Разработчик: Yitz
Описание
Nepenthe – это нарисованная от руки RPG с ужасным чувством юмора. Исследуйте странный мир Каритии, играя за таинственного лысого чувака, потерявшего память. Да, вы всё правильно прочитали. Познакомьтесь с местными монстрами – ну очень вежливыми ребятами – и сражайтесь как с ними, так и с чувством собственного достоинства в эпических битвах в стиле bullet-hell.
Определённо не картошка в пальто
Мир Nepenthe, щеголяющий своим нарочито детским, несерьёзным художественным стилем, либо влюбит вас в себя с первого взгляда, либо заставит возжелать выбросить компьютер из окна. Разработчик Nepenthe не несёт ответственность при любом исходе, и рекомендует попить ромашкового чаю. «Это и вправду успокаивает», – говорит он. «Вам и вправду стоит попробовать», – говорит он. «О чём я говорил?» – спрашивает он. Неловкая пауза.
предназначено для не-психопатов, по большей части
Три разные концовки и бесчисленные побочные квесты: Nepenthe содержит массу материала для любителей повторных прохождений. Это даже может становиться проблемой, особенно если вам приходится делиться компьютером с кем-то ещё. Поверьте мне. Практически любого монстра можно пощадить: это требует большего мастерства и снижает градус насилия. Конечно, монстров можно и убивать, так что не беспокойтесь, вы, психопаты! Если вы любите смешные каламбурчики или китайские пытки водой, Nepenthe для вас.
Nepenthe предназначена как для «казуалов», так и для хардкорных геймеров.
• Попробуйте два режима: «Приключение» или «История», чтобы найти стиль игры, который вам больше подходит.
• Режим «Приключение» – это bullet-hell феерия с возрастающей сложностью: битвы становятся сложнее, когда вы продвигаетесь по сюжету.
• В режиме «История» бои – это простые стычки, завершаемые с одного щелчка. Для тех, кому интересна история, а не геймплей.
• Наслаждайтесь путешествием по миру, в котором всё нарисовано от руки.
Присоединяйтесь к нам, посмотрим в Сферу вместе.
Поддерживаемые языки: english
Системные требования
Windows
- ОС: anything made in the last decade
- Процессор: one that works
- Оперативная память: 490 MB ОЗУ
- Видеокарта: a toaster - you really shouldn't have trouble
- Звуковая карта: yes.
- Дополнительно: make sure your computer is on
Mac
- ОС: anything your grandmother didn't own when she was a kid
- Процессор: needs to exist
- Оперативная память: 480 MB ОЗУ
- Видеокарта: not too gory, kids play this
- Звуковая карта: one that makes sound
- Дополнительно: remember that you are a wonderful person and I love you
Linux
- ОС: anything made in the last decade
- Процессор: A small rock covered in tin foil should do
- Оперативная память: 500 MB ОЗУ
- Видеокарта: a sink - this is an RPG Maker game for goodness' sake
- Звуковая карта: yee
- Дополнительно: Why are you gaming on Linux?
Отзывы пользователей
The combat can be really hard but everything else in this game is wonderful
a lot of undertale references, including F4 for full screen, looks like undertale in some aspects. i havent finished the game yet, but im absolutely LOVING it. i love the bat fight and the dialog with our namesake. I love the criativity for the designs and the hand drawing. I also learned that i like to read beds. and I love the backstory of the books and the background music of the battles (and soldier)
This game confuses me so much but I absolutely love the music, story telling, and silly world building like the depression in the floor. This game is 100% worth the small cost of 5$ and I can't wait to explore it more. I just wanted to take a break to tell everyone that this game is AMAZING!
7/10
I really loved this game, well done!
I didnt know what to xpect but it took way longer than it looked like, I thought it was a quick simple 15 min game but it had such deep thoughts and engaging and fun text than i expected and what i thought was a 15 min gameplay turned into an hour of just xploring and appreciating all the little fun texts and descriptions.
I really love the art style, and the combat once u know what to do is also really cool and Its on the top list of my faveourite games now even tho its not my usual style!
I think its underrated and I hope u will make more games like it!
Keybinds cant be reconfigured but its not a gamebreaker in this game. You move with the arrow keys(or mouse),you use x and z to interact in combat, and space, or mouse, to progress in text and choose in menu etc. Perfectly doable even for the wsda addicts.
A telepathic big thumbs up from me!
-Arch Linux Manjaro
Honestly a really impressive game, pushes what I thought could even be done in RPGMaker. So kudos to the dev, hope to see more from them soon.
Fun short game if you got an hour or two to kill. The art style was enjoyable and the controls were decent. I heard the developer used RPGMaker to make this, and while it is really good, I'd like to see a little longer play. Overall, $5 well worth it IMO
I really wanted to like this game, I really did. Unfortunately the game is a huge disapointment.
First I would like to get the good out of the way. I like the games art style. The hand drawn is very charming and I believe it adds to the games humor as well. The humor is fine for what it is, some jokes are hit or miss.
I thought the world was kinda neat as well. It was humans living together with other creatures of sort. The gameplay is also neat, you can either have the choice of traditional turn based combat or have the combat be like Undertale/Paper Mario. I reccommend going with the 2nd choice for a challenge.
The soundtrack mostly consists of creative common music but it's pretty nice for what it is.
The wort part of the game for me was the story. Don't get me wrong, it starts off really well and I do how like how it progresses. In the story you play as a human who is tasked with getting a message across and to stop an oncoming apocalypse. The worst part of the story for me is the endings. Two of them are not good and the other one either doesn't exist or is too cryptic to find.
Both endings I got involve the destruction of the world, except one just has you and another character surviving and looking at a white orb . There doesn't seem to be an underlying meaning anywhere in the game where something like this will happen, let alone a hint of foreshadowing. Even then it's not even subtle.
For this reason, I also think the game is really shallow and can be beaten real freaking quickly. I got nothing against short games, and most of my hours come from me replaying the game trying to find the other endings. But replay value does not save this game from its disappointing endings and non-existent one.
It's also worth noting that the achievements do not work on mac computers. Also the message that appears in the background of the banner in your steam library means absolutely nothing and feels like a dumb jab at games that break the fourth wall like Undertale and OneShot. It does not contribute anything to gameplay or story. Heck I can't even find the meaning of the message within the games files as it suggested.
Overall, I cannot recommend this game to anyone unless you are desperately trying to find a quirky game to play or just looking to add to your RPG collection.
It's not a bad game by any means, it just feels all style and no substance and this is why I can't recommend it.
I like this kind games. I am a fan of Undertale. But for this game, umm.. just no. The only good thing about this game everything you see in this game is hand drawing. Combat system is very easy and this is making every fight is boring. Because there is no competition between you and your enemy. I was have no connection between the characters. Because the game didn't give us much about story and the characters. I wish there were more interesting stories and characters. Like i said only positive thing in this game hand drawing, nothing more than this. See ya.
Funky little game with interesting graphics/music and a neat story. It's very reminiscent of undertale. I managed to complete all the endings in only a few hours, but still definitely worth the five bucks.
By the way, check the system requirements out, you won't be disappointed.
I don't do reviews very often but this game deserves a little boost!
it's pretty short but every detail is really packed with personality, and there's a few big choices that make it worth replaying a few times to see everything. the art style is probably not everyone's cup of tea but it certainly stands apart, and the battle system is a pretty good take on undertale's system with some memorable patterns.
if you're in the market for short weird rpgs this one is absolutely worth a try!
TLDR: Saw the charm and the system requirements, bought it. A little slow and needs work but great game.
Long version:
There are a few things I have to say about this game and I hope the developer does not take this the wrong way and learns from this:
--Spoilers possibly--
Cons
1. Firstly, movement is awkward and the game overall (so far) has been a little slow. Not in terms of story but actually slow.
2. The peaceful route when it comes to combat is pretty slow. It's funny at first but doing the same thing for like 10 times gets boring.
3. The game is a little too uninspired. Don't get me wrong, the writing is witty and funny but game play, plot, etc, is just too similar to another game. With the amazing stuff this Developer has made I'm sure the next game will be the hit!
4. Needs more music. The same small tracks playing over and over adds to boredom.
Overall cons: If you have a low attention span then this game might not be for you.
Pros (let's get onto the real meat of the game):
1. Great writing: It's similar to other games but I really think there is something unique about the writing in this game. I think if it was detached by the Undertale game mechanics, and slow paced game, there could be a real hit here.
2. Charm: This game spews charm all over me like broken soup dispenser. I can't help but love it.
3. Art: Pretty cool style that only serves to explode the previously broken soup dispenser to cover the whole room in sou- I mean charm.
Overall Pros: For the price it's a must buy! And honestly looking forward to seeing any future projects from the director of this game!
Liked seeing that Undertale's combat could be emulated in RPG Maker. I didn't find it challenging, seemed pretty easy to exploit.
Appreciated the experimenting with hand-drawn tiles, but this was not pleasant to look at for an hour.
Seems there's multiple endings, but I felt no connection at all with this story or the characters, so I feel no reason to pursue them.
Baffling that I'm going to be the first negative review here. Evidently this found a receptive audience.
+ charming graphics
+ great soundtrack
+ basically every tree and stone can be interacted with
- not enough content, lots and lots of open space
- hardly anything worth (!) interacting with
- coding issues: Trying to get the second ending resulted in the "best" ending, as the game assumed that I did things that I didn't do (pickaxe route, but I got treated as if I took the key route, i.e. interfering with the globe)
- the first ending's escape section is tedious and almost made me give up
Recommended? Yes, but barely, and only on sale.
Nepenthe is a passion project but don't let that fool you. It is also very good. If you thought RPGmaker games were just for hacks and had no real value then I would like to draw your attention to this game.
______________
PROS
+ The music is way more than I expected for an RPGmaker game. I really liked the different sounds in the game. The music in this game is great in general.
+ I really loved the hand-drawn artwork in this game. It gives it a very different feel.
+ Very interesting combat style. Nepenthe offers a reallly unique but simple take on RPG combat.
+ The jokes of the game aren't for everyone but I found myself laughing on several occassions.
________________
CONS
- The combat can take a few rounds to get used to. I found myself dying a lot.
- Movement around the map can be a bit awkward at times but you will get used to it.
______________
Nepenthe is a really great breakthough for Yitz. I think it shows us that he has what it takes to code and has some really great ideas. I am looking forward to what he comes up with next.
Nepenthe is exactly as described. It is a game drawn by hand and full of dad jokes. Those things work very well in this short game. This is an RPG Maker game, but it feels far from what a player might typcially expect with that tag. There is an interesting story with 3 endings and many small things to interact with. That is to say, this feels like a full world that is worth spending time in. On top of that, there are jokes that actually made me laugh.
This is a developer that cares very much about the product. I've been asked very poignant questions and been assured that improvements are on the way.
It is not a perfect game, but it is fun. I would recommend getting it on sale, but I would definitely recommend getting it!
Nepenthe is an unique RPG with lots of personality and charm. The characters are all interesting with creative designs that fully embrace the hand-drawn aesthetic. The dialogue is always is humorous and the battle system is a joy to play. This is a game for fans of other alternative-RPG gems like Undertale, Space Funeral and Off.
Nepenthe is a turn based RPG with influences from undertale and, if I had to guess, other RPG maker games like Suits.
I bought this game at full price as a friend of mine knows the developer, and after they gave me the description of "It's a darker undertale on a shoe string budget" I had to give it a fair shake, even though I don't normally play games like this outside of LISA the painful RPG.
I'll start with the positives, because this game does have a few. Namely, the soundtrack. The music in this is quite unique, with many of the tracks actually managing to send a shiver down my spine. I'm sad I don't know the names of individual tracks, otherwise I'd mention them and possibly search them out just to have on my phone to listen to. Certain fights like the two with the guards in the magistrates castle really stand out, though I think one of my personal favorites comes from a section in an underground tunnel with distorted vocals. Most of the audio in this is either stock RPG maker stuff (I recognize the damage sound from several other RPG maker games), or uses this distorted guitar that I adore, with more 'normal' music filling out the spaces between.
After that we've got the comedy, this game is throwing jokes at you constantly, all of them based on the dialog or descriptions you get from stuff in the enviroment. I'll admit, a few of them did get me to chuckle, like the subtle "you abduct the teddy bear" item pick up description, or how even the enviroment might sass you a little for being too nosy. But most of the time it felt a bit more cheeky than anything, and while the humor was appreciated, I often wasn't sure what was just messing with me and what was important. I'm still not sure what that teddy bear was for, I just wanted it.
Which brings me to possibly my biggest problem with the game, and probably the most subjective point. The artstyle. It's done almost entirely in coloring pencils, using simplistic, childlike designs for everything right the way through to the end. It has its own charm, I'll admit, it's certainly unique in a way, but I just really don't enjoy it for several reasons. The first being purely on taste, but the more glaring one is how difficult it can make it to identify important items, like figuring out where the rope to help someone out of a pit is, or even recognizing it is, in fact, rope. I had the same problem in Suits, but Suits had a zoomed in perspective and smaller map size, meaning the issue of figuring things out wasn't that bad. Nepenthe has a very zoomed out perspective, which means things on the world map are pretty tiny and hard to make out. In combat this isn't an issue, since that's the classic, static turn based, menu based affair. The only reason I don't think this style choice is pointless is because it is used effectively at certain points, especially during ending 2, in which the whole 'drawn on crumpled paper' aesthetic is used to convey a very desolate message.
As for general game design? Most of my play time was spent going in circles. As mentioned earlier, the perspective is too zoomed out, it would have been better if the 'exploring' sections had used smaller maps, it would have cut down on travel time a bit and it would have been easier to just see what's on screen as opposed to guessing what the scribbles mean.
Combat is very much Undertale inspired, with a timed attack system, and when the enemy attacks you, it's just about moving your dot around a box to dodge incoming attacks. It's fine, again, Undertale inspired, and it works well enough to get by without being boring at any point. Most of the attacks you will get hit by on your first run in with them, but most of them don't deal that much damage to you outside of one very early game enemy, who is optional, even then the dev had a great idea to allow you to simply restart from the beginning of the fight if you want to, which really cuts down on frustration from losses.
As for the story? I'm not sure where I come down on it. Pacing wise, it's awful, it bounces all over the place and I was hit right out of nowhere with the ending before I had even realized I had properly begun. A good example being how you just finished talking to the tutorial character guy, only to go to town and kill a werewolf...then a few minutes later you've accidentally instigated the end of existence after talking to therapy frog about how average you are, by doing a solid for a cube dude. I'd really have to experience all three endings and think about it for a while in order to figure out what the themes are and such, but, as the game itself outright told me "you remember why you don't buy games like this". The story feels like it's trying to get something across, but what that is, I have no idea, outside of having a theme of forgetfulness and neglect, considering that Nepenthe means medicine for forgetfulness and the main character has amnesia, with other characters telling you to either forget your past life and make something new of yourself or they themselves are trying to forget things like persecution...also racism towards bald people, bald people aren't monsters, I think.
Overall, Nepenthe is definitely an odd game, definitely worth looking into if you're a fan of indie RPG maker games, as it fits comfortably next to the likes of suits, hylic and so on. It was unusual, and sometimes that can be a good thing, it isn't a bad game, far from it, I know a bad game when I see one, but it's definitely an aquired taste.
I really liked this game because the dialogs are very funny.I also liked the game's unique art style.
I wasn't convinced about the game at the start, but during the last 10 minutes, it became pretty enjoyable.
Now, here are the things that I liked and didn't like about the game:
Things that I liked
- Art Style which is nice and unique.
- The game's humor.
- The rhythm to attack mechanic.
- The final boss which was my favorite part of the entire game.
Things that I didn't like
- The story is pretty bland.
- Although I like the hand-drawn graphics, sometimes it's hard to tell what's on screen.
- The music is mediocre but fortunately, it got better on the final boss.
- The combat is boring, it's also VERY similar the Undertale system of dodging projectiles but done worse, with most of the projectiles popping up without giving you enough time to react (luckily, there is a story mode which removes combat mechanics from the gameplay, if you prefer that).
- Sometimes it's not very clear which enemies you must kill in order to progress.
- The game is short, about 2 hours long.
- I wished the backstory and characters were developed further.
[*]There are some bugs here and there when it comes to crashing and visual glitches.
All in all, I recommend buying the game only if it's on sale
Honestly I don't review many games on Steam, but I think Nepenthe deserves a shout-out. It's truly a unique little RPGMaker game that, while short, really intrigued me and was well worth the price of $5. The art style and the dialogue is fantastic, and if you like to explore like I do you'll have a blast finding all the hidden little items and descriptions for things. Also the developer has a very active Discord server and truly cares about the people who play their game. Overall, if you're on the fence it only yakes max 2 hours to clear a run of the game and it's only $5, so even if you don't like it you won't lose much anyway.
"I feel like as games have continued to desire to look pretty and realistic there's a growing part of me that wishes for the opposite - for the cacophony of the surreal... Nepenthe delivers in a charming and lovable way."
Nepenthe is an odd beast. I haven't really had as hard of a time explaining just why I like something in a long time. In all honesty I have things I can rail on it about, but doing that feels... Unfair, in a way. It's hard for me to be rude to this short little charming tale. The last time I ever really felt like I had this problem was when I began delving deep into the works of one Stephen "thecatamites" Murphy. In many ways, this game almost feels like an homage to works by thecatamites and other experimental internet animators. Nepenthe stands as one of these short, odd little internet jewels with an art style as odd, simplistic, yet intriguing as works like Space Funeral or Racchel and her Grandfather Control the Island. You know those tools who say "Wow, wtf did I just watch? I'm on the WEIRD part of the internet, lol!"? It's a game that would invoke that reaction in many people.
Nepenthe is a short game - and I mean that. At the time of writing this I played it for about 3 hours and completed it two times for two of its three endings. All combat is scripted. There are two modes - one that makes it a simplistic turn-based RPG and one that makes it a Undertale-esque combination of Bullet Hell and RPG. The Bullet Hell segments in that mode of the game can scale from incredibly easy to surprisingly difficult gauntlets of dodging. Luckily, learning the patterns and overcoming this issue is very easy to do, as when you lose in combat you can choose to simply reload the combat scene entirely, so no need to rewatch any cutscenes or anything like that. It makes some fights, like the final boss, much more bearable.
The art is what really drew me to this game. I feel like as games have continued to desire to look pretty and realistic there's a growing part of me that wishes for the opposite - for the cacophony of the surreal, the chaos of what some may concieve as inept. Nepenthe delivers in a charming and lovable way. It's hard for me to honestly call it "pretty" - I hate to say it, but part of me feels like it would be lying to do so. Character walking animations seem to give them all limps as their uneven bodies shift from space to space in the obvious RPG-Maker engine. Characters aren't fully colored in, and sometimes it's hard to honestly tell what something is. But that doesn't mean it's ugly, to me. There's a charm to it, a loving care that sees to be put into the drawings of this game to further its feeling of odd, existential comfort. Characters all exude their emotions and their art allows them to wear it on their sleeve, giving us an odd batch of lovable, existential oddballs.
The music is lots of free music from different websites or artists. My personal favorite piece is by the creator of Salad Fingers - While it feels totally out of place in the fight it is placed in, the charm of Stegosaurus Trap's "Sleepless King" couldn't help but evoke a little smile as this odd combat scene played. While a lot of it isn't anything incredibly memorable - nothing to the extent of other free games like Off or the previously mentioned Space Funeral - it's all servicable and occasionally does have a good track that I enjoy.
Overall, Nepenthe is a game for a niche kind of player. One that doesn't mind playing something short and simple. One that is happy with embracing the surreal and the "ugly". Thankfully, I happily fit into that niche.
I have started playing through the game and I am already thoroughly enjoying a lot of aspects about this game. For example its very obvious the creator has spent lots of time and effort on the dialogue as it has been fab so far through out the game, its engaging and interesting!! I love the art style (although sometimes hard to see objects at times) its fun and creative and very innovative. Something I havent seen done before! Overall a great game and well worth the small fee to pay for it, cant wait to play more and see how the story progresses!
If you would like to see my playthrough of the game here is part one!: https://youtu.be/VPZVllX6sVk
Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | Yitz |
| Платформы | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 22.01.2025 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 92% положительных (66) |