UFO 50 Retrospective Part 40 - Grimstone

Oh man, we’re finally here. This is my #3 favorite game in the pack. We’ve got #1, Magic Garden, and #2, Divers, and now finally it’s #3. This is Grimstone, which takes place in the same universe as early 1987’s Rail Heist, but it actually started development before Rail Heist did. I mean, it makes sense. Grimstone is, by far, the biggest game UFOSoft EVER made. While some games are longer than others, the 2nd longest is probably around 7 hours. This, the longest, is a 15 hour JRPG.

Grimstone takes place in the state of Lonestar, which is literally Texas that has sunk into the Earth and fallen into Hell. There’s a war here between angels and demons, and the Humans are stuck inbetween. Angels don’t have enough power in Hell to save the Humans, and the Demons are just killing willy nilly. The game is a wild west themed story, with all the trappings and energy that includes. Your characters are cowboys and bandits and the like, and the game starts with them all being called to a meeting by a woman, Lily O’Mule. Lily O’Mule is rumored to worship Satan, but she’s offering drinks, so why not? However, during the meeting, the bar is lit on fire, and everyone dies…

…except an Angel comes by JUST at the perfect moment to save those who were called to the meeting. But the Angel doesn’t have enough power to save all eight. You start the game as this Angel, in the burning building, and you wander to each of the characters, it gives you a brief description, and then you decide if they live or die. You can only choose 4, and you get nothing beyond their descriptions. Things like “a tough looking cowpoke with a sad look behind his eyes”, or “a one armed man with a doctor’s bag”. Using this VERY limited knowledge, you have to build your team.

The game I can most compare this to is Final Fantasy 1. You build your team at the start of certain classes, and stick with them the entire time. The game does not hold your hand. You can build a shit-ass team of all thiefs and suffer. Hell, you can start the game with only a single character, and play the whole game like that as a one-class challenge! These aren’t classes like Final Fantasy though, these are full on characters. They have their own personalities, skills, stat spreads, and story beats, each character having one or two story moments you can run into while exploring Lonestar.

You’ve got eight characters:

Anne, the independant dancer, who’s a support with skills to buff and heal the posse. She’s a fragile jack of all trades, and can dual wield pistols.

Bull, the cowboy, who has no MP or skills to speak of, but can use any gun and is a fucking wall of meat that hits like a truck. I used Bull.

Doc, the one armed sharply dressed doctor. He doesn’t hit well and has terrible defense and stats, and shockingly doesn’t get good healing magic very quickly… he makes up for it with his ability that makes healing items heal MUCH more and get double uses. Healing items are practically useless without him, but AMAZING with him. I used Doc, too.

Lee, the handsome scholar, who is the Blue Mage of the game. He can study enemies to learn their attacks. Be careful though, there’s a maximum he can learn, so don’t choose abilities you’ll never want to use! Very versatile.

Maria, the notorious outlaw with a deadly aim. She’s one of the main protagonists from Rail Heist! Which is sad that you can just let her fucking die in the tavern, like I did, not even knowing it was her. I love Rail Heist ): Oh well, more excuse to play the game again!! Maria is a bit of a rogue who deals deceptive amounts of damage.

Pearl, a tall elegant amazon rich girl. She’s a tank who hits like a truck. Very similar to Bull in that wy, but she has some more magic abilities and is well equipped for using heavy gatling gun weapons.

Rufus, the one eyed dog. Lily O’Mule’s dog, Rufus has the unique skill of Dog, which says: “Is a dog. Cannot be controlled.” IS A DOG, CANNOT BE CONTROLLED was a MASSIVE meme of my run, and of course I used Rufus. Rufus is a barkserker, he attacks on his own, and while his accuracy is kinda shit, he hits like a mother fucker. Very glass cannon, but he has very good evade.

Umbra, the mystic. Umbra is special in that she directly learns magic abilities from wild animals, who give her two options to choose from. This means she’s very versatile, and can either be your white mage, red mage, or straight up black mage. Her spells are VERY useful and she is, IMO, the best character hands down. She was the last member of my team.

Huge thanks to Llamakazi for these gifs, which they made for their Steam guide. You can see it here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3337445448

While this is a turn based JRPG, very similar to Final Fantasy 1, it’s a BIT more than that. The combat has a meter system. If you time your hits correctly, you hit. So you have to be constantly paying attention, no just spamming attack over and over and falling asleep like a lot of classic JRPGs. This is a hardcore NES style RPG, with all the grinding and lack of explanations that implies, but even more intense cause you can’t just use speedup and zone out. If you hit the red, too, you get a critical hit! I missed these, A LOT, which is why Umbra’s magic attacks were so damn useful. I don’t have good timing. It’s also worth noting that while it’s a very FF1 JRPG, it does NOT have random encounters. Enemies appear on the world map, and move as you do. You can kite and outsmart them, if you play your cards right, but if ANY of your four units are hit by an enemy, it’s battle time.

I seriously cannot suggest Grimstone enough. While it’s that NES style RPG, it is much more accessible than the other RPG of the pack, Divers, and easier to grasp. The story is actually really nice, with good little story moments for your characters. The setting is REALLY cool and exciting, I LOVE wild west hell. The aesthetics are all fantastic. It’s long, exciting the entire way through, has a lot of potential for replaying, and especially challenge runs. I’ve already heard of a lot of solo dog runs being done. There’s even a code to play a team of FOUR DOGS! Sadly no way to save, which is suffering in a 15 hour RPG. I will eventually do this run, I promise.

10/10