Honor Cry: Aftermath

I have a soft spot for the solo developer who rolls credits on a small, complete idea rather than chasing scope forever, and Honor Cry: Aftermath is exactly that kind of game. SimProse Studios built a turn-based fantasy RPG around a single, focused premise: two soldiers, one century-long war, one road home. It is built in RPG Maker, which you will notice immediately from the visual style and the grid-based world, but the studio does honest work with that engine rather than coasting on its defaults. You guide Commander Jerus and Captain Verrel across five distinct environments, from fog-layered marshes to more arid zones, each carrying a mood that the original music score quietly reinforces. The soundtrack has received genuine praise for pulling you into the high-fantasy headspace whether you are picking through crates for loot or squaring off against one of the thirty-plus monster types in the roster. Combat is pure turn-based, split into an exploration mode and a battle mode. Both characters bring a toolkit of skills called disciplines, purchased and customized as you progress, and each has a signature ability that rewards thinking about how Jerus and Verrel complement each other. Jerus can siphon energy to sustain longer fights, while Verrel leans into raw rage damage. Building around those identities rather than buying every skill indiscriminately is where the game quietly rewards you. The loot system uses a prefix and suffix model applied across over two hundred base items, so the randomized encounters and crate-hunting runs feel different across playthroughs. Item durability is a real mechanic here, and the developer patched it post-launch to reduce the frustration of gear breaking too quickly, which shows a responsive sensibility toward player feedback. There is also a gambling minigame that can accelerate your gold economy in ways that feel a little silly but are hard to resist. The random encounter rate was also patched downward after launch, though it can still feel dense at points, especially in the opening areas. The steam discussion board shows a small but persistent community still reporting bugs as recently as 2024, so keep expectations measured on stability if you run into edge cases. At three to five hours for a full run, Honor Cry: Aftermath knows its length. That is a compliment, not a caveat. The twenty-plus quests fit the runtime without filler padding, and the professional voice acting adds a warmth that RPG Maker titles rarely bother with. This is not a game pushing the boundaries of the genre, and it does not pretend to be. What it offers is a compact, earnest wartime story with real mechanical texture underneath the modest presentation. If you have aged out of patience for bloated open-world RPGs and want something that starts, tells its story, and ends with dignity, Honor Cry: Aftermath sits quietly in that underserved pocket.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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