FriendShapes, an indie RPG game for RPG Maker MV

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MISAO RESULTS 2023

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Out now on:
GameJolt
Itch.io

OST for sale on BandCamp!

Explore the twisted remnants of Leavalley, a place you're fairly sure was your hometown in a mixture of 2D and 3D rendering.

You were drawn here for a reason, though no one is sure why, least of all yourself.

Quick Summary of Features:

- Existential abstract horror Lite-RPG
- No jumpscares, only atmosphere and looming dread
- Stylized 3D areas with rogue-lite randomized elements and many text events between
- Unique battle system based on interaction and understanding abstract entities instead of violence
- Each Shape is unique, with various ways of interaction and ways to get out of conflict
- Varied and surreal original soundtrack featuring over 70 songs
- 7-10 hours in length

Encounter a variety of denizens, each with their own motives and reasons for staying in the ever twisting Leavalley.

Trade items with TradeMark, receive good advice from Highfive, be stopped from going in over your head by Mr. Dac, and... ask Mícheart Jinsil questions about who and what you've encountered so far (for absolutely free, or at least, so they say).

Save your progress by talking to a Scape - creatures that represent a certain location, there's Nightscape, Cityscape, Seascape and Snowscape, which will you meet?

Digressions are places seemingly beyond reality; labyrinths you must traverse, seemingly random in order, features, encounters and danger levels.

Discover locations where the world's slackening reality has folded in on itself, producing areas that continue longer than they should, twisting and turning with any number of strange things to encounter.

If you can't keep your wits about you, and your Sanity is lowered, you may begin to see even stranger sights.

Try to keep your Focus to make it through them in hope of uncovering slivers of memories of the past, to help you keep hold of who you are in the present - or at least, who you think you should be.

Between each area are text events - over thirty events can happen in each Digression, based on Luck, which reduces on each lucky thing that happens in your current run of the Digression, as well as your Wellbeing, Sanity and Focus... Will these give you some much needed respite, or will they carry with them even more trials?

You may find Files which can give background to what's already happened in the world, as well as some studies on the Shapes you may or may not have encountered yet.

Encounter almost 40 Shapes (23 in demo) - potentially hostile beings that not only drain your Physical, Mental and/or Focus health ambiently, but may attack in various ways as well, sometimes in reaction to your choices.

Each Shape has their own behaviours, depositions and accompanying theme music, along with various ways to appease or otherwise get around them.

With no will for violence on your part, these Encounters are part puzzle, part intuitive, part instinctive, and likely part trial and error.

During your interactions, you may Observe, Gesture, Speak, Touch, Withdraw, use Inventory items as well as Context actions - new actions that can become available as the encounter goes on.

Some of the Shapes you can Encounter:

Blood Shadow:
A spectre-like being, body of blood and powered by the neural pain signals of others.
Huh?Man:
Masquerading in a mascot-like Human Suit made of what you hope isn't stitched together skin, they are very adamant on you visiting their Huh?House.
The Collective:
The sound of canned audience laughter follows them wherever they go, they enjoy watching every moment of someone's memory over and over again until their preverbal tape is totally worn to nothing, all the while laughing.
Excogidiomycota:
Some sort of fungal life-form that reacts to stimuli they can't quite sense by attempting to grow the necessary organs.
Abandoned Mascot:
What you can only assume is a person in a dog-eared mascot suit, though they waver between "Mascot" mode and "Not Quite Self-Actualized Corpse" mode.
Conceptual Parasite:
Just try not to think about it too much.
The Beckon
Mícheart Jinsil:
Friendly, maybe even overly so, a strange person that insists you're best friends and seems to know what you've been up to while wandering Leavalley... they always have something to say and tend to turn up when you least expect them.

Feel out how to interact with Shapes to help them realise you're not a threat worth fighting - these can be as simple as performing actions in a certain order to knowing what action to make based on the Shape's latest exchange. Make a wrong move though and you may find yourself wiser but in a worse state than you were previously.

Will you find what you've returned for?

Well, that's something I can only leave up to you.

----
Featuring 2 tracks by Mystic Sound of Meditation:
Lamp's Tale
Fear (Trancendending)