Iffermoon is the latest RPG from Scott Cawthon, also known as Scott Games. If you’ve played The Desolate Room and Legacy of Flan 4: Flan Rising, then you should rightly expect another very unique experience from Scott. Iffermoon is definitely very different from your average fantasy RPG.
It’s also by far Scott’s most ambitious project. Dinost is an extremely detailed world, both in conceptualization and realization. Moving around the gorgeous environments and interacting with its unusual denizens, I felt like I was someplace rich in history… and the large backdrops that extend far into the distance give the impression that the world is physically vast. I also really dig Scott’s 3d pre-rendered graphics, which remind me a bit of Hiroshi Yoshii.
Unlike the other games, which were viewed from a top-down perspective, Iffermoon is 2d side-scrolling. You can enter new areas either by walking off either the left or right side of the screen, or by taking some sort of transportation (hot air balloons, pipes, elevators, etc.). Battles, which are by and large are voluntary, happen in real-time, with party members moving and attacking automatically. You can, however, direct the battle by setting combat stances and using special moves that have various effects. Combining these moves is essential to winning in battle.
Unfortunately, Iffermoon suffers from fairly prodigious loading times during transitions between areas, menus, and battles (at least, on my rig). This is probably fallout from the enormous, high-resolution sprites on every level. There is also some tedium involved in gaining the necessary amount of “favor” with someone to enable them to join your party. These quests generally involve walking to some location, collecting X number of items, or killing X number of monsters.
But in my opinion, it’s a small price to pay to experience one of the few RPG worlds that feels genuinely unique from head to toe. And the relative open-endedness of the journey is quite refreshing, also.
TIGdb: Entry for Iffermoon
(Source: Michael Silbey)