Breath of Death VII: The Beginning: Reanimated (PC) Review

It's the year… whatever. Nuclear war destroyed the world and everything in it. Everything? No! One small village of indomitable Gauls… err, sorry, wrong franchise. Well, it turns out than now that everything is dead, the un-dead have inherited the earth. Enter Dem, the silent, skeletal protagonist (his name being a joke on 'Dem Bones?'), who must gather a group of similarly non-living people and defeat a great evil. Or gather crystals. Or something. No, don't go in expecting a "real" story. This three-or-so hour trip (yes, it's that short) is mainly a love letter to the JRPGs of the late '80s/early '90s, with almost all the necessary cliches being included in one way or another. It's not a serious love letter, though…

This shows its adoration of the genre by poking fun at it. Characters break the fourth wall, making comments about the video game they know they are in. There are generally plenty of humorous homages to RPG classics, like Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star and of course ancients like Dragon Quest, pleasantly corny puns, and plenty of pop-culture references. As is usually the case with this kind of comedic approach, some will love what's here, and some will snicker one or two times and then get bored, especially if they can't catch all the references.

Gameplay-wise, Breath of Death VII is extremely basic, and at the same time it also experiments a bit with its mechanics. Exploration? Mind-numbingly simple. Enter dungeon, search around the two or three alternative routes, find one or two treasure chests, and that's about it. Available gear? Boring at best. You have a sword that adds +10 to damage? The next one you'll find will add +20 to damage. Due to the length of this quest (or lack of), the path is quite linear as well, with nothing more than a few diversions, with some additional dungeons sprinkled around to offer some chance to grind.

The combat UI hides under its basic, first-person perspective what is arguably the game's best feature. A unique twist of the traditional JRPG system, each round makes the enemies more powerful, but also raises a combo gauge, enabling characters to use some special moves that become more potent the higher said gauge is. Essentially, this is a neat risk/reward system as players can deliver an extremely powerful blow by waiting a couple of turns, yet that also means that it's easier to die with each passing round.

Combat is lightning fast, so if you are one of those who can't stand the slow pace of similarly "traditional" RPGs you are in for a treat here. A bonus to the already fast pace, is how after each battle health as well as a small portion of MP is replenished, so it is easy to just grind and grind some more, before ever going back to the town. Speaking of grind, dungeons have a limited number of random encounters, which means that after some time the party can explore without any distractions. Theoretically, that is, as most dungeons as small, and not that complex in structure.

In the end, fun as the adventure might be, it's almost impossible to get immersed into it all. As mentioned earlier, this is more concerned with being funny than an engrossing tale where mysteries unfold left and right. The short length is blessing and a curse, as it's nice that for once an RPG doesn't eat a whole week (or more), but that also means that the moment you'll start getting invested it's all over…