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[Tumetsu]

I just played this couple days ago and thought to say it is really awesome. It introduced some nice music for me too

[TwilightVulpine]

This game is actually quite interesting, but wildly overrated...

[randomshade]

Played it, liked it! Echoing earlier mentions, the map exits are often very very hard for my poor vision to make out.

I downloaded the other 2 RPGMaker games you mentioned as inspiration and will give those a go as well.

Question: Is there a config file I can change to make these games run in windowed mode?

[Quicksand-T]

This game is actually quite interesting, but wildly overrated...

I disagree. There is no other game like this, its a breath of fresh air.

[ink.inc]

This game is actually quite interesting, but wildly overrated...

I agree with you. The music is good and all, but the game was not particularly exceptional. I wouldn't have touched it had it not been for the recommendations from this site.

There's a couple of issues that stood out to me, namely confusing level design. It's often unclear where the exit to a given stage is; you're put in a wide open space and the borders of the room don't have any walls, so a lot of the time, I ended up checking every border space that was open, and then one seemingly arbitrarily placed tile would bring me to the next room.

I guess I just didn't 'get' it.

[wilbefast]

Oh, certainly as a game there are a lot of things wrong with it, and it doesn't tread any new ground whatsoever gameplay wise. But few indie games succeed in telling a story and having characters you care about. Few games at all for that matter.

I guess it's admirable because it "ties the knot" in a sense: it feels like a finished experience rather than just a bunch of level built around an interesting gimmick. And there's the fact that it's really bizarre... 

[Dustin Smith]

nah, this game deserves every cracked-out game-pro head it got. as a critique on the jrpg genre it's pretty awesome, the graphics be bitching, and the writing was great.

[Igor Hardy]

Would anyone be interested in a new (first ever?) interview with thecatamites themselves?

Conducted by myself.

And of course plenty of Space Funeral in it.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

nah, this game deserves every cracked-out game-pro head it got. as a critique on the jrpg genre it's pretty awesome, the graphics be bitching, and the writing was great.

(not how i'd the game, this just happens to be the only image of the gamepro rating system that i could find)

[Quicksand-T]

Would anyone be interested in a new (first ever?) interview with thecatamites themselves?

Conducted by myself.

And of course plenty of Space Funeral in it.

Great interview, thanks for posting this.

[mcc]

Would anyone be interested in a new (first ever?) interview with thecatamites themselves?

Conducted by myself.

And of course plenty of Space Funeral in it.

This is a really awesome interview! :D I was interested by the parts where he said that several scenes were designed around the songs he used in them. This makes a lot of sense in retrospect.

This also stuck out to me:

3. Many gamers consider Space Funeral one of the best indie games of 2010. It was even picked in the “Top Indies of 2010″ list on Gamasutra. How do you feel about that, and does this fame affect your future game-making plans in any way?

It’s really insane and also kind of funny that this crude MSPaint RPG Maker game that was thrown together in something like a month got so much attention! I’m still not sure what it means other than that people are still kind of starved for RPGs that aren’t about plucky farmboys fighting to save their generic fantasy worlds from evil empires and so on...

I would like to tell a story.

Yesterday I started playing a game called "Nier". Everyone had told me that if one is tired of every video game feeling the same, that this was a good game to play.

So I start the game, and I find myself in what appears to be a destroyed Tokyo, with snow falling on abandoned buildings, in what the intro text assures me is "Summer 2049". A man in a ragged hoodie is taking shelter in a wrecked convenience store with his sick daughter and an evil book. He hopes to keep his daughter safe, but waves of shimmering fog-monsters keep materializing from the air and converging on the little convenience store. A voice whispers to the man from the book, saying give me your soul, give me your soul and I will let you have my power, to keep her safe. And as the waves of monsters begin to overwhelm him, he finally accepts.

And I'm going, fuck yes. Interesting things are happening in an interesting setting! This is what I want out of a video game!

Then the scene ends, and the game skips forward about 1500 years. And suddenly I'm in some sort of agrarian, generically medieval society set amongst intermittent ruins of the long-dead world that once was, and my character is being told that the villagers need mutton from the northeast plains. I'm supposed to walk to the northeast plains, kill sheep and bring back mutton. A box on the pause screen informs me I have gathered "(0/3) mutton".

And I'm like, noooooooo

[TwilightVulpine]

I think that might be it. The unusual setting must be the reason for it being so acclaimed. Since I'm an Mother/Earthbound fan (as well as suda51 fan and, in general, like weirdness), strange settings don't surprise me as much.

Space Funeral is not even that different from most RPGs, not only in battle, which is standard RPGMaker stuff,  but in story progression. All the difference is in the flavour text, graphics and sound, but the structure is pretty much the same and there is not a lot storywise. Like I said, I don't take away the merit of the things Space Funeral does right, it is a good game, particularly interesting in the way it gets very meta. Still, I wouldn't say it is one of the best games of 2010.

[deathtotheweird]

@mcc

That's a horrible and depressing story. 

[mcc]

@mcc

That's a horrible and depressing story. 

You mean because of the soul-consuming demon book or because the game turned into FF12

[kidchameleon]

I'm really enjoying Space Funeral. The characters are interesting, the story is drip fed to the player and the music is perfectly suited. It would be improved by having the exits of areas clearly marked. Also, sometimes the main character blends into the background, making control a little difficult sometimes. But its a great indie RPG all the same.

[googoogjoob]

I think that might be it. The unusual setting must be the reason for it being so acclaimed. Since I'm an Mother/Earthbound fan (as well as suda51 fan and, in general, like weirdness), strange settings don't surprise me as much.

Space Funeral is not even that different from most RPGs, not only in battle, which is standard RPGMaker stuff,  but in story progression. All the difference is in the flavour text, graphics and sound, but the structure is pretty much the same and there is not a lot storywise. Like I said, I don't take away the merit of the things Space Funeral does right, it is a good game, particularly interesting in the way it gets very meta. Still, I wouldn't say it is one of the best games of 2010.

u mad

[Igor Hardy]

What I think makes Space Funeral so special is that it successfully attaches a different, more disturbing and abstract meaning to the standard jRPGs mechanics, reinventing the whole experience in the process.

Of course a lot of it is simply brilliant satire of the genre - it amusingly showcases the recurring stereotypes and cliches and the lack of player influence on events in these kind of games. It even has a go at the commonly encountered strange English dialog translations and tries to find a meaning to them as well.

btw I remind of the interview with thecatamites and I'll be grateful for some spreading around. It might have a wider appeal than just for our regular dedicated indie adventure games website's audience.

[wilbefast]

Nice one Igor Yeah, I remember playing my first JRPG (FF7) and having a great time, but once you've played one they're all pretty much the same. It's like fantasy really: a friend of mine kept offering to lend me books, but I've taken to discarding anything that begins with a boy living on a farm and dreaming of becoming a hero. It's not that fantasy fiction is bad per se, it's just that it's terribly repetitive...

[Hangedman]

I honestly can't explain why I love this so much.

So, I won't worry about it!

[Tumetsu]

Nice one Igor Yeah, I remember playing my first JRPG (FF7) and having a great time, but once you've played one they're all pretty much the same. It's like fantasy really: a friend of mine kept offering to lend me books, but I've taken to discarding anything that begins with a boy living on a farm and dreaming of becoming a hero. It's not that fantasy fiction is bad per se, it's just that it's terribly repetitive...

You have read wrong books. Same goes with jrpgs.