Wine and Roses

[jackvambrace]

Wine and Roses is and RPG Maker game published in late 2012. You play as a trio of exorcists under the employ of Luc Francisco, Lord of Fort Adder. The fort has been taken by monsters and spirits and such, cursing everything and everyone in it and leaving Lord Francisco a skeleton.

The game presents as a typical top down jrpg, with some uniqueness. There are no random encounters, instead each enemy you can fight is visible on the map, allowing you to choose when and what you fight. When you win a fight it disappears forever. and you are gifted upgrades, loot, skills, and story tidbits. It feels kinda like Megaman, you fight a boss and get a new weapon or power and most of the time another enemy is weak to your new equipment.

During the fights you control the three exorcists, Carmanth, Argent, and Nynavae. Luc is incapable of fighting in his skeletal form, so he instead offers advice and color commentary on the fight as it progresses. This is used as a gameplay mechanic to kinda help you figure out what to do against some of the tougher enemies, but it is also used a storytelling element. Luc is usually not being a smarmy jerk he sometimes offers insight into his past and personality, I really liked this part of the game.

The maps are laid out so that you can pretty much go everywhere at the outset, it reminds me a little of Demon Souls. Some fights are definitely easier at the start (I think the ice sector was way harder than the rest) but you can try whatever you like. If you lose a fight it just boots you back to the map where you were, so there's no real penalty for losing. This may be the most forgiving and inviting RPG I've ever played.

At the end of it all Wine and Roses was fun to play. On top of that, it was funny, emotional, and challenging without being off-putting. Only real complaint is that it's short, maybe four hours, although there is a fair bit of replay if you like toying around with the exorcists loadouts. I recommend this to anyone who likes rpg's or silly skeletons with dressed like red mages.

Comments

[moon_hotel]

This sounds incredible, thanks so much! I love seeing RPG Maker games that depart from the random-battle-with-invisible-enemies formula, and this really sounds perfect for me! I'm definitely going to give this one a try :^) Is there a link to someplace I can get it?

[jackvambrace]

Here you go, download link is at the top right, near the stars.

[chocomarsh]

This looks like exactly my type (and duration!) of JRPG! Definitely looking at this one tonight.

[chocomarsh]

i'm maybe 30 minutes in now; havent lost a fight yet but gosh i'm really bad at RPGs. Good thing this one is so forgiving.

Your writeup made for a really nice entry point; I think if I had just stumbled onto this with no context I wouldn't have given it more than a couple minutes

[jackvambrace]

Awesome! Glad I could share something new with someone!

[chocomarsh]

OK i beat the statue in the throne room! But every time I venture into the other areas the fights get really nasty... I keep thinking it's too hard for me, but then I make more progress.

are all equipment specific to one character, and all spells freely transferable between all three?

[jackvambrace]

Equipment is character specific, spells can go to anyone. You get stat boosts from spells too, so it might be useful to equip some of them just for stats. You can take moves in any order, and if you don't use all your action points they roll over to the next turn. If you get stuck on something try exploring elsewhere. I think there are a few upgrades you get without having to fight a battle somewhere, they might help.

[chocomarsh]

I'm enjoying this.

[chocomarsh]

I finally finished this! The final fight was really tough; it wound up being a tricky balance between keeping heavy statuses on her, not letting her power up, and managing the other beings that materialized.

[jackvambrace]

If you finish that fight before you do some of the other fights, the dialog during those fights changes.