Rating of
4.5/5
A Metaphor for Itself.
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/12/15
“On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness” was always planned as a four-part, multi-episode game. But after two lukewarm episodes by Hothead Games, it appeared that the “Penny Arcade” RPG project had come to a premature end. Thankfully, a new partnership between “Penny Arcade” and Zeboyd Games (the Xbox Indie developer behind “Breath of Death 7” and “Cthulhu Saves the World”) resurrected the concept and brought it roaring back from its own precipice of darkness for a two-part conclusion, completing the ‘Quartet for the Dusk of Man’ in glorious fashion.
Presentation
Like “Episode 3,” “Episode 4” is a typically Zeboyd-looking game. Resting somewhat uncomfortably between 8-bit and 16-bit visuals, the game is portrayed from a birds-eye view outside of combat and a side-on view during combat. Enemy sprites are more frequently animated than the last episode (though the animation is fairly minimal), and character portraits are still a hodgepodge of art by Mike Krahulik (for important characters) and art by Zeboyd Games (for random folks). I don’t think it would have killed Mike Krahulik to scribble up a few random townsfolk portraits and send them over to Zeboyd, but that ship has already sailed.
Unlike “Episode 3,” “Episode 4” does feature a rather expansive world map instead of a series of points connected by lines. The art for the overworld is among the best Zeboyd has produced, and there is a noticeable improvement to the environmental art in the many explorable locations in the final episode.
The soundtrack is fairly similar to “Episode 3’s,” with plenty of high quality music that seems to intentionally invoke classic RPGs of days gone by. I got a distinctly “Chrono Trigger” vibe from a lot of the music… and that’s a good thing.
Story
“Episode 4” wraps up the four-part tale that is allegorized by Tycho Brahe’s ‘Quartet for the Dusk of Man.’ With the first two episodes failing to form any kind of broader picture of the overarching narrative of the series, I was pleased by “Episode 3’s” ability to cram a lot of exposition and character development into a short span of time. “Episode 4” continues the concise story-telling via exposition and character development admirably, filling in all of the holes that “Episode 1” and “Episode 2” dug, then abandoned. Like “Episode 3,” “Episode 4” is about a 10 hour experience, taking place across 11 chapters.
After the concluding events of “Episode 3,” the Brahe family’s ‘Long Project’ is in the final phases of completion, though corrupted in intent by the heretical Tycho… who turns out to be one of many, many, MANY Tychos who have lived, died, and apparently used occult knowledge to clone themselves instead of procreating normally throughout history.
The Long Project is a plan to end the universe and prevent it from ever restarting itself. For time immemorial, the Brahes have scoured a patch of spacetime that borders real spacetime – called The Periphery – to ensure that the place is completely empty, as The Periphery, being the last thing to disappear as the universe is destroyed, would create the seed for the next universe based on its contents. Empty Periphery = No new universe. In order to destroy the universe, however, the Brahes must kill all of the gods that will it into existence, hence the continuous deicide of Lovecraftian Elder Gods seen in episodes 1-3.
‘Our’ Tycho, however, has decided that instead of destroying the universe and preventing it from restarting, The Long Project should aim to destroy the universe and ensure that the seed material stored in The Periphery will cause the next universe to be perfect. At the end of “Episode 3,” it would seem that the reassembly and subsequent destruction of the Elder God of Doors has heralded the end of all things, yet unbeknownst even to Tycho, there is one god remaining.
“Episode 4” opens with the important characters from “Episode 3” discovering themselves not destroyed, but instead falling through incomprehensible amounts of space and time to a place called Underhell, which is the last remaining piece of the universe left in the wake of the God of Doors’ passing. Gabe and Dr. Blood find themselves in an unlikely alliance (and Dr. Blood finally gets some (okay, a lot) of character development and personality) on one side of Underhell, while Moira and the no-longer-semi-undead-but-fully-undead Jim find themselves on the other side of Underhell. Tycho is nowhere to be found, but Moira and Jim soon find themselves neck-deep in other Tychos, as the true scope of The Long Project comes into focus.
The majority of “Episode 4” is a split narrative, shifting focus between Gabe’s team and Moira’s team throughout, before finally uniting the two parties (and Tycho) for the grand finale. Throughout their adventures in Underhell, however, the (mostly) human characters are joined by a large number of domesticated monsters, allowing Zeboyd to really go nuts with parodying “Pokemon” (there is even a Team Rocket parody with their own theme song) while still keeping the “Penny Arcade” style narrative tone on-point and the plot on-track.
Gameplay
Like “Episode 3,” “Episode 4” uses all of Zeboyd’s typically streamlined RPG mechanics (regenerating consumables, full heals after every battle, every battle is pre-determined, etc.) alongside a turn-based combat system (featuring the same well-designed MP buildup mechanic from the last episode) that closely resembles the one found in the ‘Grandia’ series. The core of this combat system is a turn meter that gives each combat participant an icon that moves at a speed determined by the speed stat. Upon reaching the Command point on the meter, the player tells the character what to do via menus, then must wait until the character’s icon reaches the Act point on the meter for the action to occur. Certain attacks (by characters only, as enemies don’t seem to have any) have the ability to interrupt the target and send them back to the beginning of the turn meter if they are hit while their icon is between the Command and Act points.
The key difference between “Episode 3” and “Episode 4” is the new monster battling mechanics that replaced the Class Pins from the last episode. Because the monsters of Underhell are far beyond mortals’ ability to harm, the characters must instead use Monstorbs to capture and domesticate other monsters to do their fighting for them. Unlike traditional monster-battling RPGs, “Episode 4” does not have a lot of customization nor a huge stable of monsters to choose from. There are a lot of monsters that eventually join the party (even Cthulhu is recruitable as a bonus… though apparently no longer counts as a god for the game’s purposes), but many of them are not particularly interesting because they are lacking in unique skills that make them stand out or allow them to fulfil a specific party role. Customizing monsters is limited to choosing which character will be their trainer (which can be changed at any time), providing access to that trainer’s unique commands and passive abilities, as well as level-up stat boosts that are different for each trainer. I actually found the stat boosts from trainers to be not-well-thought-out at all, as the non-grinding nature of Zeboyd RPGs and the team combinations forced by the narrative often lead to very poor monster/trainer pairings that would send min/maxers into apoplectic fits.
Despite the flawed monster/trainer stat boosts and the removal of the grinding colosseum, “Episode 4” still feels perfectly balanced. Each and every battle feels meaningful, where in most other RPGs the rank and file battles are forgettable fluff that serve only as padding.
Overall
“Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4” is a fantastic capstone for the series, and a testament to the idea that any good RPG needs both solid writing and solid gameplay. With the streamlined Zeboyd-style RPG mechanics and the collaborative wit of both Robert Boyd and Jerry Holkins providing the narrative, “Episode 4” manages to be both a humorous and thought-provoking apocalypse story. The Zeboyd-made episodes in this series are so well-done (and so much better than the Hothead-made episodes) that I would really love to see the “Penny Arcade” guys give Zeboyd the go-ahead to de-master the first two episodes in the same style (since remastering is a thing that happens with distressing commonality in the 8th Gen).
Presentation: 4/5
Story: 4.5/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4.5/5
