Forget flesh-eating zombies, knife-wielding clowns or Kiera Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet (shudder). All of your nightmares pales in comparison to space leviathans who eat whole planets! But, of course, this is what you're forced to face as the protagonist in 8Bit Skull's action adventure title, Zos. It's been thousands of years, and the great monster, X'o'chthu, who was previously fended off by seven great heroes, is back for another round of celestial chomping. The heroes long gone, it is up to you to gather the lost essences of those heroes and use those powers to fight it off once again. Because why couldn't a single man do what it took seven before?
Move your character around with the [arrow] keys, using [down] for actions marked with the exclamation point. [Spacebar] uses whatever potion you have equipped. Oh? You don't have any potions? Well, make some! Potions are made from the ingredients you collect off the ground on the seven planets you'll be exploring. Through helpful hints from the native people you encounter as well as info-spewing computers, you'll learn the recipes necessary for various potions from the fiery Fire Potion with infinite uses to the jumptastic Fortify Jump (for a limited time only!).
Travel from planet to planet with Master Movo as he guides you to each of the essences. How to get them exactly is all up to you. Each new surrounding presents a different challenge and puzzle to overcome as you learn to use all of your acquired skills toward each new goal. When you've collected all the heroes' essences, only X'o'chthu will stand in your way, and you'd better be ready for a battle that'll make your breath quicken and heart beat faster.
Analysis: Zos has a great 8-bit quality about it from the pixel graphics to wandschrank's chiptune music that'll stick with you when you're not playing the game. The difficulty is well balanced with areas that require precision platforming, bosses that are tactically different from each other and puzzles needing only keen observation. With well-placed save points and not all monsters regenerating (nothing like dying as you defeat a boss), you feel more rewarded for your actions and less punished for your mistakes.
While Zos may have you sipping a glass from your finest bottle of Nostalgia®, it can also cause frustration over the attack methods left to you. While infinite ammo is nice, having your bottles always fly in an arch is annoying. You'd better believe if an enemy were running toward me that I'd throw a Molotov cocktail straight into their faces. In addition, the absence of a melee weapon leaves you wishing for a pipe to swing. Other than these battle-specific issues, there is little left to be desired in this well put together game. Oh, except more, more more! This title will surely be one you'll remember and 8Bit Skull a developer you'll be excited about.
Cool game! Not too long, not too short, nice to finish in a few hours. One thing I noticed, I just guessed one of the potions which messed up the order of things. Might leave you frustrated, but the game works out anyway, just keep following Master Movo's lead :-)
Oh, one question remains for me:
On your home planet Rhisla there are some faint signs on the far left of the dig site. You can show these signs with a Reveal potion. What are these for? Are these the ones used to unlock the first temple? Can't remember ;-)
Found a bug: When I
drink the health potion, my fire potion disappears, so I cannot finish the first boss.
Firefox, latest update of flash, etc. Ideas? I'd rather not have to clear the cache and start over if I can avoid it. Thanks!
Swoopie -
Yep, you're right about where to use that code!
If I remember correctly, there's one of those items that increases your life meter there.
wjess -
You should see in the upper right corner that you can cycle through the potions with either [Q]/[E] or [Z]/[X]. When you use the last of a potion, it does not automatically equip you with another one.
Hopefully that works!
I did try that, but I no longer have the fire potion to use. I tried to equip it from my inventory as well.
Found another bug...
After learning the fortify jump potion I went back to my starting place and picked up the health upgrade there...and got the achievement for gathering all health upgrades, instead of the one for picking up *a* health upgrade.
wjess -
The only other thing I can think of is trying to make another fire potion and then equipping it.
Otherwise, you may have to restart :/
Sorry you're having this trouble. I didn't encounter anything like this while playing.
Great game :D
What are those secret characters that apear :D Only found the one that slayed Murmur and the one the Heals you :o Is it from previous games meybe ?
xxerox -
What?!?
Secret characters?!!
Do tell . . .
KYH
There is one red demon that claims he has killed MurMur and gives you MurMur's blood(3 health potions) . He is on the planet in war, On the Far Left side of the map.
There is One guy that heals you :D And claims to be a doctor. He is where the old man dies inside the beast mouth, top of the room. Just go up with the flying potion
@Kyh, thanks, thought so indeed, although I was silently hoping those were for a secret yet to be uncovered by me ;)
Good game! Does anyone know how to get the achievement "Fourth Wall" (visit the developers)?
Hmm. I'm missing something on Aeryl, though I'm not sure what. I've gotten the
zero G and jump potions, but Movo keeps telling me to improve my jump. He's told me to try to mix in sparkberries or something, but I can't find those. I haven't found the elixer there yet...
.
Any tips?
All:
I have emailed an updated game file to JayIsGames which should fix the achievement bugs highlighted in the comments.
Jesica:
Elaris, as far right as you can go, gravity potion over the wall.
silent george:
Movo is telling you about the Fortify Speed potion. It is a non-essential potion, i.e. not required to complete the game.
What you need to do is return to the beginning of Aeryl and use a gravity potion to float up into the temple.
Thanks, Alex. I got the Fortify Speed potion, but previously I was just
floating around the sides of the temple, hadn't tried to go through the middle.
Thank you, Alex! I haven't even got that far, I just thought I had to visit the developer's website and was wondering why it didn't work.
OK, what am I missing? I've gotten six of the essences, visited my friend Movo in the belly of the beast, but I can't find any X'o'cthu to fight, just some minor league baddies. Where is the world-eater?
silent george -
Did you notice something useful lying around Movo?
Drink a Fortify Science potion to fix his ship and fly off to the next destination.
Thanks, Kyh, a perfect clue.
I think this game deserves the "metroidvania" tag, one of my favorite tags.
I believe I found an exploit. Relatively useful:
After creating and drinking two Fortify Health potions (at the station where the recipe is) I picked the last heart at the tech planet. If memory serves one of the potions ended midway, but the other was still in effect at the pick up time.
It seems as if my maximum health is frozen, which is interesting, to say the least.
Great game but
I want to find all the health upgrades. I got the onee on Rhisla, Mezlta, and Elaris. I found Mormax on Potal too. How many upgrades am I looking for? Is it one for each planet?
Shoone:
Indeed - one per planet, 7 upgrades to make a total of 10 health points.
I'm trying to find the
health upgrades on the last 3 worlds but i can't find them
found a glitch.
you can knock the flying sentinel orb robot guard out of the level in the tower on Elaris, on all floors in the tower. use a fire potion when he is in the first left upper corner of the room (where it hibernates, actually), you can lure him there because he does not get low enough for the next chamber to follow you. Slap him with a potion that will not instantly kill it. you see it in the black region surrounding the level now - the space which you can not access.
@ m.woloch -
Here are the locations of each of the health upgrades (more fun if you find these on your own though!):
1. Rhisla
On the level above the doorway inside your house (next to where your ship lands whenever you return to Rhisla). To get it you need to use:
The Fortify Jump potion from Aeryl (or the Zero Gravity potion).
2. Ro'gor
In the second screen of the world (the first screen to the left after you land in your ship), you must go up. You will require:
The Zero Gravity potion from Aeryl (Fortify Jump is not enough).
3. Elaris
When going through the factory portion of the level, you will come to a room with four teleportation pads (in addition to the one you zapped in from). One of these pads takes you to a room with poisonous gas; on the other side is the health upgrade. There are two ways to reach the upgrade:
The conventional path is to get the Oxygenation potion Potal and use this to clear the poisonous gas. Then you can walk over and pick up the health upgrade at your leisure.
The trickier, unconventional path (which you can perform without having visited Potal yet) is to get near to the gas and then walk in when there's enough of an opening as the gas bubbles shift about that you can walk into the middle of the gas. Then wait for an opening to open up that you can walk or jump through to reach the other side. Even if you "die" as you hit the health upgrade, you will still receive the upgrade (+ full health). You can then walk back into the gas and die, and you will respawn at the checkpoint with your new health upgrade.
4. Aeryl
From the starting (landing) screen, ride the moving platform up, then go left (past the man who compliments you on your jump). In the next screen on the left, you will meet another man who tells you "Trust in Aeo".
Walk immediately left from where this man is, out across the invisible platform. You will reach the health upgrade.
5. Meztla
The health upgrade is in the barred temple located to the left of the starting (landing) screen.
The combination for the temple is located on Rhisla - use a Reveal potion on the far left of the lower side of the dig site in Rhisla, where the resting digger says there is something written on the wall there but he can't quite make it out. Return to the barred temple on Meztla and input the combination to unlock the barred temple. Use a Zero Gravity potion to fly up and to the right inside the main room of the temple and locate the health upgrade.
If you'd rather skip the return trip to Rhisla, you can simply run through all the possible combinations. Set all three wheels to rest on the same symbol, then turn the rightmost wheel 4 times. Next, turn the middle wheel once, then turn the rightmost wheel 4 more times. Turn the middle wheel again and repeat, until the middle wheel has returned to the original starting symbol you selected. Then rotate the leftmost symbol once, then rotate the middle symbol once, then rotate the rightmost symbol 4 times. Then rotate the middle symbol once, and the rightmost symbol four times again. You can turn the wheels as quickly as you like; as soon as you hit the right combination, the barrier will be removed, and will not come back even if you change the combination.
6. Potal
The empty tent just to the left of the ladder leading down into the underground oxygen station in Vanni (on the far right side of the world) is not as empty as it appears.
To find the health upgrade, walk right inside the empty tent - into the wall and keep going. You will enter a secret passage that leads you shortly to the upgrade.
7. X'o'chthu / Lynaii
In the house floating above the first house you encounter after landing on planet Lynaii.
Use a Jump or Zero Gravity potion to reach the house containing the health upgrade.
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