Every Vote Counts

Hello players!
Every Vote Counts is an rpg game made originally in Rpgmaker MV (the walkthrough for the old version can still be seen on youtube, if you want to check the differences concerning visuals and maps), and then upgraded to Rpgmaker MZ.
The game was made by MoonWolfV, author of The Plot to Kill the King and Standard Disney Fare, two games I reviewed in the past years.

Now, the game not only in an rpg that takes place in a modern setting, but it also starts with a bizarre premise: due to a very strange constitution, apathetic citizens and a twist of fate, a cat has been elected Prime Minister. Now no one can see the cat, except with the approval of Wenston, the deputy Prime Minister that has held the position of Prime Minister before. Things are going downhill, and then enters our protagonist and alter ego, the foolish owner of the cat that candidated the feline but now decides to team up with Penny Bradelgast, the leader of the opposition, to figure out what's going on. This will start a wild adventure that will involve agents, hackers, wizards, scientists and much more!

Every Vote Counts is a classic party-based rpg adventure, even if set in the modern world. Characters have modern occupations, but skills are translated in what you can expect from a classic jrpg: a doctor is the equivalent of a healer, a politician can use abilities that weaken the opposition, and so on. Enemies are fought in random battles and obligatory duels with bosses that will net some good old experience points, needed to level up, earn new skills and get stronger.


The game includes many subquests besides the main story, that will add some allies and extra party members to our team!

The enemies (animals and plants, monsters, human agents, robots and cyborgs) is commonly found on wilderness areas and dungeons, that in this case will be abandoned factories and underground laboratories but also good old classic caves. While combat is nothing special, I liked some aspects, for example most characters like our protagonist, Penny and the hacker Isaac use TP points to power their attacks, and only few like the wizard and the doctor utilize Mana Points, making the abilities more readily accessible, and the mana-restoring items less important in this scenario. Another good aspect is that while boss fights are VERY challenging compared to the random battles, sometimes you have some gimmicks that can help, like finding batteries that cause lightining damage in an area where you will have to battle a really powerful opponent immune to all statuses, and resistant to damage... BUT weak to lightning!
Combat is for the most part not too difficult but grinding is quite recommended also because loot is quite generous in this game and equipment is expensive. Remember that you can only save your game at the save points, the green rotating crystals!

Anyway the game isn't just a series of cotscenes between travelling and exploring dungeons, there are also some sidequests that while for the most part are fetch quests, they will add something really helpful: sometimes it's an extra optional party member (such as Leon, that won't appear in the story cutscenes for this reason), other times is a support, like Marcus, a helpful trader that can help sending supplies at any time, even when you're inside a dungeon! That's cool and very useful.

The game includes also some little puzzles, nothing bad even if the one in the Data Center was a bit obscure, in the sense that's not really well explained and took me some tries, I even watched the walktrhough of the old version of the game to get some hint before I could complete it. Similarly the game has a bestiary and a log that tells you what you are supposed to do, still it gives NO directions about where you're supposed to go. It's a pity. Some indications would have been helpful, or maybe did I miss some signs?

Finally the graphics: the game uses standard RTP assets both for graphics and music, anyway I must say that mapping is clearly improved from the first two games I reviewed earlier, there are in fact more details on these maps and the sizes of the locations are believable, there are some minor issues like for example some characters that aren't interactable (girl immediately left of the town hall) Isaac's shop that is too crowded and some customers may block your path, but for the rest it's ok.


I have a gun and I am not afraid to use it against these grim men in black! Argument is also my favourite attack method!

Final Verdict
Every Vote Counts is surely a better game than Standard Disney Fare (in this game we can also choose and name our alter ego, and he/she is NOT a blank slate like in other games, but a real protagonist), and even if it's set in a modern world it still used a classic jrpg system, but with the addition of much more interesting aspects like subquests, more party members and a more interesting plot. However I was a bit confused because the plot is a little more serious than I expected: I believed that this was a silly story (a cat as a prime minister???? Come on! I expected the cat to be central point in the game) instead it's a serious modern fantasy adventure (and probably even a serious critique of the fact that nowadays people do not vote because "all candidates are the same"!). In the end this is an ok game, pity for the use of random battles (that I dislike) and the lack of that special something that would have made this game a classic. But still it's pretty good!