Zeran's Folly

this was a really epic epic game a team based metroidvania adventure with some casual or hardcore gameplay the dialogue is super funny and the characters are really likeable myroid comcis charm is peak here

Honestly feels like playing a janky weird flash game... which is kimda cool!... though the jank might be too much for some poeple not used to it... >w>;

This game has two difficulty settings: "playable", and "blatantly untested nonsense". You'll find no enemy movement "patterns" in this game, just a screen-filling bombardment of erratic, unavoidable silliness that isn't actually possible to "get the hang of" because nothing has actually been programmed with any kind of consistent rhythm.

That aside, be aware that the "fullscreen" menu option in fact means "specifically 1280x720, and nothing else" while the "borderless fullscreen" menu option means "your monitor's native resolution". The game looks absolutely terrible and heavily aliased at anything above 1280x720, though, due to the fact that each and every art asset (and you can see this for yourself in the "ZeransFolly/data" folder) is a fixed-resolution PNG where said resolution is exactly enough to look good at 720p, but no more. I have no words for how moronic of a design choice this is for a 2D title released in 2017, but it is perhaps at least partially explained by the running joke of a game engine used (SFML).

SFML is I'd say best described as "what you get if you ask a bunch of Alzheimers patients who were really good at OpenGL before they got Alzheimers to design a 2D game engine". No, your s*** isn't "Simple And Fast", you incompetent buffoons. F*** off with your fixed-function glMatrixMode BS. It's a pile of lazy, poorly-performing garbage that hasn't been remotely close to "good enough" since like 2009 *at the latest*.

Gameplay is okay, but it's definitely on the janky side. Most exploration and combat feels pretty lackluster, but it works.

Story is fine, it could even be pretty good if not for the characters... which brings me to, the character writing.

The main issue with the game is that the only thing written for any of the characters is sexual assault "jokes". When they don't "joke" they try to have sex with and/or rape each other. There's basically nothing else going on throughout the game in terms of characters.

Avoid it like the plague.

For a game made by a single person, this is incredibly impressive. The amount of content here is commendable and enjoyable to the point where I find myself engaged for hours. The partners and characters are unique and very engaging and the gameplay is solid. Some things worth noting is that some of the forced and crude humor may be offensive, so expect things to go from 0 to 100 very fast. Aside from some few questionable dialogues in the story, this is a very solid game that I enjoyed to the end.

Zeran's Folly is a pretty sweet! i don't offend get alot of games that i just enjoy often. But This game got something that i don't see a lot of. It have some dark Humor. A Lovely and colorful cast of characters that you can relate too! and i don't get too many games that make you wanna see everyone dialogue and just watch everyone shine like a diamond~ The story is pretty interesting with some good platforming Metroidvania challenge! some may be put off by some harmless jokes but this game had some passion made with it! you can also upgrade your characters and you'll fine that you'll be having a hell of a blast with this game! i recommend it for people who like something fun to the table! Woot!

Is a nice game and the art makes me go back to the 2000's
This game is a GIT GUD experience so, expect to die a lot.
+Nice soundtrack
+Cute character designs (some of the faeries and Lisa are my favorite)
+Party system on a semi Metroidvania.
-Repetitive enemies. (they're the same on every level but wearing a thematic skin.)
-Cheap placement for flying enemies and hazards
-Not much variety between character abilities.
-Not so friendly with non native English speakers due to accents/dialects on the dialog.
Overall a good game with teenager level kind of lewd jokes here and there that made me roll my eyes with a giggle some times and some others say WTF.
Most of the abilities are very similar to the point I played at least 60% of the game with Lydia for being the most versatile and Lisa for the air dash. (sometimes with Penelope for the triple jump and upwards dash, not the breasts… I swear!)
Lisa is the best design among all! And I want a small model of her. (no wonder why everyone wanted to f**k her during the campaign)

Pros - Impressively enthralling story, interesting characters, absurd events, huge amount of customization.
If this was an RPG, it would be on my top 10 list easily.

Cons - A few things feel like they got tacked on towards the end, or expanded past their intended size.
There are so many playable characters that switching between them can be difficult and tedious, the fast travel system is split between two different characters for no real reason, and the combat system is a little too fast to feel fair.
I had a lot of trouble trying to use most of the characters in combat because the enemy bosses move too fast for non-ranged attacks to be viable, and your character moves fast enough that contact damage is hard to avoid.
Most boss combat, for me, boiled down to filling the air with projectiles and letting chance win.

The game seems to know this by allowing you to have a huge reserve of health storage, something like 10x your health bar, which does solve the problem, but it takes a bit of the skill out of combat.
I really felt like I was winning because I chose the right boosts rather than being skilled enough.

Overall - I really enjoyed the game, it got a fair number of laughs out of me, and the difficulty is reasonable with a little grind.
It feels more like it was intended to be an RPG than a platformer, but the RPG elements are bloody great, and the platformer offers some really cool movement abilities and upgrades.

It reminds me Sugarman story (The unknown singer). The rewards come at the end. I heard about the game in an article made by a single person for four and a half years and I thought it was incredible. I bought it without hesitation. Only your effort deserves the purchase and also looks very good!. Congratulations from Spain. Cheers!

Well. Let's start with one thing:
This game is realy frustrating.

Doh, Frustrating dosent mean it's a bad game! Just... Filled with things that makes no sense to me.
Also, this is mostely a hands on impression after 3 hours before I decide to take a step back from the game, I definitively plan going back on it.

So, Zeran's folly is a Platformer with Metroid-Style feeling to it in term of progression. At first, you have nothing but jumping and attacking and as you progress through the game, you find new skills and companions to help you out through the way.

Seems fun right?
Well, Eh. I'm split there.

On one side, A rather fun Platforming outside dungeons, Interesting story, Fun mechanics to mess around with and a realy great sense of progression once you get your hands on something new. Plus you got alternate costumes to find along with Rings to collect for various effects.

On the other, My first thought once I got into the dungeons: "What the F*ck is that level design?"
The level design, By that I mean Platform placements, Ennemy placements, Obstacles... Oh and the fact that you bounce back after attacking an ennemy or touching it.

It realy got on my nerves after a while. You CANNOT stop moving in most cases because the ground isnt solid, because an ennemy is shooting at you or because you have death traps on the way.
Aaaaand.. Most of the time, All THREE of them together, at the same time. I swear, I've felt down some areas so many times in such a short amout of time, Half of it is probably trying to climb back up after I got hit or managed to miss a platform.

And this is where my pet peve's of mine comes in: I feel like the main idea to tone down the dificulty was to add some extra hearts and the Health flask. Along with not loosing anything if you die.

It just feels a tad.. Lazy? :B

Oh well...
So, Long story short: I do recomand checking the game out, it's quite fun, price isnt too expensive either~ :B

EDIT: Kind of neutral on this game still, but I know I'm only still playing it because I don't have a lot else to play at the moment and it's cons are kind of outweighing its pros, so I'm switching to a negative.

Overall not a bad game and fun to play through, but does have its downsides. Cons looks longer than pros because the pros are fairly self explanitory, while I want to make sure the cons are fully understood. Get it on sale if you're really on the fence.

PROS:
*A 2d action platformer that isn't total butt. I've seen metroidvania thrown around a few times, but Zeran's Folly is a little more action and movement based because of how it throws in physics to movement and abilities as well. It also carries over to some of the attacks, which make it fun to try and line up a shot through movement and timing.
* I think this is fully a one-man project? I may be confused but that's worth mentioning, considering all the art assets and music for the game. The music is alright, but I normally play with music muted on games just because I like catching up on videos while I play games.
* The visual charm of an early 2000's furry webcomic. We all like to pretend that we're beyond it. We all like to pretend that we aren't heavily invested in the fictional world someone's created that has people who's species name is just "radish" or "blueberry" and it's just accepted and part of the local culture. But sometimes fun things are fun, and it's genuinely fun to see the world and glimpses of the world that come up through conversation. Despite horribly murdering essentially every problem they come across, all the characters are pretty cute.
* I see some stuff about "obvious loading" in the reviews, which means maybe I'm lucky in when I got this game? It's honestly a pretty good "pick up and play" game for when I wanna kind of mindlessly plow through stuff.

CONS:
* A lot of stuff is just. Not explained, or badly explained. I'm not talking about the story/lore, which kind of natrually fills you in on stuff through casual conversation (although to be honest a glossary/lorebook would be useful), but on the basic stuff about your character's abilities and what they can do. The most of an explanation I've gotten about a characters's abilities is one cutscene that let me know a character could double jump, which honestly wasn't even the most mechanically unusual thing about her. I had to guess at a character's ability to do an aerial dash, and I surprised myself by learning she also had a launcher, which. I guess could be interesting if you're the kind of person who likes playing as you go? But that's not a great addition to my next con which is
* For a game that relies on physics and the characters kind of being floaty a lot, there's a lot of weirdly pixel perfect platforming challenges, which deffo makes the floaty controls a pain in the ass. I enjoy a good momentum based platforming move as much as the other guy, but I also enjoy when those platformers don't also give me an overly small point to land and move on. Platforming challenges are easily the most irritating part of the game, because they slow everything down to a stop while you try and get a character to move to a specific place without giving yourself too much momentum that you throw yourself off, also you have like two seconds after you land to try and set up your next jump which requires a charge attack for momentum but not too much momentum, etc etc.
* This game is like a 2000's furry webcomic, which is to say, horny as shit. "But wait, random stranger," you say, already cranking it as hard as you can, "I too am very horny all the time!" Well, good for you and all that, but this game is just. Overly horny. And not even like funny horny, like one of the first bosses you throw down against (who's apparently a cameo from a previous game the creator did? Again, a lore book would be real helpful) has the punchline of "he's fucking his sister!!!" which through repetition and explicitness goes from "may be funny" to "the creator was hard as a rock writing this" real fast. It's kind of the way it is with all the sexual humor. Too much and not even an entertaining too much. It's also thrown in pretty stark contrast with most of the playable characters being relatively innocent as people, as you're just a simple amnesiac with no real sense of right or wrong, and meanwhile everyone around you is talking about their giant juggs and how much they're horny for the sex making. It was really cool to sit through a character describing an elaborate rape scenario while recruiting an 11 year old girl, then afterwards going "well you probably aren't going to rape her. You're now her legal guardian" in a scene that's less funny and more *rapid slapping noises*
* In a semirelated and also unrelated note, boss fights are irritating and I know I'm only getting through them because I'm on easy mode. A fair bit of them have instagrapples that throw you to the ground and damage you (or, in the case I just did a while ago related to the point above, angrily humps you) without much of a chance of responding. Maybe there's something I can do to avoid these, but I genuinely don't know how because the game refuses to tell you without you experimenting and finding it out yourself. Most anything that can close you in to attack ends up getting you hurt as well, because nobody really has any "tells" or lulls in their attack pattern to take advantage of usually, they just go as hard as possible until one of you is dead.

Zeran's Folly is a bog-standard Metroidvania with floaty controls, constant pauses for loading, obvious bugs, and an irritating generic soundtrack.

In addition, while the game states it contains "crude/suggestive humor," what it actually means is rampant obscenity (not even dirty jokes, just flat-out offensiveness for its own sake). I got as far as the first boss fight, against half of an incestuous brother-sister couple who went to great lengths to make their exact motion-by-motion itinerary clear. (I got through said boss fight effortlessly because half the time when I hit the guy once it registered it as four or five hits.)

This feels like a high-school student's programming project, with dialogue written by a potty-mouthed nine-year-old.

Okay so if you looked at other reviews you've probably seen people going off on the creator about his writing (The really raunchy stuff.)

Well let me set the record straight, yeah this game has some hella raunchy moments and weird 'what the hell' bosses but underneath the crass this is a solid game with a good humor. There is a lot of exporing and combat, some of the boss are more like puzzles to solve than out right slug fests.

The real appeal of this game is it's cast of characters, all of them are murder hobos basically. This is dialogue that you would see in a D&D campaign with drunken friends. It's funny it's crass and most of all you are gonna wanna buy whatever liquid courage the creator was using to write this into his game with a straight face.


Now to the con's of the game.

Lydia : HOLY CRAP I HATE HER. Not because of her characterization but her baby speak. It's so prevalent I had to force myself to read her lines. She is an okay character but bleh if I'm not annoyed that she has so many lines of dialogue with her baby speak.

Falling off pits: When you fall off a pit you take damage and bounce up. This is normally fine but if you get knocked under an overhanding ledge you can't pass through. Get ready to die or lose 5-8 hearts getting juggled.

All in All I have a special measurement for a game. Dollars to hours. I paid 4.99 for this game. It took me 11 hours to blitz the story mode. There is a BOAT load of stuff I wanna go back an do so I can probably squeeze double that time out of it.

TL;DR This game is worth it's value and a play if you aren't easily offended by crass humor and incest jokes. It's a solid Metroidvania.

Controls were not optimized for controller use. The jump button wasn't A, and movement with a joystick was a crawl unless you jumped to start the movement. Additionally, the movement and gravity feels slow like you're on the moon.

Even if that was ok, the writing feels like a first draft and the comedy feels really forced. I enjoy extremely vulgar and explicit humor, but this felt like it missed the humor aspect.

TL;DR: Metal music, bewbs, and playing dressup.

Zeran's Folly has great platforming, bossfights, and aesthetics. The soundtrack and writing are particularly good and make what might have been a mediocre platformer into an excellent indie gem.

The music is varied and always fits the theme of the location and situation, often providing a crunchy metal backdrop while you gleefully slaughter your way across levels.

The story itself is simple, but the way it's written is bold, and shows no fear of offending. It's funny, sometimes a bit too real, and makes you genuinely care about the characters. The style and sense of humor absolutely won't be for everyone, but the author clearly told the story that he wanted to tell, the way he wanted to tell it... which is refreshing in an era of political correctness.

As for criticisms, it can sometimes be obnoxious trying to figure out which pits you actually need to dive into and which are just going to knock a heart off your health - there's like four total in the game, so it's not a huge problem, but seriously a visual cue or something wouldn't have gone amiss. Looking at you, Path of Flowers. Also, I would have loved more from the game's antagonist; the end isn't bad, but it feels abrupt.

This was clearly a labor of love and it shows. Would recommend.

a great, fun, little metroidvania that I would reccomend unconditionally but for one thing. The game has this crass, obscene grossout humor to it. Its all disgusting edgelord crap that will almost immediately make you uncomfortable. unless you're 15 and into playing transgressive cartoon-fucking dating sims on newgrounds or something, and if I were that age again, I would absolutely love this game. Its a real shame too because the rest of the game feels earnest and the characters are likeable and interesting. The mechanics are a mix of that metroidvania action/rpg style with a delightful bit of sonic the hedgehog and paper mario. If you can overlook or enjoy the disgusting humor, you've got a real winner here.

For me, the selling point is the dialog. It's full of innuendos, wit, and charm, delivered from a cast of diverse and enjoyable personalities. I found something to enjoy with all of the party members and many of the NPCS as well. Despite the lewdness of some scenes, the story as a whole still manages to be heartwarming and enjoyable in its own right.

The gameplay is great too. All of the characters feel great to control, and getting talents (mostly) feel rewarding for giving you even more options. I rarely felt like character talents were a waste of G, the only exception really being some of Marco's, though thankfully one is always free to toogle off a talent.

Lone and Lisa, in particular, really let me enjoy levels the way I wanted to with how their charged moves work. Many of the rings further added to their mobility and kits and are just a blast to use when going through the platforming sections.

Another thing to note is that is never feels exclusive or like it's out to get any particular group of people. It's a bit of an irksome, but not game ruining trope, for me when writers belittle or mock characters like those found in Mudbottom, a place that really reminds me of the community I grew up in, so it was a pleasant surprise to see it didn't have even the slightest hint of condescention towards those sorts of people.

Overall a great game, definetly worth its price even if it's not on sale.

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A few bugs I've encountered:

(From before the last update, have not double checked)- Putting on the ring to automatically use flasks after being killed but before the game reloads resulted in a bug that left me stuck, unable to move or take damage, but the game not reloading. Had to close the program to continue playing.

(From before the last update, not double checked)- Talking to some NPCs in the commons area of the Bellycutters' hideout as Marco gave Penelope dialog in response.


From this update- Finishing off the boss battle rigth after aquiring the Scholar's Eye with Lone's dash sent him flying into the room left of where the duel takes place. Dialog still played normally, and Lone did the animation of jumping into the hole (without Lydia), and then the game crashed.

An enjoyable 2D adventure action game, Zeran’s Folly has been a surprise hit to me. This is a mature game, in that it has quite an unfiltered approach to its writing that is for an adult audience. For me, the writing had a nice mix of dark humor, mature scenarios and feel-good moments. Not only that, the gameplay is a fluid experience of platforming action to get through a variety of levels with distinct thematic looks and enemies. The accompanying music has a healthy mix of various melodies, such as soft and hard rock, each heard in appropriate settings. Overall, this made for a great and memorable time that I would recommend given one isn’t easily offended. After all, one can try the non-updated base game for free on the developer’s website to get a feel for it.

The story features Lone, a mysterious individual that has a drive to retrieve seemingly random artifacts, in the hopes that will it help recover his memory of his past. Along the way, he meets a variety of individuals that help him in his quest. He’ll meet a lively rat-child with a knack for magic, a risqué radish girl with neat melee shadow attacks, and an out-going islander sea-dragon warrior with hard-hitting spear attacks. Lone’s party can further be expanded upon as content is continually introduced over time. For example, one can currently recruit a quirky girl who loves explosions and science. Lone’s quest is not a simple fetch quest though. There will be special encounters and revelations that will change how his adventure unfolds. The storytelling employs a variety of scenarios that is not typically used in mainstream storytelling. One can be offended by them; however, these aren’t used without purpose. Sometimes, it’s a form of dark humor, other times it’s a nefarious mature scenario that has a more positive outcome. I really enjoyed how Zeran’s Folly pulled that off. Regardless of being jarred by certain scenes, they all gave flair to the characters. Most characters have a unique persona; hate them or adore them, the writing allows one to make such judgements instead of feeling nothing for them, and that was great to experience. If a scene is offensive, I recommend to simply move on and see where the story goes. All in all, the story was very well done with quite a bit of emotional moments, and it’s worth sticking to it to the very end.

As one starts the game, one can choose between Bard Mode and Marauder Mode. The difference mainly being, besides earning a different completion steam achievement, is how equipped one is in the beginning of the game. The game was originally designed for Marauder Mode, which means starting with only 4 hearts (the health bar) and that's it. While I found Marauder Mode to be a doable fun challenge for the early-mid game, I fully support choosing Bard Mode for a lot less frustrating beginning. In Bard Mode, one starts with max heart count, beginning hip-flasks (used to refill hearts) and are automatically granted many rings that would’ve been found (or bought) throughout the game. Enemies are unaffected, but it's a lot easier to focus on the story this way. The story does not change at all in either difficulty. Rings help augment the player in a variety of ways such as earning more gelder (the game’s currency), refilling hip-flasks, mitigate environmental hazards, etc. There are also rings that just change how the game feels too without affecting combat, such as adding a pixel retro look to the game. It’s important to note that upgrades to hearts and hip-flasks are a permanent purchase, and hearts have a max of 10, while hip-flasks can have a max of 99.

Gameplay consists of exploring a variety of areas that either act as a base for non-player character interactions or action platforming. For character interaction, one could cycle through each of the party members to experience different reactions from various individuals. In fact, it’s encouraged if one wants to fully learn the party’s abilities called talents. Not only that, a lot of the soul of this game comes from interacting with a variety of characters, not just cutscenes. Characters can have very entertaining dialogue depending on who is actually doing the talking in the party.

For the action platforming segments, each of the party members have unique attacks to defeat monsters in the level. Lone, with his focus abilities (charging the attack button for stronger attacks, not unlocked immediately), has a sort of Sonic the hedgehog approach with a spinning attack and fast movement. Simply press a button to cycle through the party members and discover how different they are. Each of the party members has talents, which can be toggled to change how their movement and abilities work, usually for the better. These talents can be earned by either paying individuals for it or talking to the right character to earn it for free (there’s only one way to earn a talent, so explore). The boss fights in the game are quite exciting as well. They all have a pattern, and depending on how equipped the player is, it can be a challenge. Whispers stones are used to save progress in the game (only one save file), and one is always located outside a boss fight. Besides the boss fights, standard enemies have a unique variety. Some shoot projectiles, and others will blitz the player. While the many enemy types will be re-used throughout the game, how they look will greatly vary based on location. This variety keeps things refreshing throughout each zone that is explored. The level design itself emphasizes careful use of navigation, avoiding hazards such as pits and spikes. These won’t be instant-death, but it will be damaging. Chests are scattered throughout the levels, which can contain things such as quest items (like keys), gelder, rings or outfits. Outfits are cosmetic attire changes to the party members, and can be used for alternative dialogue options for certain character interactions too. It’s almost like an easter-egg interaction when it happens since it is rare.

The music is one of great instrumental variety. Besides soft and hard rock, there are deep arrangements that resonate a dark ambience. There are upbeat arrangements that portray a serene ambience. Some arrangements are slow, and some are fast, all of which is used in a very effective manner. It all depends on the location and the mood of the scene. It’s used in just the right ways, and getting the soundtrack is a worthwhile way to experience it outside of the game. As more and more content is introduced, that also means more original music for that content to boot. There are so many unique tracks, it’s beyond impressive just how dedicated Myroid-Type Comics is to create an audio experience with as much detail as the story and gameplay experience.

This passion project has so much going for it, the most impressive thing isn’t the game itself, but the drive the developer has, for not only making this game, but to take input from others to improve it, and to expand upon it with a variety of additional content. With the steam version, one can already see the fruit of that labor with the Path of Flowers and Terna Island Assault. Both of those optional activities were quite memorable to me and it greatly enhances the base game in a variety of ways. The upcoming Necro Pits will be a rogue-like experience with procedural generated dungeon crawling. All these updates are free, which alone is worth mentioning given the modern microtransaction era in gaming. One can easily follow all progress on Twitter and YouTube. The developer is more than willing to discuss anything through e-mail too, be it bugs, story questions, or just general commentary. Thanks, Myroid-Type Comics, for making Zeran’s Folly a memorable unique mature experience full of lively characters that was well worth my time exploring to the very end.

(Due to character limitations, look in the comments for additional commentary.)

I would seriously recommend this game to people who like a game that you can either take your time and enjoy the game or beat the game as quickly as possible. I found this game thanks to a recommendation I got from having a related game on my wishlist. Since it was on sale and the cover looked really neat, I bought it. Little did I know that I would quickly love the game for it's story and it's characters. This game combines the elements of a good adventure story and put in between is some good humor as well. The villains actually seem like villains rather than other games I won't mention here. Long story short, loved the game, you need to get it.

Well here's a surprise. A game I bought on impulse turns out to be one of the best platformers i've played in years.

The graphic style is cute and detailed, large sprites and well animated. Enemy types are repeated but have a different look based on area and the different areas are unique and interesting.

The music is seriously kick ass. From thematic tunes to metal rock, it's worth buying for the soundtrack DLC alone!

Combat and platforming in a metroidvania style is this style of game's bread and butter and few do it better. Control is fantastically fluid, tight and responsive, the game is also nicely challenging, but in a very fair way. No dodgy hitboxes or cheap deaths here, if you get hit or die it's because YOU screwed up , end of story and there's almost no other games I can say that about with such certainty.

Swapping between different characters with different abilities is key to traversing the levels and finding secrets and
boss patterns need to be learned, really learned in intimate detail in order to beat them on the harder difficulty. Your mistakes and inept bumblings are punished >Hard< until you get with the program, but like all good games you progress a little farther and do a little better each attempt.

All the characters have distinct and likeable personalities and the cutesy atmosphere is offset by some hilariously blunt innuendo and a few heartfelt sentiments that help flesh out the world. Throw in some casual nudity and you have a fairly adult themed game that's a refreshing change from the other kind of 'adult' game that relies on blatantly sexualized characters and constant gratuitous pop culture references.

Zeran's Folly is a fantastic game that I bought on sale, I would have gladly payed full price for it had I known how good it really is. If you like platform games, difficult games, adult themed games or just good games in general, then you need to get this ASAP.

I Really Can't Believe Only One Guy Made This Game, it's awesome! The only two thing I didn't like it's the time between room transition, and the other one that it's a pain in the ass to change the control settings. Congratulions for your awesome game. Be the force with you.

I'm really bad at platformers, but I'm having a lot of fun with this so far! It's a good mix of fast-paced platforming and memorizing attack/PvE patterns that makes for a satisfying experience once you overcome an obstacle. If you like Sonic- and Metroid-style games, then this is for you.

tenouttaten!