Iffermoon

Posted by Derek Yu Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:37:00 GMT

Iffermoon

Iffermoon is the latest RPG from Scott Cawthon, also known as Scott Games. If you’ve played The Desolate Room and Legacy of Flan 4: Flan Rising, then you should rightly expect another very unique experience from Scott. Iffermoon is definitely very different from your average fantasy RPG.

It’s also by far Scott’s most ambitious project. Dinost is an extremely detailed world, both in conceptualization and realization. Moving around the gorgeous environments and interacting with its unusual denizens, I felt like I was someplace rich in history… and the large backdrops that extend far into the distance give the impression that the world is physically vast. I also really dig Scott’s 3d pre-rendered graphics, which remind me a bit of Hiroshi Yoshii.

Unlike the other games, which were viewed from a top-down perspective, Iffermoon is 2d side-scrolling. You can enter new areas either by walking off either the left or right side of the screen, or by taking some sort of transportation (hot air balloons, pipes, elevators, etc.). Battles, which are by and large are voluntary, happen in real-time, with party members moving and attacking automatically. You can, however, direct the battle by setting combat stances and using special moves that have various effects. Combining these moves is essential to winning in battle.

Unfortunately, Iffermoon suffers from fairly prodigious loading times during transitions between areas, menus, and battles (at least, on my rig). This is probably fallout from the enormous, high-resolution sprites on every level. There is also some tedium involved in gaining the necessary amount of “favor” with someone to enable them to join your party. These quests generally involve walking to some location, collecting X number of items, or killing X number of monsters.

But in my opinion, it’s a small price to pay to experience one of the few RPG worlds that feels genuinely unique from head to toe. And the relative open-endedness of the journey is quite refreshing, also.

TIGdb: Entry for Iffermoon

(Source: Michael Silbey)

Posted in , , ,  | Tags  | 32 comments

Comments

  1. Josh said about 2 hours later:

    Shall I play in this #1 post game too?

  2. ObamaFisa said about 2 hours later:

    While you were standing at the edge of the pool timidly assessing whether you want to jump in I have run right past you and stolen…

    FIRST POST!

    (pwned)

  3. Advenith said about 4 hours later:

    I feel bad, because I’ve had this game for a bit and still haven’t tried it out.

    Also, ObamaFisa fails miserably.

  4. Snow said about 5 hours later:

    It’s nice to see some more outside of the box stuff.

    This game is definitely on my download list. :)

    Also, ObamaFisa got ASSPWNED… while he was pondering whether or not to type “edge of the pool timidly assessing…”.

  5. Toadsannime said about 10 hours later:

    I wondered when this was going to get a mention. Did you put this on the database, or did Scott…? I recommended to him on create-games that he submitted it to the database. Maybe he took my advice. Anyway, yeah, it’s a grand looking game, isn’t it? It’s good to know his website is towards a good cause, too.

    Also, Snow got BUTTPWNED… while he was pondering whether or not to type ‘whether or not to type “edge of the pool timidly assessing…”…’

  6. haowan said about 11 hours later:

    Requesting IP-bans on all “first post”ers

  7. Thomas said about 11 hours later:

    This looks interesting, but damn, the main character moves like an ’80s arcade sprite. It bugs me, because the rest of it looks so gorgeous.

  8. Nillo said about 11 hours later:

    I tried it and it felt really unpolished. Walking around in town at the beginning of the game is boring and of course riddled with loading times. I tried two of the minigames and they could’ve been a lot better.

    I never really got anywhere before I lost interest. Might pick it up again later, but meh.

  9. Trotim said about 12 hours later:

    First post!

  10. FireSword said about 13 hours later:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfJe8hQ8ha0

    lol

  11. FireSword said about 13 hours later:

    a post to be approved or both to be deleted lol

  12. Toadsanime said about 13 hours later:

    About it being unpolished, I had only one problem. Near the beginning when there was a lot of dialogue, as the words sprawl up on the upper part of the screen is the character saying it. The character glitches a lot during that process. It’s a little irritating, but apart from that I see no problems.

  13. fartron said about 14 hours later:

    recent post!

  14. Snow said about 14 hours later:

    :P @ toadsanime

    It does have an 80’s feel to it and I like that. The game does have a fresh feel to it otherwise and I love the effects.

  15. Derek said about 16 hours later:

    Since when has the comments section become a haven for 4channers and Fark users? Please cut that crap out.

  16. falsion said about 16 hours later:

    4chan? I’ve yet to see a meme or anything related to them used here, unless you are mistaking the phrase “fail” for that site which is incorrect as it is used everywhere.

  17. Derek said about 17 hours later:

    Fail, ASSPWNED, buttpwned, First post!, etc.

    I just wish the gamefaqs retarded crap would just go back to gamefaqs.

  18. FireSword said about 17 hours later:

    Derek u have one of my post to approve.. if u don t approve it please delete all the 3 posts.. the first one(to be approved) is my comment on game lol. bye

  19. xerus said about 17 hours later:

    For pre-rendered 3d, that screenshot looks more unified than usual. Most games that use the pre-rendered 3d style come out terribly ugly, but this one seems to be shining above the rest.

  20. BeamSplashX said about 22 hours later:

    It makes you glad Scott stuck with pre-rendered 3D instead of giving up due to his first attempts being “ugly”. They weren’t that bad, but they didn’t look particularly good either. Good to know that he’s gotten ages better at it!

  21. FireSword said about 22 hours later:

    Derek if possible delete post 11. 18. 21. lol

  22. Phasma Felis said about 22 hours later:

    The larger screenshots on the homepage show the distinct black jaggies of antialiased images cut from a black background.

    Seriously, is it somehow not possible to render an image that is antialiased except on its border? Because I’ve never seen prerendered 3D that didn’t have that problem. In a raytracer at least, it seems like a simple matter of only averaging in rays that strike the object.

  23. Derek said about 23 hours later:

    FireSword: no.

  24. Josh said about 24 hours later:

    Hmmm. Yeah this game is pretty fun too, surprisingly. I enjoyed it. (:

  25. Phasma Felis said 1 day later:

    Derek, at least no one’s ending every damn sentence with “lol” like it was punctuation.

    Oh wait.

  26. War_OF_Gears said 1 day later:

    The problem with most or actually, every game using pre-rendered sprites (which look 3D, that is) is that when the sprites don’t ‘interact’ with the environment, it really kills the immersion for me.

  27. Vallen said 1 day later:

    I enjoyed his earlier works, but this was just nonsense.

    There’s no way to tell what you’re getting out of each level of a skill. Combat seems largely useless. I spent 20 minutes playing stargala or whatever it was called, only to realize I’d spent more time in a minigame than playing the actual game itself. There’s no sign or anything to alert you that you’re leaving an area on the left or right, and the game takes ages to load some prerendered sprites. It takes LONGER than the Thief/System Shock 2 series of games and they have to load entire 3D areas. What the crap?

    I deleted this one after I got bored with stargala, which was by far the most fun I had in the game. I loved TDR, but this was like trying to slit your wrists with a rusty spoon.

    Also, what are Iffers?

  28. Smithy said 1 day later:

    I remember when this Scottgames started out with “A Desolate Room!” I thought it was amazing.

    Jeeze. It’s crazy how fast this guy is pumping these out.

  29. Toadsanime said 1 day later:

    @Smithy - I asked him about how long it took him to make this, actually. He didn’t get why everyone kept making a fuss of his ‘quick pumping of games’, considering he worked on several projects at a time. This took him a year and a half - not several months, like some suspect. Just thought I’d clear that up for him. ^_^

  30. Snow said 1 day later:

    I’ll cut the crap out of respect for the site and admins. The ASSPWNED thing was just being humorous. Apologies. My responses will be post related, proper and respectful from here on in.

  31. itsnotmymonitorsfault said 2 days later:

    To all those who are making games that run at less than sensible resolutions:

    INCLUDE AN OPTION TO RUN IN WINDOWED MODE PLEASE THANK YOU

    Since my monitor doesn’t display 800x600 correctly, and the game’s creator didn’t bother giving me any other options, I can’t play it. Oh well!

  32. rinkuhero said 3 days later:

    It’s too bad only like 1% of the comments here are about the actual game. :(

    This game is wonderful, thanks for the post Derek.

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