Quick Review: Greyfox RPG

I know I meant to play more RPG Maker games, but I haven’t seen many so far. This one takes away any battles in favor of a story and some puzzle elements.

I'm not entirely sure I'm allowed to drive here.

Really? You just look like your hair went grey, is all.

Greyfox was developed by Lesley Dodd and published by EQ Games on February 23rd, 2015. It’s the story of a young woman who takes residence in a retirement town mostly inhabited by elderly people. She hopes to get a start on life by living here for a bit before moving forward. She’s only just settled when she meets a strange, witch-like woman. That night, she wakes up to find out she’s become as old as most of the people living there, and the magical woman puts her through four trials, in which she’ll inhabit the bodies of four different elderly people living in the area, and make personal decisions that may affect their lives for the better… or for the worse.

"I guess I would know that woman's plan if I was that woman!"

The choices are yours – you can learn the story behind each of these people, and offer them some form of closure – a good one or a bad one, up to you. These four people are a crazy old cat lady with psychological issues, an old man in a retirement home who was pretty awful to his family, and two wives to needy and/or irascible old men. And through these, the protagonist is supposed to learn a few important things about life, I guess? Something about the choices made through life constantly having ramifications, even once you’ve gotten to old age?

I am seeing ghostly Santas - Christmas is early this year!

For an RPG Maker title that tries to tell a story, it’s alright. I wouldn’t call it ground-breaking, but it’s decent. I appreciate that you can choose which choices to make, and you’re not forced to follow set paths. While the comedy fails more often than not, there are moments that are actually pretty witty in the plot. As an example, the old cat lady needs to take antipsychotic drugs, and her state gets worse as you progress through her story, seeing ghosts roaming the game all over the place at increasing frequency until the lady ingests her pills. (No, she's not the one that sees them; they appear on the overworld map, in increasing numbers.)

Some interesting ideas here, some very creative usage of RPG Maker – I’ll give the game that. Ultimately, while I played through it, I don’t think I’d play it again, but it’s an alright one. The 1$ price tag is just fine for it, too.