Classic: The Way

By: Paul Eres

On: June 5th, 2009

The Way by Lun is an episodic jRPG-style game in six parts, created in RPGMaker. The first episode was released in 2002, and the entire series took three and a half years to develop. Although very popular within that community, it’s lesser-known elsewhere.

The game involves a long search for a missing person, having many adventures on the way. It uses a few twists on the standard RPG formula, with a custom battle system and equipping auras (acquired from defeating bosses) instead of weapons and armor, and it has an interesting ability upgrade system. Interestingly, apparently the player can elect not to play the battles at all, and just go through the game for the story and exploration.

As Malefact goes into in his Let’s Play, if you don’t like the first episode very much, don’t be put off, since it’s widely considered the worst of the six: it gets better as it goes on. Unfortunately the game always uses mostly unoriginal graphics and music, which can distract from the game — this is the bane of most RPGMaker games. But if you can ignore that, this is one of the best games made in that engine.

Posted in Freeware, RPG | Tags: Lun

r3doriffic

just wanted to say that yes, it does use unoriginal graphics and music but you forget to mention the wonderful 3d panoramas it does use rather than terrain sometimes! it does really break up the monotony of graphics
Caio

Oh boy! I used to love those games back in my RPG Maker days. Nice to see the series on TIGS.
yamata

This game is one of my favorite games of all time.

It’s flawed in a number of ways–nearly every Plunge at the start of the game is weighted against you, the story becomes excessively complex at times, the vast potential of the setting is never fully explored and the ending is really whacked out–but The Way remains one of the few RPG Maker games to fully transcend its roots as an incredible RPG Maker game to become a really good freeware game.

So yeah, everybody should play this right now. Although I know for sure that some of the people here are going to hate it.
Ezuku

Oh man, how have I not played this one before?

I’m having a blast, it’s fantastic. The setting is really amazing too.

Agreed though, this game does do quite a few “wrong things”, but like “Plants vs Zombies”, somehow its flaws just work for it.

For eg, I enjoyed losing most of my initial plunges, afterall, it’s silly for a newbie to win all of them.
Ezuku

Oh man, how have I not played this one before?

I’m having a blast, it’s fantastic. The setting is really amazing too.

Agreed though, this game does do quite a few “wrong things”, but like “Plants vs Zombies”, somehow its flaws just work for it.

For eg, I enjoyed losing most of my initial plunges, afterall, it’s silly for a newbie to win all of them.
The Monster King

That game was gold.

Crazy crazy gold
Manpon

I played through all of this, and I liked it, for the most part. The last episode sort of takes a dump on the story, but it’s okay.

Just a little too much contrived depth and character introspection instead of delving more into the awesomeness of the “Forerunners” and the unique world the game takes place in.
King

Just finished the second one.
The Main character is really getting on my nerves.
Tacroy

Has anyone been able to get it to install on Wine? It’s from 2000ish, so once it’s installed it should work – but the installer never gets past the first blue screen on Wine.

I refuse to watch Malefact’s LP because this is a game I intend to actually play if I can get it to work.
cm

That narration is epic.
Jeramyu

Unoriginal graphics are so ubiquitous among RPG Maker games it’s hardly a strike against them. There’s no way to justify it legally, but safe to say if you got rid of every RPG Maker game with unoriginal resources, there would be like… 2 games left. RPG Maker being designed for those otherwise unskilled in hard programming or art, it’s a perfect match, and without the great resource of SNES RPGs so much creativity would be stifled.

And besides, The Way is hardly a major culprit compared to some RPG Maker games. Like someone said, you’re forgetting the incredible 3D backdrops which are rather nontrivial to make (see Episode 5 for the best examples).

Anyway, you nailed it by saying most of the major complaints only hold water with Episode 1. After Episode 1 there isn’t a single plunge where you can’t do anything but “lose”, and it gets much more complicated that simple Rock Paper Scissors, evolving into more about choosing special attacks.

I’ve also heard complaints that the prerendered backgrounds are too simple and non-interactive. Again, this is an impression given by Episode 1 only. 90% of the gameplay takes place on more flexible tile-based maps.

So yes, Episode 1 can be slow, but most modern professional RPGs have a 4-8 hour “sawdust eating” period that go slow, with the added strike that unlike The Way, they typically don’t have an interesting setting.

An interview with Lun may help shine some light on what he was thinking with the last episode, and about exploring the setting:
http://www.playmagazine.com/?fuseaction=SiteMain.Content&contentid=1708
Dusty Spur

Malefact is my katamari king to be honest with you guys.

My experience with the game is limited to watching Malefact’s LPs, but it seems to be really pretty great.
DimJimma

Thanks for the tip! I’ve been looking for a game like this but they’re often pretty large downloads and varying in quality. These episodes seem perfect because of that.
DalaranJ

I feel like Lun channeled all of the worst parts from final fantasy games into one game. It’s a pretty amazing thing to have created, but I absolutely despise this (these?) games.
McPhearson

Sorry, Dalaran, but I couldn’t disagree more. The worst parts of Final Fantasy? First of all, I don’t think its fair to compare a game made by one man for NO MONEY (The Way) with a franchise that had thousands of people working on it, and millions of dollars invested into it (FF). Secondly, at the point in which FF only uses turn-based battles for the most part, its refreshing to see a game designer like Lun who can take the rock-paper-scissors concept and turn it into the Plunge, the most unique battle style I have ever seen in an RPGMaker game.

Worst parts of Final Fantasy my foot.
http://profiles.google.com/zero.bash Anthony Prince Merluza

:') How I remember playing this back then. Oh good times, good times..