Synopsis Quest Deluxe

By: Derek Yu

On: April 5th, 2010

Skipmore is a prolific Japanese game company that develops micro-games for mobile devices. They have a bunch of free browser-based projects on their website, but Synopsis Quest Deluxe is the first to be translated into English (thanks to Benito C.). The game consists of a series of micro-games and puzzles that poke fun at JRPG conventions. I thought it was pretty funny, and the clunky controls that are present in most of Skipmore’s titles are relatively bearable in SQD due to the tiny scope of the game.

(Source: Tim W., via IndieGames.com)

TIGdb: Entry for Synopsis Quest Deluxe

Posted in Browser Games, Casual, Doujin, Puzzle | Tags: Skipmore

StephenM3

I haven’t tried Mamono Slayer, but the fake wall in Fairune was probably tougher for me simply because of world size. In Synopsis Quest, you’re in a tiny room, and after you’ve tried everything else (not much) you’re bound to stumble into it. In Fairune I wandered all over the map (looking for things I’d missed) several times. I gave up and searched for Fairune on google; found a random blog that mentioned the fake wall in the comments.

Since I’m not extremely observant, I probably would have only found that fake wall by attempting to walk through every single wall on the map, before I even knew that there would be a fake wall at all! I only discovered the choppable trees by sheer accident :p
Adamsk

Do you mean the cacti? I thought the trees themselves were pretty obvious since the room you find the axe has a really obviously off-colored tree in it. The cacti I feel like I accidentally stumbled upon, because I was trying to chop them down with the axe and when the proved immune, I wanted to see how much damage they’d do to me. :I

And as for that hidden wall, I had gotten to the point where I was scouring every room, trying the two items I had (well, I had the axe, too, but I was pretty sure it was the other two items I needed to use) just about everywhere when I noticed the fake wall’s different coloring.

But go ahead and give Mamono Slayer a go, it’s fun, and there’s only one part I suspect you might have problems on, but now that you know the kinds of things to expect, you shouldn’t have any trouble.
StephenM3

Actually, I found the poison right away. I’m just unobservant enough that I didn’t notice the off-colored trees until after I successfully cut it (While trying several trees), and suddenly realized why I could.

I did just try Mamono Slayer. I was stumped for a while on what to do with the poison, but got past that and got stuck where you first reach what appears to be the very bottom. Couldn’t figure out what to do, then my browser crashed for unrelated reasons, so I figured I’ll try again tomorrow. It is a very fun game, probably better than FairRune.

Following “someone”s tip to change my keyboard settings really made a difference. The sticky controls weren’t awful, but they were slightly distracting, and changing the repeat-rate and pause made things so very nice.
StephenM3

*when I say “poison” at the top of that post, I mean “cacti”. Don’t know how I made that typo.

Also been meaning to say that the music in all these games is wonderful! Probably the best part, actually.
Adamsk

Yeah, figuring out what to do with the poison is where I figured you might have some pause. The part where you’re stuck, if I understand you right, took me a little time, too. But all my wandering with the poison (I had intially used it in the right room, in all the wrong spots, if you know what I mean) gave me a good look at all the other rooms, so it wasn’t too hard, with a little exploration of the movement available to the player, on finding the item to complete the next puzzle.
StephenM3

Yeah I got it. This is a pretty good game, I would even venture to say the best out of these three. This whole “walk into it to kill it” mechanic works best in Momono, and the hidden solutions are pretty evenly distributed throughout. Synopsis Quest works because it’s funny, but this works because it’s actually a good game.
Adamsk

Though I agree that the sword mechanic in Mamono Slayer is the best system of the three, I liked Fairun’s puzzles and map better, making it hard for me to say that one is better than the other. Mamono’s return after the monster attack is equivalent to Fairun’s sky area, though the later you return to multiple times, and the boss at the end of Fairun makes the ending seem mores satisfying. Mamono is a 4×4 grid in its normal area, compared to the 3×4 grid in Fairun, but the puzzles are more tightly packed–

Basically, all of this adds up to two very good games. I like the similarity of controls between them, with only a difference in perspective changing. I’d love to see more, especially with a bigger focus on exploration and less on being led by the puzzle rails.
Zaratus

I rather liked this game from the site as well:

http://www.skipmore.com/freegames/drancia/drancia_j.html

Just a little mini-game diversion, but kinda fun. My top score is 285.
Skyler

Solved all of the puzzles. Though, the final puzzel presented much confusion.
Mike

finding the treasure is the same technique as finding the lost world in donkey kong 3 for SNES.