Developer: Amaterasu Software
Publisher: Amaterasu Software
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Introvert Quest – Review
Introvert Quest is an indie JRPG made with RPG-Maker, it was published and developed by Amaterasu Software and features the life and adventures of an introvert who is forced to go out by his therapist and basically function as a ‘normal’ human being, who would’ve thought that going to the convenience store was so hard?
Story
The story of this game follows the life of introvert Bryce Han who, as you may have guessed, has some mental issues. His therapist, Dr. Eisner, who was very good friends with Bryce’s father, wants Bryce to go out of his house and into the city doing simple things like picking up a game from the store for his old neighbor or just plainly going grocery shopping.
Now all of this might seem a bit boring but there are some interesting things that happen to Bryce when he actually does go out, like getting explained how to be a pimp from someone with experience. There’s also a renegade vigilante named Kabukiman, a lot of mystery shrouds this character’s real identity, well, that and a mask of course.
Introvert Quest relies heavily on story but sometimes, things feel over the top. Every time Bryce goes out, some weird stuff happens and this just feels a bit forced sometimes but overall this is a fairly decent story line that will make you laugh because of its weird situations and doesn’t deserve too much critique.
Graphics
Introvert Quest works with 2D, 16-bit graphics that are typical for games made with RPG-maker, the game features anime-like characters whose portrait is sometimes very amusing. Other than that, there’s no art style that makes this game different or stand out, and to many seasoned gamers, the RPG-maker style eventually becomes a bit boring because it is so common.
The game uses text as its main story telling device but there are a lot of spelling and grammatical errors to be found, which can be rage-inducing for grammar nazis! But after checking the community hub and seeing that a lot of people find these mistakes irritating, the developer has promised that these linguistic errors will be removed by letting all text be read and spell-checked by a good English speaker, so they’re working on it.
Sound
The game’s musical themes are very reminiscent of other RPG-maker games, it features the same music in one area, and another theme in another area. This in itself is not a problem but some of the musical themes get frustrating and dull after a while, some themes really start to get on your nerves, which is a major issue because, personally speaking, music should complement the graphical work and not make you dislike the game. This doesn’t count for all themes though; some are actually enjoyable and fresh.
Furthermore, Introvert Quest doesn’t feature voice acting, and generally speaking, the sound effects aren’t that great either, they’re very basic and just not very intriguing. This makes the game feel a bit off and as if not enough work has been put into it, maybe these sound effects are native to RPG-Maker? Who knows?
Gameplay
As a story based indie JRPG, this game has little going on mechanically, it features your average RPG-maker mechanics and gameplay. These mechanics do feel rough at times and not well ironed out, for example: the walking animation is not always on point, you’ll encounter places the player can’t fit through even though the character isn’t that thick and you’ll be seeing the same character presets getting used for different people. The latter is very clear in this specific example: the bank director and the taxi driver look exactly the same, while it might be possible that the bank director’s hobby is to drive a taxi, it’s highly unlikely.
Even though this game isn’t reliant on combat, it does have some fighting sequences, which are not that easy to pull off, particularly the skills that require the player to make some sort of combo on the keyboard. The combat in itself is turn-based: the player can choose to just attack, guard, use an item or use a skill. The game also features its own virtual creature battling game, with champions that you can take down, which is a nice addition to the main story.
Introvert Quest has some long cutscenes in which the player is unable to do anything, most of the time they’re fine but some just feel dragged out and too long, which can get frustrating because you just want to move and play the game but you can’t because you’re stuck in a cut scene. There are also some issues with the game crashing and your screen freezing, which is not a nice experience. The upside to this story is that the developer, Amaterasu Software, is quick to respond to forum posts and really tries to help the player and resolve the issue, kudos for that, Amaterasu Software.
Conclusion
Overall, Introvert Quest was an OK game, even though some things were really irritating, like the god-awful music themes, the developer could’ve maybe better used a different platform for this game because, while the story is good and there’s nothing wrong with it, some mechanical items are just too basic and bad in general. If you want a decent laugh, about 5-6 hours of content and you’re not afraid of irritating musical themes or spelling errors then you should probably give this game a go.
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