Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt
Platform: Windows
Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt by Remar Games and Ludosity is a very retro free indie action RPG made in four days for the Games Against Ebola Jam. You, as the titular princess, descend to Hurtland in search of your missing friend and healing people of various ailments as you go. See, as the name might imply, the folks of Hurtland are in a bad way, but lucky for them Princess Remedy can duke it out with the things making them sick. To play, just use [WASD] or the [arrow] keys to move, and [spacebar] to interact. In a fight, Princess Remedy fires automatically in the direction she's facing, so it's your job to maneuver her around the battlefield to blast enemies apart while dodging their attacks. Tapping the [spacebar] will throw a flask... you only get one of these per battle to begin with, but they let out a big blast! The more people you heal, the stronger you get, and there are plenty of treasure chests to find to upgrade the princess' power as well. It's on the simple side, but fans of sweet, silly humour and classic old school gameplay will want to add this one to their to-do list.
Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt manages to capture a bygone era in every conceivable way... it's not just the blocky pixel graphics, it's the addictive gameplay, the simple, charming storyline, and frankly fantastic soundtrack. The people from Hurtland suffer from every conceivable ailment, ranging from dislocated shoulders and a bad case of being, um, dead, to having played a game so cool it melted their face off, or a mummy whose bandages are wet. It's ridiculously cute, and a lot of fun to play, especially since it's gradual difficulty curve incorporates enemies with unique movements and behaviour rather than simply swarming you with heavy numbers in later battles. Liberally sprinkle in some hidden areas and the satisfaction you get from turning Princess Remedy into an ailment-blasting dynamo who fills the screen with projectiles and explosions of your own and you've got a recipe for one seriously endearing little indie game. While a lot of games have combat, few use it to actually heal instead of simply for violence, and Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt is just the sort of peppy, perky, and pleasant game you wish there were more of these days.
Thanks to Peter for sending this one in!
Windows:
Get the free full version
Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.
There are two secrets that I found while playing:
Jealous chest
Location
Moon Garden (in the Black Hole)
How to get there
Go into the house that is straight up from the entrance.
Go out through the second exit.
Go through the 'secret' passageway to the right and then to the left.
Go through the blue orb.
How to open the chest
Don't open any chests until you've opened this one. You'll need to heal every person in East and West Hurtland in order to have enough hearts.
What's inside
+1 Power
Bonus (related to how you open it):
After you open this chest it will open all the chests you skipped (in West and East Hurtland) for you.
Secret orb
Location
Nothing Dimension (in the Black Hole)
How to get there
Go through the blue square to the right of Frallan, then down.
What it does
Tells you some stats about the game - 64 NPCs, 66 endings, 6000 lines of code, Endboss HP: 2688. Please let me know if someone figures out how to get it to do something else.
Something else you can do there
The door leads to the Saturnian Palace (where you start). I'm not sure when it opens, but I checked after I had healed the prince and it was open.
There are two secrets that I found while playing:
Jealous chest
Location
Moon Garden (in the Black Hole)
How to get there
Go into the house that is straight up from the entrance.
Go out through the second exit.
Go through the 'secret' passageway to the right and then to the left.
Go through the blue orb.
How to open the chest
Don't open any chests until you've opened this one. You'll need to heal every person in East and West Hurtland in order to have enough hearts.
What's inside
+1 Power
Bonus (related to how you open it):
After you open this chest it will open all the chests you skipped (in West and East Hurtland) for you.
Secret orb
Location
Nothing Dimension (in the Black Hole)
How to get there
Go through the blue square to the right of Frallan, then down.
What it does
Tells you some stats about the game - 64 NPCs, 66 endings, 6000 lines of code, Endboss HP: 2688. Please let me know if someone figures out how to get it to do something else.
Something else you can do there
The door leads to the Saturnian Palace (where you start). I'm not sure when it opens, but I checked after I had healed the prince and it was open.
Could we have an 'lgbtq' tag? It's not an issues game or anything, but
the protagonist is bi, her history with a girl comes up, and she can marry a girl at the end.
I mean, I'm not sure if the tag is reserved for games that go into LGBTQ issues, or if any game that has major LGBTQ characters counts, but if it's the latter, I think that people who want to look for games that have LGBTQ characters in general would appreciate this being tagged.
Thanks, beforeamirror, it completely slipped my mind! I'll add this now. The tag is for any game that has positive LGBTQ content. :)
Update