Terrorbane: An Introduction Mostly Gameplay Preview

The Terrorbane demo showcases a pretty unique and well executed concept. You are a play tester for a very controlling and obnoxious indie developer. There’s just one problem, the game is very buggy. What comes next is a lot of lighthearted hilarity from the meta humor and fourth wall breaking moments. There are just a lot of neat mechanics thanks to taking advantage of the “bugs” as well.

The game starts off with a very lengthy introduction scroll showing the origin story, which can be completely skipped. The developer later references this (even if you didn’t skip it) and goes on a long winded tirade about impatient gamers ruining the industry. After the scroll, you find yourself at the last boss battle, complete with a ripoff of Sephiroth’s theme song in Final Fantasy VII.

Except you weren’t supposed to be there so the developer interjects himself into the conversation between you and the boss, with many protests from the final boss about his spotlight being stolen, and then you are whisked away to the beginning of the game.

From here, you choose a name for yourself, the developer makes a short rant about your name being vulgar, and you are henceforth named as Terrorbane. From here you start in a very lovely, but bug filled village.

Much hilarity ensues such as floor tiles coming off to reveal the game code, doors coming off, a barrel turning into a very low effort NPC, which then joins your party. There are a lot of imaginative and meta video game humor and commentary moments which are completely fun and come as a pleasant surprise.

The fake bugs aren’t just used as comic relief or a nice Easter egg, they are used as actual game mechanics as well. For example, for an early quest you must enter the basement of a humble home to find a stone. You end up moving the walls around to complete the quest.

The game was a blast to play. If you like traditional 2D role playing games, this game triggered that nostalgia and brought back many good memories while replacing the tedious grind and conversations with silly humor and creative mechanics.

Overall, the Terrorbane demo was actually fun to play and made me look forward to the full release. It’s the perfect game for people who used to be traditional role playing game fans but no longer want to spend time grinding away to get to the good bits. Terrorbane throws conventions (and many other things) out the window and focuses on goofy fun.