Iffermoon (246Mb)
Iffermoon is a very brilliant 2D side-scrolling RPG that gives a very different and unique experience than most any other fantasy RPG. It takes place in a fantastic and often very surreal world, illustrated with the most absolutely gorgeous and exquisite graphics. If you’ve a slower PC load times between menu/scenes can be ‘excessive’ because of the large high resolution inter-active screens - but with a faster PC is very well worth any delay caused by load times.
“The day the Iffermoon crashed, the world changed forever. Your name is ‘Silence’, a young creature adopted into the Kingdom of Dinost, an ancient land filled with life and mystery. The inhabitants there have been at war with a creature called Cosmose since the day he emerged from a mechanical menace called the Iffermoon. The Iffermoon's origins are shrouded in controversy, but it's said that it once brought life to the planet. After the crash however, that all changed. Now all of Dinost is in danger of not just being destroyed, but being reprogrammed.”
‘Silence’ through temporary deafness as a very young being, escaped the call of evil that has entrapped so many in this world and is the one hope, to defeat Cosmose and re-unite all its denizens into co-habiting peacefully once more, and restore beauty and harmony in this once very peaceful and lovely world.
As well as the beautiful graphics there’s a very detailed and extended dialogue that really sets the scenes - and engrosses the player throughout the game. Although the game’s main player ‘Silence’ is a child creature, the dialogue is so compellingly told, and so delightfully written that it is easy to forget this, and start to think ‘Silence’ is way way older in years and experience.
There’s a vast world to explore and the 3D backgrounds give the feel of a vast world stretching way off into the distance. As well as exiting the present screen left or right, there are various types of transportation (such as hot air balloons, pipes, elevators, etc.) that will get you to new places. Starnest for instance is a large and complex realm to explore. The games characters are animated with a 3D look too and you get cutscenes showing close-ups of the characters expressions.
There are many inhabitants to talk to and interact with as you find your way around the very lush environs. They vary enormously - with bird people, reptilian people, robots, even ‘people’ with enormous elephant heads, and many more denizens besides! You will find some of these to be playable characters who can join your team. It can be a lengthy process getting a ‘citizen’ to join with you on your quest. You might need to explore certain areas and find ‘x’ items or kill ‘y’ monsters, or better their score in a mini-game, before they will join with you on your fighting team.
You do need to assemble the best possible fighting machine from the various denizens you meet and encounter, to make as formidable a mini army as you can; to help you win the real-time battles that will oft arise, during your quest to restore order and stability to Dinost. Characters can gain new abilities and skills during gameplay.
The games combat (which you will engage in often!) takes place with a maximum of four characters, with back-up characters taking their place if any characters die during a battle. ‘Iffer’ is gained which you can give to any character in your team regardless of whether they took part in the battle. ‘Iffer’ tallies of course with experience points in other RPGs. There are also skills that affect the whole team (in Party points).
The combat system uses a mix of menus and real-time fighting which takes place slowly enough for you to sort your strategy and character options. This works very well and is a good substitute for turn-based encounters. As the battle progresses, your four characters move around and attack automatically when their action bar fills. You can click on any of your combatants at any time and change their stance between battle, defensive or medium (mix of battle/defense). The menu that appears clicking on a character can also be used to select between special skills the character may have. When a characters icon glows red, provided their fight points are at their maximum a special and very strong attack can be made. You can sometimes transport enemies to different realms where they are more susceptible to special attacks or use of certain special skills against them.
There are three large and complete mini-games that you get to via arcade machines to help you on your quest, each giving different rewards. You collect tokens to enable access to the mini-games. These mini-games are varied and suitably challenging on occasion and make a good and lively interesting diversion from the main play and quest of the game.
The game’s controls are very straightforward and intuitive. Use ‘arrow’ keys to move, ‘Shift’ key to jump, ‘Z’ key to perform actions/ in the mini-games, ‘Tab’ key to open menus, and the mouse to navigate menus. There’s just the one save-slot, and this is overwritten on pressing the ‘Esc’ key to exit the game; each time ‘Silence’ leaves one area to enter a new one; or when you lose a battle or get killed and it’s game over.
The one save-slot is a slight shame as the game’s quality is such that it would be great to be able to re-visit some areas of ‘great wonderment’ again by means of simple extra game saves, but alas you’ll have to replay through to see and re-explore these areas again unless you revisit them by choice while playing! There’s also a hard mode to unlock, giving extra replay value.
It's a sizable download as it is, even without voice acting. The story is told extremely well via dialogue boxes.
The game plays in XP, Vista and Win 7 and needs a 1.5GHz+ CPU though 2GHz+ CPU highly recommended.
There’s a fabulous range of music and music types to accompany and enhance the game. The graphics are marvellously imaginative and will often catch and hold your attention. Each re-visit will have you noticing details you missed first time around. There aren’t many games that have me saying ‘Like Wow!’ as this game does, at some of the scenes!
Playing the game is a such a really fantastic experience; - you simply wouldn’t expect this from a free game! - Play it often! Need I say more!
You need this in your game collection!
Download HERE
Extended Review HERE
