Cthulhu Saves the World

7.0 Story/Setting

This epic begins with our protagonist “Cthulhu” (an evil alien-deity of Lovecraftian lore) having his powers revoked by an unidentified narrator. In order to restore his powers, the mysterious narrator informs him that he must become a hero. Only then can he go back to planning the demise of mankind.

Along the way, this unlikely savior will be given the benefit of the doubt by several thrill-seeking or do-gooding characters who will endeavor to help him on his quest. Oh, and the H.P. Lovecraft references don't stop with Cthulhu, you will encounter numerous credits to this master of horror throughout the game so pay attention.

I will now delve in to the monumental task of outlining the philosophical ramifications of such a plot. Only kidding. Evil versus evil (but evil in a fun-loving kind of way) is a daily theme in the real world, ie. Politics, American Idol, etc, but not so much in the world of the pixelated. It's too bad too, because it makes for a great story. What is an ambitious would-be subjugator to do in such a situation? Stop at nothing to acquire virtue and valor and get his evil *$*&ing powers back, that's what!

The player will guide Cthulhu and his crew through several innocent civilian-saving dramas which involve slaying zombies, aliens and other creatures shamelessly harassing the populace. Will he pull a full Grinch 180 and learn that being a good guy isn't so bad, or will he do what his otherworldly genes have programmed him to do: unleash tentacled horror upon the masses? Play the game and find out.

8.0 Gameplay

Combat style is turn-based JRPG. Four characters form a party and aside from their default attack, each character has different skills which are broken up into two categories; magic and technique. Both sets of skills rely upon MP to carry out. There are options for skills focusing on AoE versus a standard single target attack. There is also an option to “unite” with another member of the group to perform a specialty attack or buff. Upon leveling, you are given two options to choose from usually varying between status enhancements, new or upgraded skills, and passive abilities. This really gives you some say in how the characters evolve and how they are to be groomed to perform their certain functions for combat. This feature for character customization is rare in these types of games and I think will be appreciated by gamers. I think this function also adds to the replay value of the game once you know what characters excel at different skills, you can start over and try to create a more efficient and more specialized evolution for them. As the game progresses and the enemies become more challenging the fun really begins in strategizing who to add to your party and what attacks/healing functions best serve a particular boss or regular combat situation. Each attack also begins a combo counter which if timed successfully can wreak havok on foes.

During your explorations you find various gear upgrades, potions and 1-ups. The potions can be used to bring fallen comrades back to life or heal the near-dead during combat. The 1-ups can be used to retry a battle that handed you your ass on a plate which are especially helpful if you haven't saved your game in awhile, not that I would know anything about that...It is also important to note that there are several chests that contain copious amounts of money strewn throughout dungeons and villages and it is important to find as many of these as you can, especially early in the game if you wish to purchase weapons and armor in town. Safety and destruction are not cheap in this world and you don't want to wear the same crappy outfit forever.

Another combat aspect that I appreciated about this game is that random encounters are capped. In most dungeons, once you have fought 25 battles you now have a choice over whether you want to continue fighting by opening up the menu and choosing the “fight” command. If you choose not to you are free to wander the dungeon at leisure looking for missed treasure, or in some cases just to figure out how to get to the next area in a timely manner. I would fight my way through the dungeon until I came upon an MP-restoring save point and then I would hang out there and initiate the “fight” command until my quota was reached so I was able to use my expensive attacks and get through the battles faster without fear of running out.

I used a SNES clone controller through Xpadder to play the game and had no real issues. The game was planned out well in my opinion, the monster strength remained challenging, but not daunting. The boss battle difficulty was a little arbitrary where some were easy-peasy and others felt as though I was fighting with 4 sick babies who merely had to be blown on to be defeated. But after reworking my group and choosing my attacks more carefully in accordance with the enemy I was at last able to defeat it. While I found some of the dungeons too long and frustratingly labrynthine, I would always end up where I needed to be.

8.0 Soundtrack

I was surprisingly impressed by the complex soundtrack of this game. It appears that rendering quality theme music for various villages, dungeons and combat sequences was given a high level of importance during development and it shows. I am usually accustomed to a soundtrack of about 4 tunes (not including the battle and victory anthems) and each assigned to certain game-play areas, villages, dungeons, etc. The soundtrack for CSTW is surprisingly eclectic and widely varied. For instance, in a few of the villages you have a very peaceful, sitting-on-your-porch-smoking-a-pipe kind of tune, but in later towns the theme changes and the music follows suit. In one town you enter to the unmistakeable sound of synthetic jazz and I had to overcome the urge to groove. The track is eerie when it needs to be eerie and grandly epic when you need to throw down. My favorite tune is heard upon entering the foundry in Innsmouth. It is a synth-pop intro that Trent Reznor would have stolen for a track on his Pretty Hate Machine album. Check it out and tell me I'm wrong!

7.0 Replay Value

The normal mode of this game takes about 6-10 hours to finish. After that, you completionists can go on to beat the game on Hard and then Insane modes. Not only that, but after beating the game the first time you unlock bonus content that adds new features to your next game. Even going back through normal mode and re-customizing your characters would be a reason to play through again. This is not a risky waste of money is the bottom line here.

10.0 Bang For Your Buck

All things considered, especially the vast possibilities for replay value and the fact that I bought this game on Steam for $2.99 I'd say it doesn't get much better than this. I reiterate that the “normal” mode takes approximately 6-10 hours to complete so just that on it's own makes this a 10. However, add the section describing endgame options and unlocked bonuses and you're looking at a steal. Buy it, love it.