On a dark room, only lit by the light of a computer displaying the end-credits of a game. I sat there, in front of my computer
"still no true ending in sight" *sigh* yet again, another failed attempt.
Having seen that credit sequence multiple times, I skipped it, only to be met by the title screen of the game i just finished playing.
[Dragon's Roar], a strategy, turn based RPG, dungeon crawler, with a focus on it's big cast of recruitable characters and the dread of perma-death whenever a character's hp dropped to zero. When it came out, it was regarded as a god-like game with an amazing soundtrack, beautiful pixel-art animation, a huge cast of characters, multiple choices and ways to play the game, a story that is... okay, and an impressive quantity of forty-two different endings, some bad, some good, and one true ending that, even years after the game's release, has yet to be achieved.
However, even with everything the game had to offer. It ended up fading into obscurity a year after it's release. So, the only people left in the community are those who try to achieve that seemingly impossible forty-second ending, and those who stay in the back, waiting for someone to achieve it.
Due to my lack of a second monitor, I minimize the game to look at a forum for this game.
"I've already tried most of these strategies" I kept scrolling and scrolling, finding nothing new to try.
"On the second in-game week, do an early visit to the 4th main dungeon, this could trigger an early confrontation with the [Dark Eclipse] allowing you to have a chance for the earliest time to recruit Julius..." I already knew what the comments were gonna look like...
I decided read them anyways.
User27374: [Dark Eclipse] isn't a thing until month eight of year one r******
User28348: the earliest you can recruit Julius is at the start of month one, on the second year. Why don't you k*ll yourself instead of making us waste our time
"I expected worse..." surprised at the self control displayed by the comunity, I decided to minimize my search engine and maximize the game to start an improvised run.
"I'll just... make up things up on the go, maybe if I..." suddenly, I felt extremely dizzy "I... wanna throw up" everything feels like it's spinning, and that light... that light coming from my computer, showing me that title screen, is really bothering me.
"Maybe... if I... close my eyes and..."
...
...
No matter how many times I blink, it doesn't change.
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a wooden ceiling I had never seen before.
I also felt weird, as if was a bit younger. But it all made sense after looking at myself in a mirror.
"... No way..." this is a face I recognize all too well.
Alen, one of the worst characters in [Dragon's Roar] . If I made a tier list and ranked every possible character you can recruit, I'd create a tier below F called [The Worst Three] and put Alen next to two other characters.
He's... or I am... whatever, the case is that this character belongs to the thief class, that's already bad enough as thieves aren't a particularly useful class in this game. But he also joins in the mid-game at the earliest with below average stats, so you most definetely already have at least two other thieves that do his job much better and didn't have to babysit, as those two other thieves are stronger than Alen.
"ALEN... WE'RE ALL ALREADY EATIN', COME DOWN" I heard the voice of a woman, probably my mother, and I felt my stomach growl, so I prepared myself for everything that's to come, and headed downstairs.
"..."
"What's wrong Alen, not 'ungry?" said a tall, muscular man with a scar on his face.
"Maybe he's still full... we did eat a lot last night" said a different man, a bit more slender, with short blonde hair.
"You know he doesn't like it when we reheat last night's food" said a young looking woman, with short purple hair that wasn't eating but rather, tuning a bow.
"He didn't eat anything last night, he said he wasn't feeling well" said an old man reading a book.
"Feelin' better then?" Said a woman with long ashen hair as she was still munching her food. She is the one who called me down here but she definetely isn't my mom.
"... n-no, it's... it's nothing. I'm still a bit... sleepy" what are they doing here? or rather, what am I doing here with them?
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