Girlfriend Rescue. Well this game was something to experience, that’s for sure. I need to start by saying that this review is, unfortunately, personally biased. No, not because I received a copy of the game for free (although I did that didn’t affect my review). No, I found myself personally biased because quite frankly I love RPG maker games. As a man very close to his 40s at the time of writing this, I grew up playing Final Fantasy on my NES, and consuming every RPG I could get my hand on. RPG maker games often evoke a feeling of nostalgia in me that takes me back to the late 80s and early 90s. Boy, let me tell you… Girlfriend Rescue triggers that sentimentality, and triggers it hard, in all the right ways.

So, the store page claims that “Girlfriend Rescue is a thrilling adventure where the gameplay of "Dragon Quest" meets the atmosphere of "Streets of Rage".” One word, yup. I get it, I totally get it. Playing Girlfriend Rescue absolutely reminded me of the game play of the old Dragon Quest style JRPGs and had the pointless, often campy, story reminiscent of games like Streets of Rage or Bad Dudes. First of all, hilariously, this game isn’t about rescuing your ‘girlfriend’ it’s about trying to rescue some chick the main character has a crush on. A girl that likely has no idea the hero even exists. You’re less a boyfriend and more a stalker to be honest. The inclusion of choice of gender of both the protagonist and the ‘crush’ was a nice touch. It felt unnecessary to me, but it was one of those choices that was simple to include in the game and some players will probably appreciate. So you set off on a quest with three of your ‘gang’ to try to rescue your crush.

This is one of the game’s interesting points, you choose three members of your gang with very little information about what they are going to bring to the party. There were several times that I wanted to restart just to see what the other gang members would have done because I ended up with a melee heavy party with no healing. Still I found the game not too difficult, even on normal. Though I was searching every square inch possible for every scrap of food, healing medicine, or coin to make sure I could keep my party healthy and satiated. Oh, yeah, because hunger is a thing. A thing that actually adds a little depth to the game in fact, you might not want to use all your healing items if they are also the only food you have, because someone might get hungry soon.

Actually there’s a lot of different status effects in this game. Almost too many, and I couldn’t tell you after playing for three hours if I’d seen them all, and I certainly couldn’t tell you what most of them did. But in the end that doesn’t really matter too much, as you get the idea that good status effects are good, and bad ones are bad. It’s not required to know that one lowers strength by 10% and defense by 30% while another one lowers strength by 30% and defense by 10%. Just keep smashing in the faces of bad guys.

The game isn’t without it’s faults of course. The music is a bit repetitive and I found myself turning it off after not too long. Likewise the graphics are quite underwhelming. I’m sure that the idea was to go for a retro feel. But somehow it doesn’t work out quite as well as other RPG maker games I’ve played. The in game sprites feel very flat, and the levels all just feel like cookie cutter layouts.

But in the end, I find that I don’t mind this too much and they are more minor points when it comes to the story and the game. I’ve found myself quite pleased with the time I’ve put into this one. Comparing it against other RPG maker games, this one comes out very well. But you have to get into the campy feel that they are throwing down. Throw yourself back to 1990 and you’ll get it, but if you look at this and compare it to modern RPGs you’ll be disappointed. So caveat emptor I suppose, but for me, I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit and recommend it to anyone, who like myself, is old enough to recognize what the developers were going for with this campy beat em up RPGMaker game.


NOTE - I was given a free copy of this game in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Girlfriend Rescue. Well this game was something to experience, that’s for sure. I need to start by saying that this review is, unfortunately, personally biased. No, not because I received a copy of the game for free (although I did that didn’t affect my review). No, I found myself personally biased because quite frankly I love RPG maker games. As a man very close to his 40s at the time of writing this, I grew up playing Final Fantasy on my NES, and consuming every RPG I could get my hand on. RPG maker games often evoke a feeling of nostalgia in me that takes me back to the late 80s and early 90s. Boy, let me tell you… Girlfriend Rescue triggers that sentimentality, and triggers it hard, in all the right ways. So, the store page claims that “Girlfriend Rescue is a thrilling adventure where the gameplay of "Dragon Quest" meets the atmosphere of "Streets of Rage".” One word, yup. I get it, I totally get it. Playing Girlfriend Rescue absolutely reminded me of the game play of the old Dragon Quest style JRPGs and had the pointless, often campy, story reminiscent of games like Streets of Rage or Bad Dudes. First of all, hilariously, this game isn’t about rescuing your ‘girlfriend’ it’s about trying to rescue some chick the main character has a crush on. A girl that likely has no idea the hero even exists. You’re less a boyfriend and more a stalker to be honest. The inclusion of choice of gender of both the protagonist and the ‘crush’ was a nice touch. It felt unnecessary to me, but it was one of those choices that was simple to include in the game and some players will probably appreciate. So you set off on a quest with three of your ‘gang’ to try to rescue your crush. This is one of the game’s interesting points, you choose three members of your gang with very little information about what they are going to bring to the party. There were several times that I wanted to restart just to see what the other gang members would have done because I ended up with a melee heavy party with no healing. Still I found the game not too difficult, even on normal. Though I was searching every square inch possible for every scrap of food, healing medicine, or coin to make sure I could keep my party healthy and satiated. Oh, yeah, because hunger is a thing. A thing that actually adds a little depth to the game in fact, you might not want to use all your healing items if they are also the only food you have, because someone might get hungry soon. Actually there’s a lot of different status effects in this game. Almost too many, and I couldn’t tell you after playing for three hours if I’d seen them all, and I certainly couldn’t tell you what most of them did. But in the end that doesn’t really matter too much, as you get the idea that good status effects are good, and bad ones are bad. It’s not required to know that one lowers strength by 10% and defense by 30% while another one lowers strength by 30% and defense by 10%. Just keep smashing in the faces of bad guys. The game isn’t without it’s faults of course. The music is a bit repetitive and I found myself turning it off after not too long. Likewise the graphics are quite underwhelming. I’m sure that the idea was to go for a retro feel. But somehow it doesn’t work out quite as well as other RPG maker games I’ve played. The in game sprites feel very flat, and the levels all just feel like cookie cutter layouts. But in the end, I find that I don’t mind this too much and they are more minor points when it comes to the story and the game. I’ve found myself quite pleased with the time I’ve put into this one. Comparing it against other RPG maker games, this one comes out very well. But you have to get into the campy feel that they are throwing down. Throw yourself back to 1990 and you’ll get it, but if you look at this and compare it to modern RPGs you’ll be disappointed. So caveat emptor I suppose, but for me, I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit and recommend it to anyone, who like myself, is old enough to recognize what the developers were going for with this campy beat em up RPGMaker game. NOTE - I was given a free copy of this game in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.