ABANDONED: Reflection of a Fallen Feather

I want to like this game.

As you can guess from the fact that this is an ABANDONED entry, I tried playing it and it didn't work out. I suppose this is where I should rail against some Heinous Bullshit, or perhaps even say that I wanted (past tense) to like this game buuuut there was just all that Heinous Bullshit.

But no. I still do want to like this game. I still love what it was trying to do. I write this after slinking away in defeat after bouncing off how it actually turned out, and I feel kind of bad about that. But it still appeals at its core, even now.

Reflection of a Fallen Feather is a freeware indie RPG that was this studio's first of so far two releases, with Mixed reviews, and everything you would expect from that. It is incredibly rough around the edges. It is punishing and unforgiving. It is primitive. Except no, wait, no it's not. Underneath all the crudeness, ForepawSoft (yes, I did get this game because the studio name + "be the monsters" aesthetic made me suspicious) designed a ridiculous yet brilliant system for an RPG that rethinks a lot of How RPGs Even Work rules you take for granted, tosses out a lot of them, and replaces them with something that straddles the line between why-don't-more-games-do-this genius and how-do-you-even-play-this madness.

Reflection of a Fallen Feather is Akitoshi Kawazu's Hello World.

In the 45 minutes or so I spent in the very first area of this game, I discovered:

• You are a party of three lost imprisoned souls wandering through Hell or... something. I didn't get farther plotwise than the title screen, but what I saw so far reads like Atomos's QBasic games: pure angels, demons, and Final Fantasy teen phase edge.
  
• Two of your party are up front and participating in the battle but either of them can tag in the third at any time, sort of like Breath of Fire IV. This is the first taste of "Wow, that's kind of a complex touch for a game like this." It is not the last.
  
• No random encounters; instead enemies are stationary overworld sprites that block your way a la Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. I like this.
  
• The party's HP/status is fully recovered after every fight. Even if you lose; a wipe just means returning to where you were standing at full health with the obstacle still there for you to try again, sort of like Princess Remedy. I like this too.
  
• Their MP isn't restored because there is no MP in this game. Instead, you have a list of moves with turn cooldowns. You can spam your basic attack every round, but your bigger attacks might not come back for another three or four rounds. This does not reset between battles. I... think I like this? It does provide that critical balance for why not just spam your biggest nukes every round if you get a full restore anyway.
  
• Put together, this means that this game subverts the traditional RPG feel of dungeons being an endurance marathon. You can wander around freely and not get worn down with random encounters, or with any encounters because any fight you enter may as well be your first. Also gone is the sense of mashing Fight because you need to conserve your resources. Instead, the challenge comes from the difficulty of the fights themselves (every enemy may as well be a boss) with a need to strategize and employ the right combination of moves in the right rounds to carry you through this battle and still be available at the start of the next. I really like this, in theory. (In practice I'm not sure I'm any good at it--see below.)
  
• Oh, no Experience Points, either. Instead, you get one BP per enemy, and every 7 BP you get the chance to transform any one of your party members into the last enemy you just beat. This is the meat of this system, and clearly the entire point of this game. Different monsters have different stats, as you might expect. The cat furries are quick but physically weak, ogres are big and slow, etc. Whenever you transform, you can also port two of your current moves over to the new monster; if you really like that 3Heads move that your starting Cerberus comes with, keep it.
  
• Not only does the move pool make for a uniquely customized party, but each move comes with stat bonuses and penalties, too. Like that 3Heads move? Keep it and enjoy the +2 Strength and +3 Agility that having it will add to your newly transformed monster, but do be careful about suddenly being 25% weak to fire.

In theory, this game should be revolutionary, and one of my favorite RPG experiences ever. There are some goddamn ideas here, and they managed to completely shake up the dungeon slog experience in ways I really appreciate. The problem is that it's a bit too much, and I don't think I can keep up. You need to learn the game's language to keep up with what all these customization options even mean. You need to be very careful, thorough, and knowledgable in minmaxing your team to get through. There's no apparent grinding or leveling to speak of, since all you get from battles is BP, and those stat modifications from inheriting post-transformation moves don't stack. I transformed my main character twice and I swear he ended up weaker than when I first started the game just because I have no idea what I'm doing. There are monsters that seem just about impossible to beat until I get stronger, but I have no idea what "getting stronger" means under this system.

After 45 minutes of not getting past the first screen, I reluctantly decided I'm not cut out for this. I like where this is going, and if I had more hours in the day, I might spend a few dozen of them learning how to play Reflection of a Fallen Feather. If it sounds interesting to any of you, I still recommend that you try it out. If you do so and you like it, your infectious enthusiasm may even get me to give it another chance myself. But for now? I just do not have 50 hours to spend learning what will probably end up being a 3-hour indie RPG by the time you know it. I have other games.

But man. Good try, though.