Towards The Pantheon

An enjoyable JRPG experience that had great music, memorable characters, and an interesting plot. It was 10 hours in length, which I don't think was long enough for all of the story or character development that the game contains, especially with how deep the party member friendships are shown to be after meeting early in-game. Additionally, I felt the dark tone change, reminiscent of the prologue/demo chapter, was a jarring switch into horror that would have benefited from having some time built up to it. All of this said, I still enjoyed it, and am glad that I played it! 3/5.

The pixel art is simple but beautiful! good soundtrack. It helped me learn some pixel art detailed. God bless the developer and his family.

A while back I replayed Toward The Pantheon: Escaping Eternity for my Free Highlights series(Which is still on Hiatus) and thought that while it didn’t have any real threats, it had a tense atmosphere that made me scared just being in that place. But since it was a prequel for the game the dev was really developing, I thought I’ll check if the guy finished his game yet and if you expecting a horror/adventure game, prepare to be disappointed.

Story:

The Sworn Light is invading the land and Frejya must travel to the Pantheon, along with any friends she meets and defeat the bad guy.

That’s it. That’s the whole plot. I’m might spoiler some stuff but there isn’t much to spoil. Sure there’s lore but that just flew over my head. The most interesting thing about this world is that medieval humans, talking cats, cyborgs and ghosts live in the same world together.

One thing that’s cool is that the Sworn Light are everywhere. You see them everywhere and more and more will appear as the story goes on and it’s pretty intimidating. At first they were intimidating with there presence but after a while with no direct confront ions with them and all of them just saying to go away made me stop talking to them and be annoyed when they showed up. And the big bad being just another generic solider felt very underwhelming. And the ending felt underwhelming with the final boss and they a short happily ever after epilogue. You know I don’t think we ever learn what the Sworn Light even are. Are humans? Zombies? Eldritch horrors?

I could comment on the mini arcs that feed into the main plot, themes or characters but there doesn’t seem to be any. It’s mainly a series of roadblocks that require to take a detour to progress the plot like finding a legendary cat gem or finding 5 keys to enter the haunted house from the prequel. There was a cyborg city that was covered in smog but it somehow sorts itself out.

So the plot is barebones and the villains are just there and there are no side stories or arcs so is there anything good I can say about the story? Yes. The characters. Sure, we have the silent protagonist but the devs had the smart idea of confirming she is mute to have her character portrait emote that you know how she feels even it’s just her for the first hour of gameplay. Shame they ruined it by having her speak during the final battle. I know it was mentioned in the beginning that she might speak some day but it feels unneeded. Pleases correct me if I’m wrong but I like the idea of a character having a disability and not being lesser for it. I think Avatar did that years ago with a blind girl and Family Guy has Joe in his wheelchair.

The other characters are good too. Sure, they don’t have arcs but I enjoy it when they just chat about whats going or just talk about themselves. Every time I see a save point, I knew we were going to have another campfire and some more time getting to know them like the adventures Bam and his brother got into or Mishama not getting as a freak for not replacing their heart or Phenez being all philosophical and not talking about why he was in that mansion in the prequel. Spoiler I guess. Those campfires really were the highlight of the story.

Gameplay:

If you came to this hoping for tense horror or just a good adventure game, then I’m sorry to day that this is a very basic RPG. Now I see what they were trying to do with the combat. Each character has they own cost system to perform a skill like Freya has stamina that recovers after every turn. Bam has MP for magic and healing that he can recover with a nap or use catnip for infinite magic for a few turns. Mishma can use CPU(health) for single attack or include some GPU(MP) to use a group attack and can use a battery to recover both. Although she those have a recover move to get more GPU but that stuns her so it’s easier to just use the battery. And Phenez only has health to spend so most likely to die a lot with how late you get him.

And to make things interesting, you have no equipment. Aside from some defense upgrades and new attack for Frejya, the only way to have a stat increase is to level up which would give you a skill tree that’s mainly filled health and skill upgrades and at least one attack upgrade with a few accuracy buffs and other skills on it. Or with items that increase health like the yellow berries or attack like the protein powder. Or just find little sparkles on the over world that increase health. And with all that money not being used for equipment, you can spend on items to help stay alive in combat.

So we got a basic combat system and a decent idea for a level system. Now we get to the mixed side of things as there are two things that made engaged with the combat. The first is that saving recovers all your health. But a lot of games do that these days so that’s nothing new. The second is that all encounters pop up as icons on the over world so it’s possible to avoid all encounters except for bosses. So with recovery at save points and avoidable encounters, combat becomes an annoyance you only do near save points to grind a few fights. Now this can be helped with some boss fights that really get you thinking about what to use but it comes down to “Who has the bigger numbers”.

So combat is basic and unengaging. What’s next? There’s sidequest. But those are just finding random items that do nothing and giving them to random people in towns. There were the dungeons but only two stood out. One was a dark forest when you’re on the hunt for the evil cat wizard and go through a maze and looking for the odd path. The other was the haunted house. That was the highlight in the game but it’s all the way at the end.

What other things to talk about? There’s a card system which I never used.The fast travel system is really good and adorable. Each character has there own overworld skill like Bam can go through small holes, Mishma can hack certain doors, Phenez can turn invisible and Freja has the amazing skill to climb ladders. There’s also New Game + which is a plus for any RPG.

Presentation:

Music is just there. It’s not bad but I struggle to remember any of it. Overworld graphic are simple but there’s a cute charm to them I like. But the art work for the character portraits and the campfire scene looks really good.

I’ll love to end on that note but the game missed out on a opportunity to make the card enjoyable even if they don’t use the cards in battle. When a game has some kind of collectable cards, I like the collect them. I think it started with LEGO Island 2 for the Gameboy Color. But the cards are just items in a inventory instead of actually cards you can look at. Sure there’s lore but the lore isn’t that interesting. So instead of something pretty to look at and collect, it’s just something else to gather dust in my inventory.

Verdict:

If there’s one to describe to this game, it’s basic. Basic story. Basic gameplay. It’s a fine time but you aren’t missing anything.

6/10

Overall, Towards the Pantheon was a nice, quick turn-based RPG at an affordable price. The overall plot is fairly standard, but the numerous smaller moments of interaction between the main cast are fun. The overworld art style and some psychological/horror-lite elements present in the game reminded me a little of Earthbound (Mother 2). Gameplay is on the easier side; the only time I died was early on in my first playthrough, before gaining any other companions. Once you start building up the party, you'll be crushing most enemies: As one example I noticed, status effect attacks seem practically guaranteed. I was able to poison and paralyze most enemies--including the final boss--with no issue. Each of the party members play a bit differently, which makes combat and resource management more interesting. I finished in about 10 hours, while taking my time and trying to find everything.

The game includes a New Game+ feature, but I'm unsure how much it changes the game. I was able to determine that New Game+ allows access to a few small areas in the world containing some additional items and what seem to be passwords to activate different modes for the game. I wasn't able to get those codes to work, though; not sure if it was a problem on my end or the game's.

If you're looking for a little RPG pick-me-up and don't mind it being not too revolutionary or jaw-dropping, it's a decent pick. Considering checking it out, especially if you're looking for something that won't hit your backlog too hard.

Very cute RPG game, enjoyed the characters and plenty to do. I enjoyed the plot and the style, but the only downside is that my game glitches at the final battle and won't let me continue past the fight so I have no conclusion. Good game otherwise

It's a short but sweet game. Linear story with some backtracking and there's a bunch of secrets around the world. I think the negative reviews are missing the point that you shouldn't be expecting too much because this isn't a 20 hour long game. It's about 8~ hours long and it's a very simple and to-the-point RPG. Not very complicated at all.

I love that all four characters have their own system of health/mana and their own skill set. The skill tree for upping stats and getting new skills is actually too simple and I never had to grind to beat the game but it's a good touch to the game.

The music is fantastic. It has a pretty good transition from out-of-combat music to in-combat music. The final boss music is pretty great too. The graphics are pretty nice to look at.

I dunno what to say. I got this one sale I believe but I'd argue it's worth the full price. If you like RPGs and you like to run around exploring the world, this game is great. It does enough that it serves the purpose of the plot. I get it if people think that certain things aren't explored in more detail (e.g. the cards have no pictures) but I don't think those parts are supposed to be in great detail because they aren't related to the main plot. As far as I'm concerned this game accomplished what it set out to do and I enjoyed it. It's a great game. Maybe if they made a new game that expanded upon this then that would be even better but the ending doesn't leave much to build off of.

Very fun game, but a bit on the rails and shorter. The ending was also somewhat abrupt, and didn't give enough time to read the 'what happened to' bits for each character.

Having played this game for a quarter of its estimated playtime I just can't stop being disappointed by it. It's a title with a lot of ambition and a promising premise, but it just falls short in execution. With some polish, this would've been a GREAT game, but it lacks that so it's only an OK game, and despite being curious about some aspects of the world, "OK" is not enough to get me to finish it.

Gamefeel is the primary issue here, above any other complaints I may have about the lack of color depth on the map and area sprites, or the really thin narrative... if the game felt satisfying to complete tasks in, I would still be playing it. Monsters don't die in a satisfying fashion. Completing puzzles doesn't have the kind of graphical or sound feedback that would make me feel really good about pushing a block into place or figuring out the correct path to a secret. Even talking to a character in town doesn't quite have enough feedback to uphold the very simple dialogue.

A really concrete way to get this across are the collectible cards that reveal the background lore of the game and let you pull off special combo attacks. It would be really cool if when we selected these cards in the inventory we saw a picture of the card. Something to make us want to know "who is this person" more than a collection of syllables and a brief description.

This game could possibly benefit from a sequel that tries to improve on the core formula. The foundation is there and it's solid, there just isn't much built on top of it.

I'm torn.

The game does so many things right:

-Art -> nice
-Music(mostly) -> nice
-Mechanics -> nice

BUT

If you happen to come here like me, because of the gritty, dark, question inducing prequel, the game is a let down.

1/3 (at best) of the game is like the prequel, and that is only the last part. Before that you have to bear through stupidly happy music while exploring, fat cat people, who are only interested in cat nip, and other weird stuff, that doesn't even come close to the theme of the prequel.

When you finally arrive at the dark part, it gets really good though, which is a shame, because that is a huge middlefinger to what this game could have been.

So i first played the demo of this game a long time ago. For first time in YEARS i was amazed about a game and fascinated at the same time. God knows how much i waited for the full version of the game. I took me sometime to play it properly with a friend of mine that loved the demo also. We LOVED the game! Whats not to love? the music was BEAUTIFULL !! the story was BEAUTIFULL ! the combat system was something that lacks from the modern games, simplicity ! Of course when the demo started making sense and the characters combined?? DEAR GOD SO AWESOME! We had goosebumbs ! I didnt even find 1 negative! if you think that you have to make extremely long hours of gathering XP for your team then you played the game wrong! Congratulations Mr Connor for the game you gave to us! I ve already pursued many of my friends to buy and play the game AFTER the finish the demo (for story lines purposes) . Nobody has anything negative to say!! The artwork, The stories at the camps . The lectures and real life friendship advices! DEAR GOD I EVEN GET GOOSEBUMPS JUST BY WRITTING THIS! Again Mr Connor Thank you for this game! I would love to play a dlc or even a new game by you !

Edit 27/11/2019
After completing the game again and tried to search for more side-quest to do other than main story. Still i loved it every minute of it .Also i saw some quality of life updates that made the game a bit easier with leveling up . To this day remains at the top as one of my most favorite games. Oh and the OST of TTP ROCKS!

I don't write many reviews, but feel that Towards the Pantheon deserves one. Full thoughts below, with a header note that I hope this game gets more attention!

I was skeptical for the first 20 minutes or so. The art seemed too cartoony and simplistic, the battle system felt extremely limited and dull, character growth and development felt minimally interesting (a tiny sphere grid sort of system), and the story felt generic with too many characters thrown in and a vague end goal set from the get-go.

Whatever aspects compelled me to continue were absolutely worth it. The art flourishes when you get to darker areas, and the plays of lighting on the atmosphere work extremely well. The battle system grows on you, particularly as you recruit more of the story characters. The character stat/skill development, while it is simplistic at heart, grows a bit once you see how each story character approaches battles differently and how that plays into resources management. And the story really does have enough ups and downs to keep you engaged and interested.

For an anecdote, I had a game crash during the final battle of the game. For most modern games and JRPGs in particular, the characters and story are so generic and disillusion has long set in that I wouldn't bother to try another attempt upon a death, loss, or game crash. I would simply watch a video of the end sequence and feel satisfied. Here, I felt compelled to try again to earn that ending myself.

The game's difficulty is well balanced, allowing you to overgrind if you'd like to. There are numerous side quests and hidden goodies, and the ending displays a brief stats page to show you how many things you missed. While some of the puzzles caused a bit of frustration, I never required a guide or walkthrough to get through. I did reference the Steam guide posted for ease of reference at one junction of the story, but could have handwritten/typed notes to get by on.

The music and soundtrack, while mostly simply pieces, work generally well. Some are a bit too bouncy and bass heavy, and more tracks would have benefitted by reducing the repetition. The more melancholy and sombre pieces, in tandem with some of the lighting and level design, really create a distinct aura. It seems evident to me that a lot of love and care went into crafting these areas. There's a particular zone about 2/3rds of the way through the game that I find unforgettable, with a delectably dark and brutal atmosphere.

I generally target $1/hour for entertainment value out of a game bought on Steam. While I didn't get there at full price (as I don't think the New Game+ mode will offer enough reason to replay), I would still recommend the game at full price. It's truly a unique JRPG that, given a chance to warm you up, will reward you in spades with the journey. Highly recommended!

This game had been on my wishlist for a while, but I didn't get around to actually buying it when it first came out. But recently, I noticed that it was on sale for only $2.00, so I thought I'd finally give it a shot.

And I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

"Towards the Pantheon" is the story of four distinct characters: Frejya, a warrior girl who can push obstacles around; Bam, a feline mage who can fit into small spaces; Mishima, an Electropunk girl who can hack encrypted locks to enter hidden rooms; and Phenez, a ghost who can turn invisible to sneak past enemies (and whose story is expanded upon in the prequel game "Escaping Eternity"). These four unlikely heroes set out on a mission to defeat an oppressive establishment called the Sworn Light, who are slowly gaining power while causing discord between the four groups.

To put it simply, "Towards the Pantheon" contains nearly everything you expect from a good RPG: memorable characters, an engaging story, turn-based battles, plenty of secrets to discover, eye-catching visuals, and an exceptional soundtrack. The battle system is pretty standard for RPG fare, but because each character attacks in different ways (Freyja and Bam use skill points, while Mishima and Phenez cast from HP, for example), you have to pay attention and develop some strategy. Each character has skill trees to power up stats and gain new abilities, and enemies are not overly difficult as long as you know how to use each character's abilities to your advantage. There's also tents that let you save and restore the characters' health, and as an added bonus, you can even see little skits between the characters on the overworld or when you're resting.

My main complaint with the game involves the sidequests. As I said, each area of the game has plenty of secrets to discover, and while that's all well and good, sometimes you find yourself wondering where you're supposed to go, or which person you're supposed to give something to. I feel like if there were a list that could help you keep track of the secrets you find, or at least help you keep track of sidequests, that would make things a lot less confusing.

Aside from that though, I can say without a doubt that I enjoyed everything this game has to offer. If you're a fan of old-school RPGs with a good story and a fairly simple battle system, defnitely give "Towards the Pantheon" a go. Also, I don't think you necessarily have to play the prequel game, "Escaping Eternity," to get full enjoyment out of this game, but the prequel is free if you want to check it out.

Wow this game is a great sweet little gem. I had this game in my sight since it came out but I was waiting to see how it would be reviewed, when it popped on sale at 75% off, with it having positive reviews, I jumped on it, it seemed a perfect opportunity. I have to say, so far, it has been meeting my hopes of this being a good game.

The graphics look old school, but obviously not like a RPG Maker do, it has its own unique graphics, everything look beautiful, the scenes look good, the facial expressions you seen while your character is talking are varied, it give life to the main character which is the staple of the classic RPG game, a silent hero that doesn't speak a single word at least in the time I played, however as I said the facial expressions you see the character produce speak for themselves quite well.

So yea this is a great game, simple, yes most likely, I don't expect something with an incredibly complex combat system, however from what I seen it is unique, and for the storyline I don't expect something all that novel, I expect something fairly classic, ultimately I am not far enough in the game to be able to really get a solid idea of what the story will fully look like, but anyhow I like what I seen at this point.

A classic RPG in its most pure sense.

One of the greatest things about this game, music and charm aside, is the gameplay itself. It does not demand your constant attention to prevent a game over. Just as turn based RPGs did in the 90's and early 2000's battles will pause and allow the player to make a strategic decision. This is a very welcoming feature for anyone looking to get a taste of the genre.

The art style and world itself is, also, very charming. It is all sprite based and, as a result, high quality pixel art rather than 3D polygons. It is very refreshing to see something like this again. Furthermore, the world itself is believable as inhabitants display awareness of their surroundings and others through dialogue. There is plenty of optional, world building, objects that can be interacted with. This can range from a book shelf detailing specific fiction and non fiction books to simple drawers that indicate the size of a family.

Lastly, there are plenty of secret corners and goodies to find. It always pays off to explore as rewards are prevelant. In the few instances of no rewards, the player is shown a tiny treat that further adds believability to the world itself.

To put it simply, this is a game for anyone looking for a new genre to enjoy, what classic RPGs can be, and for those who are avid fans of the style. It's a game I would recommend to most.

I feel extremely lucky to have come across this game on Instagram a few months ago.

The characters are fun and bright while the environment really keeps you interested and relaxed. I usually find myself getting frustrated or bored by my second or third hour- feeling bored in the cliches that every game in this genre seems to have. But Towards the Panthon brings unique ideas and elements to a classic genre. A very simplistic game with a lot of heart, I would absolutely reccomend it.

P.S. The campfire mechanic is genius and always gives me a nice break from my dying streaks. Can't wait to finish it!

I've been following a lot of games lately from independant developers, because the AAA titles, while still good today, have started to become a little tired (same old same old). Towards The Pantheon is one that I've followed since development began, and I was excited to see if this developer could bring something unique to the table that didn't feel so stale. So, I guess the big question is, did it pay off?

Let me just go ahead and say it- yes. It did. Big time. There was pretty much just one guy behind this game, and the great thing behind such a fact is that their individual charm shines through. Yes, TTP is an RPG, and it follows the standard turn based combat system that you'll be familiar with. I don't want to spoil too much, but I can tell you that is where most of the similarities end. The game starts off without you really knowing where it will go- is it going to be something you come away from being glad you invested time in? The more I dug into it, the more I started to enjoy it. You begin to become addicted, it's almost reminiscent of the old pokemon games I played as a kid. You want to keep building up your characters, you're anxious with anticipation at who will join your party next, and it starts to become apparent that it's a solid game. There's just something "different" about it that you can feel while going on the journey that is TTP, and even though I can't directly put my finger on it, I'd say it has something to do with the fact that it was small project and wasn't hindered by artistic restrictions you find in other games.

As I played and got a little deeper into this charming little world, I began to see subtle hints that things weren't exactly what they seemed. Unsettling hints. And then.... holy crap. About 2/3 of the way through... the game changed. Completely. Again, no spoilers, but it gets dark. You begin to explore all of the character's past- and it does it in a manner that is so intimate, so personal, that you start to feel like you're viewing these character's deep, inner-most insecurites in a way that is almost... intrusive. I've heard the expression "show, don't tell" many times in my life, and this dev knew what he was doing. At this point in the game, it became more than just that- a game- and became a work of art.

I judge the quality of most of the games I play according to this criteria: is it memorable? TTP is one of those games. I won't forget it. Because of how effectively and how personally he told each of these people's story. You need to play this game. You need to see that there are still games that aren't only about taking info from focus groups in order to target the broadest audience. Play Towards the Pantheon. I didn't regret it. You won't either.

It always bugs me when I see a quality game with 3 user reviews. If you enjoy classic role playing titles with good stories and nice graphics, this is a no brainer. Get it.

B++

I just finished the game and want to take the time to share my thoughts.
Overall, I really enjoyed the game.


Battle System/Gameplay:
Pretty well done. Every character on your team has a different way of fighting and you need to manage resources. If you don't pay attention or if you did not purchase enough healing items you may die. Luckily, you can see fights on the map and choose to avoid them. When you level up you can choose to advance your character in several directions depending on where you spend your skill points in the level up tree. You can also grind to max out your characters but it's not necessary. I spent maybe an hour the entire time leveling up but that was perhaps unnecessary. The rest of the time I was exploring/finding items/working on side quests and following the main storyline.

Art Style:
I dig it. It's reminiscent of SNES RPGs and it does a good job of catering to the type of audience that wants to play these types of things. The animations aren't always perfect and some people may want more but it works pretty well overall.

Music:
I thought that the music was fairly varied and fit well with what you wanted to do in the game.

Side quests/Attention to detail:
When you get new members on your team they each have the ability to do something different. These various abilities allow you to explore places that you may have seen earlier but were not able to access. You are required to backtrack occasionally but if you pay attention you are rewarded with some nice items.

Minor Gripes:
-The game is not perfect and I experienced a couple of crashes but neither prevented me from progressing. Luckily, frequent save tents render this only a minor annoyance.
-Your items are not sortable. You can't move them around in your inventory. You don't really need to but I like to keep my inventory organized.
-When using items in your inventory you can keep using some of them even if your characters are fully healed or have full ability points. Also, when you replenish your team you won't see their health/ability points and have to move over to your "Stats" tab in order to see their health or ability points.
-I tried running from several battles about 9 times just to see if it would work and I was unable to do so. Perhaps I was just unlucky but I wanted to see if it was possible. Perhaps my characters were just unlucky.



TL:DR
It's a cool, albeit short RPG that you can get into with a fun battle system and enjoyable music. It's not groundbreaking but if you like SNES style RPGs the combat is fun and the exploration is worthwhile. There are a couple of minor annoyances but it's overall worth playing if it's your kind of game!

Really liked the game! I would recommend if you like RPGS. :D Loved the environments in this game, especially the last few areas! Towards the Pantheon is a rather quick RPG to complete, which some may find a welcome change to the RPG genre. The character interations were some of my favorite parts about the game. Artwork was wonderful, everytime I entered a new area I was blown away.

Exactly what you'd expect an RPG to be, controls are smooth and easy to use and it doesn't beat you over the head with tutorials. The difficulty is a little steep for anyone who isn't familiar with turn-based combat until you get your second character. Don't let that stop you from playing, because once you passed it that's when the game starts rolling. lots of subtle comedy that will keep you reading the lore and talking to all of the sprites. The speedsters are my favorite. be warned the item system in this game is delicious food and will make you hungry. So far I'm really enjoying the game and have no idea what will be at the end. I recommend Towards the Pantheon.