The Grindstone Reviews

I really need a "Not sure" option for this one! As ever, I love Shane's characters and the game play is interesting - but I find I don't like having a clear end objective, so this one doesn't make my favourites list. there are loads of sidequests to do - but it's all about sidequests. I did actually play for 30 hours, so it's certainly not a bad game - just not my cup of tea :)

So retro rpg, little to no story, wide array of classes that have different foci and synergies. Make a party of four travel and level up. Its fun and relaxing to play I strongly recommend it as long as you aren't expecting it to be something other that what it is. Side note I found the crafting/gathering aspect of the game mildly tedious.

It´s a nice game. Good character progression and rewarding loot. You create a party of 4 from a solid selection of classes and move out into the world. Dungeon crawler style of gameplay with side quests that reward you with more loot and means of progressing the game world.

This game was developed by a class act creator of a long line of wonderful rpgs. It has all the elements an rpg'er loves. There are many hours of gameplay and the replay value is very high with the character creation and party combos possible. You cannot go wrong buying this game, you will love it!

Once again, Wolfs Moon Studios puts out a banger of a turn-based RPG game. If you are new to this developer, all of their games are short on dialogue and huge on battles. Think old school Final Fantasy with some new twists. There are a few things that set Wolfs Moon apart from other RPG Maker games. 1) The amount of gear available is tremendous. It always feels like a treasure hunt looking for better gear. 2) The bosses are hard! Too many RPG Maker games set the difficulty way too easy. Not so with this game. Heck, even the standard monsters can be difficult if strategy isn't applied. 3) Lots of unique music. The heavy metal riffs while battling a tough boss are a nice touch. I do have some cons to list: 1) There isn't an "end" to the game. I prefer to have a final boss and closure with credits rolling at the end. But this didn't have that, it's more of an infinite level up type of game. 2) There is a huge gap of leveling-up required for competing in the two hardest areas of the game. I had to grind for 10-15 hours to get leveled up enough fight in the last 2 areas. There should have been new monsters/gear/areas to explore to keep it fresh. I spent hours running around in circles just trying to level up. 3) Late in the game, one of the monsters sent us on a treasure hunt. I'd go and collect the things he wanted, but then he'd ask for more! But he wouldn't tell me how many more he needed! This caused 2 or 3 very long and monotonous backtracks. It would have been a lot better if he said "I need XX of this item" 4) Mining and fishing are painfully slow. On future games, I suggest making them instant. They took so long that I didn't even bother leveling them up. Conclusion: This is good game, however, I suggest buying this developers other games first. The other games have more of a story and a final boss, so they have a "I finished the game" feel to them. After you beat the other Wolfs Moon games, then come back to this so you can complete the collection.

[h1] Patricks 3|3 [/h1] Build a Party of 4 and start questing. Travel over a world map and through dungeons. Do quest, get good equipment and finish the game? I did not finish the game because i do not think there is anything more to do. [b]What I like:[/b] 1. You choose your party out of different classes with their own skills. 2. (relatively) free to Roam around. You will find out which region you can explore because the enemies will not kill you in 1 turn. 3. You have to grind and farm materials. And there is a lot to find and to craft. grinding also helps finding the materials for quests. Quests give the best equipment. [b] I do not like[/b] 1. No choices to build/improve your own character. It starts with no gender choices, useless Veteran experience, and the skill level up does not do anything (i am serious, i have skills over lvl 20, just use a new skill there are stronger). Veteran experience would be a good chance to give classes access to different equipment or skills. VE is just useless. 2. Walking speed in dungeons. I know that this is a design choice and i am fine with it most of the time but in this game you have to backtrack to finish quests. Here are some ideas: At the entrance of a dungeon you have the option to move through the region. Give an item to warp. give an item to move faster, there are a lot of ideas and a lot of games give you an option. This game just understands to annoy me. 3. No story. I mostly stopped playing because of this. After lvl 30 and the knowledge, that VE is useless. I did find out that there is nothing more to this game.

first off this game has no story line - it is purely a grind game levelling up each character in chosen team - that being said it is a great game, First of all the player gets to choose the team he/she wants from humans, amzars, dark elf, elf or monsters. each of these have warriors ( monster class has 3 to choose from) wizards , clerics, from first 4 groups, rogues from humans, elf and monsters. rangers and bards from human and elf. monks from human and monsters. enchanters from humans and amzar, shadow knight and necromcer- dark elf. and chieftan from monsters so picking a great team can become quite hard as you get a team of 4 choosing 1 from each group- As expected from this dev - the graphics, soundtracks and overall experience is very good. if having played other dev's games ( angel made, barry of wrath etc) this game will have a familiar feel as most of the background is the same and the usual fishing, crafting , mining etc is included. as well as quests . Quests make up most of the game and need to be done to enable to get better weapons and armor. What i do not like is the long trek back to previous towns until you get a boat but even then the player must only use certain docks to get to towns so you need to remember which docks to use. AS usual the final areas are very hard and this is where the grinding up levels comes in handy. Hate those dragons - lol-. Did enjoy the challenges though but must admit much prefer the other games with a story line but if a grind game is your thing this is your game - enjoy!!

Grinding, min/maxing with your character selection. Restarting after 20 hours because you didn't like your choices, more grinding, but faster this time because you already did it once. Satisfaction when you start completely annihilating enemies. Progress to next area, uh oh fights are harder now, more grinding. Realizing you can completely max all your stats to 999, infinitely more grinding. Replaying the game multiple times to try out all the classes. "Players can expect over 30 hours of gameplay" uhhh *looks at 70 hours* yep big emphasis on the "over" in that sentence. Honestly, could see some people playing this for hundreds of hours. You won't really run out of stuff to do. This game has the "good" kind of grind, and for those that do like grinding you will know what I am talking about there. More than that, it has great potential to strategize, and really care about your character & equipment selection. Oh, and did I mention that there's a crafting system that wasn't just tossed in as an afterthought? Fishing & mining are great for a bit of a distraction if you get a little burnt out from all the grinding, and are worth doing too! Have a question about the game? Go in the forums and ask! The dev is very active there. Every single question (even the dumb ones) that I have asked there has been answered within 24 hours by the dev. He cares about the game (and actually likes it and plays it himself). He wants to hear about your experience, and share his. This is what makes me prefer these independently developed games over the large studios. Is the game worth full price? Absolutely. If these types of games are what you're into, then I can easily see you getting 3x hours per dollar on this one. I already did, and I'm still playing, so definitely got my money's worth.

Grindstone is the gift that keeps on giving. If you are a fan of just hacking and slashing the hours away of your probably meaningless life, then create your party of four and go through the door. Are there a plethora of quests to keep you busy for hours on end? Yes! Is there virtually unlimited ways to play this game over and over and over and over? Yes! All of the great crafting that you expect from Wolfs Moon Studio? Of course! Are there twists and turns? Always! Like the horrific Daniel character is at the beginning and I was about to turn off the game and waste my money spent, but then you learn you can't play him basically because Daniel is a worthless character. Surprise! Loved it! I am not sure there is even an end to it... It just keeps going and going! Thanks Wolfs Moon Studio for another fabulous game to spend my life away on.

As I wrote in a review about another of this developer's games ("Angel Made"), there's one thing this developer regularly nails, and that's creating a fun experience of getting stronger by utilizing a variety of enemies and amazing loot. Writing gripping stories and dialogues isn't this developer's forte (though he noticeably improved, as shown by his games "Angel Made" and "Seventh Star"), so consequently, this game does without an overarching plot. It's practically "Side quest - the game", and it's fun for what it sets out to achieve. You start your playthrough by choosing 4 classes for your 4 party members, and then it's up to you to discover the game's contents and help the NPCs with various tasks. If doing this is something you enjoy, this game will be right up your alley. Thanks to the modern amenities of RPG Maker MV, the game utilizes a lot of interesting mechanics and systems, such as a Veteran Experience system (aside from normal EXP, you also gain Veteran EXP by fighting turn-based battles, which you can spend on passive abilities and stat boots), an extensive crafting system (including complementary fishing and mining mechanics), skills that can be leveled up through usage in battle, and some dungeons that feature (partially) regenerating treasure chests and bosses. I've played and completed most of this developer's games (7 out of 8, already counting this one), so I know what to expect at this point. Even though I'm not that far into the game yet at the time of writing this review, I wouldn't be surprised if this game provided me with over 100 hours of solid entertainment at the end. That being said, there are some signs of wear and tear, caused in particular by this developer's unfortunate habit to utilize many mostly unedited sample maps, since he isn't that great of a mapper (it seems he still doesn't realize that most players prefer original content, even if it's of questionable quality). If you've played his other games, you'll recognize entire dungeons and even quest lines that have been recycled. Ironically, this makes the game the perfect starting point in case you haven't played any of this developer's other games yet. Bottom line: If you want to play a side quest oriented JRPG made with RPG Maker MV, and if you don't mind the aforementioned mapping and dungeon design issues, this game will most likely fulfill your needs.