Dubloon is a freeware RPG developed by Greg Lobanov, the creator of Assassin Blue, Escape from the Underworld, and co-creator of Cowboy Killa, over the course of about a year.
The game is set in an Ocean Punk world where the Navy has almost complete control of the seas, leaving pirates scattered and vulnerable. The story follows a crew of four pirates who seek out the world's ultimate treasure - a golden treasure chest - taking on the Navy in the process.
The game uses a unique mouse-based interface and incorporates elements of many different games, such as combat based on Action Commands and field moves.
The game can be downloaded here or here.
This game provides examples of:
- Bag of Sharing: Hand Waved; Riley and Ricky are sent a package containing the first two crew members' entire inventory. How they can fit all of that junk into a small package, however, is left to imagination.
- Booze-Based Buff: Pirates' magic is powered by alcohol. The more drunk one is, the more powerful they become.
- When Anne offers to help you escape prison and when Riley and Ricky are offered to join the crew.
- Also, You can deny Anne's offer to join her crew, but she's your only ticket off of the island.
- Likewise, when Kaz's crew asks for assistance, you can say no and leave them standing there, but you can't progress with the plot until you say yes.
- Combatant Cooldown System: Each combatant has a meter that allows them to perform an action when filled up. The game doesn't pause them when one of player characters gets their meter full, which means that it's possible for slower members to act beforehand, or to wait for some bosses to quit their Counter-Attack mode.
- Cool Versus Awesome: Over the course of your journey, you'll fight the following: pirates with hooks for heads, pirates with peglegs for heads, pirate zombies, vikings, ghosts, skeletons, sentient severed hands, multi-colored knights (including a golden one), sea serpents, mermaids, mutant fishes THAT SHOOT LASERS, a giant mole, flying hippos, walking trees and bushes... and more!
- Failed a Spot Check: One Navy NPC on Bowish Island remarks on "[your] pirate ship sailing by the island". Of course, he hadn't noticed any boat coming from this ship (or for that matter, any boat at all).
- Ghost Pirate: In Greg Lobanov's later game Wandersong, the monkey from Dubloon makes a cameo. It's said in it that the monkey may actually secretly hold the spirit of a "legendary and powerful pirate."
- Go Wait Outside: Timber has to build another ship while on Pyrite Island. It takes as long as you re-enter part of the island where he is.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: One NPC on Bowish Island gives Ricky a hint about the key to the house, just because he wouldn't expect the monkey to do this.
- Healing Checkpoint: Most save logs are located close to either trauma inns or red chests that replenish your crew's health and alcohol points. Ones that aren't are usually located somewhere within a dungeon.
- Heroic Mime: Russel, the silent protagonist.
- Played With. The intro and the endings are clearly narrated by him, and he does speak once in the game, even if it's for just one word: "Aye"
- The Battle Didn't Count: It's actually possible to beat that first battle with a LOT of grinding, as shown in this video. If you win, however, Bradley just calls you a cheater and carries on as if he'd won anyway.
- 100% Completion: Collect all buried loot and open all the chests to unlock an alternate ending.
- It's Personal: The only reason Riley and Ricky join the crew is because Riley's dad was executed by the Navy, and shortly after the fact. After Riley meets the other crewmembers, Anne actually requests that Riley join in order to pay a debt of gratitude forward from Riley's father, who had served alongside Anne before the events of the game. Eventually, Riley gets the opportunity to deal the final blow to kill Bradley, and he proclaims before Bradley that said final hit is to avenge his dad.
- New Era Speech: Delivered by Domin before the crew fights him, but unlike most examples, there is no audience he is presented to. The way he speaks in this segment, however, matches several other examples.Domin: Now, make way for a new world order under the Navy... one without the pestiferous existence of piracy!
- Pictorial Speech-Bubble: When Russel saves Ricky without saving Riley first, Ricky will ask where Riley is with a speech bubble depicting his head, to which Russel replies with speech bubble showing a shaking head.
- Playing with Fire: Anne has fire-based spells that go well with her personality and hair.
- Public Domain Artifact: The Golden Chest is effectively Pandora's Box. Immediately after opening it, Davy Jones quips that the chest was designed by the gods of the sea to contain the Greed within humanity's hearts. It's played with, though: immediately after mentioning this, Davy states that if you can "conquer the greed within" (re: fight and defeat the chest), the chest is truly the greatest treasure known to man - depending on how you interpret his quip that greed is what humanity truly greeds for the most.
- Red Shirt Army: For most of the game, all you'll see of the Navy are the pathetic Navy Jr's, Navy ships in the Unexpected Shmup Level, and Bradley.
- Ret-Canon: "Actually, I've just decided that in Wandersong that's canon. Yes."
- Ridiculous Exchange Rates: One NPC on Pyrite Island demands you to buy his treasure chest's content for 1 million Farquads. Later it turns out that 1 million Farquads is worth 1 Dubloon.
- Shout-Out: On Bowish Island you can find a hat, a sword, and a cape that belong to Blue (shown equipped in the screenshot above). Also, on the name-entry screen, there is a "don't care" button which gives a character one of several pre-defined names. These include shout-outs to Monkey Island, One Piece and EarthBound alongside much more mundane names.
- The Evils of Free Will: Discussed. ||During the conversation before fighting Domin, Domin explains that his end goal is that the Navy act as the sole world order, because, in his words, without the Navy, the entire world would descend into chaos.||
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Pirates are too afraid of the Navy to actually go out pirating.
- Treasure Map: A map serves as the area select screen, and you can add new areas to travel to by finding maps scattered throughout the world.
- Trivial Title: Titled after the currency used in the game that has no bearing to its plot.
- Unexpected Shmup Level: When you travel between islands you get to play a short shooting minigame with your ship, giving you a chance to rack up some extra dubloons.
- You All Meet in a Cell: Technically, you don't begin the game there, but it's right after the first area, and it's how you meet your second party member.
- You Rebel Scum!: Bradley and Domin."All pirates are scum, and it's the Navy's job to eliminate them!"