tERRORbane Preview

I never realised how funny a game that was purposely made to be incredibly buggy could be. I played the demo for tERRORbane: an INTRODUCTION, Mostly a 2D role-playing game. It was very short but I don’t think I’ve played anything that funny or entertaining in a long time! You play as the titular character, or name it whatever you want, just be prepared for the game developer to make fun of you for choosing such a lame name. But if you go ahead and name your character TERRORBANE right off the bat he will compliment you on the majestic name you have chosen. Either way it doesn’t matter, but I’ve never had a character in a game make fun of me for using my real name.

The game starts by showing you the story of beautiful Arielle and how the Archdemon Xonder envied her beauty. So he sends his army of demons to destroy her. It is prophesied that a brave knight will save her using the Eversteel of Eternity that Bork the Undying has forged. After you sit through the story on the scroll or if you just hit A button and skip it, you are thrown into the final battle of the game against Xonder. How you got to the end of the game I’m not sure, but after trying out the normal and special abilities your knight has you will find three special abilities that you can use to defeat Xonder quickly. After being hit once by one of the big attacks he transforms into different forms, and depending on which attack you use, he can change into some totally unexpected things like a weird sprite named George. George looks just like a weird NPC you would see walking around a village, not a final boss in a game. The game developers chat window pops open and he is wondering how the heck you got to the end of the game. He says that obviously you weren’t patient enough and you probably didn’t sit through the scroll with the story in the beginning either. Kids these days…

The developer sends you back to the beginning to play the game the way that it was supposed to be played. DVLPR.exe is the window that pops up and how he chats with you. The great part is when he’s talking the blue screen of death pops up, but he declares that even with the bugs this is the best game ever made! You are given a sheet of lined paper with notes written with blue pen on it for you to write everything about the game and to keep track of your adventure. The looseleaf will keep track of where you have explored and how many bugs you have discovered in each area. Finding all the crazy bugs in the game is so much fun. They aren’t frustrating like if you discovered glitches in other games that aren’t supposed to happen, they are just ridiculous.

The demo feels like an RPG that you would see on the SNES. The music in tERRORbane is great, the battle music sounds like it belongs in a Final Fantasy game. Combined with truly hilarious writing this game is one I definitely need to pick up. I was so sad that the demo ended so fast. My second time only took 20 minutes to complete, but I came across bugs that I didn’t find in my first playthrough so it was definitely worth my time. Like an awesome reference to The Legend of Zelda or having a crate of pears join my party! The crate even had multiple abilities like Ripen, Absorb Light, and Solar Ray, though I question how useful they will be. The description for Ripen warns you that it isn’t effective until two to three weeks.

tERRORbane is a must play for anyone who wants a fun and goofy game. I have never been so enthralled to see a loading progress bar in my life! I know my brief time with tERRORbane it has left me wanting more, so I can’t wait to continue this silly adventure!