Note: For this article, I will be writing about a game I wrote myself but from a third person perspective. All character names and areas will not be named for privacy reasons. Due to my memories of this game degrading, much of the information about it also lost, as the game itself is unplayable.
EDGameMZ is an unreleased 2020/2021 horror/comedy video game made by Splatink in RPG Maker MV/MZ. Before being abandoned, the game was in late development phases, with at least 75% of the games features and story being completed.
The only existing version of the game, filename: EDgameMZ v0.2dev.zip, is a developer debug version which includes a hidden cheat pad allowing for custom progression, items and other debugging features, as well as skipping the intro level.
Unfortunately, the games archive is encrypted with a lost password, and, furthermore, the game itself is not able to be completed due to a hard-lock in the games second to last area (the tavern).
The game is a story and dialogue focused RPG with all areas, characters and dialogue being inside jokes from the developer’s friend group.
The game begins in an area presumed to be the developers home village, with a character known by the friend group as a teacher, running across the screen yelling an inside joke. The player is free to explore this area, and will find a statue that moves closer if not looked at, a reference to SCP-173. This area allows access to the world map, and the main city of the game.
The world map is a fully featured Mario Bros 3-like map, allowing the player to move between unlocked areas.
The main city of the game features homes and stores, and the player is able to interact with 4 characters. An old woman, who warns the player of a thief, the thief, who is a coward, and more importantly, located inside a store, an unnamed character who tells the player that in order to progress, they need a pass. Another character inside the store, known by the friend group as “the spy”, just says “…”.
On the left side of the city the player reaches a highway (nighttime), with only a taxi and gas station present. This is inspired by many itch.io horror games. The taxi driver claims to be able to take the player to “the location”, but only if they have the pass.
In order to obtain the pass, the player needs to travel to a village north of the main city, where they will find a tavern and super market. Entering the tavern allows the player to speak to a character who gives them the pass. The super market allows the player to stock up on items for combat.
Returning to the ominous highway area and giving the taxi driver the pass will play a cut-scene and the taxi driver will take the player to the games final area, a cursed village. Upon arrival, however, the player is detained by secret agents and take back to the highway area.
The player would then have to find a way around the agents and enter the cursed village, where they’d fight the games final boss, an old woman, able to cast dark magic, and the one who cursed the village itself. Unfortunately, this is where development of the main story-line stopped, and there is no way around the agents.
Luckily, the player is able to fight the final boss in the development version by stepping on a pad on the world map. The final boss has many attacks, including a death ray, cursed bats and a “void” spell. The player at this point has access to a super-star, making them invincible for a specific amount of turns and gaining the upper hand in the fight. The player has access to 3 weapons, a shotgun, a knife and the infinity blade. Defeating the boss only displays some voice lines.
Last but not least, the player is able to take a blimp in the world map, flying beyond the mountains and into a monastery/campsite area with tents, a campfire and boat present. Entering one of the tent allows the player to speak to a monk, who tells the player they are free to rest and save in a guest room. From here, the player is tasked to repair the boat, which could potentially be the way around the agents in the cursed village, or to another fantasy area.
The game included many sound effects from Mario games (including the super-star itself, the blimp playing the flute sound from Mario Bros 3, etc), however, since the game was never meant to be released to the public, this wasn’t a concern.
This is as far as the game was developed, with the developer running out of motivation to continue, and later losing access to the game all together, with only the mentioned version (which only contains the executable and not the RPG Maker Project) still existing, and encrypted with a lost password.
Leave a Reply