Holomento

A mysterious curse has been laid on the world of Eventide Hollow. The curse makes traveling through this land dangerous and difficult, but hope remains. One day, the people dream of the curse being lifted, and that someone like you will be the one to lift it. This is the storyline behind Holomento, a permadeath RPG currently in Alpha testing.

Your goal as you pass through these lands is to rebuild Eventide Hollow step by step. You can do this through upgrading the shops in various towns around Eventide Hollow. You’ll also need to develop a character that can withstand the attacks of the strange creatures that live there. Your character is customizable, and you can choose from a number of different weapons and classes to create a unique character.

Unique NPCs

In an interview with Game Rant, developer Sean Weech said that he wanted the game’s NPC characters to take after games such as Paper Mario and Undertale. In these games the non-player characters are well-developed, and have distinct personalities. When you stop by for a chat with one of these characters, you’ll likely be in for a laugh with their humorous take on the world. These unique characters make all the difference in giving life to the world.

Replay value

Holomento is meant to be played in a series of runs. Most games allow you to keep upgrades to your characters, but the world itself resets every time you play. In Holomento, the work you do on each run is permanent. If you upgrade the castle and then die, the upgrades are still there for future runs.

Since this is a roguelite game, the game itself tends toward being dark. Punishment in these games are severe—If you die, you die, and your run is over. By giving you something permanent that changes the very face of the land each time you play, it makes coming back to try again that much more valuable.

Money management

Since everything you do has an impact on future runs, how you spend your money really matters. If you pay to have a bridge put in, that bridge will still be there for you the next run. If you blow all your money on weapons or character builds you might benefit in that your character is more powerful—but the land won’t benefit in any way.

Some issues with the game

Currently Holomento is in closed Alpha. It has come a long way from the beginning, but there are still issues that need to be addressed. As of right now, there’s no jump button. Flying mobs can chip away at your health, and there’s not much you can do about it.

The developer has somewhat fixed the issue by adding more range to melee weapons, but for the game to be fully functional this should be addressed better than making a weapon do something it is not supposed to do. Since the game has not yet been released, it’s likely this and other errors will be fixed. If it doesn’t, this could be a serious problem with the game long term.

Pros:

• Unique NPCs
• Permanent changes to towns
• Decent graphics

Cons:

• Questionable issues with range