The Scoop: Frontier is a non-traditional RPG made by the almost-always-awesome jmtb02. The heart of the game is it’s trading system. Prices for goods fluctuate in realtime across the game world’s cities, and it’s the players’ goal to load up their cart with cheap goods from one city, and turn a profit on those goods elsewhere in the world.

When in transit, players will have the opportunity to engage in combat & other scenarios, including looting goods, helping strangers, and stopping (or getting ripped off by) thieves.

The “main quest” comes in both good & evil flavors, and consists of the fairly standard quests. Fetch this, go fight this guy, etc. Combat itself is a little on the shallow side. You take turns whacking your opponent, and based on the damage dealt & received in round 1 you’ll know who the victor will be.

What the game lacks in combat or scenario depth it makes up for with its excellent economic-based foundation. Starting from nothing and growing your operation to ultimately buy and sell huge numbers of diamonds is fun, plain and simple. Frontier also has some of my favorite music I’ve ever heard in a flash game, which certainly helps.
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Links:
Dev Blog
Kongregate Mirror

The Scoop: Turn Based Battle is the latest in a small-but-growing category of flash games that poke fun at various video game conventions. Other examples include jmtb02’s Achievement Unlocked and This is the Only Level.

To give away too much would suck a lot of enjoyment out of the short little RPG, so I’ll keep this write-up vague. The game’s storyline and protagonist are very intentionally hackneyed as all hell – the bright-eyed hero, the veteran who knows nothing but combat, the sassy female sidekick… they’re all here.

The more RPGs you’ve played, the more enjoyment you’ll get out of Turn Based Battle. Bosses you thought you had defeated will suddenly whoosh back to life, revealing their “true form.” The ultimate weapon is a sword of truly ridiculous size. When a party member falls in combat, they’re “Dead. Or just unconscious, if you’re squeamish.” There are also several shout-outs to specific titles, which I’ll leave for you readers to discover on your own.

This game was clearly born from an individual that both loves and hates the classic jRPG formula.

If I had one complaint, it’s that I wished the actual gameplay itself had a little more meat on its bones. As a parody, it is absolutely spot-on. But as an actual game, there could stand to be a little more to chew on.
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Links:
Youtube Gameplay Clip