Stories of Bethem: Full Moon Demo

It’s no secret that most gamers still hold the Zelda series in high praise, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise either. Almost everything was done right in that franchise, starting from the rewarding gameplay and all the way to the great story that kept you asking for more. Granted, we have amazing RPGs nowadays as well, but they are much more complex in almost every regard.

Stories of Bethem: Full Moon is a top-down RPG that comes as close to Zelda without being called Zelda, and it packs just as much fun. It’s disarmingly simple at a glance, but there’s a bit of everything in there to make you play for hours, including a nice combat system, challenging puzzles and a big world waiting for you to discover its secrets.

The story is not a strong point in this case, however, which is a bit of a shame. Hence, you play the role of a boy by the name of Khoma, who must find the Red Witch in order to ask for her help with a curse put on his dad by the Blue Witch. To undo the curse, Khoma must first find a set of powerful objects scattered all over the world, which is the purpose of the entire journey.

Puzzles are the main course on the menu most of the time, since there’s very little dialog and not much combat, at least not in the beginning. Your character can learn a couple of spells along the way, each one of which can be used to manipulate the world around you. Thus, you’ll have to combine them in order to overcome obstacles, destroy objects, or anything else that might help you accomplish the desired objective.

The combat is in real-time, and you have no weapons to defend yourself. Instead, the same arsenal of spells must be used to deal with monsters as well. It’s a neat system, and it’s a wonder it’s so rarely used in top-down RPGs. And speaking of which, the graphics are obviously quite simple and tile-based, but the artwork is decent, and the sprites are smooth enough not to be a bother.

All things considered, Stories of Bethem: Full Moon is not for everyone, but it should be an instant hit with those who appreciate a good retro RPG. The puzzles are very intriguing and addictive, which greatly adds to the overall appeal of the game.