Game:

Legend of Fae (2011)

Duration: 7:19

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Legend of Fae is an independent "Puzzle/RPG/Adventure" game created with the popular "Game Maker" IDE (Integrated Development Environment), presented by Endless Fluff, a new team who has also worked on Nimbus Sky Princess and Valdis Story. It is their first "completed" project as well as their first commercial release and one of the most ambitious titles currently created with the GM engine. The game is being distributed by Plimus and can currently be downloaded for $14.99 (Now seems to be $9.99). You can also get a tangible CD version for an additional $11.90 (not sure if you can still get this), but as someone who has purchased both, I honestly see no point to get the CD as it is terribly plain from a collectors standpoint and offers an older version of the game.exe which can't accept the same registration code as the download version. However, feel free to purchase the download ver. (or CD) at:

https://www.plimus.com/jsp/buynow.jsp?contractId=2933858

You can also learn more about the game or download a one hour demo at:

http://www.endlessfluff.com/lof_info.html

The game tells the story of Claudia Bernard, the first born of a young farming couple who could not afford to take care of her or cure her debilitating, life-threatening disease which impaired her right leg, so she is sent to live with her Uncle at a young age on Sea Cross Island, who raises her as if she was his own daughter. As a professor of engineering at his academy, Uncle Monte was priviliged and wise, and he saw potential in his niece. As they lived together, he trained her in the ways of mechanical craftsmanship and the two lived happily. One day, her uncle strangely vanishes with little notice, merely leaving a letter advising her to take some money, a magical lantern, and to leave Sea Cross Island, but Claudia loves her uncle too much and decides to go searching for him to find answers, which is the start of her adventure as she meets four elementals and goes on a quest to defeat Fae creatures who have mysteriously appeared to cause chaos while learning about the Faery Gates.

The game has a simple story to follow and while the game is a basic "Match 3" puzzler at its core, the way the game is designed and the way events transpire sets it apart from almost any other puzzler; one of the closest series comparable to it would be "Puzzle Quest", though Henry Hatsworth is presented in a similar fashion. The game follows Claudia's travels via a small navigation area near the top of the screen, where she walks and interacts with characters in a beautifully drawn world. You don't have direct control of Claudia as she always has a set destination or specific task to complete on the screen, which are broken up into 50+ stages, but she can be moved by matching movement gems. There are a variety of other gems as well, such as elemental gems and mind gems, and these gems can be gathered and used in different ways as you progress, turning what was once simple puzzle matching into a rather deep and enriching experience that also proves to be occasionally challenging.

If all you did was walk and match gems, the game wouldn't be too interesting, but this game goes above and beyond to provide an original experience, as you must also keep Claudia healthy, evade or cure status ailments, and fight enemies in semi-realtime battles (which can be seen on the map via skulls). When in a battle, you must balance your actions between matching gems and going to the "Action Scene" to select enemies as well as the elementals you wish to attack with, and your abilities can grow as you complete stages and collect gears. You can can even combine elementals to create combo spells, spell weave, and balance your actions to formulate strategies (such as well-placed Earth attacks for barriers), gain greater stage bonuses, etc. The soundtrack is appropriate and characters have simple voices, though the music sounds significantly compressed.

The game is rather unique and combines various genres in a way that hasn't really been done before, but still manages to be surprisingly solid and addicting. Combine that with Endless Fluff's distinct artistic style and ability to almost effortlessly combine various gameplay mechanics, and you have an indie team that folks should definitely keep a close eye on. You should really try the demo first, as there are numerous problems with how the game runs on computers (currently being fixed). I couldn't capture footage on my latest comp despite it greatly exceeding the game's low specs, so I had to use an older computer to capture at about half the framerate (~20 versus ~45). The samples go from the beginning to the first boss. Enjoy.