Breath of Death VII: The Beginning Review (PC)

A legit, comedic 16-bit era RPG with most of the garbage cut out. Breath of Death VII knows and loves RPGs of yesteryear, and seems to have learned from mistakes of the past and delivered a breezy, straight forward, but still satisfying adventure. Everything from the snappy (and eventually skippable/fight-on-demand) turn based combat to the ability to save anywhere makes progress relatively painless. Humor permates throughout, and even with a few references and self aware jabs it thankfully avoids being juvenile or overly meme-y. That doesn't undercut the staples of the genre, either: battles can be difficult unless you (quickly) do some grinding and there's a learning curve to the characters' abilities and roles. Nothing seems insurmountable or overwhelming or cryptic; it's just a good time all around.

  My only complaint is the envirnoments can be overly maze-like in same-y looking areas (the last level in particular), but that's just a matter of puzzling out the lay of the land or grabbing some graph paper if you're crazy. Other than that I highly recommend Breath of Death if you're the least bit curious of old school console RPGs. It's not going to steal your money or time, and will most likely put a smile on your face.