So for those who are wandering the wastes of itch.io surreal games Odysseon might be proven to be a fine treasure amongst the ocean of rpg games.
The positives of this game is numerous. I try to say my points avoiding any spoilers, so you have to trust me on things I say. The strongest one is the main characters and their magican friend that they will get later on the story, their chemistry between each other is not very much seen in rpg games (or at least not to my knowledge) it is always a joy see them bicker or how they think of different ideas in the world. The dialogue of the game is also fun it reminds me of 80ies fantasy movies (which is very wierd as i have not seen any of them), I never felt that I was ever bored to talk to any character. The main story line is also very compelling. The world itself is also amongst the strong point of the game, enemies and every character wears a very different clothing compare to ours due to some event that made humanity go back to a very fantasy, medieval society, despite that most characters still wear a mishmash of modern outfit, that is unusually in medieval words. To name the ambivalencethe game has: knights, chivalry, knife fights, peasentry, platonic solids (mathematicians will enjoy), wizardry, kingdoms, warlords, yet it also has tv, modern looking restaurants (sort of reminds me of star wars), computers, electricity, neon lights, etc. The game also has some modicum amount of bizarre wild life that you will ecounter. Gameplay wise that is not much to be said its mainly like hylics with enemies infront of you and your wizard friend having able to show his hand like in hylics. The enemies, beside the bosses, still pose a challange which is good as the game doesnt become monotonous. I also must add that i love how most buildings have restrooms despite the fact that they could have been completly avoidable the creator went to add them which is laudable. I must add however that I do not like that AI imigary was used in the game NOT because I think its stealing or because they look bad but because I much more value someones own art being showcased even if its poorer quality then what the AI can make.
However, beware because the game has one gameplay flaw! Many time to replenish your wares and healing equidment you have to walk all the way back to the nearest town which in paper sounds not so bad if you weren't being attack while going back due to being already in a situation that you require healing as soon as possible and usually going back is a no go, due to the fact that enemies reappear so you have to use the same amount of equidment you did to defeat them again to advance which for two broke-ass man is a bit hard, so beware if you go into the wildernsess, that without proper equidment you will surely perish.
This entire ordeal can be solved i think if there was perhaps fast travel or if the game emphesized it more that you will need more equidment before venturing out, like it did in the beggining, saying to save a lot.
Overall i think its a wonderful experience and the game should be more well known. I hope the game will countine soon as possible as i cannot wait there the story will envelope. Your writer was today Eko- me it was me.
P.S I might make fanart of the game is there any possiblity to send you any without using twitte- erm, X? Maybe discord?
thank you for the lovely review! I lament the use of AI imagery as much as anyone. Odysseon started development way back before AI art was really capable of recreating human works, the main appeal to me was the otherworldly nature of what AI was churning out, most early AI artwork was incomprehensible nonsense.
I thought that stuff looked really cool, so I based all the primary visuals on those early AI works. I've added a section to the FAQ addressing the ethical implications of using AI generated imagery. TLDR: nothing in the game is generated from hand drawn artwork, nor designed to look like pre-existing works. And anything that is hand made, like the overworld sprites and tilesets are all done exclusively by me. On top of that the game itself is public domain and is completely free for you to do with as you please.
I'm not particularly happy about where AI stuff has gone, especially since it started off so fascinating. But there's still something about the early primitive GAN stuff that's really appealing to me. Maybe I should add a disclaimer to the beginning of the game?
Also to address your concerns about items and wares, I feel like health items might be a tad bit overpriced, I didn't want the games currency to get out of control but since there are no healing spells in the game it might be a good idea to nerf the price of goods a little.
if there's anything else you'd like to send me you can contact me on tumblr at
Yes i recongise these early AI work and they are good for those who have a good story and cannot express themselfs due to lacking the equidment to do so and yes now sadly this gives us a bad taste in our mouth perhaps this will stay. I can also understand i these primitives ai tools can give us some surreal pictues that can be loved and uprageded upon. A disclamer might not be needed I do not know for sure.
About what you said about the items I think its not about that they are overpreiced but more about the fact that they are not adequately distriputed on the map therefore detoriating the gameplay.
i was about to ask about if you made the songs then i took a look at the readme file, anyway, are you planning on adding your own original songs someday for the complete game?
i gotta give it to ya. you know how to make a well crafted scene.
the way the music fits with the background is great, really sets the mood.
i guess the only real critique i have is that the water made it look like you were on a floating island and the water patches are hollowed out parts of the ground. i'm assuming you tried to make it look like the sky was reflecting off of the water and that's what it was supposed to be.
To be quite honest, this is an RPG I was really looking forward to playing from beginning to end. This mix of medieval elements, bizarre character style, interesting dialogue and (mostly) a vintage soundtrack was very, very interesting. So many props for this game. I even made a simple text, but showing how I liked the proposal. Congratulations on your work.
P.S.: Unfortunately, I had to replace or remove some music of the gameplay, due to copyright issues. But I really recommend this game to everyone (mostly because I want everyone to hear the songs). It's a great work being made here.
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So for those who are wandering the wastes of itch.io surreal games Odysseon might be proven to be a fine treasure amongst the ocean of rpg games.
The positives of this game is numerous. I try to say my points avoiding any spoilers, so you have to trust me on things I say.
The strongest one is the main characters and their magican friend that they will get later on the story, their chemistry between each other is not very much seen in rpg games (or at least not to my knowledge) it is always a joy see them bicker or how they think of different ideas in the world.
The dialogue of the game is also fun it reminds me of 80ies fantasy movies (which is very wierd as i have not seen any of them), I never felt that I was ever bored to talk to any character.
The main story line is also very compelling. The world itself is also amongst the strong point of the game, enemies and every character wears a very different clothing compare to ours due to some event that made humanity go back to a very fantasy, medieval society, despite that most characters still wear a mishmash of modern outfit, that is unusually in medieval words.
To name the ambivalencethe game has: knights, chivalry, knife fights, peasentry, platonic solids (mathematicians will enjoy), wizardry, kingdoms, warlords, yet it also has tv, modern looking restaurants (sort of reminds me of star wars), computers, electricity, neon lights, etc. The game also has some modicum amount of bizarre wild life that you will ecounter.
Gameplay wise that is not much to be said its mainly like hylics with enemies infront of you and your wizard friend having able to show his hand like in hylics. The enemies, beside the bosses, still pose a challange which is good as the game doesnt become monotonous.
I also must add that i love how most buildings have restrooms despite the fact that they could have been completly avoidable the creator went to add them which is laudable.
I must add however that I do not like that AI imigary was used in the game NOT because I think its stealing or because they look bad but because I much more value someones own art being showcased even if its poorer quality then what the AI can make.
However, beware because the game has one gameplay flaw! Many time to replenish your wares and healing equidment you have to walk all the way back to the nearest town which in paper sounds not so bad if you weren't being attack while going back due to being already in a situation that you require healing as soon as possible and usually going back is a no go, due to the fact that enemies reappear so you have to use the same amount of equidment you did to defeat them again to advance which for two broke-ass man is a bit hard, so beware if you go into the wildernsess, that without proper equidment you will surely perish.
This entire ordeal can be solved i think if there was perhaps fast travel or if the game emphesized it more that you will need more equidment before venturing out, like it did in the beggining, saying to save a lot.
Overall i think its a wonderful experience and the game should be more well known. I hope the game will countine soon as possible as i cannot wait there the story will envelope. Your writer was today Eko- me it was me.
P.S I might make fanart of the game is there any possiblity to send you any without using twitte- erm, X? Maybe discord?
thank you for the lovely review! I lament the use of AI imagery as much as anyone. Odysseon started development way back before AI art was really capable of recreating human works, the main appeal to me was the otherworldly nature of what AI was churning out, most early AI artwork was incomprehensible nonsense.
I thought that stuff looked really cool, so I based all the primary visuals on those early AI works. I've added a section to the FAQ addressing the ethical implications of using AI generated imagery.
TLDR: nothing in the game is generated from hand drawn artwork, nor designed to look like pre-existing works. And anything that is hand made, like the overworld sprites and tilesets are all done exclusively by me.
On top of that the game itself is public domain and is completely free for you to do with as you please.
I'm not particularly happy about where AI stuff has gone, especially since it started off so fascinating. But there's still something about the early primitive GAN stuff that's really appealing to me. Maybe I should add a disclaimer to the beginning of the game?
Also to address your concerns about items and wares, I feel like health items might be a tad bit overpriced, I didn't want the games currency to get out of control but since there are no healing spells in the game it might be a good idea to nerf the price of goods a little.
if there's anything else you'd like to send me you can contact me on tumblr at
https://hawfstuff.com/
as for discord I try to keep my contacts for that more personal
I can also be reached on bluesky here
https://bsky.app/profile/hawtkoffee.bsky.social
Yes i recongise these early AI work and they are good for those who have a good story and cannot express themselfs due to lacking the equidment to do so and yes now sadly this gives us a bad taste in our mouth perhaps this will stay. I can also understand i these primitives ai tools can give us some surreal pictues that can be loved and uprageded upon. A disclamer might not be needed I do not know for sure.
About what you said about the items I think its not about that they are overpreiced but more about the fact that they are not adequately distriputed on the map therefore detoriating the gameplay.
please don't abandon this
found a single tile which you could pass through here to get onto the cliffs at the second tent area
ty
also just wanna say, games amazing so far, the dialogue is actually amazing
Thanks, I'm trying not to fall into the trappings of super "gamey" rpg npc dialogue
lol i just died against the first boss xD
i was about to ask about if you made the songs then i took a look at the readme file, anyway, are you planning on adding your own original songs someday for the complete game?
that would be great if yes, and i'm sure they will be added
i gotta give it to ya. you know how to make a well crafted scene.
the way the music fits with the background is great, really sets the mood.
i guess the only real critique i have is that the water made it look like you were on a floating island and the water patches are hollowed out parts of the ground. i'm assuming you tried to make it look like the sky was reflecting off of the water and that's what it was supposed to be.
To be quite honest, this is an RPG I was really looking forward to playing from beginning to end. This mix of medieval elements, bizarre character style, interesting dialogue and (mostly) a vintage soundtrack was very, very interesting. So many props for this game. I even made a simple text, but showing how I liked the proposal. Congratulations on your work.
P.S.: Unfortunately, I had to replace or remove some music of the gameplay, due to copyright issues. But I really recommend this game to everyone (mostly because I want everyone to hear the songs). It's a great work being made here.
This is so cool
I'm having fun so far but the game crashed each time I tried to use the small bomb and I got this error
Thanks, I know what's happening, this also clued me into some various sound bugs as well. I'll have a fixed version up as soon as possible.
The latest version should now fix this issue, you should be able to carry over your current save file.
thank you!!
I can't believe the first build I posted literally crashed when you hit new game, how god damn embarrassing. August 2021 build should now work