Splintered — After Finished Review | IndieGame100 #1

2025年10月29日2025年11月11日

IndieGame100

IndieGame100 is a series where I play indie games intensively and write unfiltered reviews. The first installment covers Splintered.

This series is for everyone—from individual game developers looking for ideas to gamers who want to explore indie games for the first time.

Here, I want to share what makes this game compelling, as well as its “hmm…” points, insights you can only get after completing it.

Quick take in three lines:

A design that hooks you with retro charm while immersing you in modern gaming experience
Randomization solves the classic “low motivation to replay” problem of a Dragon Quest-style linear RPG (a game with a set path and limited branching)
Story and tactical depth are weak; builds lack surprising variety

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Game Overview

Genre: RPG
Developer: dotMake Studios
Publisher: dotMake Studios
Country of Origin: Canada
You can play this game in English and Japanese

Store Page

Overview:

Splintered is a single-player RPG that heavily draws inspiration from classic Dragon Quest titles on the Famicom and Super Famicom (FC~SFC), evident in its UI, background music, visual presentation, front-view turn-based battles, and even the wording of spell names. (Dragon Quest-style homage: nostalgic design cues from early Dragon Quest games.)

At the same time, the game introduces its own unique system: “World Randomization.” Each time a boss is defeated, all character levels, items, and skills are reset. Additionally, the world map is regenerated randomly for the next playthrough.

This mechanic transforms the game into a replay-driven experience: with each loop, new equipment and build options become available. Players leverage knowledge gained from previous runs to experiment with different strategies and approaches, gradually uncovering innovations in the game’s story and challenges.

For context, my playthrough lasted 12 hours and 59 minutes until the ending.

Retro Feel, Modern Experience

The developers’ passion for creating something “old yet new.

Take a look at this save data selection screen first:

The 8-bit style chiptune soundtrack and the white-on-black text UI immediately evoke a nostalgic, retro feeling. At the same time, the subtle animation of gentle rain droplets bouncing on the ground, creating a slightly “withered” yet refined aesthetic, adds a modern, atmospheric touch.

By the time I saw this, I was already thrilled with excitement, my anticipation almost bursting.

(* Chiptune — music composed in the style of classic 8-bit console soundtracks; “withered” aesthetic — a subdued, melancholic visual mood that contrasts with bright, colorful retro visuals.)

Right after character creation, the prologue kicks off without any delay.

At first glance, the UI is clearly a full homage to the Super Famicom-era Dragon Quest series. (SFC Dragon Quest — classic Japanese RPGs from the early 1990s.)

But take a closer look: information like HP, MP, and experience points is displayed compactly using color-coded bars.

This shows that the game isn’t just retro for the sake of nostalgia. Instead, it’s building on retro foundations while thoughtfully incorporating modern, user-friendly design principles.

Here’s the battle screen. (Apologies for the capture—the screenshot was taken after defeating the enemy, but the UI remains the same during combat.)

Compare this with the previous image—do you notice anything?

Exactly:

The top UI displaying Level, HP, MP, EXP, and Gold
The right-hand UI showing action options

These two windows remain visible at all times, throughout the entire game, without moving or disappearing.

This approach clearly deviates from the standard design of retro SFC-era games, where pressing a button would temporarily switch to a menu screen for actions.

Here, the UI is always displayed in an optimized position and format—or only hides when necessary, which is fully in line with modern game UI design principles.

The same principle applies to the equipment detail screen. Pay special attention to the “△ Info Switch” in the bottom-right corner.

This button lets you view equipment-specific skills, and the design here is brilliant:

Button inputs are minimized to the essentials
Modern UI elements are placed in immediately recognizable positions without disrupting the game’s retro aesthetic

The result is a perfect blend of style and functionality, demonstrating incredible design sense.

Personally, the feature that impressed me the most is the “Help” system.

While on the field, it always shows the general direction of what to do next.

This elegantly solves a common problem in retro RPGs: players often had to take notes to remember their next objective. Splintered handles this by incorporating a mechanism similar to modern RPG quest markers, providing clear guidance without breaking immersion.

In this way, the game demonstrates meticulous consideration for the player: “How can we let today’s gamers fully enjoy what’s great about classic games?” This careful design is, in my view, the first major point of praise for Splintered.

System Design Focused on Growth and the Joy of Overcoming Challenges

The screenshot shows a “defeat” screen right from the start, but take a look at the Level at the top—it’s still 1.

Even the soldiers in the castle at the starting point advise that “if you think you can’t win, run and survive”—and in Splintered, this principle is crucial, especially on the final loop where difficulty spikes dramatically.

Within a single area, enemies are clearly divided into “easier foes” and “tougher opponents”, depending on your progression and build. This encourages a natural strategy: start with manageable battles to gain experience, then gradually challenge stronger enemies.

The system delivers the classic retro RPG catharsis of growth and overcoming adversity, letting players fully enjoy the satisfaction of learning, experimenting, and eventually triumphing.

In combat, leveraging the skills attached to your equipment is essential.

Every piece of gear comes with its own skill, and by winning battles while equipped, each item gains experience, unlocking more powerful skills over time.

This build system forms the core of Splintered’s combat. Even in the early game, you can create potent combinations, such as:

A dagger that significantly increases the chance of critical hits at the start of battle
Leather armor that greatly boosts gold earned if you defeat an enemy on the first turn

By combining these, you can engage in fast, efficient battles while earning substantial rewards—a satisfying “sweet spot” strategy.

There is a wide variety of builds, and new items with unique traits are continually introduced, providing players with meaningful choices and strategic experimentation.

Moreover, with each replay, previously unavailable traits are unlocked, allowing players to explore different combat styles every time they loop through the game.

Additionally, by defeating specific enemy groups for the first time, you unlock “Talent”—essentially passive skills.

These don’t just boost your raw power. Some Talents create incredible synergies with specific equipment, possessing enough strength to even alter the difficulty of encounters.

This mechanic further enhances the sense of immersion in the fight → power up → challenge stronger enemies loop, which is central to the game’s appeal.

In this way, Splintered is packed with ambitious and engaging systems—but it’s fair to say that there are a few minor balance issues.

I’ll cover those later in this review.

Dragon Quest-Style Spell Names — A Localization Treat (Japanese impression)

One small but delightful touch for Japanese players is how the spell names have been localized with a distinct “Dragon Quest flavor.”

In the English version, you’ll see familiar names like Silence or Lesser Heal.
But if you tweak the language settings…

—you’ll find them replaced with nostalgic, pseudo-Japanese spell names reminiscent of classic JRPGs from the Famicom (NES) and Super Famicom (SNES) era.

It’s a subtle but charming act of fan service, showing that the developers understand and appreciate the long history of RPGs in Japan.

And the results are absolutely delightful:

Lesser Heal → iyasu (Jp healing)　→ Iyaru
Sleep → suyasuya(Jp sleeping status) → Suyarim
Moonlight → terasu(Jp enlighting)　　→ Teramisia
Silence → damaraseru(Jp making quiet) → Damaram
Enhanced Teleport → modoru(Jp returning) → Ceremodora
Ward → chikayoranai(Jp keep a distance) → Yorana

Each one feels straight out of a classic Dragon Quest manual—nonsensical syllables that somehow sound perfectly magical.

In contrast, the original English spell names are much more straightforward and “cool,” like Lightning Slash or Greater Heal.
That’s why this localization choice feels so heartfelt. It shows that the localization team deeply understood and respected the source of inspiration—not just translating, but recreating the nostalgic tone for Japanese players.

The Trial-and-Error Born from Randomization

How Randomization Turns a Linear RPG into a Replayable Challenge

In Splintered, every time you defeat a boss, your level, items, and learned talents are reset — and the world itself is regenerated from scratch.

This is what the world looks like right after the start of your second run.
As you can see, the landscape is absolute chaos — a world twisted into something unrecognizable.

And it’s not just the placement of towns and dungeons that changes.

Even the order and level at which you learn spells are randomized.

And it doesn’t stop there — event items, treasure chest contents, shop inventories, and even enemy encounter tables are all freshly regenerated every cycle.

This means you might end up with situations like:

A key to the final dungeon casually sitting in a chest by the roadside
Late-game monsters spawning right outside the starting castle, forcing you to run for your life while scraping by in desperate fights
A “Talent” unlock condition lining up perfectly with a shop that sells synergistic gear, letting you steamroll from the very beginning

It’s pure chaos — and yet, that chaos is where the magic lies.

Using the knowledge you gained from previous runs, you piece together new optimal routes, experiment, fail, and adapt.
That loop of trial and error—a core of roguelite design—has been seamlessly transplanted into what would normally be a straightforward, Dragon Quest-style RPG.

That’s what makes Splintered so remarkable.

“Wait — so you’re saying a key item could end up stuck in the middle of the ocean and I’d be screwed!?”
“Won’t I get stuck if a brutal miniboss shows up out of nowhere?”
“Having to comb every chest and search every Talent just sounds exhausting…”

If those thoughts just popped into your head, you’re not alone — but rest easy. I’ll walk you through it step by step.

Clever brute-force design that prevents “softlocks”

First, let’s tackle the classic “what if a key item spawns in an unreachable spot?” problem.

The answer? The game solves it in the most brute-force—and brilliant—way possible.

To put it bluntly, the world map only ever generates one or two continents. There are no far-off islands in the middle of the ocean, period.

And mountain ranges? They’re generated in a way that they completely fill the region they belong to, leaving no awkward gaps that would make tiles impassable. In other words, the system is designed so that “unreachable terrain surrounded mountains” can’t even exist in the first place.

It’s less “a mathematically sophisticated algorithm” and more “preventing the problem at the source.” A very indie kind of solution—simple, direct, and clever.

As for the second concern — “won’t I get stuck if I run into enemies that are way too strong?”—the combat system takes care of that elegantly as well.

Except for a few scripted encounters, the protagonist always acts before the enemy. On top of that, the escape chance feels well above 90%. So even if you’re surrounded by overpowered foes, you can usually just flee your way through.

There are no timed events, either, so you can always come back later—stronger, smarter, better prepared—to open that chest or unlock that Talent.

And here’s the kicker: consumable chests respawn when you move between the world map and local areas. Which means, if you really want to, you can grind infinite money and items from the nearby boxes.

Taken together, all this gives the impression that the developers very deliberately designed the system so you can never truly get stuck.

Finally, let’s address the concern: “Won’t searching for key items and Talents be tedious?”

This is where the Help system and the map come to the rescue.

On your first run, Help simply acts as a progress guide. But starting from your second run, it evolves to show:

The number of uncollected events and items
A list of dungeons or towns where they can be found

This lets you check for missed content at any time, preventing tedious guesswork.

Additionally, completing the “Master Hunter” event unlocks a feature that displays enemy defeat statuses directly on the map.

Thanks to this, even if you think, “I want the Talent for Ambitious, but I have no idea where it is!”, you can simply consult the map and locate it with ease.

At the core of all these systems is one simple fact: each playthrough only takes 2–3 hours to complete.

Thanks to this compact volume, you can quickly finish a run and jump straight into the next one.

As someone once said:

Strength is power. (Yu Yu Hakusho, by Yoshihiro Togashi.)

In Splintered, the anti-softlock measures are built on exactly this principle: using sheer, brute-force design to streamline the rules and prevent dead-ends.

Issues Noted in Splintered

So far, I’ve sung the game’s praises, but it’s not without its flaws. Here are the main points:

The Story Is Extremely Thin

This is especially noticeable in the first chapter. In Splintered, the “problem setup” is extremely weak.

To explain: most stories follow a three-act structure, which helps readers and players understand and engage with the narrative:

Act 1 – Setup: Introduces the protagonist, their situation, and the challenge they must overcome
Act 2 – Main Story: The protagonist struggles and takes action to resolve the challenge
Act 3 – Resolution: The protagonist either succeeds or fails, with consequences for the story

In Splintered, Act 1 is almost nonexistent. Instead of a proper introduction or motivation, you’re simply told via the Help system:

“Go to Mount XX to collect an item”
“Defeat enemy YY”
“Travel to location ZZ”

Players are left wondering:

“Why do I need to go to Mount XX?”
“Why must I defeat YY?”
“Why is ZZ suddenly mentioned?”

Answers, if provided, are often condensed into one or two lines—or omitted entirely.
As a result, many battles happen without a clear sense of purpose.

You could argue that this is a necessary compromise to prevent narrative conflicts in subsequent playthroughs, and that’s fair. But if you’re expecting a classic, Dragon Quest-style storyline, you’ll likely be disappointed.

Limited Tactical Depth in Battles

The game’s one-on-one, turn-based combat inherently leads to repetitive patterns:

Attack repeatedly → heal when HP drops → attack repeatedly → …

Even when some variation occurs, it usually only involves using debuff spells at the start of combat. After that, battles mostly follow the same template.

Given the game’s high degree of randomness, introducing more complex combat could easily break the balance, so this simplicity is understandable.

Limited Build Freedom

While there’s a wide variety of equipment available, most items are very predictable. As soon as you read an item’s description, you can usually tell whether it’s strong or weak, and which combos it might enable.

For players who thrive on discovering unexpected, overpowered builds, this can be a letdown. To avoid spoilers: most players will likely converge on similar equipment setups.

Honestly, a bit more room for experimentation would have made the game nearly perfect.

That said, given the game’s heavy reliance on randomization, there’s still joy in creating a “lucky” build that synergizes perfectly, so this limitation doesn’t fundamentally clash with the game’s concept—at least, it shouldn’t.