Mary Skelter is a series of games developed and produced by the Compile Heart/Idea Factory Duo, released on PS4/Switch/Vita and PC. It’s a dungeon crawler JRPG where you have to explore a grid-based dungeon with a first-person view and vanquish enemies in JRPG-style battles. Figuring out by which title to start was a headache as the original Mary Skelter was released on Vita. When Mary Skelter 2 was released, it contained a remake of the first one, with new maps, and a modified story and post-game.

I’ve played a couple of short games recently, not long enough to make a decent-sized article, given how I approach reviews. I still want to talk about them and share how cool they are, so here you go Mini review! Peret em Heru is a short horror JRPG, that I stumbled upon, as the Ô Algorithm recommended me a video. It’s a free game, released on PC-98. PC-98 is a personal computer manufactured in Japan in the ’80s.

I came across this game jam on itch.io, already finished during the weekend. It seems to have been organised by people at dungeoncrawlers.org. Having nothing better to do (slacking on all my started games and personal projects), I decided to install a couple one and play them. Since most of them were fairly cool, I decided to write some lines about them. I didn’t play all the other entries nor I plan to do so, just selecting the one that looked appealing to me.

Labyrinth of Refrain is a JRPG developed by NIS. It is my favorite game of 2021 coming close with Sequel Blight. Its genre is DRPG more precisely, close to Wizardry type DRPG. You explore several floors of a dungeon, moving on the map like a grid. You can encounter treasures, monsters, and horrible bosses. The fighting is a regular turn-based JRPG. It is the first time I played a game of this genre but I was entranced.

This time I won’t be covering a RPG but a FPS. Hired Gun is a first-person shooter set in Necromunda, a spin-off setting of Warhammer 40K. The game was developed by Streumon Studio, best known for E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy. They also worked on adapting another WH40k game (Space Hulk) to a video game and are believed to be big fans of the game. You are mercenary hunting down your bounties and delivering swift justice with your arsenal.

Helen’s Mysterious Castle is a short and gentle JRPG in RPG Maker with a somewhat unique battle system. It has been developed by Satsu and been released in English on Steam. It cost 2 euros and can go for even less in sales. I do not have much information about the author but they seem to have released a couple RPG Maker games, in the same style (and one DRPG). Helen’s Mysterious Castle is a throwback with its old-school aesthetics (on RPG Maker 2000!

I finished recently (yesterday) Higurashi When They Cry. I enjoyed most of the 90h-ish it took me to finish, so this will be more my impressions than a review. Higurashi When They Cry is a long Visual Novel, available on Steam and Mangagamer. It was created by a dõjin circle known as 07th expansion, and written by Ryukishi07. The themes are friendship, kids, murders, and the paranormal. It is cut into several chapters, which are each a version of the story, taking place in the little Japanese village of Hinamizawa in June 1983.

Embraced By Autumn is a relaxing and sweet Visual Novel about love between girls with a twist, the protagonist is a cute cross-dressing boy! I’m a big fan of Yuri and crossdressing/gender-bender romance so I really had to play this. It is available on Steam and itch.io. Sceneries are well made and contributes a lot to the general atmosphere of the story I enjoyed the writing and ambiance.

Death End re;Quest is a game developed and produced by the Compile Heart/Idea Factory duo, released on PS4/Switch and PC. It’s a unique JRPG with a nice atmosphere, an unseen before combat system and a big emphasis on the story. The story is conveyed via text and pictures of characters, like a Visual Novel. The game is described as half VN and while I feel it’s far-fetched since a large part of JRPG choose to present their narration this way, Death End Request includes numerous choices similar to a VN.

Hello Charlotte Episode 1 is an exploration game made in RPG maker. It is free on itch.io so you can check it for yourself. There is no combat and you only interact with the map, talk with NPCs and avoid 1 or 2 slowly moving enemies. The game took me a bit more than an hour to beat. It is the first game in a series of 4 and other games are also available on Steam and itch.