10,000 Dragons: A Hidden Masterpiece
I went in to this game expecting a short, simple RPG that I could spent an evening playing. What I didn't know was that I would soon be spending an entire weekend obsessively playing this oddity of game design for hours on end. And this game really was odd. It felt like around every corner I was discovering a new bug or making the game crash in a new way. Some of my absolute favorite interactions in the game happened with horizontal stairs. Sometimes when you walk on them you suddenly get zipped across the screen until you hit a wall. You can also get completely stuck on the stairs by walking into the side the wrong way, forcing you to restart the game. But I never felt that these bugs took away from the game. They only contributed to the completely unique experience that the game was. What really surprised me was how much depth there was in what felt like such an unpolished product. This game kept me going for hours. I explored every corner of the map, spoke to every npc, mastered a shockingly challenging combat system with a crazy high skill ceiling, and experienced a surprisingly deep story with a beautiful underlying message.
But apart from all that, the thing that surprised me most of all was how few people have played this game! No one knows about this diamond in the rough besides the lucky few in the comments below. There is no wiki, no guides on Youtube, and in general no discussion of this masterpiece on the internet besides this page. And I think that that is truly special. Never in my life have I been absolutely forced to experience a game in such a truly authentic way.
So if you're out there surfing the web, and you come across this comment. Please, sit down and share this game with me.
P.S.
I am stuck at 11 / 17 statues. While I truly love this game, I can't bring myself to explore the entire map yet again for like the 5th time. Devs, if you're out there, could you please tell me where the final 6 are? If not I hope that someday a more dedicated fan than me will find them all.