Octo Vinctum - Mystic Knight Version

Octo Vinctum is a old-school JRPG / visual novel where a young girl named Sabrina and her friends battle against the forces of darkness using the power of Kind Words and Talents.

It's traditional turn-based RPG combat with a twist! You don't weild weapons in this game. Instead, enemies act totally rude to you, and you must "Attalk" the enemy by saying nice things.  The strength of your words is determined by your Kindness, and you can resist enemy attalks with your Confidence!

Explore the world of Octo Vinctum!

Octo Vinctum's country of Vinland is a parody of 1990's America, featuring numerous cities with plenty of people to talk to, buildings to explore, treasures to find, and secret areas to discover! Travel from place to place with the help of a chatty taxi cap driver, but don't forget to bring enough money for the fare! Shop for outfits and trinkets at the town stores to augment your Confidence, Charisma, and Intelligence stats. You can sell your excess clothes, junk, or treasures to the local pawn shop to make some money!

Part Visual Novel!

Experience the game's story through the eyes of Sabrina Lenster! The game's cutscenes take place as visual novel segments where you can interact with the world around you or ask your companions for their input. The game's super-simple interface makes progression hassle-free! There's dozens of both normal and wacky characters in the Octo Vinctum universe to interact with, and plenty of drama too...

A Sequel to the Forgotten "EarthBound-like" game...?

Long ago, in the 80's Namco released a little Famicom game called "ラサール石井のチャイルズクエスト (a.k.a Stardom Warriors) which did the whole "quirky RPG" thing BEFORE the first EarthBound/MOTHER game was released! You followed the courageous Manager John Belmore who led a band of three girls to stardom and managed to put an end to a Dark Curse at the same time by fighting with your words.
(Check out Stardom Warriors here: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/5321/ )

Thanks to a legal loophole, as the translator who worked on the "Stardom Warriors" fan localization, I am able to release Octo Vinctum as a sequel to that game and continue the legend of the Manager.

40 years since John Belmore's quest in Brighton, the Dark Curse rises once again in his homeland of Vinland. A powerful entertainment company named Czar Entertainment headed by the dreaded Pop Czar Feld, seems to be behind it this time!

But none of that matters to Sabrina Lenster, the happy-go-lucky high school student who can't outgrow her childish dream of becoming a pop star. When she leaves home one day to pursue this dream with the help of her strange neighbor Sonya, she soon finds herself on a quest to obtain magical relics and eventually, caught in the middle of a war between the corrupt entertainment empire and the forces of good and evil

About the Mystic Knight Version

Octo Vinctum: Revenge of the Czar was originally released to STEAM on December 2023 for $1.99 with a free short playable demo version as well. The game was so large originally that we had to essentially split the story in half, and Book I is the first half we put up on STEAM. Book II was already about 70% done by that point, and our plan was to finish it and release it as a massive update to the game.

However, Mareeta and I (Polinym) have been re-evaluating how we plan to move forward with the game as we've kind of gotten lost as we want to rewrite large portions of the game based on new ideas, update all of the graphics, and the source code for the game has gotten very difficult to work with. We're not quite sure what we want the game to look like, or what people actually like or dislike about the game. That's where you can help!

Octo Vinctum needs your help!

This Mystic Knight version (named after an obscure band that we like ) contains a number of improvements we've made to the original Octo Vinctum in the hopes of improving the user experience. However, this version is still technically experimental. We've tested it a ton, but not nearly as much as the STEAM version. There's probably some bugs still out there that you may run into. When you do run into a bug in this version, I'd like to know as soon as possible so I can patch it. But it's not just bugs I'm after.

Octo Vinctum wants your feedback! We need to know what you may like or dislike about this game, so going forward, we know what we need to do better. What characters did you like, or hate? Did the story make sense? Were you ever bored? What parts made you laugh?

I'd like to know what your reaction is to the content in this game. Anything you have to share, share away! You're more than welcome to come share your thoughts on the Octo Vinctum channel of the Mage Fighter Discord ( https://discord.gg/Bc7Umm9hne ). I really appreciate any constructive feedback you can give. It helps me become a better creator. My hope is to one day produce a game that someone, somewhere will enjoy! :D

If you'd like to support my work and see more games like this in the future, be sure to check out the most stable, complete version of Octo Vinctum Book I on STEAM ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/1899110/Octo_Vinctum_Revenge_of_the_Czar/ )!

The Mystic Knight Version features an uncut and very stable version of Book I. It does contain all that exists of the Book II content, though it's unfinished. Book II lacks any real balancing for combat, and you may find yourself unable to continue the story at some point despite 80% of the Book II events being present. You can play Book II as much as you want and are able. Let me know if you'd like me to patch the bugs preventing you from progressing in Book II.

Controls

Arrow Keys : Move Sabrina, move cursor

Spacebar : Talk, select option

Shift Key: Sprint, close menu

Z Key: Open commands menu

X Key: Open status menu

Controls for mobile version are on-screen. If you've ever emulated a SNES game, you'll know the drill. :)