revolution and False Skies, each received a single vote of 4 and 1 respectively).
Audience Consensus:
Graphics are average and the sound is decent, but the game has enough personality and strong writing to more than make up for its shortcomings. The town is chockfull of unique shops and townies to keep the adventure interesting, even when not much has happened yet. The pacing, while a little slow, especially when the fighting starts, is mostly solid. Fetch quests abound, but they still make sense. In spite of its flaws, the pieces seem to work well together, and it’s hard not to like the game. Undoubtedly the sleeper hit of Heart of the OHR 2018.
4.
Rolling, Radical Revolution
by
Bird
Release Type:
Original Release
unscharfe Beschreibung:
An evil tyrant has gone crazy, and it’s up to an interplanetary traveler of peace, a creature that resembles a McDonaldland Fry Guy, to rise up, help his people, and fight back against the forces of tyranny and insanity, one goose at a time.
Written in German but contains an English walkthrough in a text file.
Average Score:
(actually tied for 3rd)
Total Voters:
Highest Rating:
8 (four votes)
Lowest Rating:
4 (one vote)
Achievements
Achievement
Ich bin ein Berliner
–Rolling, Radical Revolution is the Heart of the OHR’s first non-English language game. If you understand German (Deutsch), then you might understand what’s going on in the game. Alternatively, you can read the English walkthrough text that comes with the game.
Achievement
Things Just Happen
-In Rolling, Radical Revolution, touching hives triggers bees, talking to girls triggers angry geese, and entering a new section of park triggers a boy to run from a pack of angry centipedes that eventually attack the hero for the criminal act of standing there. This is probably just a sample of examples. Even though these events are ultimately part of the greater story, they still seem to happen at random (they don’t happen at random, but they seem to happen at random).
Achievement
Cousin Triplet
–Rolling, Radical Revolution is one of three games to tie for third place. It’s the middle ranked of the three-way tie because it has four individual scores of 8 (where Hinterlands: Pilgrimage has three and False Skies has six, plus a 9 vote).
Achievement
Fish out of Water Award
-The hero is a planetary traveler who lands on a German-speaking world (the same language that the traveler speaks, coincidentally) yet seems to be the only normal person walking among the crazies.
Achievement
Customer Service Award
-Included in the game file for Rolling, Radical Revolution is a walkthrough text written in English to help players who can’t figure out what’s going on to figure out what’s going on.
Achievement
Propaganda Machine
-Even though English-only speakers may have trouble understanding what’s happening in Rolling, Radical Revolution, there are still transferrable words in place that mention nuggets of information that may help English speakers to figure out the plot, and one such word, propaganda, appears in the introduction, and may offer some clue as to what’s really happening here. On a lighter note, the empire may just want to spread harmless information to the lesser lands. On a realistic note, it’s an empire, so…. But, it could mean anything, and that’s the truth.
Achievement
Um, Title? Award
-It’s still unclear what the rolling in the game’s title has to do with anything.
Achievement
Ich bin ein Berliner
–Rolling, Radical Revolution is the Heart of the OHR’s first non-English language game. If you understand German (Deutsch), then you might understand what’s going on in the game. Alternatively, you can read the English walkthrough text that comes with the game.
Achievement
Cousin Triplet
–Rolling, Radical Revolution is one of three games to tie for third place. It’s the middle ranked of the three-way tie because it has four individual scores of 8 (where Hinterlands: Pilgrimage has three and False Skies has six, plus a 9 vote).
Achievement
Propaganda Machine
-Even though English-only speakers may have trouble understanding what’s happening in Rolling, Radical Revolution, there are still transferrable words in place that mention nuggets of information that may help English speakers to figure out the plot, and one such word, propaganda, appears in the introduction, and may offer some clue as to what’s really happening here. On a lighter note, the empire may just want to spread harmless information to the lesser lands. On a realistic note, it’s an empire, so…. But, it could mean anything, and that’s the truth.
Achievement
Things Just Happen
-In Rolling, Radical Revolution, touching hives triggers bees, talking to girls triggers angry geese, and entering a new section of park triggers a boy to run from a pack of angry centipedes that eventually attack the hero for the criminal act of standing there. This is probably just a sample of examples. Even though these events are ultimately part of the greater story, they still seem to happen at random (they don’t happen at random, but they seem to happen at random).
Achievement
Fish out of Water Award
-The hero is a planetary traveler who lands on a German-speaking world (the same language that the traveler speaks, coincidentally) yet seems to be the only normal person walking among the crazies.
Achievement
Um, Title? Award
-It’s still unclear what the rolling in the game’s title has to do with anything.
Achievement
Customer Service Award
-Included in the game file for Rolling, Radical Revolution is a walkthrough text written in English to help players who can’t figure out what’s going on to figure out what’s going on.
Audience Consensus:
A good-looking game with minor mechanical bugs, it certainly seems to have a lot going for it. The German dialogue does make understanding the story difficult for most players, but the map design and scripted events make it easier to figure out how to progress. Once it’s translated, it will probably be a lot of fun for English speakers. The game’s author expects to have a translation ready as early as April 2019. In OHR language, that means it may be ready sometime before 2022, if we’re lucky.
3.
False Skies
by
Feenicks
Release Type:
Original Release
Fuzzy Description:
The stars disappeared from the skies 2000 years ago. But now they’re back for reasons unknown. Meanwhile, a group of explorers train for expedition leadership as the funny feeling that something bad is coming looms in the back of superstitious minds. Could it have something to do with the sky? Spoiler Alert: Probably, since the title suggests it as so. Until they figure it out, however, they’ll engage in a bunch of fetch quests in order to bring a partnership back to rival townships.
Average Score:
Total Voters:
Highest Rating:
9
Lowest Rating:
1
Achievements
Achievement
My Shizuma
-A Heart of the OHR staple award given to the season’s best traditional 8-bit RPG, modeled after early Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior for the NES. Award is named after Shizuma, the OHR’s primary developer of 8-bit RPGs, best known for his classic, Spellshard: Black Crown of Horgoth. Award previously given to Winged Realm (2014).
Achievement
Have It Your Way
–False Skies doesn’t force-feed the player a default hero; it lets the player create his own hero or set of heroes, and if the player just wants to get started, the game can choose the player’s party for him, randomly, of course.
Achievement
Not to Harp on Things
-Feenicks’s games usually have harpies or some kind of winged creature leading the way. False Skies seems to be lacking in that department.
Achievement
Elaborate Trainer
-The entire first section of False Skies is a tutorial on how to play the game. Unlike most games that are obnoxious and blatant in their tutorials, False Skies manages to make the opening tutorial part of the game’s story.
Achievement
Most Voted On (tie)
–False Skies (along with Bale) is the game that got the most votes in the 2018 contest. 12 out of 13 voters cast their opinions on it.
Achievement
Palette Hero
–False Skies has a unique pastel color palette that sets it apart from the other entries. It also does much with the palette-swapping mechanic used to conserve development time.
Achievement
King Triplet
–False Skies is one of three games to tie for third place. It keeps a lock on third place because it has the highest single score of the trio. It also has six individual scores of 8, where the other two have fewer 8’s (though, in fairness, they also have fewer total votes).
Achievement
My Shizuma
-A Heart of the OHR staple award given to the season’s best traditional 8-bit RPG, modeled after early Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior for the NES. Award is named after Shizuma, the OHR’s primary developer of 8-bit RPGs, best known for his classic, Spellshard: Black Crown of Horgoth. Award previously given to Winged Realm (2014).
Achievement
Not to Harp on Things
-Feenicks’s games usually have harpies or some kind of winged creature leading the way. False Skies seems to be lacking in that department.
Achievement
Palette Hero
–False Skies has a unique pastel color palette that sets it apart from the other entries. It also does much with the palette-swapping mechanic used to conserve development time.
Achievement
Have It Your Way
–False Skies doesn’t force-feed the player a default hero; it lets the player create his own hero or set of heroes, and if the player just wants to get started, the game can choose the player’s party for him, randomly, of course.
Achievement
Elaborate Trainer
-The entire first section of False Skies is a tutorial on how to play the game. Unlike most games that are obnoxious and blatant in their tutorials, False Skies manages to make the opening tutorial part of the game’s story.
Achievement
King Triplet
–False Skies is one of three games to tie for third place. It keeps a lock on third place because it has the highest single score of the trio. It also has six individual scores of 8, where the other two have fewer 8’s (though, in fairness, they also have fewer total votes).
Achievement
Most Voted On (tie)
–False Skies (along with Bale) is the game that got the most votes in the 2018 contest. 12 out of 13 voters cast their opinions on it.
Audience Consensus:
Another solid entry from Feenicks, False Skies promises much of the same visual charm as his previous games, like soft palette, customizable heroes, and a classic-style adventure. Even though the story is currently vague, there is still plenty to do and much to see. And for those who enjoy the a la carte method to making battle parties, this one’s got it all. Just make sure to customize sensibly, or the game could punish your choices (or make them seem too forgiving). Definitely one worth checking out.
2.
Bale
by
Guo
Release Type:
Re-release
Fuzzy Description:
A sword-wielding hero rises in a time of great need to protect his people from the dangers of the outside world so that they may venture out into it without the risk of harm. Generic, sure, but he looks really good doing it, and that’s what matters here!
There’s also lore upon lore galore to explore, and that, too, is what really matters.
Average Score:
Total Voters:
Highest Rating:
10
Lowest Rating:
2
Achievements
Achievement
Richest Backstory
-The game’s introduction does plenty to catch the player up to its historical context, but the addition of libraries throughout the opening map has done a fine job of delivering the rich lore that shapes the Bale game world.
Achievement
Warrior of the Split Personality
–Bale has an interesting battle mechanic where the player can choose whom to attack when casting pneumatic materials but not when using the sword. It becomes a battle of wills between the player and the hero.
Achievement
Remodeled History
-Although pretty great in 2016, Bale was not without its design flaws, and its failure to rank above 4th place proved that. However, its author paid attention to audience criticism and cleaned up a lot of those complaints, and now the hard work to improve the early sections of the game has paid off. The entire map plays differently than it did two years ago, and that’s an achievement because many designers are afraid (or too lazy) to try something like that.
Achievement
Authentic Navigation
-The primary travel area requires a map to navigate it, but instead of the player calling up that map via a game-y HUD, he has to access an actual map from one of the rooms in the library. It keeps the game immersive.
Achievement
Most Voted On (tie)
–Bale (along with False Skies) is the game that got the most votes in the 2018 contest. 12 out of 13 voters cast their opinions on it.
Achievement
Pretty Dark
-In 2016, Bale won the “Prettiest Sadness” award. This is basically a retitled version of that award. The game is still as gloomy in appearance as ever, even though it also still looks really great.
Achievement
The Other Favorite
–Kaiju Big Battel: Fighto Fantasy has cleaned house in the votes this year, to no one’s surprise, but Bale has made a valiant effort to keep up, and it became obvious early on that it would become the other game to beat.
Achievement
Richest Backstory
-The game’s introduction does plenty to catch the player up to its historical context, but the addition of libraries throughout the opening map has done a fine job of delivering the rich lore that shapes the Bale game world.
Achievement
Remodeled History
-Although pretty great in 2016, Bale was not without its design flaws, and its failure to rank above 4th place proved that. However, its author paid attention to audience criticism and cleaned up a lot of those complaints, and now the hard work to improve the early sections of the game has paid off. The entire map plays differently than it did two years ago, and that’s an achievement because many designers are afraid (or too lazy) to try something like that.
Achievement
Pretty Dark
-In 2016, Bale won the “Prettiest Sadness” award. This is basically a retitled version of that award. The game is still as gloomy in appearance as ever, even though it also still looks really great.
Achievement
Warrior of the Split Personality
–Bale has an interesting battle mechanic where the player can choose whom to attack when casting pneumatic materials but not when using the sword. It becomes a battle of wills between the player and the hero.
Achievement
Authentic Navigation
-The primary travel area requires a map to navigate it, but instead of the player calling up that map via a game-y HUD, he has to access an actual map from one of the rooms in the library. It keeps the game immersive.
Achievement
The Other Favorite
–Kaiju Big Battel: Fighto Fantasy has cleaned house in the votes this year, to no one’s surprise, but Bale has made a valiant effort to keep up, and it became obvious early on that it would become the other game to beat.
Achievement
Most Voted On (tie)
–Bale (along with False Skies) is the game that got the most votes in the 2018 contest. 12 out of 13 voters cast their opinions on it.
Audience Consensus:
A beautiful game with much attention to detail. Perhaps the most stunning revelation is not in how good it still is after two years out of the public eye, but in how much it has improved over the original release. In a world where new content is piled onto old and broken material, Bale attempts to fix its past mistakes and build on new and sound choices. Improving on an already great game is a masterstroke indeed, and the future for this gloomy game is bright.
