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Author Topic: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle  (Read 13025 times)

Kusgnos

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Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle
« on: December 19, 2010, 02:48:34 pm »

EDIT: I'll be darned. A TVTropes article popped up out of nowhere, and the game's developer fixed up some bugs and made a version 1.2 a day after people pointed out some bugs on /u/. Linking below, rest of post preserved.

Alright. I don't think most people on these forums go for this sort of game, but here goes.

Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle is a yuri-themed* RPG that parodies the genre, and the feel of playing it is kind of like a smush between a sandbox RPG and a visual novel. The setting has elements of medieval fantasy and D&D, and it has a lot of well-done, amusing references (there is a reference to Dwarf Fortress!). Even if you abhor the yuri, you might still enjoy the game.

Quote from: Summary from Website
Embric of Wulfhammer’s Castle is a fantasy RPG with an uncommon focus on the relationships between adventurers and the people who have to live with them, with only a fraction of the combat.

The Duchess of the fair land of Elstwhere comes by carriage to the Marque of Wulfhammer, presumably to marry its lord, Embric of Wulfhammer. Embric, however, is nowhere to be found.

The Duchess, not being the sort to sit around idly, embarks on her own quest to get to know the body of the eccentric populace of Castle Wulfhammer, among them the ladies and dwarves of the Awesome Fellowship, those rescued on the Fellowship‘s grand adventures, a bevy of mysterious townsfolk, monsters, nobles, demons and devils, waitresses, clerks, clerics and more.

But there is something strange about this castle and its people. As the mysteries begin to unravel, and the real lives and futures of the people of Wulfhammer come into question, who can rescue those who are so used to doing the rescuing?

Like the quote says, there's very little combat in it. The visuals are sprites with some handdrawn visuals that come up in events, and the game is made in RPG Maker 2003. That latter detail made me skeptical at first, but after playing it and seeing no usage of the typical RPG Maker battle screen, and seeing the genuinely funny dialogue and the sandboxy style of the plot pretty much dismembered me of my doubt. The game is primarily bent towards comedy, though at times it gets a little more serious. Relationships in this game are fleshed out awesomely, and all of the characters are flavorful. The entire game is based around talking and interacting...and it's a lot more engaging than it'd seem on paper.

If you've ever played a visual novel, this is kind of like that with the addition of a sandbox world. You can pursue whichever plotline you wish to do, and there are a huge bevy of endings. When you complete one ending, you're given the option to go back to right before you did it, and collecting all the endings nets you something special. I beta-tested the game, so I've had a much longer time to play it, but I still haven't found all the endings. Some people had endings that I had no idea even existed.

For those curious about the game's history, the author Saintbomber has been working on it since January 2010, and posted about it in 4chan's /u/ board looking for beta testers around mid-November. It was completed and released on his website on the 18th of December, and Saintbomber's extremely prompt with bugs--he released a version 1.1 after people on /u/ found a couple more bugs.

Finally, the links:

Official Website <--It also has a forum now.
http://wulfhammer.org/
7th thread (on 4chan's /u/. It's a slow board, so it should still be here for a week or more.)
http://boards.4chan.org/u/res/985125 <---- NSFW due to ads. Also Spoileriffic.
TVTropes Article
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EmbricOfWulfhammersCastle

And now for screenshots, taken from website (For those who don't like clicking on links):
Spoiler: Giant images (click to show/hide)


*yuri is basically same-sex female relationships. The game has those in addition to heterosexual pairings. It's not blatant, all-in-your face, but it is noticeably present. So yes. Lesbians. Lesbians abound.

« Last Edit: December 27, 2010, 02:41:24 pm by Kusgnos »
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fenrif

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2010, 03:21:06 pm »

I've gotta ask... Why are you avoiding the word lesbian in a post about a game based on lesbianism? :P
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Kusgnos

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2010, 03:30:18 pm »

Interesting point. The word lesbian somehow didn't occur to me. I think the word yuri means the exact same thing for me, so I simply didn't think of writing lesbian/homosexual. I'll go add it in. :D
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Toady One

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2010, 08:21:54 pm »

I just deleted a bunch of posts.  As far as I can tell, this game doesn't violate the guidelines any more than Mass Effect does.  Please don't derail threads.  Please don't be disrespectful.  Thanks.
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Capntastic

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #4 on: December 20, 2010, 08:25:41 pm »

If you want to play a well made SNES RPG about a crossdressing lesbian, you should look into Eien no Filena.   It's actually really tasteful and cool.
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freeformschooler

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #5 on: December 20, 2010, 08:46:17 pm »

The title was what got me just because it's something out of the ordinary, but when I saw "well made RPG Maker game with good dialogue and hardly any traditional battle scenes" I skipped the rest of the post and downloaded it. Bravo, gentlemen.
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Tellemurius

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #6 on: December 20, 2010, 08:47:33 pm »

dude there a DF ref in this game!

Ochita

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #7 on: December 20, 2010, 09:02:43 pm »

Any nightmare fuel? Because I am nervous. Watch a playthough of the longing ribbon. I didn't go past the first nightmare fuel part.
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princest zaldo of hurl kindom: the mushroom aren't going to choice itself, ochita

Kusgnos

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #8 on: December 21, 2010, 04:55:39 am »

If you want to play a well made SNES RPG about a crossdressing lesbian, you should look into Eien no Filena.   It's actually really tasteful and cool.

Thanks for the suggestion. There really aren't very many games of a non-entirely-sexual nature that have lesbian or subtext-lesbian characters. Though most games don't really portray relationships all that well either, so I've hung up my coat of expectations in the closet of dust-accumulation.

To Ochita, I don't think there is anything akin to nightmare fuel. A few sad/bad endings, of the game's 17 total possible endings, but no nightmarish sequences. Just depressing sequences.

Bloodsheder, when the DF reference came up I grinned. 'Twas amusing.

Again, I know this kind of game really doesn't hit this demographic--it flies right past most indie games and into the realm of reaction faces. But the style of it, disregarding the lesbianism, is a style that I think a lot of other games could do well by emulating. Concise, but effective dialogue and character interactions.
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Farce

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #9 on: December 21, 2010, 05:28:06 am »

They've switched threads, it seems.

This sounds pretty cool slick, and I will totally try it out.  Eventually.

Blaze

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #10 on: December 21, 2010, 07:27:22 am »

I am intrigued, downloading now.
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freeformschooler

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #11 on: December 21, 2010, 07:53:27 am »

Yeah, okay, I downloaded this yesterday and it is FANTASTIC. It really seems like the creator knew how to hold together a good story.
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Empty

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #12 on: December 21, 2010, 11:05:55 am »

I wonder if her new pet will ever learn "Not to molest".

And anyone know who that ghost in the painting is during that whole strawberry chocolate orgy?
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nenjin

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #13 on: December 21, 2010, 11:46:47 am »

I haven't read this thread because I've just been waiting to see how it would play out.

I just deleted a bunch of posts.  As far as I can tell, this game doesn't violate the guidelines any more than Mass Effect does.  Please don't derail threads.  Please don't be disrespectful.  Thanks.

Expectation met.

Yeah, okay, I downloaded this yesterday and it is FANTASTIC. It really seems like the creator knew how to hold together a good story.

Expectations violated!

I wonder if her new pet will ever learn "Not to molest".

And anyone know who that ghost in the painting is during that whole strawberry chocolate orgy?

Expectations met again?
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freeformschooler

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Re: Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle (Yuri-themed RPG)
« Reply #14 on: December 21, 2010, 12:20:00 pm »

There's more than one Dwarf Fortress reference in there.
"Dwarf Fortress"
"gotta fey mood goin', dun she?"
And then all of the stuff in the workshop (ie. the magma, etc, though that could just be typical).
And probably more.
Gotta love and indie dev who thinks about other indie devs fondly.
EDIT: ..."B'toominous cool!"
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