Whispers in the Moss
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“What a strange dream. A young man, chased by a pack of wolves…”
WHISPERS IN THE MOSS is a full-scale retro JRPG experience that embraces the nostalgic charm of 8-bit and 16-bit console classics, especially those from the early SquareSoft era.
Embark on an epic journey with three young heroes from a tranquil fishing village, thrust into a world dominated by an empire seeking ultimate power and a banished prince determined to restore balance. As they traverse the world, our party uncovers an even more sinister secret—fiends of the underworld are stirring…
- An Epic Story: Prepare for emotional plot twists, lighthearted humor, and vibrant characters.
- Classic Turn-Based Battles: Inspired by the early Final Fantasy games, strategically exploit your enemies’ weaknesses using physical attacks, black and white magic, items, and special skills. Witness your characters’ growth and customize their abilities.
- A Highly Unique Visual Style: The game boasts beautiful and ambitious textmode (ANSI-style) graphics, offering an unparalleled retro atmosphere. This innovative use of text-based graphics on such a scale and level of ambition is a first in gaming. What’s more, “Whispers in the Moss” is coded entirely in QB64, a modern take on the legendary QuickBASIC programming language, completing the genuine retro experience.
- Original Custom Soundtrack: Immerse yourself in the game’s world with sound effects and a full original soundtrack featuring over 40 unique tracks, composed by the game’s developer, Tapio of Uncultured Games. Drawing inspiration from JRPG music legends like Nobuo Uematsu, Yoko Shimomura, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Michiru Oshima, the music brings the world of the game to life.
- Abundance of Optional Content: In addition to the main story, explore a vast array of side quests, monster hunts, fishing and other mini-games, and other hidden secrets. Can you locate and conquer all 150 unique monsters and complete the bestiary?
- Retro Gaming for Modern Systems: “Whispers in the Moss” is set to launch on Windows in April 2024, and it will be available on Steam and Itch.io.
- A Decade in the Making: This artisanal game is the sole creation of Tapio from Uncultured Games, a Finnish game development studio. Single-handedly, he has managed the coding, game engine, art, script, soundtrack, and even crafted this god-forsaken press release. Over the course of well over 12 years of development, Tapio, a father of two and a communications professional by day, has remained a dedicated hobbyist game developer by night.
Media kit available on Google Drive:
Game Discussion
Steam User 10
This game is an absolute gem - the ANSI interface is well crafted and a real throwback to the good old days of the 1990's but at the same time the music, gameplay and pacing nail the mid 90's sprite JRPG feel. Kudos!
Steam User 3
Had a great time with the game, it feels just long enough and has tons of side content! Definitely pick it up if you love classic JRPGs and want more of those.
Steam User 13
Dropping an early review to help boost the game to more eyes, but I've played enough that I don't think my views will drastically change.
First off, it's a gorgeously crafted retro experience. My first thoughts immediately point to the Dwarf Fortress intro but as a full game. A huge point of the charm is exploring this text art world discovering all the new dudes with their lavishly crafted portraits and running into more creatures in the bestiary filled with familiar and unique critters. An excellent accompanying soundtrack as well.
On the gameplay side it's basic but fitting, each character has some unique archetypes to fill on top of the standard attack/magic/item paradigm. There are optional hunts and secrets that offer a fitting challenge.
The story also seems pretty standard, but it's sprinkled with the dev's fitting sense of humor, and its fitting for the holistic retro approach.
Please consider giving this game a shot! It dropped hot into one of the biggest months in indie games and at the same time as Skald, a much higher profile retro RPG.
Steam User 3
When I read the review from the Finnish gaming magazine "Pelit" about Whispers in the Moss, a JRPG made completely using the modern equivalent of QBasic and uses ASCII graphics, I knew I must get my hands on it. What Uncultured Games has managed to conjure is an excellent traditional JRPG with surprisingly inventive graphical design and great soundtrack. Sure, the story isn't anything what you haven't seen before but it still has great moments and interesting characters. There are also some great secrets to uncover all around the world.
Only downsides are that it might take you a while to get used to the controls and there are some small bugs but nothing game breaking.
All in all if you are looking for a good 20-30 hour role playing game then go no further.
Steam User 9
First ANSI art JRPG I've seen, and quite possibly the first one, full stop. It's obviously a labor of love, and if you are or were ever into textmode games, you will get a kick out of this. Equal parts ZZT, Zelda, Questron, Final Fantasy IV and GORILLA.BAS. Get it, ye one-eyed willies!
Steam User 4
Can really recommend this game!
i find the ASCII graphics very charming, it reminds of ZZT and 80’s roguelikes but feels more lively and less flat in design than those. Really happy to see a modern game in this style. The music complements the retro fantasy atmosphere.
i can’t comment much on the RPG aspects, i generally play puzzle and story driven games and avoid games with much combat, so all i can only say it’s not annoyingly hard :) and that i appreciate the option to save everywhere. There’s a lot of story and adventure and it certainly isn’t just grinding.
Steam User 10
Fun JRPG with beautiful ANSI / ASCII graphics in a high fantasy world full of magic. The music is great. The combat and exploration evoke early Final Fantasy games. The story is a mix of whimsy and serious beats. It's very much on rails with a single, enjoyable path through.
Tips for new players: use TAB and a/d to navigate menus and submenus. The Save sub menu has settings, you can turn on Save Anywhere and auto run to speed things up a bit.
Clearly a labour of love. I hope the solo dev sticks with it and it gets more attention. The release was poorly timed with a couple of other indie retro RPGs coming out recently too. Those seem to be getting all the press. Luckily I saw this on RPS or I wouldn't have even known Whispers in Moss existed.
My only gripes so far are the menus. The menus are clunky to navigate, dialogue can't be skipped in bulk, the title animations can't be skipped, there's no quick save or fast way to quit the game without sitting through the title animation again.
There are numerous improvements in the paid release vs the demo, not sure why the demo's not updated.
Overall, good game and I applaud the effort that went into creating it.