A fun experience that plays with meta narrative expectations of certain genres of video games. Gorgeous art, a fun 'boss' music theme and small flourishes round out the package. Highly recommend to play over your morning coffee or tea on a weekend. Bravo Mosu, thanks for making this!
i did note an interesting lil bug; after a while of attacking, i stopped and let the hero push me into second phase. i continued to not attack, and he ran away, which un-transformed me. doing this didn't fully reset the room's state though, as the candles were still lit in purple, rather than going back to orange, and stayed purple when the first phase of the next fight attempt began.
absolutely adored this, love playing through it and trying to see what all endings i could find and tearing myself apart over the dialogue between the two characters.
the last goal i had was to beat the hero after transforming once i got the "one more time" dialogue. but i wasn't able to hit them once in that state over several attempts, so i assume they effectively become invincible at that point, if not incredibly difficult to make contact. it's kind of fitting though; one with enough hope and determination can overcome despair, especially with a goal close in sight. alas, the hero has more of those than i do. ^^;
Managed to get defeat the hero ending after he got to the second phase. You just need to stop attacking him when in second phase and then he will go back. Then continue defeating him before second phase and it will give you the ending.
Found a infinite loop. Tried to do the defeat the hero before second phase and failed. Then in the next encounter stopped attacking him. Now hero is stuck telling me ı want to see you try and ı keep not attacking him and he just goes back saying he doesnt want it to end this way. And same dialogue repeats as long as ı dont attack. Infinitly stuck ending or a bug ? Edit: Nevermind somebody else already found and posted a comment, saw it just now.
I think I know what's happening there--the shift to second phase shift and the pacifist dialogue mess each other up. I'll fix that for the next patch, cheers!
I defeated the Hero in the one more time phase, and then it got stuck on the choice between "There is yet fight in me" or "What happened?". Also the queen does not make a different animation with the Hero's corpse anymore, only snaps fingers (and before that, she did). I think I'm stuck. The hero gains damage by moving towards me. I don't do anything, he dies by contact. Must be a bug.
This 20-minute, single-room anti-game is maybe the best and most succinct encapsulation of the gameplay, appeal, and themes of the soulslike game genre. You play as the eponymous Dark Queen of Mortholme, reveling in the destruction of an upstart hero come to slay you and end your reign of terror. End their life by swinging a big fuckass mace, charging forward in blue flames, and/or summoning a pillar of purple energy (the evilest kind of energy) beneath their feet. But over time, the hero learns. And adapts. And gets better at dodging your attacks.
Then the dialogue begins. There's a whole world out there, beyond your throne room, and they get to experience it and grow and change. But you don't. You only have access to the same old stuff, the same old tricks. I would never call the Dark Queen an old dog, but, well...you know how the saying goes.
Anti-game is the perfect descriptor for this piece of art. It is, as far as I can tell, completely scripted, with no amount of skill or reactivity on the player's part able to change the inevitable outcome. And yet, I still found myself interested in the next part. What will the hero say on their next entrance? What more will I learn about the tragedy of power, the rot at the center of every Souls game? What new way will the hero learn to seemingly taunt me? (I may never know the same kind of frustration as me swinging my ludicrously large mace only for that little pixel fucker to be just out of reach.)
This game sounds like a shitpost (what is it like to experience Dark Souls from the boss' POV?), but it's so much more than that. It's a gorgeous little anti-game with stellar writing, and everyone should take 20 minutes out of their day to give it a try.
It is possible to 'win' in a sense. Stay in phase 1 enough times and never let him get to phase 2 and he gives up, leaving you to reign eternally alone.
It's possible, yes. I wrote that alternate ending scenario to cover for the likelihood that someone will figure out a cheese strat, so that player ingenuity could be accounted for in a way that still supports the main story. It ended up being found almost immediately after launch--I've watched enough speedrunners to see that one coming.
I found a cheesy method that works most of the time. Don't move away from the throne. Spam the magic circle when he is outside of melee range. Use a mace attack when the magic circle prevents him from safely getting away. This works because even though he could avoid the mace by groveling at your feet, he will never actively try to do that while you are at your throne. This means he will get hit by the magic circle or the mace depending on how fast he reacts. The reason it doesn't always work is that sometimes he'll move in such ways that the magic circle is created too close to you to allow him to consider closing the distance for a sword swing.
This is rather ironic because he talks about the glory of change and lost because he is too attached the the idea of slaying you with his sword.
I've literally just done this after triggering the second phae like three times. I've noticed late that after staying at the throne after maybe one or two deaths, the hero could literally deal no damage to me ^^'! At first i thought the lack of sword damage was because of the above, and that the bow damage was so small that i wasn't seeing it...
But after making an accidental dash, i realized i had truly become "Undying"! LOL
I so so so enjoyed this. The visuals were stunning and the emotion was perfect. I really felt for these two even in just a short time. I wanted more of them! Honestly, you should be so proud of this project! It's a really inspiring piece. I particularly loved the detail of the Queen being gentler with the Hero's body after defeat. The reaction I had when she picked the Hero up!! I can't give you enough praise, seriously, this game gave me exactly what I wanted from this concept. Thank you!
It's great, after finishing the game once it seems scripted towards one possible outcome with the illusion of choice but the battles are just an excuse for this inspiring short story... Also the visuals are mind blowingly good.
10/10 short game. I especially like the little nuances of the visuals in the burning animation as it progresses, depending on what dialogue you choose, whether you are more curious or stay stoic
Honestly one of my new favorite games. I just learned about it earlier today, and I've already played it like... four times. I may yet do it more. Despite it's simplicity, there's just so many different things to find!
I loved this. Fantastic experience. I almost feel I let the hero down, by not defeating him after he promised me One More Time.
I loved the variety in the dialogue options, and how it truly let me feel like I was making choices that mattered, even as the final outcome was inevitable, while at the same time letting the characters have clearly defined personalities. More RPGs should strive for that.
Not the creator, but it seems to have been made in Godot (according to logs when running the game from the terminal). Which only makes me appreciate it more.
If you're used to unity, give it a try. Some people find the change pleasant and Godot's way of doing things more intuitive. Also, well, it's free and open source.
I very much enjoyed this, it has gripped me by the throat and forced me to edit it piece by piece in my own way, it is beautiful and i love this game. I too know what it is to only have one legacy.. my poems and when I lost them I felt like I lost myself. A loss that still hurts me to this day.. As a thing that cannot move on. :)
The dialogue between the Queen and the Hero was really interesting! I don't know how to put it into words, but it's very human and both opponents appear as likeable people, even though one is the Evil Queen of Status Quo and the other is a merciless embodiment of Entropy. Their verbal spat is fun and very detailed in showing the slow process of Hero's progress.
The artstyle is drop-dead gorgeous, pixel artwork that is minimalist without being simplistic. The design of the Queen's claws and hammer, the Hero's shadowy profile that just screams "I am coming to kill you", the fantastic Gothic stained glass...
It really sucks that the Queen couldn't change her ways and befriend the Hero. But I feet that's a major point of the game. A existential tragedy you can see, but cannot avoid. Would be nice for someone to write a fanfic with a happy ending though :(
Thank you so much for making this game and good luck in your future endeavours! :D
The way I headcanon it myself is that what the Queen and the Hero did get to have was a fully realised relationship, weird as it was and not meant to last. They saw each other for who they truly were and were irrevocably changed by their time together--for the better, one could argue (when death is viewed metaphorically). Not exactly a classical happy ending, or even one that shouldn't be mourned, but not entirely unkind either.
Such a beautiful way to put it! If viewed metaphorically, it is not as tragic and, perhaps, a bit more hopeful! Because if the Queen just dies there, her change in understanding had little meaning in the grand scheme of things. But if this is to be taken as, perhaps, a shortly-lived relationship, like one would have in real life, then her change would impact both herself and the world even after the end of her and Hero's relationship! This is what one would call "cope", but your canon accounts for it ;)
Oh no unfortunately you've encountered one of the currently known bugs I haven't been able to reproduce and fix myself. The Hero sometimes goes invulnerable after being hit once in phase 2, when they really should be killed. Thank you for making this video--now that I can see how it happens, it will help me fix it for the next update!
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HERO PLS, ROMANCE ME-
Honestly...I wish the Queen could be redeemed. I got an ending where the hero said she had changed, and well:
I wish she could. I honestly wish we could get more of this, as it left me...happy, yet sad.
(Anyways can't wait for the fanart lol)
A fun experience that plays with meta narrative expectations of certain genres of video games. Gorgeous art, a fun 'boss' music theme and small flourishes round out the package. Highly recommend to play over your morning coffee or tea on a weekend. Bravo Mosu, thanks for making this!
i did note an interesting lil bug; after a while of attacking, i stopped and let the hero push me into second phase. i continued to not attack, and he ran away, which un-transformed me. doing this didn't fully reset the room's state though, as the candles were still lit in purple, rather than going back to orange, and stayed purple when the first phase of the next fight attempt began.
absolutely adored this, love playing through it and trying to see what all endings i could find and tearing myself apart over the dialogue between the two characters.
the last goal i had was to beat the hero after transforming once i got the "one more time" dialogue. but i wasn't able to hit them once in that state over several attempts, so i assume they effectively become invincible at that point, if not incredibly difficult to make contact. it's kind of fitting though; one with enough hope and determination can overcome despair, especially with a goal close in sight. alas, the hero has more of those than i do. ^^;
Managed to get defeat the hero ending after he got to the second phase. You just need to stop attacking him when in second phase and then he will go back. Then continue defeating him before second phase and it will give you the ending.
Found a infinite loop. Tried to do the defeat the hero before second phase and failed. Then in the next encounter stopped attacking him. Now hero is stuck telling me ı want to see you try and ı keep not attacking him and he just goes back saying he doesnt want it to end this way. And same dialogue repeats as long as ı dont attack. Infinitly stuck ending or a bug ? Edit: Nevermind somebody else already found and posted a comment, saw it just now.
I think I know what's happening there--the shift to second phase shift and the pacifist dialogue mess each other up. I'll fix that for the next patch, cheers!
how many endings does this game have ?
One "canon" ending (with four different last words to end on), plus two alterate endings to cover for players who do unexpected things.
Another ending is when you dont attack at all. Hero goes back a few times because of boredom then comes back and kills you.
I defeated the Hero in the one more time phase, and then it got stuck on the choice between "There is yet fight in me" or "What happened?". Also the queen does not make a different animation with the Hero's corpse anymore, only snaps fingers (and before that, she did). I think I'm stuck. The hero gains damage by moving towards me. I don't do anything, he dies by contact. Must be a bug.
Super weird bug, I'll have to see if I can fix it. So this happened after killing the Hero during the dialogue that ends in "one more time"?
Yes!
By the way I reseted the game and replayed it and beat it as normal. I really liked it, it's not only fun but beautiful. ♥
Absolutely amazing game for the short 20 min time, reminds me of the premise of slay the princess
This was wonderfully well done, short and sweet with very good dialogue.
This 20-minute, single-room anti-game is maybe the best and most succinct encapsulation of the gameplay, appeal, and themes of the soulslike game genre. You play as the eponymous Dark Queen of Mortholme, reveling in the destruction of an upstart hero come to slay you and end your reign of terror. End their life by swinging a big fuckass mace, charging forward in blue flames, and/or summoning a pillar of purple energy (the evilest kind of energy) beneath their feet. But over time, the hero learns. And adapts. And gets better at dodging your attacks.
Then the dialogue begins. There's a whole world out there, beyond your throne room, and they get to experience it and grow and change. But you don't. You only have access to the same old stuff, the same old tricks. I would never call the Dark Queen an old dog, but, well...you know how the saying goes.
Anti-game is the perfect descriptor for this piece of art. It is, as far as I can tell, completely scripted, with no amount of skill or reactivity on the player's part able to change the inevitable outcome. And yet, I still found myself interested in the next part. What will the hero say on their next entrance? What more will I learn about the tragedy of power, the rot at the center of every Souls game? What new way will the hero learn to seemingly taunt me? (I may never know the same kind of frustration as me swinging my ludicrously large mace only for that little pixel fucker to be just out of reach.)
This game sounds like a shitpost (what is it like to experience Dark Souls from the boss' POV?), but it's so much more than that. It's a gorgeous little anti-game with stellar writing, and everyone should take 20 minutes out of their day to give it a try.
It is possible to 'win' in a sense. Stay in phase 1 enough times and never let him get to phase 2 and he gives up, leaving you to reign eternally alone.
How? The hero is almost unkillable past a certain point and dodges all attacks. Is there a way to cheese the fight?
It's possible, yes. I wrote that alternate ending scenario to cover for the likelihood that someone will figure out a cheese strat, so that player ingenuity could be accounted for in a way that still supports the main story. It ended up being found almost immediately after launch--I've watched enough speedrunners to see that one coming.
Oh and great writeup by the way! I enjoyed reading it
I found a cheesy method that works most of the time. Don't move away from the throne. Spam the magic circle when he is outside of melee range. Use a mace attack when the magic circle prevents him from safely getting away. This works because even though he could avoid the mace by groveling at your feet, he will never actively try to do that while you are at your throne. This means he will get hit by the magic circle or the mace depending on how fast he reacts. The reason it doesn't always work is that sometimes he'll move in such ways that the magic circle is created too close to you to allow him to consider closing the distance for a sword swing.
This is rather ironic because he talks about the glory of change and lost because he is too attached the the idea of slaying you with his sword.
I've literally just done this after triggering the second phae like three times.
I've noticed late that after staying at the throne after maybe one or two deaths, the hero could literally deal no damage to me ^^'!
At first i thought the lack of sword damage was because of the above, and that the bow damage was so small that i wasn't seeing it...
But after making an accidental dash, i realized i had truly become "Undying"! LOL
Thank you so much for your work, I'm truly amaze. I hope we can see more of the queen in the future.
Android please!
yuri in my darksouls game? yes please
This was honestly beautiful to play through. Anyone reading this--I really recommend just diving in and playing through it blind.
Baller game
Honestly I really enjoyed this! now I wanna find similar games tbh
also, THIS GAME IS SUCH HIGH QUALITY OM LEGIT IS BEAUTIFUL
I so so so enjoyed this. The visuals were stunning and the emotion was perfect. I really felt for these two even in just a short time. I wanted more of them! Honestly, you should be so proud of this project! It's a really inspiring piece. I particularly loved the detail of the Queen being gentler with the Hero's body after defeat. The reaction I had when she picked the Hero up!! I can't give you enough praise, seriously, this game gave me exactly what I wanted from this concept. Thank you!
I was *exactly* high enough for his
It's great, after finishing the game once it seems scripted towards one possible outcome with the illusion of choice but the battles are just an excuse for this inspiring short story... Also the visuals are mind blowingly good.
wait why did she say that 😭😭
Is this real? If so how to get it
Super well polished! The animation on the queen is really impressive.
Is this made with the godot_dialogue_manager addon?
Yes! It's a good one
I blindly tried this game, and it's absolutely fun!!!
This is my new Roman Empire.
10/10 short game. I especially like the little nuances of the visuals in the burning animation as it progresses, depending on what dialogue you choose, whether you are more curious or stay stoic
Honestly one of my new favorite games. I just learned about it earlier today, and I've already played it like... four times. I may yet do it more. Despite it's simplicity, there's just so many different things to find!
This was a really fun experience, thanks for making and sharing all of this.
I'll have to consider hunting down a video later showing some of the alt scenarios, as I followed a pretty typical neutral path I feel.
This was wonderful! A great concept, with rad art, fantastic dialogue, and music all to make it hit home!
I loved this. Fantastic experience. I almost feel I let the hero down, by not defeating him after he promised me One More Time.
I loved the variety in the dialogue options, and how it truly let me feel like I was making choices that mattered, even as the final outcome was inevitable, while at the same time letting the characters have clearly defined personalities. More RPGs should strive for that.
an amazing game! i would gladly recommend this to any and all of my friends :) i loved it so much, i hope you continue to make more cool things!!
okay! managed to beat the hero using cheese strats! the dark queen reigns forever!
How did you do that?
so, i got to the dialogue where the queen says "one more time". but died there.
i have to ask is it possible to survive that one? because it seems nearly impossible to.
I I expected it to end well but it was still good.I was wondering which game engine did you use?
Not the creator, but it seems to have been made in Godot (according to logs when running the game from the terminal). Which only makes me appreciate it more.
Godot is the best
Oh PFP is outdated here oop
I haven't used Godot so I can't say it's the best.
This is something I wouldn't know since I don't use Godot, thanks :)
If you're used to unity, give it a try. Some people find the change pleasant and Godot's way of doing things more intuitive. Also, well, it's free and open source.
I very much enjoyed this, it has gripped me by the throat and forced me to edit it piece by piece in my own way, it is beautiful and i love this game. I too know what it is to only have one legacy.. my poems and when I lost them I felt like I lost myself. A loss that still hurts me to this day.. As a thing that cannot move on. :)
How can a game of 20 mins make me feel a sadness void in my chest? Amazing, dude. 10/10
Amazing game!
The dialogue between the Queen and the Hero was really interesting! I don't know how to put it into words, but it's very human and both opponents appear as likeable people, even though one is the Evil Queen of Status Quo and the other is a merciless embodiment of Entropy. Their verbal spat is fun and very detailed in showing the slow process of Hero's progress.
The artstyle is drop-dead gorgeous, pixel artwork that is minimalist without being simplistic. The design of the Queen's claws and hammer, the Hero's shadowy profile that just screams "I am coming to kill you", the fantastic Gothic stained glass...
It really sucks that the Queen couldn't change her ways and befriend the Hero. But I feet that's a major point of the game. A existential tragedy you can see, but cannot avoid. Would be nice for someone to write a fanfic with a happy ending though :(
Thank you so much for making this game and good luck in your future endeavours! :D
Thank you for the very thoughtful comment!
The way I headcanon it myself is that what the Queen and the Hero did get to have was a fully realised relationship, weird as it was and not meant to last. They saw each other for who they truly were and were irrevocably changed by their time together--for the better, one could argue (when death is viewed metaphorically). Not exactly a classical happy ending, or even one that shouldn't be mourned, but not entirely unkind either.
Such a beautiful way to put it! If viewed metaphorically, it is not as tragic and, perhaps, a bit more hopeful! Because if the Queen just dies there, her change in understanding had little meaning in the grand scheme of things. But if this is to be taken as, perhaps, a shortly-lived relationship, like one would have in real life, then her change would impact both herself and the world even after the end of her and Hero's relationship! This is what one would call "cope", but your canon accounts for it ;)
Really nice game! Loved the story but I swear the hero's cheating bro there's no way he didn't die
Oh no unfortunately you've encountered one of the currently known bugs I haven't been able to reproduce and fix myself. The Hero sometimes goes invulnerable after being hit once in phase 2, when they really should be killed. Thank you for making this video--now that I can see how it happens, it will help me fix it for the next update!
It has been fixed now, so thank you again!