Khay
2015-04-28, 05:27 AM
Hi guys! To my knowledge, there's no finished Let's Play of this game available. Its in-name-only sequel has a few, but the first game has been, sadly, somewhat forgotten. While it's definitely rough around the edges, it's still a great little RPG with a fairly unique battle system, great music, and impressive visuals. This is my first Let's Play, so I'd be very grateful for any advice or critique you may have. There are probably a lot of things I'm doing wrong.
To quote the author, "The Spirit Engine is a 2D, sidescrolling adventure/RPG game with a simple story and a straightforward, innovative real-time combat system. Written as an experimental reaction to old 16bit console RPGs, it took a little under two years to complete and was released in November 2003 as freeware under Natomic." This is underselling it a little - while the combat system is indeed innovative and straightforward, it is also surprisingly intricate and brutally difficult. The story is also anything but simple and features an interesting set of settings, covering a span ranging from Gothic high fantasy to 1960s fantasy Cuba to outright science fantasy.
You control a party of three, as selected by you from a total of 27 possible parties. The game kicks off with your characters being abducted by a little fairy creature. Nobody else seems to be able to see it, and it's mute itself, so you're not getting an explanation that way either. With little other choice, your party sets out to find answers, and is quickly drawn into a struggle for - what else? - the fate of the world. The plot starts out simple, but it becomes surprisingly complex surprisingly quickly.
The game is notable for taking the linear style of RPG to its logical extreme: Areas are not two- but one-dimensional (as you can only travel along a line) and there's not even a pretense of having any sort of player choice outside of battles. You only watch dialogues play out, and the characters make their own choices. Occasionally, you'll be allowed to Accept or Decline a sidequest, but even that's fairly rare. It takes some getting used to, but at least it's more honest than the But Thou Must style of RPG, and it's fun to watch the different personalities of the characters in your party play out and interact without you being able to interfere.
The Spirit Engine also has beautiful pixel art and highly impressive music. Seriously. Look at these pixels, dammit. For being over a decade old, the art has aged really well.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/48020451/TSE/pixels.png
Pictured: Our party of three, and the little fairy thing.
I'm about halfway through the game at this point, since I didn't want to start advertising this without having any actual content. You can find the main playlist here (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR38AM2FNOZHE6F6CSkWix1MdN95Oh1hf). I have a fairly heavy German accent, but I hope the videos are still watchable. If you're interested in playing the game or its sequel yourself (and you should!), download links can be found on the official website (http://www.thespiritengine.com/). The soundtracks for both games (which are sublime) can be found here (https://soundofjw.bandcamp.com/album/the-spirit-engine-original-soundtrack) and here (https://soundofjw.bandcamp.com/album/the-spirit-engine-2-complete-original-soundtrack).
So, yeah! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. This is probably also a good place to discuss the game itself, because there's certainly a lot going on that's worthy of discussion. Thank you for the time! Also, let me know if you'd like a write-up to go along with the videos; I'm not sure if that'd be worth the time.
To quote the author, "The Spirit Engine is a 2D, sidescrolling adventure/RPG game with a simple story and a straightforward, innovative real-time combat system. Written as an experimental reaction to old 16bit console RPGs, it took a little under two years to complete and was released in November 2003 as freeware under Natomic." This is underselling it a little - while the combat system is indeed innovative and straightforward, it is also surprisingly intricate and brutally difficult. The story is also anything but simple and features an interesting set of settings, covering a span ranging from Gothic high fantasy to 1960s fantasy Cuba to outright science fantasy.
You control a party of three, as selected by you from a total of 27 possible parties. The game kicks off with your characters being abducted by a little fairy creature. Nobody else seems to be able to see it, and it's mute itself, so you're not getting an explanation that way either. With little other choice, your party sets out to find answers, and is quickly drawn into a struggle for - what else? - the fate of the world. The plot starts out simple, but it becomes surprisingly complex surprisingly quickly.
The game is notable for taking the linear style of RPG to its logical extreme: Areas are not two- but one-dimensional (as you can only travel along a line) and there's not even a pretense of having any sort of player choice outside of battles. You only watch dialogues play out, and the characters make their own choices. Occasionally, you'll be allowed to Accept or Decline a sidequest, but even that's fairly rare. It takes some getting used to, but at least it's more honest than the But Thou Must style of RPG, and it's fun to watch the different personalities of the characters in your party play out and interact without you being able to interfere.
The Spirit Engine also has beautiful pixel art and highly impressive music. Seriously. Look at these pixels, dammit. For being over a decade old, the art has aged really well.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/48020451/TSE/pixels.png
Pictured: Our party of three, and the little fairy thing.
I'm about halfway through the game at this point, since I didn't want to start advertising this without having any actual content. You can find the main playlist here (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR38AM2FNOZHE6F6CSkWix1MdN95Oh1hf). I have a fairly heavy German accent, but I hope the videos are still watchable. If you're interested in playing the game or its sequel yourself (and you should!), download links can be found on the official website (http://www.thespiritengine.com/). The soundtracks for both games (which are sublime) can be found here (https://soundofjw.bandcamp.com/album/the-spirit-engine-original-soundtrack) and here (https://soundofjw.bandcamp.com/album/the-spirit-engine-2-complete-original-soundtrack).
So, yeah! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. This is probably also a good place to discuss the game itself, because there's certainly a lot going on that's worthy of discussion. Thank you for the time! Also, let me know if you'd like a write-up to go along with the videos; I'm not sure if that'd be worth the time.