Cthulhu Saves the World

Just like breath of death, a very enjoyable game. It's incredibly cheap to buy and very funny.

I'd recommend just sticking it on easy and blasting straight through it for the story and dialog.

Cthulhu Saves the World is a JRPG with classic 16-bit RPG Maker graphics and turn-based combat. The game has a catchy soundtrack and great humor that frequently breaks the fourth wall, with Cthulhu interacting with the narrator. The story begins when Cthulhu is cursed and loses his powers, needing to become a hero to regain them, leading to hilarious dialogues that poke fun at typical RPG tropes. While the game is fairly linear, there are a few optional dungeons to discover. Each companion has a distinct look, personality, weapon, and skillset. There's also a fun Easter egg referencing another game by the developer (Breath of Death VII).

The game eliminates many frustrations that usually come with these kinds of games. You can move quickly, and holding the shift key lets you run even faster, making exploration more convenient. Other standout features include the ability to save anywhere and fully restore health after battles (though magic points are only partially replenished). The game also has a party system where up to four characters can fight at once. Even the unused party members continue to gain XP and can be swapped in at any time outside of combat.

Random encounters are limited in each dungeon and on the world map, but you can also initiate battles manually from the menu if you want to grind. Combat is fun, with united attacks between characters, a combo system, finishers, and an insanity mechanic that alters enemy behavior. Enemies also become 10% stronger with each round of combat. Upon leveling up, you can choose between two options, allowing for customized character builds. After finishing the game, additional game modes unlock, including one with a new protagonist, different dialogue, and companions.

The game is not too long overall, but I had a lot of fun playing through it.

I loved the humour and easter eggs in this! Combat felt a bit less fleshed out and repetitive; I think the featured effects like the combo count and insanity could've been better explained and fell a little short of their potential. Ended up spamming the same few spells/skills to get through the majority of fights. Definitely worth it for fans of old school JRPGs!

After playing Breath of Death 7 I wanted to play this game. It has the same gameplay as this game only difference is the range of characters and story. You have 6 party members that do different things for your party. I only used the first 4 you get since I used them a lot so I never used the other 2. I played in easy mode since there's no reason to play it in hard mode to get bonuses. The game has you play as Cthulhu who gets party members along the way. He meets a girl who falls in love with him the first time she sees him. Every time you level up you can get different spells, passive skills, and stat boosts to fit your character. You can find money and loot in the chest to help you out in combat. For some extra dungeons, you need to talk to people to do them. Money is easy to get in the game when you progress further into the game and going into the inn is free and it saves your game so money isn't a problem. You can find 1-ups and potions in the chest to help you out in combat. The combo meters increase the amount of damage you use for your magic that uses the combo attack. Every turn the enemy has increased damage making them hit harder. When you can fly you can go to a dungeon to get loot. Some chests give a stat boost so look out for those. Some parts I got stuck on like the bonus dungeon with 4 bosses which was annoying to the point that I backtracked to grind before fighting them making it easier to beat them. I reached level 50 making it more easy to beat the final boss. You have spells that can hit only one enemy, a group, or all enemies. Some spells and attacks can hit multiple enemies increasing the bonus gage. Some spells you can only use once I think but I'm not sure since I rarely use those spells. If you're gonna get this game get it when it's on sale since you get another game along with it which is under 1 dollar when it's a bundle. I hope my review makes you think twice about getting this game. Have a good day.

Review originally published at https://www.thecerebralbore.com/


Cthulhu Saves the World is a Lovecraftian comic RPG from indie developer, Zeboyd Games, and a followup to their similar Breath of Death VII ...which I haven’t played yet because I thought Cthulhu was the first one ...it isn’t.

Pretentiously named ‘Cthulhu Saves the World: Super Hyper Enhanced Championship Edition Alpha Diamond DX Plus Alpha FES HD - Premium Enhanced Game of the Year Collector's Edition (without Avatars!)’ on the PC, the game was originally developed for XBLA before Kickstarting its way to Steam, where it’s regularly hocked for a pittance, along with Breath of Death VII.

So finally, a brand new PC, able to play the latest and greatest and what's the first thing we play? ...A 16-bit RPG, because BioShock Infinite is still downloading! Remember old Commodore games that used to have a little mini-game while the proper one loaded in the background? If you do, you’re getting old!

So, Cthulhu Saves the World is a self-knowing, comedy, 16-bit RPG ‘starring’ old squid-headed Cthulhu, a one time badass who gets all his powers nicked at the outset, and so he has to get them back.

The game has a narrator (in text form) who talks to the player, and the self-aware Cthulhu is constantly chipping in with fourth-wall breaking banter. The characters you meet along the way and their interaction is probably one of the highlights here, with a well written and often amusing script, but your enthusiasm may begin to wane as the game drags on.

The PC version also Includes a directors commentary, with additional text logs activated through numerous ‘question marks’ you find along the way.

Cthulhu features a tile-based overworld (like any 16-bit RPG), with combat shifting to a static, first person view, where you get a good look at the enemy sprites, similar to what you find in games like Dragon Quest.

Random encounters are frequent, and as ever, grind on you more and more as the hours start to rack up.

Interestingly, the game does have a very welcome feature, whereby if you defeat so many enemies within each area, the encounters stop until you reach the next room, giving you a chance to explore, unmolested. What a good idea this is! The only trouble is, the number of encounters you need to reach in order for them to cease is usually so high, it doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference unless you’re looking to spend ages in each one... I found myself just wanting to get through them!

‘Dungeons’, you see, are a series of large, maze-like rooms with LOTS of interconnecting paths which get more and more complex as you progress. There are a number of chests containing stuff worth having in each room, but the sheer size of these areas makes navigating increasingly frustrating (and the constant random encounters certainly don’t help). You can find yourself, quite by accident, stumbling upon the correct path and locating a room's exit, knowing there are chests you missed still in the room, and knowing they probably have something decent in, but it feels like too much of a pain to go back.

The game got hard later on, possibly because I couldn’t be bothered to hunt down all those chests in previous Dungeons ...which in turn meant I’d keep dying, which made the game even less fun.

Combat is menu driven, in a ‘classic’ style, which also means it isn’t particularly deep but the simplicity gives it a fast pace at least.

Most of the time, you’re just bashing away on the Return key to perform the default attack for each character, no time-consuming menu navigation or long animated attack sequences to sit through... but it also means the combat is not very engaging.

One pretty unique aspect is a combo system, whereby enemy attacks get increasingly stronger with every turn, so it is in your best interest to beat them ASAP before they beef up enough to crush you in a single turn.

Rather than make things more interesting though, this just means you can die very easily and quickly depending on which group of enemies you randomly come up against, which is very annoying if you’ve not saved for a while...

The difficulty is just all over the place, with you running into a mix of easy fights or impossible ones, within the same area during those last few hours. It’s just pot luck at this point, and I was having to save every few seconds as I inched forward, frequently having to reload after hitting another impossible (or at least unnecessarily difficult) set of enemies.

One thing I did like was the level up mechanic. Here, every time you occur the necessary XP, you get a choice of one of two perks to buff the stats of each character or grant new abilities. You get a full description of each, and have to make a choice which is more beneficial to you. It’s simple but really helps to keep you going, knowing you’re never far from the next level and perk choice.

This still isn’t enough to overcome the fact that playing just feels like too much of a slog however. You spend most of the battles just jabbing away at that return key, just keeping an eye on everyones health and occasionally healing. Admittedly, this is a very lazy tactic but it does help speed things up, thus relieving some tedium ...you do still die a lot, since you’re trying to rush through, so maybe it’s not such a good idea ...the combat is just so boring though!

All turn-based games just seem to bore the shit out of me these days in fact, and Cthulhu Saves the World was no exception. It’s the type of game you have to play whilst doing something else, like listening to the radio, because there isn’t enough substance there to distract you on its own.

The game is what it is. You certainly can’t complain at the price but it’s hard to get enthusiastic about either.

4/10

Love this developer. Have absolutely had a blast playing all their new stuff, and this is great going back and seeing where it all started. Having a blast with this! It's a great old-school turn-based RPG with good humor in throughout!