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For Original Games Ranked 12–9
12.
Reign of Grelok
by
misac
Release Type:
Original Release
Fuzzy Description:
A mysterious traveler enters an oppressed town and vows to dethrone the wizard who is making the lives of its citizens hell. By traveling to the surrounding regions, he gradually chips away at the blockades that keep him from encountering the wizard.
Adapted from a Fallout 3 mini-game.
Average Score:
Total Voters:
Highest Rating:
6
Lowest Rating:
3
Achievements
Achievement
Best Map Transitions
–Reign of Grelok may not be a groundbreaking game, but it sure knows how to use custom backdrops to transition from map to map.
Achievement
Effective Inability to Save
-Old school permadeath and continuous gameplay sessions return when Reign of Grelok prevents its players from saving their progress, as if time doesn’t matter.
Achievement
Best Use of Randomly Ripped NPC
-Art styles clash between the stylistically refined (ripped) and the slap-dashed-together (original) as a berserker sprite from Vikings of Midgard makes an appearance on Reign of Grelok’s solid green grass tiles.
Audience Consensus:
The various bugs that appear make this game hard to love, and the inability to save makes it hard to return to. Using backdrops to divide the maps is a cool gimmick, though. Maps, unfortunately, have pacing and consistency issues. English not the author’s first language and it shows at times. The fact that it has an ending is a bonus, however.
11.
AR-PUH-GUH!
by
Meowskivich
Release Type:
Original Release
Fuzzy Description:
Journey through a futuristic world where instructions are given at every turn and battles are so unfairly weighted against certain parties that it’s impossible to tell if the game is easy or crazy difficult. But don’t worry because you can create the party of your dreams and seek out nearly any quest to fit your whims.
Are you up for the challenge?
Average Score:
Total Voters:
Highest Rating:
8
Lowest Rating:
3
Achievements
Achievement
Most In Your Face
–AR-PUH-GUH! has nothing subtle about it. Explanations everywhere. No room for imagination. It’s like Google threw up and didn’t clean up after itself.
Achievement
Winner of the Prestigious WTF Award
–AR-PUH-GUH! in spite of its ambitious charm tends to throw so much at the player at once that it can be hard to digest everything, and the game can ultimately leave the player confused. Add to that the fact that signs lie to the player, and it’s hard to walk away not scratching your head when it’s all over.
Achievement
King of Hype
-Both before and during Heart of the OHR, AR-PUH-GUH!’s author, Meowskivich, talked up his game more than most others did their own.
Achievement
Most Spirited
-Few games seem to have the energy of its creator going into it like AR-PUH-GUH! has in Meowskivich. Read enough posts about it and AR-PUH-GUH! seems like the can’t-miss title of 2012.
Audience Consensus:
Can be overwhelming in its information, but once the player settles in, it’s not so bad. The many side quests appeal to an explorer’s heart, and there are enough of them to keep him exploring for a while. Goals can be ambiguous, but that’s what makes it adventurous. Berserker pretty much useless to beginning players, but it’s nice to be able to build a party of pretty much whomever the player wants.
10.
Illusions
by
Master K
Release Type:
Original Release
Fuzzy Description:
Alone in a cabin in the middle of the squirrel-filled swamps, a hero’s privacy is broken when he’s driven into an adventure with a girl who is being chased by illusions. Analyze the invisible creatures to find out if they’re real or just a blob of pixels.
Average Score:
Total Voters:
Highest Rating:
7
Lowest Rating:
3
Achievements
Achievement
Battle-confused
–Illusions has two types of battles: Really awesome ones that require analysis in order to see what the heroes are fighting, and ones against defenseless squirrels.
Achievement
Most Expansive Nothing
-One of the common audience complaints against Illusions is that the maps are large and mostly empty. Vastness is generally fine in a map if there are things to do in its various pockets, but lame otherwise.
Achievement
Spokesman for the Anti-squirrel Association
-Most games are abusive to rats and slimes. Illusions is abusive to squirrels.
Achievement
Repeat Villainess
–Illusions’s villain Illusion Girl keeps coming back for more.
Achievement
Best Villain Nominee: Illusion Girl
-Villains are easily forgotten when they show up to get defeated. Illusion Girl has no intention of staying down, thus, no intention of being forgotten.
Achievement
Battle-confused
–Illusions has two types of battles: Really awesome ones that require analysis in order to see what the heroes are fighting, and ones against defenseless squirrels.
Achievement
Spokesman for the Anti-squirrel Association
-Most games are abusive to rats and slimes. Illusions is abusive to squirrels.
Achievement
Repeat Villainess
–Illusions’s villain Illusion Girl keeps coming back for more.
Achievement
Most Expansive Nothing
-One of the common audience complaints against Illusions is that the maps are large and mostly empty. Vastness is generally fine in a map if there are things to do in its various pockets, but lame otherwise.
Achievement
Best Villain Nominee: Illusion Girl
-Villains are easily forgotten when they show up to get defeated. Illusion Girl has no intention of staying down, thus, no intention of being forgotten.
Audience Consensus:
Pretty neat “mist” gimmick for the battles, but mostly vast and bland for the regular map mode. Why are we beating up so many squirrels?
9.
Silhouette
by
Mystic
Release Type:
Original Release
Fuzzy Description:
Are you a hero or a scientific experiment? Do you have free will, or is your fate predetermined? Are you okay with solving a picture puzzle to open a door, or would you rather just find a key? Wake up and see what happens in this journey through a monster-filled laboratory.
You might just not be real.
Average Score:
Total Voters:
Highest Rating:
7
Lowest Rating:
3
Achievements
Achievement
Mechanical Heart
–Silhouette played like an RPG, but was designed and executed like a puzzler, which sort of took the heart out of the OHR and replaced it with a mechanized imposter. This award could’ve also been called “Imaginary Heart.”
Achievement
Puzzle Trumps RPG
–Silhouette was allowed into the Heart of the OHR despite its battle system using a puzzle system to acquire its battle values. Where most RPGs uses a random number generator to determine its hits and misses, Silhouette uses a script with a specific outcome dependent on player choice.
Achievement
Save Game Corrupter
–Silhouette’s save game mechanic is flawed. Anything that complicates simplicity deserves an achievement.
Audience Consensus:
Not much story or characterization here, but the battle mechanic has appeal and the puzzles are enough to add to the challenge. Pretty deterministic in its outcome, and doesn’t particularly capture the “heart of the OHR” as well as it could have. Doesn’t handle saving and loading as well as it could, either. Yet, it’s still fun for what it is.
