Space Funeral

""This is a JRPG no longer working in tropes, but in psychotropes.""

- Rock Paper Shotgun review.



Your name is Phillip. You happen to be an eternally-sad man clad in pajamas who exists in a gaudily-colored world of -- interesting features and characters, but most of all a plentiful abundance of blood. Apparently, life wasn't always like this, and Phillip and his soon-to-be companion Leg Horse journey to the Blood Cavern in an effort to set everything right again.

Made by thecatamites using RPG Maker 2003, Space Funeral technically does have role-playing elements, but they're downplayed in favor of emphasizing its odd, garish aesthetics. Graphically, think of the game's style akin to Mother 2, only drawn by seven year-old with a mild fascination with gore and some-such. The game's music, a motley mix of mellow '60s classic rock, '80s Japanese electronica, and other antiqued styles, only adds to the weirdness. Other highlights include largely macabre-yet-whimsical writing, and a seemingly nonsensical story that intertwines wizards, Lucy from Peanuts, pirate squids, cranky mummies, literal crime lords, living slabs of steak, and Dracula. Oh, and there's enough blood for everybody!

Although on the short side (it's possible to complete the game in well under an hour), Space Funeral is still a fun deconstruction and parody of horror genres and role-playing games. You can find the game available for download here.

"Welcome to MALICE! We have MANY GOODS and CRIMINALS!"
 * Baleful Polymorph:
 * Bold Inflation: in old-school RPG fashion the speeches of NPC:s have important subjects in ALL CAPS - except most of them are completely unimportant.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Leg Horse.
 * Mood Whiplash: Nearly everything in this game is too crudely rendered, bizarre, funny, or genuinely weak to be considered scary. The Blood Cavern is about the only exception to this.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: The thugs living in Malice all have names like Rip-The-Blood, Break-The-Bone, etc.
 * One-Scene Wonder: Dracula appears in his three-room manor at the edge of some frozen wastelands. You don't even have to talk to him. But if you do, it's pretty funny.
 * Quirky Town: Well, better described as a quirky world, really.
 * Scenery Gorn: Much of the landscape is made of various skulls, bones, and discolored pools of unidentified liquids. Played horrifically straight in the Blood Cavern.
 * Stylistic Suck: Describes the game's art assets aptly.
 * Surreal Horror
 * Surreal Humor
 * What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?
 * Wretched Hive: