Fenrir Lunaris's Vikings of Midgard

This is the pack-in game for the Official Hamster Republic RPG Construction Engine, originally developed for DOS, by James Paige. This is the engine I use for my little game design projects. Originally designed for people to easily make games similar to Final Fantasy IV, OHRRPGCE has been consistently development and can now be used (with a good deal of programming), to construct any kind of 2-D game.

Of course for amateur game designers, new engine options are popping up all the time. OHRRPGCE isn't even on the radar for noobs. But I know what I know, and there's still a lot I want to do with OHR. And the smallness of its community has its benefits.

But anyway! Vikings of Midgard showcases a near perfect execution all of the basic things you can do with OHRRPGCE, featuring developers as characters, among characters from the community's other games. Altogether, it's a wonderfully inspiring introduction to the engine and its community.

More about the game. Starting in Valhalla, Odin sends you on a quest to rescue the missing Freya. Meta intended, the game sends you on a quest for four stones to complete the Brising Necklace, which will open the gate to Helheim, where the *Dark One* has kept Freya kidnapped. This quest sends you to places of Norse mythology like Alfheim, Nifelheim, and Thule. Like most RPGs, you first go to the forest zone, then the fire zone, then the ice zone. But at least I wasn't forced to use the black mage. It's not that I hate black mages, I just think that for how many random battles you often have to fight in JRPGs, I'd rather not spend half those battles rifling through menus and picking the right elemental attack.

So the Gameplay here is pretty well-balanced. You can turn off random encounters to avoid constantly running into low-powered/low-reward enemies, but your invaluable thief character can usually steal something worthy. Aside from a thief, you get a variety of party members, like a black mage, white page, samurai, berzerker, valkyrie, fighter, bard, and ranger. This gives you options regarding how much you want to grind verses how much you want to strategize.

Some mini bosses will switch around your party, so the character they pertain to gets used, which can be a bit annoying if you really rely on your white mage. But these optional mini bosses are well worth fighting, because they usually reward you with a new skill. New mini bosses often appear in areas you've already explored as your story progresses, making it feel less like you're running errands just to progress the story.

I've always thought the graphical presentation for the OHR's built-in battle system was a bit wonky, which is why most advanced users of the engine make their own battle system. Fenrir-Lunaris compensates for this with laboriously crafted, beautiful enemy sprites. It's this kind of love-labor that makes this game stand out from titles made for profit or brand-building. Still, not all graphics were created with the same passion. Many of the human portrait graphics are downright ugly compared to the furry characters.

That being said, I got twelve hours into the game, and could not figure out what to do. So I talked to the developer on Discord, often asking what to do next. Fenrir is a furry, and talks like a college professor. A real nice guy. I made a quick video of myself using debug tools to get to the next area of the game, revealing that I'd been playing an old, probably incomplete version. So Fenrir insisted I start over, after I'd already invested twelve hours.

So I did, and it was worth it. Vikings of Midgard was a fun game with a great, very complete story, and it was an experience I'll never forget.

Style: 3/5 - Substance: 5/5 - Music: 3/5 - Fun: 3/5