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This one has an actual title screen, and a pretty good one, too.
This game is kinda buggy since it was made on a tight deadline and all. One of the bugs will scroll some text off-screen if your name is too long.
Of course, I didn't know this before I started the game, so I took advantage of the lengthier space for a name.
Suspiria: I, the great witch Suspiria, have selected your town as the next sacrifice to my power. You have a day before the spell is cast. Do enjoy the last of your pitiful lives.
The game starts at 4am and ends at 12am. At 12am, you'll have your opportunity to fight the witch. At any point during the day, you can choose to go to your bed and rest until 12am.
There's not really anything hidden in remote chests or anything in this game. It's all about trying stuff until you find something that works.
This game has no spells, and Order is useless. Save saves the game, but because of the game's design it's not as useful as you think. You see, saving at any point during the day will cause you to reload at the very beginning of the day. Also, with the exception of two items, nothing carries over between days, so unless you obtain one of those two items there's no point in saving.
This changes at 12am before the witch. If you save there, you can reload with your current items and try again, which is pretty nice.
This is a pretty small town. There are eight buildings in total, plus several small side areas.
There are six NPCs that live in this town.
There's a trick to these I'll go into later that will make your life much easier.
This is the blacksmith, Grigor, and his wife, Helma. Helma is unimportant to the story and has no gameplay benefits.
But she's still a human being.
Around 7:10 am, the blacksmith opens. He stays open until 11:30pm or so, though for some reason he's around right before the final battle with the witch.
MendWounds heals your character for $5, which isn't much but is kind of a big deal when the rest of the game works in $50 increments.
You cannot level up in this game, so items are how you get stronger. There are monsters in the area, and you can only kill one of the weakest ones unequipped. A Wood sword will let you kill those monsters in one hit. Rust Armor is also $50 and gives a nice defense and HP boost. Speed pants boost speed, Metal helm boosts defense/HP, and the Sharp equipment boosts attack. Keep in mind the rest of this equipment is much pricier, like up to $400. Bomb and Big Bomb do big damage but have a charge time, Antidote cures poison, Herb fully heals HP, and Blast shield nullifies damage for a few seconds (though I'm pretty sure you can't act during then). I'll go into the Nap Cap later, as it's a bit special.
The NPCs have their own schedules that they follow every time. It's pretty impressive programming, and part of the gameplay is using these NPCs' schedules to figure out how to get what you need to defeat the witch. From the readme:
quote:
-There are 3 people in town who will give you powerful items if you help them.
Since there are six people total, it's pretty useful to shadow everybody to see their schedules and figure out what they're up to.
The blacksmith doesn't leave his shop until the end of the night to grab a bite to eat, and the blacksmith's wife stays busy with various chores but doesn't do anything notable.
This woman, Nieve, however, is one of those important NPCs.
Around 9am, she goes to the blacksmith and asks for a hammer. That's not important.
This place is the restaurant/bar. One of the people here is Demir, the town drunk. The other is Barukh, the owner of this establishment. Barukh is also unimportant.
He's also bad enough at his job to let his place catch on fire while on the job.
This is Demir's home.
Both rooms are locked with combination locks. Each door has a different combination, and neither are obvious dumb attempts. You'll have to figure out how to get those combinations.
It's nearly noon, and Nieve is on the move again.
This time, she's getting something to eat.
While Demir's getting something to drink.
Here's the poor text wrapping.
Around 1pm, she leaves and goes a bit out of the way.
She then breaks through Demir's window and tries to bust into this room. The front door was unlocked, you know.
While she does this, I accidentally glitch over to the other side of the room. You're not supposed to get in here without the combination.
quote:
Entry -:
--------
"I...I can't believe it. Demir and I finally got married. I had been waiting for him to ask. He finally got back from an adventure, and popped the question. It was a quiet ceremony, but I loved it..."
Entry --:
--------
"Well, our firstborn son finally came into the world today...I suggested we name him Egil, after his father, but I suggested Kato...in the end, Egil was our choice. Demir has to leave soon...I hope he won't be so long..."
Entry --:
--------
"I wish that Demir would be around more often. He seems to be out of the house more than in...Egil is practically growing up in front of my eyes. He said his first words today...I wish Demir could've heard."
Entry --:
--------
"Demir's home now. I'm so glad...Egil loves being with his father...he says that someday...he's going to be a hero, just like his father. I tell him that I will support him, and that he would be a great hero like Demir.
Entry ---:
--------
"Demir is gone, unsurprisingly. He's gone off to fight a witch...Egil said he wanted to tag along and help him...I told him he couldn't. I told him all we could do is wait for daddy to come back home..."
So there's some backstory on Demir.
We're also stuck since I don't know the combination, so let's reset.
The area of this game is pretty small due to the witch's curse.
There's various water spots in this game. I don't think there's any difference between any of them, though maybe one of them gives loot or something.
Here's the first important trick: At certain times, these flowers will bloom. You want to pick as many as possible, as each one is worth $50. The times are 5:20am - 6:00am and 5:00pm - 6:40pm.
Up here are monsters. Encounters are always in the same areas and don't respawn until the next day, though these guys will move around and chase you.
Combat is your usual ATB FF-style system. Enemies will attack while you're in menus, so be quick.
Unarmed, you need two attacks to kill these guys. Once you get a weapon, it only takes one.
They will kill you in two hits, so realistically you can only kill one without any gear.
These foes always drop DemonAsh, which is worth $50. There are three of these guys in the northwest corner and two in the southeast corner.
Directly north of the town is this cave.
She's supposed to say "you thought you could..." there, but again, my awesome name cut part of it off. Anyway, this is the witch we're supposed to stop.
Suspiria: Unfortunately, I have no time to finish you off. I have a ritual to complete. I shall be seeing you within...hmm, a day or so. Don't bother leaving this town, because I got it sealed with a force field. Farewell for now...and don't you dare try and get stuff to defeat me with, you scoundrel!
After that, I choose a different name to avoid the text cut-off.
It's less terrible, at least.
If you fall in combat, you respawn at your bed. You don't lose any time besides the time spent in combat (time continues in combat), though you start back at 1HP. You can only restore HP at the blacksmith.
To the east of the town is a green enemy, the Plant Demon.
This guy's tougher than the Ice Demons, but if you're geared up he's not too bad. He can inflict poison, which slowly saps away HP (though I think it heals after battle). He hits harder, too, and also drops a DemonAsh when defeated.
So the idea is to accumulate as many flowers and DemonAsh as possible to gear up appropriately. Of course, this stuff alone isn't enough to defeat the witch, but it helps a good bit.
The Wood sword makes the Ice Demons a nonissue.
This place is guarded by a Gold Demon. Even fully decked out, I couldn't beat this guy. I don't know if you can beat him, honestly.
In the northeast corner there's a small building with a jug.
There's also white demons. They're harder than plant demons, but drop items that sell for $200.
You can fill the jug with water.
Anyway, let's get back to figuring out this mystery.
Nieve: Oh, uh...hello Mr. Hero. The day has just flown by...how did yours go?
This is Herschel, the last resident of the town. He's the one who lives in the locked building.
It's unlocked currently.
It seems he's a painter.
He's kind of a downer, though.
Nieve hits the hay at an early 7pm.
WELP
Now we know how to unlock this proper! Of course, we already read the stuff in here, but this is still important to know since we know Nieve wanted in here. Why? Guess we'll have to wait to find out!
Anyway, it's midnight.
Before you fight the witch, you can talk to Grigor to heal up and stock up one final time.
Again, saving here means you reload right at this position.
Suspiria is a pretty tough fight, as you may expect.
One we're clearly not ready for yet.
When you lose, your character does one last attack and everything resets back to 4am. You lose all items (except the two special ones) and have to start over again. Of course, that doesn't mean we've lost progress completely.
Now we've got the door unlocked for Nieve to access later in the day.
At this point, I'm starting to write down when these things are in bloom and taking advantage of that.
BREAK IN ALREADY GEEZ
Anyway, Nieve has what she needs from here.
Meanwhile, I grind enough money to buy the Nap Cap. This is one of two items that remains with you after each day. This is a convenience, really, as it allows you to skip ahead in the day. Very handy.
It seems she's over here at 10:30ish. I get defeated by the demon though and she's gone when I come back.
Time to put the Nap Cap to good use!
Seems there's something to this tree.
You see, early in the morning, there's stuff on this tree, and there's also a plant demon guarding it. You have to defeat the plant demon early enough in the day to stop it from draining the tree of whatever plant Nieve needs. I think the deadline is around noon or so.
It comes down to getting a system of gathering flowers, buying stuff, and killing monsters quickly enough in the morning to get this done.
Anyway, with Demir's door unlocked and this tree freed, maybe now we'll make some progress.
And she will brew this potion for the rest of the night.
Thankfully, Nieve will show up in the final battle with it.
Nieve: I originally set out here to end the witch, but...I couldn't bring myself to do it... Considering...that she is my younger sister. I wish it didn't have to come to this...I wish a lot of things never had happened in my life... But...this is the horrible reaity. Please, take this potion.
Nieve: Please...just...do it. Try to do it quick...
This is the first of the three special items, and the second item that will stay with you between days. This is great because we don't have to repeat these steps again. Also, this potion is unlimited.
The potion doesn't actually stop all damage, it just raises defense so high that our protagonist only takes 1HP damage. Poison will also still do its thing, which the witch has no issue using. You also can't act while you're invulnerable. The potion's mainly useful for blocking the witch's big damaging attack if you beat her up enough.
We're still not ready yet.
The second item requires us to wait for Hershel to come back to his house.
Herschel: With what...?
Mr. Hero: I have to kill and a witch and- [sic]
Herschel: Absolutely not!
Mr. Hero: But I-
Herschel: No more! I am a pacifist. I refuse to help you kill another human being! Now, unless you have anything else to say besides, shoo!
Next you have to wait for him to admire one of his brutal paintings.
Mr. Hero: Herschel, I know you've seen some terrible things in your life, judging from these paintings. But please, I desperately need your help.
Herschel: ...So you saw those paintings. Hmph. I...I'm a pacifist. I can't bear to see people get killed. Especially... Especially watching my village go into a brutal frenzy after being attacked. Men were dying left and right at each others blades, including my own father... I never wanted to see that cold blooded carnage ever again...
Mr. Hero: Please Herschel. I just need your help. This is a nesesscary evil to do for the greater good. [sic]
Herschel: ...I see. I have a sword that my mother gave me buried out in under the tree in under my house. It might take 12 tries to get down to it, but it's there... Oh, and good luck, Mr. Hero. I hope you achieve what you set out to do...
It takes 13 times of spamming the action button to get this thing.
It's a nice attack boost over the wood sword and even gets some bonus HP. Current HP doesnt raise with max HP by the way, so you have to restore at the blacksmith when you get more.
This sword doesn't carry over between days, but you can just start the day going down to this tree and getting the sword anyway. Makes the early morning grind much simpler.
Still not enough for the Gold Demon, but the damage is great.
The witch has three forms. The first is regular attacks. The second poisons you, so make sure you have antidotes.
The third one counts down to her big attack, i.e. the attack you want to use your potion on. The poison gets me before I can defeat her.
Anyway, let's get the last piece we need.
Here's that $200 drop, by the way.
I accidentally got myself stuck here for a bit since Grigor moved to block me.
So that Gold Demon? It moves away from the cave around 5:00pm-ish and returns an hour later.
Turns out there's 400 gold in this cave (plus more we can't reach). Handy.
As you may expect, the last person we need to win over is the drunk Demir.
At 9:30ish, Demir will come to the bar to get drunk. While Barukh gets the mug out, the fire will start and Barukh will get distracted.
This is where the water jug comes in. We're going to trick the town drunk into drinking ordinary water.
Mr. Hero: I just wanted to talk to you. I need your help.
Demir: Just...go away...go away!
Demir: I don't want to remember, I don't want to remember...
Mr. Hero: Remember what, Demir...?!
Demir: Her! And him...and everything else I did wrong...
Mr. Hero: Demir...
Demir: I let her die...I let him die...I let both of them die... I let them die...I let my family die...I...
Mr. Hero: Demir...what happened...?
Demir: I...I used to be an adventurer. I would go out on all sorts of quests...I used to leave my wife and son at home. One particular quest...was to kill a witch... I...I failed...she escaped from me...and... My wife and son never stood a chance against that cold hearted wench. It's all my fault...I never got back to protect them...the alcohol was my only way out. I gave it all up...I never adventured after that...never remarried...
Mr. Hero: Demir...here's your chance to redeem yourself. I need something to fight the witch with...
Demir: I...I still have my old armor at my house...the combination to the left room is 8160. Oh, and one last thing...be sure to drive a blade through that witch's head...for my wife.
Huge buffs to HP and defense. Again, we have to pick it back up after every day but it's a non-issue. Especially since we're ready to fight the witch now!
Also, I end up stinking rich.
First two forms are a joke. I pop an antidote for the third form.
And time things right for her big attack.
She wears me down enough that I pop a herb to be safe.
And that's it. Rather anticlimatic, but hey, we won, so, hooray?
Solid little game, though. Definitely enjoyed giving it a run.