This review starts off my new game review format, in which I first judge the game as a whole and then seperate a game into its elements and judge each.

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Spellshard begins with a simple premise: why not make a game in the style of old 8-bit rpgs? But, we object, why? Just doing that by itself would be a foolish idea, having a bit of recollective value, but why purposely make a game that looks like it's using 80s technology? The answer: it's not just 8-bit for 8-bit's sake, it's 8-bit for the sake of illustrating the game's important theme, which is the collapse of technology, and its rebirth. This is the best example of game presentation being integrated with theme that I have yet seen in the Ohrrpgce.

And how clearly and exactly the theme is presented. Harlock and Shizuma show a wide understanding of the value of technology to life, and this, the first of eight chapters, lucidly emphasizes how dogmatism and technology are incompatable. The music doesn't yet fit the theme, but it's a ripped soundtrack so we won't count that. But everything else besides the music has a point and a reason for being included in the game. This game is truly a blow against the accursed Naturalistic approach to art. And to top it all like a cherry is the theme's agreeableness and importance -- that technology is a wonderful thing, and that its loss would be a serious catastrophe, so don't criticise it lightly.
Theme & Overall Judgement: Almost as good as it gets

The event flow is straightfoward and sensical. The only complaint plot-wise I have is that it's faintly hackneyed, with an expected antagonistic symbol of dogmatism (a dogmatic priest / advisor to the king swayed by a necromancer). This can be looked at as a good thing, but the complexity of the plot is such that any 12 year old can grasp it, and those of us who were old enough to play the 8-bit rpgs (which are this game's main target audience) expect a bit more subtlety or originally.
Plot Judgement: Elegent yet simplistic and predictable.
 

Wizard using magic.	One of the best textboxes in the game.

The game plays like many 8-bit rpgs, such as the early Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy games. The gameplay (battleplay we might say) is not great, but not bland. There were a couple of bugs in the version I played, but overall it's a well balanced battle system, although there are many better ones from the 8-bit era. This is only a demo though, and a lot of battle systems don't get interesting in the first 1/8 of the game, so we'll see where future versions take us.
Gameplay Judgement: Fine and dandy

The graphics are professional and stylistic, considering they're intentionally 8-bit, and the sprites have no more than 3 colors each. It rivals the best of the 8-bit Nintendo graphics. The attack effects, the enemy graphics, the walkabouts, the hero battle graphics, and the tilemaps are all equally well done. There are a few small errors that I could see (the staircase tile seen below, for example, clashes with the rest of the dungeon tileset), and the font is the standard Ohrrpgce font without alteration, but minor flaws are easily fixed in later updates.
Graphics Judgement: Neoclassical
 

As expected, I found the standard Harlock-flavor cockaroach enemy that we see in all his games.	Where do these heroes come from, and where are they going?

To conclude, if you want to play one of those rare games that makes you think "Good, the Ohrrpgce really is being put to good use afterall!" then Horgoth it will be.

((Download available now at Operation: Ohr's game list.))