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This is a blog dedicated to cataloging and reviewing the best Flash role-playing games in existence!

These games are all free and available online. Just scroll down, or click the Archives links on the left to quickly browse to the review you want.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

RPG #10: Mardek RPG Review

Mardek RPG is a highly popular and clever RPG series by Pseudolonewolf of Fig Hunter games that plays like a tongue-in-cheek Final Fantasy game. With the release of Mardek RPG Chapter 2, Pseudolonewolf seems to be cementing Mardek RPG's place in the pantheon of great flash RPG series.

Combat in Mardek RPG is pure Final Fantasy fare, with reaction commands thrown in to spice things up. Graphics in combat are lovely--if you're like me, you'll especially love the forest fish from Chapter 1, which look like they were taken straight out of an M.C. Escher drawing. The graphics in the overworld, strangely, don't match with the graphics in combat at all. While everything is nicely hand-drawn and animated in combat, your characters and the world around them become low-tech sprites of the Final Fantasy IV variety once you return to exploration mode. Some people find this touch nostalgic--others find it aesthetically grating.

Mardek RPG Chapter 1 may seem confusing to you at first--in fact, the characters themselves seem pretty confused about what they're supposed to do or say during the opening sequence! But don't worry. Just keep playing, and you'll quickly realize that the beginning is actually a cute storytelling contrivance by the creator. The game proper has an actual plot worth mentioning, along with a fleshed-out game world, even if it isn't apparent at first.

Mardek RPG Chapter 2 continues the storyline of the previous chapter, but picks up eight years later, with Mardek and Deugan enlisted in the royal guard of Goznor (whatever that is). The tongue-in-cheek, highly self-aware humor of the first game is still here in spades, along with a helping of goofy teen angst. (My favorite line: "Well, I'd only kill a guy if he killed me first!")

Pseudolonewolf stated on his blog today that he is set to work exclusively on finishing up Mardek RPG Chapter 3, and that Chapter 3 will include remade versions of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 bundled in with it. Once it's out, I'll be updating this entry to reflect that.

The bottom line: Mardek RPG is wildly popular for a reason. If you like RPGs at all, stop dilly-dallying and go play it!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Chapter 2 has been released.