I've recently finished playing through Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII, two entertaining old school RPGs available as a bundle (for only $3!) on Steam. Originally released as Xbox Live Indie Games, the two games have had much better success on the PC through Steam. Both games parody the RPG genre (and more specifically the older RPGs they resemble), but are also good RPGs on their own.
Cthulhu Saves the World
The title of this game sums up the plot quite effectively. Cthulhu loses his powers and is forced to become a "hero" to regain them. As he travels the world completing heroic deeds Cthulhu meets a variety of allies: a stereotypical female "love interest," a living sword, a necromancer girl, an alien cat from outer space, an old man with a poor memory, and a dragon who also functions as your "airship." Yeah, it's a strange game.
The storyline and dialog constantly pokes fun at tired RPG tropes: heroes saving the world, magic crystals, overused bosses, nonsensical quests, etc. Enemy names are frequently puns or tributes to other games and come with small descriptions that are often hilarious. Every bookshelf and drawer in the game has unique text that was so enjoyable I actually found myself checking and reading every time. In the same vein, most NPCs are useless, but their few lines of dialog are worth reading.
The introduction to Cthulhu Saves the World.
The game design could probably stop at this point and Cthulhu Saves the World would still be fun. But it isn't just a generic RPG that happens to integrate humor. Cthulhu actually includes some interesting new gameplay concepts and improvements upon old concepts.
Level ups offer a choice of two bonuses. The choices are usually similar: two different abilities, a stat boost vs. a health/mana boost, offense vs. defense, combat vs. magic, etc. In some ways you can "build" each character how you want. Cthulhu can be turned into a combat powerhouse or a dark magic user. You can give your healer powerful individual buffs or weaker group buffs. Your mage can focus on single-target spells, group spells, or spells that affect all enemies. Maybe you want to give one character a mix of physical and magical abilities. It may not work out well, but you can.
Only four characters can be taken into battle, and you'll seen gather enough companions to force you to choose between them. Each character has their own very loosely defined "class" allowing you to build the party you want. All characters also have "Unite" abilities with each other, adding some additional aspects to your party-making decision. Luckily, characters outside of battle still gain experience at the normal rate, making switching your party around easy and without penalty.
The first two characters and their Unite ability.
Other aspects of the RPG gameplay have been simplified, but in ways that work out well. There are only two consumable items: potions and 1-ups. Potions both restore all health and revive targets, and 1-ups allow you to replay a battle if defeated. There are no antidotes or ethers or elixirs or phoenix downs or items that boost stats or items that deal damage. Those are what your abilities are for.
Similarly, equipment has been reduced to just "weapon" and "armor." I'm generally critical of such streamlining, but in this case, I found myself not caring. The weapons and armor (found in both shops and from chests) were plentiful and diverse enough to be interesting.
Cthulhu also treats random encounters quite differently. Each area has a set number of encounters (generally from around 10-50; the world map has 200). Once you have fought that number of battles, random encounters stop in that area. You can still force fights with a menu option, but otherwise you are free to wander. This feature offers some interesting choices. You can grind away all the encounters and then take your time exploring the area free from interruption. You can ignore the counter and play normally. You can use the counter as something of an indicator of your progress through an area. Note that on "Insane" difficulty this limit is 9999 in all areas, though.
Finally, the party has the ability to teleport to all visited towns from the beginning. No spell to acquire, or arbitrary point in the game to pass. If you've been somewhere, you can teleport to it. I'm no fan of useless backtracking that serves no purpose other than padding out gameplay hours, so Cthulhu's teleportion is great.
Cthulhu Saves the World doesn't last too long. I managed to finish in essentially one long day (with a break in the middle). But the game actually felt much longer to me, and when the game was over it seemed like a the game was just as long as it should have been. Luckily though, Cthulhu has some impressive replay value. There are higher difficulties (Hard and Insane), additional modes like Score Attack (beat bosses underleveled for points) and Highlander (only one character at a time), or you can even just replay focusing on different characters or choosing different abilities. There is even a developer commentary option!
Those options would add enough replay value for most games of this kind. But Cthulhu Saves the World also includes a mode named Cthulhu's Angels. That mode features (mostly) new characters and an entirely new story. I'm currently working through that mode on Insane, and so far it's a fun new experience (and much much harder on Insane). My only criticism of Cthulhu's Angels is that Cthulhu isn't actually a playable character in that mode. Oh well.
Finally, I have to say that the presentation in Cthulhu Saves the World is impressive. The music is great, the sounds feel right, and the art design is probably the best possible for the retro style. Everything sounds great, looks great, and feels right.
A "bromide" of Cthulhu. Other bromides must be found throughout the game.
I played through the games in what I now consider the wrong order. I completed Cthulhu first and Breath of Death second, the opposite of the order in which they were developed and released. I enjoyed both games, but while playing Breath of Death I was constantly missing or looking for features that were added in Cthulhu. Teleportation, air transportation, and 1-ups are all missing. Bosses frequently have no world presence and just appear out of the air. There are no bookshelves or drawers to read. There are only four characters, and their abilities are less numerous and less varied. The same thing can be said for their weapons and armor.
I really can't think of any area in which Breath of Death is superior to Cthulhu. Cthulhu has a better story, better humor, better (and more) characters, better (and more) content, and extra features and replay value. That doesn't mean Breath of Death is bad, just that it may disappoint you if you play through the games in the "wrong" order as I did.
I finished Breath of Death, and I doubt I'll play it again. The game was enjoyable, but not really on the same level as Cthulhu Saves the World. Breath of Death is definitely worth playing as part of the bundle, and I do now recommend playing it first. If the games are ever available individually, though, I'm not sure I can recommend buying Breath of Death. I would always recommend buying Cthulhu Saves the World, and if you enjoy this type of old-school RPG, I definitely suggest buying the bundle. $3 for two enjoyable RPGs is a steal.
The statistics screen for Dem, the main character in Breath of Death. He doesn't speak, but he thinks.