Forsaken Denizen by C.E.J. Pacian
This is a long exploration game involving picking up and using various tools and ammunition in a surreal technomagical future.
Many Pacian games are in such an environment; Gun Mute and Weird City Interloper come to mind. This game, though, seems to be directly set in the same universe as the game he released last year, Killing Machine Loves Slime Prince. Both involve solar royalty (the Third Prince in the previous game and the Second Princess in this one) and many of the other characters and concepts pop up in both games.
In this game specifically, the princess (your girlfriend) has defaulted on a big debt, and the debtors have come to collect. Golden roots have invaded the city and are sucking the life out of all the office workers while Mad Max-style Junkers (I’ve never seen Mad Max, just going off vibes here) roam the city attacking anyone they see. Your goal is to save and/or chastise the princess while rescuing the citizens.
A variety of survivors can be found throughout the city, each unique, with widely varying personalities and amounts of helpfulness. Conversation is menu-based, and can change depending on your progression.
The gameplay features simple randomized combat using rolls for attack and defence, both of which can be modified by equipping special clothing. Your only weapon is a gun which comes unloaded. You have three inventory slots (including the gun) and this is filled over time with items like lockpicks and money.
I had a bad experience at first. Combat is random, you can’t UNDO, and I didn’t find any ammo in the first area. There is an enemy at a bridge right away, and to use the bridge you need several actions, so I was just getting hurt with no way to fight back and the monster wouldn’t go away. It felt frustrating, like the game had set up a complex system and wasn’t letting me interact with any of it. I had to use all my healing items and didn’t find any more for a long time, and I was resigned to not really enjoying the game.
Fortunately, past the ammo-less opening (I hope I’m wrong and someone points out that I missed some really helpful early ammo so others don’t suffer my same fate), the game is a lot more fun. Combat can either take place through violence or through escape and patience, and I chose the latter the most often. It got really intense in one late area with tons of monsters, but I was satisfied when I was able to summon an assassin to kill 3 monsters in one turn.
I was invested in the story, and the exploration was smooth and satisfying. I found no bugs. Like many of C.E.J. Pacian’s games, there is a great romance element between the leads that is much rarer in parser games than in choice-based games. He’s able to turn combat and parser look/take/drop gameplay and make them into acts of love, which is nice.
Great game, lots of fun!