There is something deliciously strange and satisfyingly crunchy to Coin Drop Games’ indie every-genre-ever-made mashup, The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time.
I chose to use food-adjacent terminology in the opening line above because it feels like a strange and unappetizing way to open a game review, but it works.
It’s an ideal very similar to how The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time works.
With you having no understanding of where you are, or how you got there aside from the location being “Castle of the Red King,” You are dropped into the final level of a famous Circle Soft RPG, you know the one. It came out in the ’90s, and it’s just been ported, ported, and ported ever since.
Okay, no, The End of the Greatest RPG of All Time does not actually exist. Yet, Coin Drop literally drops you into the end of this RPG of their own creation and expects you to use elements of gaming pathos generations in the making to navigate a B story that unfolds across RPG, puzzle, and FMV elements that really shouldn’t go together, but very much do.
Second-hand storytelling
The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time subverts traditional narrative conventions and asks you to come in a at the end of it’s RPG story knowing nothing about what has happened up to this point, aside from what you can muster up from the worn, much-loved pages you collect of a insert manual for the game, as well as short developer commentary from overall creator Lucas Immanuel.
As you near the end of the RPG, you’ll enter the B story via FMV clips and a sparse puzzle chamber, where a story-within-a-story plotline is absolutely bonkers and well worth the time you’ll invest in solving the puzzle before you.
But therein lies the first problem: The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time is a puzzle game that forces you to adapt and think your way out of a situation, and that’s not for everyone.
Those looking for a classic linear RPG story of a teen from a sleepy village making friends on their way to take on a baddie is not what you’ll get here… well, I mean, you will get that by piecing together the RPG element of the game, which takes heavy inspiration from Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger. And while the RPG story plays an important role in progression, the B story in the puzzle world almost becomes the leading one.
At times, it can feel jarring and off-putting, with answers as easy to come by as figuring out what is a lie, to figuring out which item you never collected but that was provided to you, which starts the RPG trigger move combo. It’s boldly challenging and incredibly divisive. Some gaming Sherlocks will have no problem figuring it out at all. Gaming philosophers will ponder whether to be honest about following a YouTube walkthrough. And modern gamers may decide that The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time revives a cryptic style of gaming that is best left in the past.
Only the right moves
Despite having “RPG” in its name, The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time is not really an RPG — it’s just a tribute… masquerading as a puzzle.
In true Whose Line Is It Anyway fashion, everything is made up, and the points don’t matter!
You start with a whole roster of characters and an inventory you would normally build up yourself over time in a traditional RPG.
And it all doesn’t really matter much anyway, because the RPG elements, like exploration and combat, are just puzzles meant to move the story forward.
Naturally, this reliance on everything becoming a puzzle won’t be for everyone.
The looks and sounds of the Greatest RPG of All Time.
The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time is very clearly out for full immersion.
In case you haven’t guessed by now, its story is trying to pull you in two very different directions, which can be disorienting and exhausting.
So, it seemingly keeps your attention by providing an atmosphere delightfully retro enough to illicit comfort and nostalgia, while also being sparse, strange and campy enough to deliver its outside-the-game storyline.
Visually, the set within the RPG portion of the game is exactly what you’d expect from a classic RPG. grainy, coarse visual fuzz atop warm, smudgy colour palates.
Those looking hard enough will find subtle visual nods to elements from the manual of this not-real RPG, as well as from several real-world RPGs of the time.
In contrast, the puzzle world stands stark and spooking in its sheer nothingness. It is simply a wood-grain-walled maze set atop a vast white reminiscent of the true Matrix. And it has even less going for it in terms of sound design.
Stretched out settings
The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time isn’t perfect. There are some really weird instances of jank — especially for those of us playing with ultrawide displays.
The higher-resolution settings are available, but I found the compression to be really bad during the FMV sections. They are also inconsistent when you restart the software or minimize it. Both of which the game will do to you, Doki Doki Literature Club-style.
I profess to having gotten more than annoyed each time I had to play around in the settings menu to find the right resolution.
In terms of performance, this is a game that’s leaning into capturing the nostalgia of what are now extremely dated games. It’s not trying to push the envelope or be anything revolutionary. That said, there are places where the game stumbles, most notably in the FMV elements. But this is a debut indie, so I forgive.
Verdict
The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time has been a hard review for me. On the one hand, this is a game paying tribute to the classic RPGs of the late ’80s and the ’90s. On the other hand, it’s an indie puzzle game that draws inspiration from influential indie games of the past few years. On the other hand, this is a gaming experience we all have that’s so unique and personal, it is sure to be something you’ll either love or despise.
A jarring story-within-a-story premise, and the fact that this is a puzzle wearing an RPG and an FMV are likely to cause some to say “I’m out.”
For those who stick around, there’s an intriguing experience that honours what has come and is sure to inspire what comes next.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PC
