Shiner

this is a good game would recommend to anybody, i hope this gets a squeal of some sorts i can see something like mutations being added and more places this was very fun time playing only problem i wish there was after dialogue after the story ends or a hp upgrade for how mush you get

If you've played some JRPGs, including some Final Fantasy games, you've probably "stolen" an attack or an ability from your opponent and used it to beat other enemies.
Shiner takes that idea and makes it the main mechanism of this JRPG/puzzle game hybrid. It's a short but meaty experience. The art is MS Paint-like but charming.
And OK, the story is bad; true, there is no save feature; but the mechanism works so well and the game is free and I recommend it.

Such an amazing game, it has so many things to do and tons of different combos with attacks which is awesome. The story line is also very interesting and also very sweet. Had a lot of fun playing this and it's completely free.

I'm a bit embarrassed to have taken so long after this one popped up on the roulette. Shiner is another in the catalogue that I've played previously, and it's still my favorite DigiPen game by far. I find the voice acting in particular to have a certain style that befits the charm of the entire game and is quite unlike any sort of prim and polished voice acting that makes its way into "serious titles." My favorite character is probably Bouncer, particularly because he has the word "RANCH" tattooed on his belly, and it's unclear whether he acquired this before or after deciding to be a bouncer for the church. Of RANCH.
The game is a Mind banter of accumulating abilities to defeat each successive opponent encased in a makeshift exoskeleton of Heart elements that compliment the experience, both coming together for a potent sub-textual "schoolyard play-fight" aesthetic; kids making up ridiculous characters with ridiculous abilities that make them "invincible," only for the next kid to one-up his defenses with infinite rockets...plus one.
A comparison to the engagement style of Pokemon would be superficial at best, since those games prioritize a "Land-over-Mind" philosophy. Various "Nuzlocke" hacks, however, present very similar motivations: precise tactical options of which only a select few will manage victory. However however, the high stakes rules of those games would more accurately place them in Nerve territory. By my view, this makes the game out to be a fairly original blend of genres, in my system of genres that no one cares about (yet)...certainly among DigiPen titles, if not all games.
Shiner gets an S for Solutions for Combat.

A charming, small game made by a bunch of students at a university.
This is a turn-based battle game (NOT a conventional RPG; you have no stats outside of HP) which serves as a sort of tutorial for RPGs as a genre, mostly by introducing the concepts of status effects, healing, and learning to change your loadout in order to defeat different opponents.
+ Teaches RPG mechanics in a manner that forces you to pay attention
+ Difficulty scales pretty well
+ Narrative is simple and a little weird
+ For a free student project, the music and sound design is pretty good
+ 2 (slightly different) endings, providing an incentive to replay the game at least one more time
+ Incredible as a learning tool, if you're trying to explain to someone unfamiliar with RPGs how video games work
~ Game requires mouse, no keyboard or controller support
~ Simple, hand-drawn aesthetic
~ Roughly ~60 minutes of gameplay
~ Voice acting is... a little rough. Some VAs are standouts, though.
~ Enemy abilities and stats are only explained after they've used them at least once; the ability's description then remains visible if you fight against them again. This essentially forces you to fight enemies twice. Some enemy abilities instantly defeat you and immediately end combat, forcing you to re-challenge them just to see what beat you.
~ You're not always meant to fight everyone in a room before moving on; sometimes you're expected to leave a room and fight other people to get better skills before coming back
~ The hints provided by the devs in the pause menu range from "This is how to defeat this enemy" to "Good luck lmao"
- NO SAVE FEATURE; beat the game in 1 sitting, or restart from the beginning
- Made as a student project, don't expect any updates or dev help
- Certain mechanics aren't explained very well, requiring you to pay attention to what actually happens when using a skill instead of relying on the given description
Don't go in with high expectations; this is a fun little gem, but it's clear the devs are relatively new, and while some of the ideas here are great, it's clearly meant as a demo instead of something to build a full game off of.

What a fantastic little puzzle/RPG hybrid! It's hard to believe that it was a student project!

nice little game, with it's main gimmick being that you can collect defeated enemies' abilities. pretty cool concept and really cute art style, combined with surprisingly amazing dialogue and banger music (the bar music slaps so hard)! definitely worth a try, considering the fact that it's completely free!