Who would have imagined that mixing 16-bit JRPG mechanics and aesthetics, self-referential humor, fourth wall breaking and a Great Old One from Lovecraftian horror would be a recipe for success? Robert Boyd and William Stiernberg, founders of Zeboyd Games, thought it was a great concept and the result is Cthulhu Saves the World, a more modern take on JRPGs that doesn’t take itself seriously.
The game was originally released as a digital title for the Xbox 360 in December 2010. Not long after, the developers ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to port it to PC and to add some cut content. The campaign was very successful, and the enhanced port was released on Steam in July 2011. It is called Cthulhu Saves the World: Super Hyper Enhanced Championship Edition Alpha Diamond DX Plus Alpha FES HD Premium Enhanced Game of the Year Collector’s Edition. The new content and improvements also came to the Xbox 360 through an update.
Some of the most interesting additions were the Cthulhu’s Angels game mode, a director’s commentary, character art and expanded dialogues.
A public announcement: If the game crashes during the first cutscene, go to the end of the review for a solution1.
The Narrative
Right at the start it’s easy to understand that the game doesn’t take itself seriously and wants to make you laugh. The plot, characters, NPCs, dialogues, the descriptions of objects (like bookshelves and tombstones) and even monsters, everything has a humorous nature, so remember that going forward.
The story begins with the evil protagonist, Cthulhu, awakening from its ancient slumber to destroy the world. Luckily, a “mysterious stranger” seals the Great Old One’s powers. The Narrator then informs us that only by becoming a true hero Cthulhu will break the spell and recover its powers. Cthulhu eavesdrops the explanation and decides to do exactly that to undo the spell and destroy the world. The contradiction is intended and is part of the title’s humor.
Most of the game’s story is composed of a series of little adventures, stitched together by the central plot thread of unlocking Cthulhu’s power. The Great Old One and his party just move from one location to another searching for hero-worthy activities. This almost episodic nature isn’t necessarily bad, but it left me without a sense of progression and accomplishment games with a tighter plot have.
On its journey Cthulhu will find six companions: Umi the groupie, Sharpe the sword man, October the goth necromancer, Paws the alien cat, Dacre the senile healer, and Ember the dragon. There is also a secret boss who can join your party.
Most of these characters are a light spin on genre tropes. They usually break the fourth wall by talking directly to the narrator or by commenting on gameplay elements. It’s possible interact with them through some awkward yet entertaining dialogues by selecting Chat on the Menu. Sometimes they will even give tips to the player.
But how good is the humor?
Initially, I must say I enjoy titles with a more lighthearted, humorous tone (like the Disgaea series). I think they are a nice change of pace from all these ultra-mature games we have nowadays. But regarding Cthulhu Saves the World, I can summarize it as hit or miss. Probably the humor was fresher in 2010, but now it felt contrived. I won’t deny that the game made me chuckle a lot and that it has some smart gag here and there, however only on a few stances I got a full laugh. I acknowledge humor is very subjective, so likely it wasn’t for me.
Presentation
Graphically the game is nothing outstanding, even for 16-bit standards. I sincerely thought the game was developed on some instance of RPG Maker, and I bet I wasn’t the only one. But the developers already explained that they designed a custom engine with Microsoft XNA and C.
The game has a few cutscenes presented by a succession of static panels, similar to a digital comic book. It’s a well used and economical style. Unfortunately, the anime-inspired artwork looks amateurish. I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but the same artist also did the graphical art of Cosmic Star Heroine, which is a lot better.
As for the soundtrack, it is great, I love it. It is available for free on the developers’ website, alongside the design document for the game. It’s a fine read for those interested in game design or curious about how the game changed while in development.
Mechanics
Exploring
There isn’t much to say about the overworld of Cthulhu Saves the World. It feels empty, with a few cities and dungeons scattered around forests and mountains.
Dungeons aren’t difficult to navigate, yet it’s common to backtrack because you reached a dead end. Some dungeons have puzzles, but they are very simple and won’t cause anyone a headache. As for cities, they are useful only for buying new equipment, for recovering MP at the local inn (the innkeepers always give you a free stay), and to find the plot’s reason to visit the next dungeon. NPCs won’t give side quests or tell interesting story information, but it’s worthy to lose some time reading their gag dialogues. Luckily, every time you enter a city it becomes available for teleportation.
In the end, the game doesn’t offer anything by exploring its world, focusing its attention on fighting enemies and completing the plot.
Battle System
Just to be clearer, I played the game on the Insane difficulty, so other settings may give you a different experience.
As expected from a title that emulates 16-bit JRPGs, you have to deal with a turn-based battle system and random encounters while investigating dungeons and the overworld. But the game also attenuates some of the genre’s problems with more contemporary ideas.
To avoid irritating the player with the usual amount of never-ending random battles, dungeons have an encounter limit. As a result, enemies won’t appear anymore when it reaches zero. It’s a welcome mechanic when you lose your way or just wish to explore for finding treasure chests. If you still need more fights before the boss or just want to grind more, it’s possible to start one by selecting Fight on the Menu. I never ran out of enemies because all dungeons have a 9999-encounter limit on the Insane difficulty.
Battles are quick, turn-based and have relatively deep mechanics. Only four characters can stay on the active party during combat, but thankfully everyone will gain equal amounts of XP. It’s a good feature since idle characters will always keep up with the active party. Therefore, it’s easier to experiment new formations because no one is under leveled.
Visually, everything is simplistic. Your characters don’t appear on the screen, enemies don’t have animations and actions are represented by plain visual and sound effects, very reminiscent of early Dragon Quest titles.
Besides the standard normal attack, characters can use techniques, spells or combined techniques by spending MP. It’s also possible to dodge to gain a boost in defense for the current turn and to attract enemy attacks. Techniques and spells are basically the same, there is no practical difference between them. As for Combined techniques, I only found the buffing and healing ones useful, since every character dealt more damage individually.
During combat a combo counter is displayed on the upper left side of the screen. It will increase every time a character attack. Some techniques will increase in power the higher the counter is but they will reset it if used, so it’s a good strategy to keep increasing it until it’s possible to deliver a finishing blow. It’s great to kill a boss a few turns earlier.
To spice up combat, every turn enemies will grow more powerful. Naturally, you need to kill them fast before they become too strong.
To minimize the resource management and to make the random battles less exhausting, after winning a fight all characters will fully recover, regaining all their HP, recovering from status ailments and reviving if dead. They will also regain some MP, the only resource that still needs some care. There are healing spots near every boss room that will recover all the characters MP, leaving the party ready for the challenge ahead.
Since the game is very generous with health, there are only two healing items: potions and 1-Ups. Potions are used during combat for reviving dead characters, healing status ailments and recovering HP, while a 1-Up lets you retry a battle when defeated, instead of getting a game over. Interestingly, this item that should be a life saver is somewhat useless because it’s possible to save your progress at any point, except during battles. Anyway, these items are found in chests on cities and dungeons and can’t be bought in stores.
I enjoy how the developers handled the genre’s biggest complaints, but it’s possible to argue that this design choices may take away the challenge. I disagree, as the game still is tough enough without excessive grinding (I died a lot to common enemies). They only make battles faster and more fun, since now it’s possible to blast monsters with your most powerful attacks instead of holding back until the dungeon boss.
Like is most RPGs, after acquiring enough experience your characters will gain levels. Surprisingly, you will be able to choose between two sets of attributes or between two different skills, depending on the level your character is. Just be aware that around level 40 you will stop receiving new skills and will be able to choose only between different attributes.
Extras
There are a few game modes to try after beating the game: Cthulhu’s Angels, Score Attack, Highlander and Overkill. The most interesting is Cthulhu’s Angels because it offers a second quest with a somewhat original story, two new playable characters (three if you count a new secret boss) and never-before-seen enemies.
On this new story, Cthulhu forms a team of four girls to perform heroic deeds in his place after his powers were sealed. Most of the game’s events are retraced, but some will play a little differently. October and Umi return as playable characters, however they are joined by two newcomers: Elona, the antagonist healer from the original story, and Molly, the Were-Zompire dimensional-traveler and main character from a visual novel made by one of the developers and released as an Xbox 360 indie title in 2009.
I think it’s the only mode worthy playing after beating the game, more so if you enjoyed the humor and mechanics.
Final thoughts
Cthulhu Saves the World is a modern take on JRPGs. By modern I don’t mean that it got rid of older mechanics, on the contrary, the game made them more engaging and less burdensome for the player. It’s necessary to respect developers that, on a budget title, still think about ways to make a game more fun and less taxing.
I must say I had lots of fun playing this title, even on the hardest difficulty. I admit I regretted this choice when common enemies frequently killed my party, but I persisted. Luckily, the game won’t let you lose too much progress since it’s possible to save scum or to use a 1-Up item when necessary.
Random encounters weren’t excessive and battles ended fast, except for bosses. Those always gave me problems, but it was great to keep trying new characters and new strategies until they were defeated. Logically, sometimes it took some grinding to achieve victory, but since battles aren’t very lengthy and to start a new one you just need to select Fight on the menu, it was far away from the worst grind I ever did.
The simple but lighthearted story and contrived humor can be a bit distracting, but for the most part they are harmless enough to keep you curious about what’s going to be thrown at the characters next.
As the design document said, “as an indie title, you have to hook the player immediately.” With its humorous approach to characters and storytelling, improved JRPG mechanics, two main storylines, different difficulties, multiple modes unlocked after beating the game and a criminally cheap price (less than a dollar), Cthulhu Saves the World successfully accomplishes this goal and has a lot to offer.
Final opinion: Very recommended.
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Notes on crashing:
On Windows 10 (and windows 8), the game may crash after the opening cutscene. That’s a problem related to windows media player. You will need to install it on your system otherwise the game won’t run. These instructions are for Windows 10, but the steps are practically the same for Windows 8, with minor differences on the names of some options.
How to install:
- Right-click on the Windows start button and click on Apps and Features.
- Click on Programs and Features (right side of the screen) and then click on Turn Windows features on or off.
- Search for Media Features on the new window and expand it by clicking on the “+”. Mark the box that says Windows Media Player and restart your computer.
If Media Features can’t be expanded or doesn’t show a Windows Media Player option:
- On the Apps and Features screen click on Manage optional features and then on Add a feature.
- Find Windows Media Player and click on install.
- After the installation is completed, do the first set of steps to activate Windows Media Player and restart your machine. The game should be playable now.