Soul Hunter Nono (Free RPG) Introduction, Impressions, and Strategy Notes

This is an article introducing "Soul Hunter Nono," a full-length RPG created by Akihara using RPG Maker MZ.
This is a long-form RPG where you progress by adding defeated monsters to your party.
This game boasts a fast-paced gameplay experience and is user-friendly, with elements that could potentially cause stress being minimized.

The total time it took to complete the game and reach the ending was approximately 10 hours.
If you try to complete all the extra content after the ending, I think it will take you another 20 hours or more.

Game Overview

Nono, who was living with her older sister Nana, had her sister killed by a mysterious group that suddenly appeared in the village, and then had Nana's body taken away.
The game begins with Nono arriving at the examination venue, aiming to become a Soul Hunter—a person with the power to find and revive her sister's body.

The general flow of the game is"Accept a quest at the guild" → "Take a promotion exam" → "You will be able to go to a new area"That's it.

In the city, you can choose your area to move around in, so you won't be forced to walk around aimlessly in a large city.
Furthermore, there are features such as the ability to take a shortcut from the guild when returning to the previous area.

Requests vary widely, from delivering items to clients to defeating monsters or recruiting specific monsters as allies.
However, there's hardly anything complicated, so I think you'll be able to get through it quickly.
As you steadily complete requests, the "promotion exam" event, which is the climax of that area, will occur, and you will solve the case.

Each quest allows for immediate return to the guild upon completion, demonstrating consideration for eliminating aspects that players might find tedious.

The battles are turn-based command battles.
You will form a party of five with the monsters you have befriended and take on battles.

Nono, the main character, cannot be removed from the party, and if she is defeated, it's game over.
However, if you get a game over, you can choose to return to the title screen or pay to continue playing.
If you continue, your money will decrease, but you will also receive relief in the form of gifts, so it's not all bad.

During combat, you can view information about the enemy.
You can check whether a monster has already joined your party, and what the probability is of it joining your party if you defeat it.
I appreciate being able to quickly check this kind of information when needed.

If you successfully defeat a monster, there's a chance it will get up and join your party.
Only one monster can join your party at a time in a single battle, and the order in which you defeat them doesn't matter at all.
Some bosses will join your party after you defeat them (100%).

Monsters that join your party enter a standby state.You can swap them out at any time except during combat.
Since you don't have to leave your monsters anywhere, it's great that you can change your party anytime while traveling.

As the story progresses, you'll be able to go to a place called the Monster's Lair.
In the monster hut, you can feed treats to the monsters you've befriended to increase their experience points and stats, and you can also change their names.

One of the most distinctive features is "Soul Transformation," which can only be performed on monsters that are above a certain level.
Doing this will lower the monster's level, but you will receive "candy" that allows you to teach the monster new skills.
Using candy on Nono and other monsters allows them to use more magic and techniques, making it an important element for completing the game.

In addition, there are many other elements that make the adventure more enjoyable, such as a scrapbook menu where you can check the story and terminology, and bounty hunting.

(As long as you don't attempt a reckless challenge against an enemy that's beyond your capabilities) the difficulty level isn't too high, and the game is designed in a way that makes you want to keep playing it, so I think it's a game that I can recommend to a wide range of players.

Review (no spoilers)

I completed the main story and played the post-game content for about five hours.
It was an RPG that was easy to play and you could really feel your party getting stronger.

The story has a somewhat dark atmosphere, but the plot keeps you hooked, and I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end.
The text includes furigana (phonetic readings) above the kanji characters, making it easy for even younger players to enjoy.
I think the concept is to collect lots of monsters and make them stronger, so I felt a similar kind of fun to Dragon Quest V or Pokémon.
You can obtain skill candies from leveled-up monsters and customize them as you like, so I was able to enjoy a high degree of freedom, similar to the fun of the Megami Tensei series.

What I noticed while playing was that the game was designed with the player's comfort in mind as much as possible.
It felt like a lot of thought and consideration had gone into making the game more convenient, with features like shortcuts in towns and on maps, and magic circles to return to the entrance of dungeons.

I felt the difficulty level of the main story was somewhere between slightly easy and average.
Up until the middle of the game, the difficulty level was such that you could generally win without having to think too hard, as long as you leveled up and secured healing methods.
However, once you progress to a certain point, you'll likely struggle unless you utilize and customize the game system.
It was fun to think about the synergistic effects between equipment and monster skills, and it was enjoyable to decide what kind of equipment to give them.
While it might seem a bit simplistic to rely solely on your winning strategy once you've created your own winning pattern, it also gives you a sense of satisfaction from having devised a powerful tactic.

Furthermore, the dungeons and quests added after clearing the main game are often challenging and geared towards dedicated players.
Those who enjoy in-depth gameplay will likely find even more enjoyment after completing the main story.

The main story has a somewhat dark atmosphere, but there are occasional humorous passages that will make you want to laugh.
It's unbearable to watch Nono change her codename to "Dark☆Loli" right after her sister's death.

I also burst out laughing when I saw the image above.
In the monster hut, Nono greets each monster with a template like, "Hello, [monster name]. You're doing [monster name] again today," but the forced nature of the text "You damn damn damn" was hilarious.

I think it was an RPG that could be enjoyed by a wide range of people, from children who are new to gaming to adult veteran gamers.
If you play the early stages and find the smooth, fast-paced gameplay enjoyable, you'll probably end up finishing the game all the way to the end.

Strategy Notes (Spoiler Warning)

I'll be writing about points where I got a little lost while playing through the game, as well as any information I found helpful.
However, there weren't many points that made me hesitate, so this is a very limited memo.

- Prepare monsters other than Nono that can restore HP.
In the early stages of the game, it's useful to have monsters with skills that can restore HP.
(Nono's preemptive healing with items is strong, so that's enough.)
The targets to aim for are the mischievous fairies (healing magic) that join you through requests, the boss Treant (healing leaf special move), and the unicorn in the underwater temple (recovery area-of-effect healing magic).

- Collect skills that have area-of-effect attacks.
In battle, skills that can attack all enemies are extremely useful.
The easiest candies to obtain are probably the Basilisk's poisonous gas breath and the troublesome Kappa's (Life Moon Island) water-soothing technique.
There are probably many other options as well, so if you learn an area-of-effect attack skill, you should make good use of it.

- Basilisk (Tower of God - Rank C → B Promotion Test)
As Dennis warned us beforehand, this boss is clearly stronger than any we've faced before.
Since a long battle is unavoidable, let's decide on a healer before we begin.
Specifically, use Treant's candy to teach Nono Heal Leaf, and also have Treant himself participate as a healer.
You can choose the other members as you like, but be sure to bring plenty of comeback potions in case someone becomes incapacitated.
Furthermore, when Nono herself is in danger, make sure to have items to heal her so that no accidents occur (because using items always means going first).

- Clinical trials for new drugs (request for rank B)
You need to reduce Nono's HP to 1, but this is difficult because if Nono is defeated, it's game over.
Therefore, intentionally poison Nono and walk around the field to take poison damage.
Since it won't drop below 1 HP, this way you can safely reduce it to 1 HP.
Note that the poison status will naturally heal if you walk around, so it will be easier if you reduce your HP to a certain extent beforehand.

Alternatively, there's a poisonous swamp inside the cave leading to the Demon King's castle east of Cutlasoon, so you could wander around there instead (this is easier).

- Request to investigate geoglyphs (Rank A request)
You can achieve this by teaching Apoo the Poison Needle technique and bringing him along.
I mistakenly thought that all I needed to do was bring a monster that could use poison needles, and it took me a while to figure out how to achieve the goal.
It was immediately obvious when you looked at the geoglyphs.

- How to strengthen your character from the Rank A request onwards until completion
Since you'll need to travel to various locations to complete A-rank quests, it's a good idea to try taking on bounty targets while you're at it.
Most bounty targets are susceptible to status ailments such as paralysis and poison.
Therefore, if you use Cerberus (who will definitely join your party as the story progresses) to paralyze the boss, you can often trap and defeat a single Rank S bounty target.
If you have two members who can use paralysis-inducing techniques and have them use them repeatedly, along with poison, you should be able to defeat it.

If you eliminate all the bounty targets in that area, you will receive 1000 cheeses.
In particular, using high-quality cheese allows you to quickly strengthen your monsters in the monster den.
Giving them cheese one piece at a time is tedious, but as you progress through the story, you'll acquire the "Snack Synthesis" skill, which allows you to give them 99 pieces of cheese at once.
This makes leveling up much easier.

If you give lots of powerful S-rank monsters that you can use until you clear the game, such as Cerberus, the Fallen Demon King, the Guardian of Zaitz, and dragons, to level them up, you should be able to progress through the main story much more easily.