Tales of Itzkeria is a freeware humorous RPG created on the RPG Maker.
Itzka is a hardcore gamer (how anyone can play videogames in a fantasy kingdom is anyone's guess, but oh well) who embodies the "loner" stereotype to the letter - he literally hasn't left his house in years. One day, his friend decides it's finally time to go outside. Unwillingly, Itzka's exposed to a beautiful fantasy land filled with adventures. After a terrible incident however, Itzka's forced to abandon his home forever and travel the world in search of the mightiest power imaginable - the Master Sword (yes, THE Master Sword). Because, you know, he's the Chosen One. On his journey, he meets and befriends other people such as:
Datzo, a former Imperial Knight, and the one who initially takes Itzka out of his house. A street-smart kid that loves women, alcohol and cash more than anything. Wherever he goes and whatever he does, he does it for his own personal gain first. However, he does care about the people around him as well, as he seems to be legitimately interested in helping Itzka out, and he's also the only one who's actually interested in saving another human being during the attack on Varna.
Kosyo, a Black Mage, and overall the Straight Man of the group. He's the most knowledgeable one of the group by far. When he does research, he does it flawlessly, being able to pinpoint the exact locations of ancient artifacts in a matter of months. Despite never doing anything remotely evil throughout the entire game, he has this evil aura around him at all times. Probably because he's an artist.
Milen, a paladin who, like all self-respecting paladins, has an affinity for the green stuff. He also has a severe case of squirrelophobia. But despite all that, he's actually a really cool guy and really supports the party before an attack by Darius' general leaves him unable to fight
Mitko, a mercenary, and the only character who can use two weapons at once. A big guy who doesn't speak much unless required for plot exposition. Hired by the Commandante to help the group out after Milen is badly hurt. In reality, he's Darius' right-hand man sent to observe the group and eventually dispose of the group once they fulfill their purpose.
Laura, Itzka's female clone created in order to replace him as the Chosen One and acquire the Master Sword for Darius. When she fails, Darius orders her execution. She's playable during the final part of the game. Trained since birth to be an assassin... for some reason, she's not very aware of many things, even her own human emotions and personality.
The game itself is a hilarious deconstruction of the entire JRPG genre, poking fun of dozens of tropes and rules normally applied to console RPGs. Playthroughs vary in length, but first one's usually about 5-6 hours, though you're required to play through it again with Itzka's stats and skills intact in order to get the real ending. It can be found here
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Tropes include:
- Covers Always Lie: The characters on the main menu image only barely resemble the characters in the actual game in terms of face and hairstyle.
- Disc-One Final Dungeon: The monastery can be considered this, since it's the last dungeon before the group leaves the continent.
- Downloadable Content: On the official Facebook page, the author said he's "experimenting with DLC".
- Fighting Your Friend: A rare humorous example - Datzo feels the need to punch Milen out after the latter breaks Kosyo's precious orb that Itzka and Datzo were paid to retrieve.
- Get on the Boat: Captain Jack lends the party his trusty ship so they can go to East Pole
- MegaCorp: Blue Sun can be considered this.
- New Game Plus: The player's required to start again and find a woman named Cassandra in every single location without fail in order to get the true ending.
- Parental Abandonment: Played with. First off - none of the main cast's parents are mentioned. Only exceptions are Laura (she considers Darius her father and finds her real mother in the true ending and Itzka, who's hilariously abandoned during his crowning.
- Running Gag: several, but probably the most prominent one is using "One or two months" as an actual, exact time period
- Samus Is a Girl: Darius' assassin ultimately being revealed as Laura
- Scratch Damage: All the damage you'll get on your path back to Varna after getting the Master Sword, since the enemies there are WAY below your current level.
- See You in Hell: Not quite, but before his death Dracula prophesies that Itzka himself will die in a similar way. Whether that prophecy comes true or not is yet to be seen.
- Shout-Out: WAY too many to even begin counting. Practically every screen of the game has several, but probably the most notable ones are the recreated areas from Castlevania and Tales of Vesperia.
- Start My Own: How Blue Sun was conceived - thousands of years ago, Darius felt he could no longer serve the Empire, so he broke free and ultimately created an organization almost as powerful as the Empire itself.
- Suspicious Videogame Generosity: Use save points. A lot. At literally every single opportunity. You never know when a boss is going to come out of nowhere and kick your ass.
- Title Drop: The project to create Laura is called "Project Itzkeria"
- Updated Re-release: The author hinted at one on the game's official Facebook page. Made official with a version that added a sideview battle system as opposed to the old first person one, the ability to change the battle theme at any time in case you grow tired of it, and TONS of bug fixes.
