After The End: The Harvest

I have a soft spot for games that try to do everything at once and nearly pull it off. After The End: The Harvest is exactly that kind of project: a solo-developer space ARPG built in RPG Maker that somehow fits creature collecting, real-time spaceship combat, a rune-and-socketing gear system, over 100 weapons and spells, two distinct difficulty modes (Story and Adventure), two endings, and New Game+ into a single retro package. The scope is genuinely staggering for one developer. The execution is, predictably, uneven. But there is something here worth understanding before you dismiss it. The core loop asks you to pilot a spaceship freely across an open universe, land on planets, fight or catch monsters, grab side quests from scattered settlements, and push toward the galactic centre where the Titans wait. Your protagonist Onuel wakes up aboard a ship crewed by Apollo and Lanui, gets dragged into a cosmological conflict, and is handed the galaxy as a playground with minimal hand-holding. That open-endedness is a genuine feature, not an oversight. If you need a quest marker ticking down at all times, this will feel incomplete. If you like the silence of a vast map and the self-directed pressure of choosing your next planet, it can feel quietly intoxicating. The inter-world travel sequences in particular have a semi-3D camera shift that carries real atmosphere, a small technical flourish that punches above the engine's usual ceiling. The music deserves its own paragraph. Elushis is, first and foremost, a music and gaming outfit, and that priority shows in the soundtrack. Reviewers consistently note that almost every distinct area carries its own musical theme, and the ambient composition sits close enough to the action to feel intentional rather than incidental. For a game this sparse in production polish elsewhere, the audio layer does a disproportionate amount of mood-lifting. It reminded at least one critic of Cowboy Bebop's wandering, jazz-and-silence energy, and that comparison lands better than it should. The problems are real and should not be papered over. Controls have historically been the first wall players hit: key mapping labelled only as 'button 1' and 'button 2' in the configuration screen, non-obvious menu navigation, and crash bugs that have appeared at inopportune moments (including reportedly after killing the first Titan). Version 1.5.0 updated the control layout, and the developer has continued patching, but the community forum still carries enough bug reports to suggest the experience is not smooth for everyone. The RPG Maker foundation also introduces engine-level lag under pressure. A 300-plus-page official strategy guide exists as a separate item, which tells you something about the learning curve. Newcomers should treat that guide as near-mandatory rather than optional. Who is this actually for? Creature-collector fans who want their Pokemon-adjacent loop wrapped in post-apocalyptic space opera lore rather than a cheerful overworld. Players who remember early Earthbound's strange tonal mix of melancholy and wonder and want that energy pointed at the cosmos. People patient with RPG Maker jank who value ambition and handcraft over technical polish. It is not for anyone expecting tight action combat, a guided narrative, or a clean modern UI. The gap between what the game promises and what it consistently delivers is real, but the gap between this and a cynical asset-flip is far, far wider.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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