The Spirit Engine 2

By: Derek Yu

On: July 31st, 2008

Mark Pay’s long-awaited sequel to his classic RPG, The Spirit Engine, is finally here! The Spirit Engine 2 is available for sale at a very reasonable $18. You can also download the ~64 MB demo (the saves are compatible with the full version).

Having played through most of the demo, I’m happy to say that TSE2 already improves on the original in almost every way (though Mark claims the first two chapters are the weakest!). The production values, storyline, and combat are all to high standards. I’m incredibly impressed by the fact that, with so much dialogue in the game, you can pick from 9 different characters, each with their own backstory and personality. There’s no small amount of detail put into every aspect of the game (love how the title screen changes depending on your party!).

The combat, in particular, feels much better than the first game. It’s been awhile since I’ve played TSE1, but battles seem faster-paced in this game. With all the numbers on the screen, it can still be difficult to figure out exactly what is going on, but it’s a minor quibble. Overall, the battles feel epic but not tiresome.

As is to be expected from Josh “TwiTerror” Whelchel, the music does not disappoint, either. You can get the full soundtrack (101 songs!) for $16 or a selection of the 22 “best” songs for $8. Head over to Josh’s site for more details.

It’s been, what, 5 years since the first game came out? That’s dedication… and the final product does not disappoint. 18 bucks well spent! Congratulations, Mark and Josh!

TIGdb: Entry for The Spirit Engine 2

Posted in Highly Recommended, RPG, Windows | Tags: JoshWhelchel, MarkPay

http://www.getmagi.com TeeGee

Just started playing the demo. I really loved the first Spirit Engine and I already see I’m going to buy the sequel. $18 feels almost like a steal, I would gladly pay more for this.
Paul Eres

Thanks for the notice. There’s a paucity of indie RPGs (outside of those endless unfinished RPGMaker XP games with ripped graphics which are almost never worth playing), I’ll try this one out. I never played the original either, so I may try that too.
MisterX

As I’ve already posted more over at the blog, I’ll keep this short: A superb game I’m definitely going to buy. And my, what a wonderful soundtrack..

I’ve got a problem: I can’t buy TSE2, yet, as I still got too much to play. But I want to have the soundtrack. But I don’t want to “spoil” the songs for me before having played the game. Oh, the dilemma..
Paul Eres

I started playing it — it’s good so far, but the story hasn’t really drawn me in yet, and I mainly play RPGs for their story, so unless I get into a game’s story I’m unlikely to want to finish it. We’ll see if it does by the end of the demo.
Paul Eres

I think it’s the characters that don’t draw me in rather than the plot. I can’t pinpoint why they aren’t interesting, perhaps they seem too generic? I don’t know…

The game obviously has a lot of effort put into it though.
http://www.mawsoft.com/blog/ Impossible

Pales in comparison to The Demon Rush.
Valkyrie

The first Spirit Engine kept crashing on my computer, so I never got past the first island. I did have a lot of fun when it worked, though. I’ll check out the demo and hope this works out better.
Mark

It drives me completely insane that there are games this cool and fun that I have never heard of. I mean, the first one was out 5 years ago and I am just now playing it? What the hell.

How do I miss this stuff? (Honestly, it’s frustrating!) :)

Anyway, playing through the first one now, and looking forward to buying the second one. And as much as I like the idea of buying the soundtrack, I don’t use CD media anymore to listen to music. Does the game itself come with mp3s?
Derek

For the prices I mentioned, the soundtracks come as downloads (buying the CD versions costs a bit extra). :)
Caliber 9

Just bought the game and it is incredible, Great artwork and animation and an incredible sound track. The story seems really good so far and I thought the characters were pretty interesting and unique.
Fish

Mark it’s because this game doesn’t feature some internet pop culture reference so you probably wouldn’t have heard about it here.
Next up= a joyless game made in 5 minutes by a northern Yurpean with a duck donning a tophat on the title screen.
Flamebait

Played the first one when it came out, found it too one-dimensional (literally). Giving this one a miss.
haowan

I don’t believe that was the real fish.
Fish

I don’t post here often. Are there 2 fishes?
Fish

Three, actually.
Chris

Really like it, but got a little irritated in the Grass Plains area after the mausoleum. After winning a battle, I felt like I could either:

A. Continue on and risk getting the crap kicked out of me. (It took me multiple tries to win.)

B. Walk all the way back to the save point in the mausoleum, and then walk all the way back to the next fight. Wish you could just save anywhere, or at least on the world map.

In addition, sometimes I feel like I’m in no danger of losing, but I’m not going to be able to deal enough damage to win without tweaking my skill levels. I can’t do that in battle, and, as far as I know, there’s no way to “run away” without exiting to the menu and reloading.

A bit frustrating. I’m still on the fence about buying it, though.
Chris

My mistake. If I leave to save, the monsters come back. So I guess I’m going the wrong way or this game is really hard. ;_;
Victo

I’m probably going to buy it … Looks beautiful, plays perfectly, design is just perfect …
Razorman

Awesome game, just bought it.
SoulMyst

Highly recommend you buy this game;

Super soundtrack

whole bunch of different monsters / bosses / mini in-game challenges for fun etc.

The interaction between different characters depending how you form your party also makes replaying it so much more interesting.

Graphics etc. is just superb and like Mark said, it also drove me insane to think I almost missed (although the crashing was a issue) the first game. The time I downloaded TSE-1 there was a real shortfall in nice indie games and just by accident really stumbled across the download link at the old natomic.com site!

The game I can say does not have any crashing issues and runs (on my old dinosaur) laptop just perfectly
Dusty Spur

This game rules. Just bought it after getting to the end of the demo with 4 different parties. (3 Musketeers is, unsurprisingly, an awesome party.)
Mark

Bought this game yesterday, it’s a lot easier to get into than the first Spirit Engine. I’m up to chapter 5 already, the amount of combat strategies available are staggering! I especially like how the defensive skills are actually useful.
Marco

Superb game. I cannot believe that design, code, dialogs, game system, and, what’s more, ART have been done by a single author.

Art especially.
It is pixel-art at it greatest.

Countless lovely monsters, characters, portraits, backgrounds (on multiple levels), magic effects… and ALL that beautifully animated, without a wrong pixel, in a really neat and clean style.

Dedication and love like it pours.

I’m stunned. Congrat to this author.

(Music is great too.)
EPriest

Does anyone know where TSE1 saves to?