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With there being a variety of Role-Playing Games, especially those made with RPG Maker, it’s kind of hard to stand out in the indie game community. As it usually comes down to story and gameplay that catch the attention of RPG junkies such as myself (then again, again I play just about anything that is an RPG) such as “Undertale” and its story and unique battle system or the Edutainment RPG “Learn Japanese to Survive! Hiragana Battle.” “The Perfectionist’s” highlights in both story and gameplay. As it’s an RPG where you need to solve puzzles and fight your way out of the facility, where you’re part of a mad science experiment. “The Perfectionist” also lives up to all the RPG clichés there is, and you will find all the clues you need in the game’s title (an insane scientist with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder planned it).

Considering what they have to go through just to leave the research facility, I agree.

The Perfectionist is similar to “Corpse Party” where you explore and find items as solutions to the puzzles that are obstructing your way to freedom. The difference from Corpse Party and The Perfectionist, however, is not only the story is more lighthearted and comedic but there are also turn-based battles.

Battles occur in two methods outside of scripted events. Either you fail to sneak past the enemy NPC patrolling the area (stealth is a part of gameplay), or you come across a random battle by walking on the blue tiled security zones. Once you get into a battle you’ll go through the traditional turn-based combat seen in most RPGs. And throughout the game, you’ll need to charge your SP in order to use Specials. What makes battling interesting is that the game asks you to utilize your characters more methodically because the SP charges vary between what actions you use and some character exclusive skills only work with certain enemy types. In other words, strategy is more essential to winning battles opposed to using the brute strength (which Dillon, the main protagonist got from his “participation”).

These Seismibots are not to be taken lightly. Trust me.

While your primary objective to find all the code pages needed to exit you’ll still have to solve some puzzles in order to find them. And since Professor Phillips (the main antagonist) hide them in different rooms in the research facility, locked with keys which he has scattered out on different levels. Well, let´s just say that it won´t be a walk in the park kind of thing to find and solve all the puzzles. I’m not sure if he is insane, or it’s his OCD but his “security plan” is madness. Solving these puzzles works in a similar fashion to “Corpse party”: find an object or key to access particular areas.

There are also puzzles that require certain characters to solve, such as Dillon’s unnatural, non-trench coat (Snow’s “weapon”, FFXIII) strength to punch or move some boxes or Scotty the hacker’s ability to jump into virtual space to hack something like a freezer’s control system. Aside from the story’s puzzles, the side quests will require some thinking so you’ll be wrapped in the game for some hours..

Unfortunately enough for you though, this is just the demo version.

I’ve really enjoyed playing the demo, and I want to play more of it. And on a personal level, I plan on getting the full version of “The Perfectionist” when I get the chance to do so. Any ways, if this sounds like your cup of tea, then you can support the game on Steam Greenlight by giving it your vote.

Credit:
Robin Ek – Editor