Video Game / Franken

FRANKEN draws near!

Franken is a short (approx. 1 hour long) Eastern RPG made with the OHRRPGCE engine. It was created by Samanthuel "splendidland" Gillson, the creator of Megaman Sprite Comic and subsequent Megaman Sprite Game. The game is available for free for PC, and can be accessed here.

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Tropes:

• Adipose Rex: The king is very hefty.
• After-Combat Recovery: As the player is informed by a Hint Mouse in the first area of the game, their health is fully restored after every battle.
• All Your Powers Combined: During the final boss fight, every character that died comes Back from the Dead and shows up (alongside one random guy from a mountain that's impossible to ever actually talk to) to lend their power and help defeat Eclypson.
• Ambiguous Gender: The main protagonist; to quote splendidland in the comments of the game's itch.io page, "they're whatever gender you want them to be".
• Art-Style Dissonance: Every character's battle and dialogue portrait is incredibly detailed, which contrasts with their simplistic map sprites and funny dialogue.
• Asset Actor: Played for Laughs. Cerberus appears as a scorpion during battle due to his proper sprite not being done yet. Later, he shows you his sprite, which is very poorly-drawn.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: In battle, the player's only option is to attack; there's no option to guard or retreat.
• Back from the Dead: Condor, Balgus, Troab, and Chiibe all show up during the final boss fight to provide help despite their earlier deaths; when asked how, Balgus just says not to worry about it.
• The Big Damn Kiss: The final scene of the game is one between the protagonist and Frankenstein at their wedding.
• Beef Gate: The whole game is essentially a series of them. To wit, every enemy capable of causing a game over serves as one; due to the rather non-interactive battle system, the outcome of every fight is decided before it begins solely by the hero's level and equipment.
• Black Knight: The Dragon of the game is the HELLSKNIGHT, a black-armored warrior that's slaughtered thousands^note actually just 1,282 people.
• Boy Meets Ghoul: The game ends with the hero's marriage to Frankenstein.
• Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": Lampshaded in the rematch against HELLSKNIGHT, when they point out how much "life health meter heart points" they have compared to the protagonist.
• Character Level: A very simplistic version; in every battle won, the protagonist immediately levels up and gains one additional health point.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Soon after getting the Global Airship, the player can see a male NPC surrounded by mountains; however, due to mountains being inaccessible by foot and airships can't land on them, it's impossible to talk with him. He appears in the game's final battle as part of the All Your Powers Combined scene, with no explanation.
• Desperation Attack: The Bloodman guarding the Dragon Shield attempts one, and successfully kills Condor with it.
• Doomed Hometown: Shortly after visiting the game's first town and getting an upgraded sword, HELLSKNIGHT arrives and decides to burn the entire place to the ground. All of its villagers are later found being taken care of elsewhere, the majority in a village of Leopard Men.
• Enemy Roll Call: The credits end with every single character and monster in the game, with the final two being the protagonist and Frankenstein.
• Extremely Short Timespan: According to one NPC in the game's final scene, everything that took place did so over the course of a single day.
• Foreshadowing: HELLSKNIGHT refuses to kill the hero after the Hopeless Boss Fight, claiming they're Not Worth Killing. Actually, it's because they're fully unable to kill their former childhood friend.
• Frankenstein's Monster: The Post-Final Boss, Eclypson's first and ultimate creation, is a green, humanoid amalgamation of body parts that's literally addressed as Frankenstein.
• Global Airship: The player gains access to Balgus' airship midway through the game, though the actual size of the globe is rather small.
• Good Costume Switch: Chiibe, the former HELLSKNIGHT, is revived as the HEAVENSKNIGHT when they appear to help fight Eclypson (despite their earlier murder of thousands).
• Heel–Face Turn: All of the monsters you fight in the game reappear later as non-antagonistic NPCs. There's also the more-immediate case of HELLSKNIGHT, who tries to assist you as soon as their defeat, but gets vaporized due to their earlier plotting against Eclypson.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The game begins with naming the nameless main protagonist.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Soon after being rescued and bequeathing the player his Global Airship, Balgus pulls a Taking You with Me against HELLSKNIGHT's minions.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The hero's first encounter with HELLSKNIGHT is right after you've defeated your first three enemies. HELLSKNIGHT has six times your current HP and three times your attack power, but instead of outright killing the hero, decides to spare them because it's not worth the effort.
• Human Resources: Unable to find any life-creating magic on the Moon, Eclypson's back-up plan is getting Dr. Heckle to create life using parts from Earth people the monsters have killed.
• Identical Stranger: One of the NPCs in the game's first town feels awkward that his girlfriend has the same map sprite as his mother, and decides to call the relationship off completely when both women get Easy Amnesia after their Doomed Hometown is attacked and he can't tell them apart anymore. Both girls regain their memory and the ex-girlfiend gets a haircut in time for the wedding at the end of the game, though her ex-boyfriend is now dating a Leopard Man.
• Idle Rich: The jester in the castle near the starting area purposely never lets their king hear any bad news that would spoil their mood, which is why said king is completely ignorant of monster attacks and provides no help for the hero's quest.
• Love at First Sight: The hero and Frankenstein end up together almost immediately as the Hero decides to kiss Frankenstein instead, who then decides they don't want to fight the hero too.
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Heckle is a Zombie-looking scientist that appears in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, helping Eclypson try to create life by pickling and combining the corpses of humans slain by their monster minions.
• Monster Compendium: Pausing the game allows the player to access a Bestiary, in which they can see the battle portraits of every enemy fought, as well as a short bio for each.
• Not Worth Killing: At the end of the Hopeless Boss Fight against HELLSKNIGHT, HELLSKNIGHT compares killing the protagonist to sitting on a whoopee cushion: a joke, but at their own expense.
• One-Winged Angel: The Final Boss fight against Eclypson starts with them cloaked in a dark environment, before they unfurl their one dragon and one angelic wings and the backdrop turns into a galaxy.
• Opening Scroll: The game begins with one about how the province is in trouble due to monsters waiting to be randomly encountered and the foretold arrival of the dreaded "HELL'S KNIGHT" (aka HELLSKNIGHT). There's also a Mid-game Scroll when Troab describes how that came to pass, which will either go at regular speed or quickly depending on whether or not the player says they actually want to listen to her.
• Optional Boss: There are two enemies in the game that are completely optional and reward nothing (but an entry in the Bestiary) upon defeat: the Mimic-C, who's a jerk, and the Atom Fighter, who's too small to offer any useful power.
• Palette Swap:
  • At the start of the game, the first enemies fought are Slimes and a Red Slime.
  • Parodied with the Scorpion, whose design is later recolored and reused for Lobster, Spider, Shrimp, and Cerberus (though in the latter's case, he was still working on his battle's design and the reused sprite was a placeholder).
  • Towards the end of the game, mechanical grey versions of HELLSKNIGHT are encountered as a Degraded Boss.
• Person as Verb: The Bestiary entry for Frankenstein provides a comically confusing example:
  They are named "Frankenstein" because they are "frankensteined together" out of body parts.
• Post-Final Boss: After the player defeats Eclypson as the Final Boss, there is one final, less-dramatic confrontation before the game is over: Eclypson's creation, Frankenstein.
• The Resenter: As told by the Great Wizard Troab midway through the game, the whole mess with monsters and the HELLSKNIGHT was caused by Eclypson, the God of the Moon, being resentful that he couldn't create life like the Gods of Earth and the Sun, and deciding to kill humans to use as raw material for a creation of his own.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Prior to fighting HELLSKNIGHT, he considers taking down Eclypson himself after defeating you, being bored with taking commands. This results in Eclypson using the moon teleporter to vaporize Chiibe after their Heel–Face Turn and deciding to join your quest to the moon.
• Significant Anagram: The very first line of the Opening Scroll is "The province of FENTINSENARK is in turmoil." "Fentinsenark" is an anagram of "Frankenstein".
• Serial Escalation: One NPC in the first town is a child that's claimed a very tiny spot as Kid's Corner. Later, after getting the Global Airship, you learn they survived the attack on their Doomed Hometown and has set up base on Kid's Island, with one kid being exiled to the edge for questioning their leadership. Finally, when talking with various characters in the game's final area, you can learn it's grown into the New Adolescent Republic.
• Sheathe Your Sword:
  • The fight against HELLSKNIGHT ends with the protagonist throwing their sword away as they help Chiibe remember their old friendship.
  • The fight against Frankenstein ends with the protagonist realizing they're no match for their foe, and deciding to try a different strategy: smooching Frankenstein and falling in love.
• Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Spoken during the wedding between the protagonist and Frankenstein at the end of the game. One person walks up to object, as he's pretty sure one of his arms was used in Frankenstein's creation, but decides to back off after seeing how truly in love the duo are.
• Stylistic Suck:
  • Gameplay-wise, it looks like a normal RPG, but it quickly becomes clear that you only have one attack with a fixed outcome, and so do most enemies, so combat is purely dependent on whether or not you have enough levels and the right equipment before starting the battle.
  • Graphics-wise, Cerberus appears as a (poorly-Palette Swapped) scorpion due to his actual battle graphic not being done yet. Later, he shows you his actual sprite, but it's very poorly-drawn. Bloodman also appears in a similar badly-drawn style during their Desperation Attack.
• Taking You with Me: Almost immediately after being rescued from one of HELLSKNIGHT's minions, Balgus is surrounded by "Hell Troops" that are there to execute him for building a Global Airship and defiling the skies; he pulls out a bomb of his own, tasks the protagonist with using the Airship to save the world, and then blows himself and the Hell Police to smithereens.
• Title Drop: In the game's climax, it's revealed to be named for Frankenstein's Monster, which is Eclypson's first creation and the Post-Final Boss.
• Treacherous Checkpoint: One Optional Boss is a Save Crystal-shaped Mimic in an otherwise empty cave. It's a huge jerk that purposely denies giving you experience on defeat, and the narration stating so is glad that it's dead.
• Turn-Based Combat: The battle system is incredibly simplistic: you have a turn to attack (for 1-3 damage depending on your current sword), then the enemy has a turn to attack. Excluding special events for the bosses (such as the Hopeless Boss Fight against HELLSKNIGHT), this repeats until you or it is dead; there's no Guarding, no Items, no Spells, and no Retreating.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The final area of the game takes place in a grand palace on the moon.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Both Balgus and the Great Wizard Troab die in the first conversation they're talked with, the former due to Heroic Sacrifice and the latter from being very, very old. They both inexplicably come back to life for the climax.
• Wizard Classic: Troab is one, with a pointed hat and a luxurious beard (despite being, according to Troab herself, a woman).
• Zero-Effort Boss: Exaggerated; due to the player only having access to a single function in battle (Attack) and every enemy having a pre-set strategy (usually also just Attack), every single fight in the game just has the player press a single button every turn until they either win or die.