The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time by developer and publisher Coin Drop Games - PC(Steam) review by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
If you are here reading this, it means one of two things: ‘a’ you saw an extremely long weird game title and were wondering what it actually was, or ‘b’ you’re interested in a puzzle solving meta JRPG stylized adventure. Either way, let’s take a look into “The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of all Time”.
Now I know what you’re thinking: “What IS the greatest RPG of all time?”, “Why is the remake only of the end?”, “What should I have for lunch tomorrow?". Well, I can sort of help you with the first two. The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of all Time, or REGOAT as I’ll refer to it from now on, is a sort of meta commentary on an old RPG the developers played when they were younger, and how they wanted to remake the magic they felt as kids. REGOAT comes complete with developer commentary and videos about the design process, a manual that has notes scribbled in it from the developers’ younger selves, as well as one of the most unironically interesting combat systems I think I’ve ever seen.
Let me clear a few things up if you’re a little confused. First of all, this is a puzzle game more than it is an RPG. Does it contain RPG elements? For sure, but it’s there more as a method for using the hints you collect to solve the puzzles that are enemies and bosses. Furthermore every combat encounter occurs at a scripted point, so you aren’t getting in any random or unintended battles. REGOAT is, ultimately, about trying to figure out what “The Greatest RPG of all Time” really is from clues obtained from manual pages, developer commentary, and dev logs collected in-game. Second, this game is a meta puzzle title, so you will have to use the developer comments, clues, and manual in order to progress. Third, the game does take place during the final portion of the RPG, so if you’re expecting the story from the rest of the RPG, you’re gonna have to look elsewhere. While you can put things together through context clues, this is at it’s heart not the real focal point of the game.
So, now that those concerns have been addressed and muddied, let’s take a look at how the game actually works and progresses, yeah? To start off, you will be dropped into the final area of a remake of an old 90’s RPG. You will walk around the areas provided interacting with developer commentary and videos, and picking up pages of the game manual. These pages of the manual, and the dev commentary and videos, contain clues on how to both defeat the enemies you encounter as well as solve the puzzles introduced throughout the game. Your most important “resource” here will be the manual pages you pick up. These pages contain not only key pieces of information for the fights, but may also contain important information to solve other problems and puzzles.
Actual combat happens at scripted moments and are puzzle fights based on the information you may have collected until that point. For example, if an enemy is weak to electric damage and you don’t have a character that specifically deals electric damage, one of the manual pages may tell you a combo move that produces electric damage. All the fights in the game revolve around finding the specific move or sequence of attacks to input in order to deal damage to the enemy. It’s actually an incredibly interesting system to be honest, and I really loved it.
The puzzles aren’t just in the fights however. You will need to input codes, activate mechanisms, and find hidden items by paying attention to your extra collectibles. A handy mechanic is that you are able to pull up the manual at any time, even in combat, in order to check to see what hints you have for the fights. Similarly, when inputting codes you can pull up the info at any time to check what you need. I do need to give a warning here however. As it turns out, if you figure out a specific mechanic, you can skip a section of the game that contains important information for later. This means you will largely be “brute forcing” the solution if you’ve missed it. Thankfully it isn’t too hard to guess any of the three solutions these hints provide, but it is a good idea to explore all the areas you can access before going to an area you got into early.
There are a lot of puzzles in this game, both hidden and overt, and even after finishing the game I discovered two hidden switches and a secret code that I haven’t been able to decipher yet, so there’s still more to discover, even after reaching a conclusion to the game! Speaking of conclusions, REGOAT has a very interesting premise and is pretty meta in it’s direction, but even I felt it got a little much towards the end. More of a personal opinion I suppose, but while I enjoyed the ending sequence from a game perspective, from a story perspective I felt it was a little much. This isn’t to say it’s bad or anything, in fact there were a lot of parts during the conclusion I liked, just be prepared going in to the game that a core premise is what the developers have been doing and not necessarily what the in-game characters have been doing.
There’s a lot of well thoughtout aspects of REGOAT, not only in the puzzles and set-up behind turning an RPG into a puzzle based system, but also in terms of the aesthetic and music direction. Both the soundtrack and visuals really sell the retro RPG aspect, and some of the “unfinished” or quirky areas sell the “college project” style that the premise of the remake is supposed to rest on. You can also tell that games such as Tunic were heavy inspirations for this game, especially if you think of hints hidden in the manual, and while I don’t think REGOAT is on the same page as Tunic was, it’s definitely captured some of the same feel without feeling like a ripoff or copycat.
Overall I have to say that The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time was a really great experience through and through. While it isn’t that long to get through the whole thing, there are plenty of other hidden aspects to discover while playing. I’m certain there are tons of things I never discovered or only halfway figured out. Definitely give this title a look if you’re interested in something that provides a more puzzle and meta based approach.
Score: 8 / 10
