Victim of Xen

Victim of Xen is a 2D old-school RPG set in a fantasy world where a boy named Will is magically transformed into a girl by a malicious witch. Determined to reverse the spell, he embarks on a quest battling monsters, completing jobs for coins, and gathering allies like former prisoner Marcus. The game features turn-based combat inspired by Dragon Quest, with random encounters and menu-based commands for attacks, escapes, and special abilities.

Victim of Xen: Review

1. Introduction

In the crowded landscape of indie role-playing games, few titles possess the audacious premise of Victim of Xen. Released in 2014 by the one-man studio Smolders, this RPG thrusts players into the shoes of Will, an ordinary boy transformed into a girl by a frivolous royal witch. His singular goal—to reverse the spell and reclaim his original form—sets the stage for a journey across war-torn continents, where personal identity clashes with grand-scale political intrigue. More than a decade later, Victim of Xen endures as a cult curiosity: a game brimming with charm yet hampered by technical and design limitations. This review argues that while its execution is deeply flawed, Victim of Xen remains a compelling artifact of indie RPG history—a flawed gem whose narrative ambition and audacious premise transcend its rough edges, offering a unique experience for players willing to embrace its unpolished nature.

2. Development History & Context

Victim of Xen emerged from the singular vision of Smolders, a developer operating under the constraints of the RPG Maker engine. Released on May 21, 2014, for Windows, the game was born from a desire to subvert traditional RPG tropes. The developer explicitly framed Will’s quest as a deeply personal journey, sidelining the genre’s typical world-saving narratives in favor of intimate, identity-driven stakes. This ambition was constrained by RPG Maker’s reliance on stock assets—sprites, tilesets, and soundscapes lifted directly from the engine’s library—which lent the game a “nostalgic” but ultimately derivative visual and auditory identity.

The 2014 gaming landscape posed significant challenges. The indie scene was booming, yet saturated with RPG Maker projects, many of which were criticized for lacking innovation. Smolders navigated this by emphasizing a “dynamic story” with branching paths and hidden content, though limited resources meant these systems were often inconsistently implemented. The absence of a full development team—evident in the game’s sparse credits—meant compromises in playtesting, leading to the unbalanced combat and technical quirks that would define its reception. Yet, for all its limitations, the developer’s commitment to narrative experimentation, such as the game’s reliance on player choice to alter story branches, reflected a bold vision in an era dominated by formulaic genre entries.

3. Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

At its core, Victim of Xen is a study in identity and consequence. The premise is deceptively simple: Will, a boy in the war-torn kingdom of Serene Town, falls victim to Xen, a royal witch who transforms him into a girl as a capricious jest. His quest to undo the spell becomes the game’s narrative spine, leading him across continents and into conflicts between the warring kingdoms of Oppress and Unitem. Unlike traditional RPG protagonists, Will’s motivations are resolutely parochial—he seeks personal restoration, not glory or justice. This focus on selfhood over heroism is the game’s most radical element, as war, political intrigue, and magical threats are mere backdrop to his singular obsession. Along the way, he allies with characters like Marcus, a former prisoner whose backstory hints at broader societal tensions, but these relationships remain underdeveloped, serving more as quest dispensers than deep connections.

The dialogue, however, is a double-edged sword. Described as “awkward” and “repetitive” by players, it leans heavily on juvenile humor—particularly gags involving inebriated NPCs—and suffers from typos and stilted phrasing. Yet, this clunkiness occasionally breeds unintended charm. For instance, Will’s repeated, mortified explanations of his transformation to incredulous locals generate awkward, darkly comedic moments. The narrative’s greatest strength lies in its nonlinearity. Developer Smolders revealed that critical choices—like whether to fight or wait at key moments—could branch the story entirely, altering character perspectives and revealing hidden content. A letter delivered to an academy, for example, might vanish depending on the player’s path, creating an ephemeral, puzzle-like quality. This “dynamic” approach, however, was undercut by poor signposting, leaving players adrift and questioning missed content. Thematically, the game explores absurdity—Xen’s spell is a metaphor for arbitrary life changes—while questioning the futility of war in the face of personal crisis. Though hampered by execution, it remains a fascinating character study in a genre defined by archetypes.

4. Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Victim of Xen’s gameplay is a love letter to classic turn-based RPGs, particularly the Dragon Quest series, marred by fundamental design imbalances. Combat follows a traditional formula: random encounters, menu-driven commands (attack, escape, special abilities, defend, items), and turn-based resolution. Each character “focus” abilities—learned via leveling—range from multi-hit attacks to stat buffs, but lack elemental depth or strategic nuance. Status effects are sparse, with a single “confuse” ability that proves absurdly overpowered, trivializing even boss fights. The absence of item healing in battle forces players to rely on a single healer’s abilities, making prolonged engagements tedious. Compounding this is the economy: monsters drop negligible gold, while early-game jobs yield paltry rewards. Yet, a critical flaw allows players to grind coins for overpowered weapons, breaking the game’s difficulty curve and rendering combat trivial for hours.

Outside battle, the game shines with its exploration and quest design. An overhead perspective encourages thoroughness, with hidden side quests like retrieving a lost rabbit or decorating Will’s room offering quirky rewards. The airship, unlocked mid-game, provides satisfying continental traversal, though its utility is undermined by the game’s short runtime (averaging 3–5 hours). Progression is linear, but Smolders layered the world with optional dialogue and events that vanish permanently upon certain actions—such as completing the first job in Serene Town—which erases context-rich character interactions. The UI, while functional, is cluttered, and the lack of a comprehensive quest tracker exacerbates confusion. Despite these flaws, the game’s core loop—combating monsters, taking jobs, and pursuing the witch—retains a simple, addictive rhythm, even if its systems collapse under scrutiny.

5. World-Building, Art & Sound

Victim of Xen’s world—a patchwork of war-torn kingdoms and magical anomalies—builds atmosphere through implication rather than exposition. The kingdoms of Oppress and Unitem are sketched in broad strokes: their conflict permeates dialogue and landscape design, but never coalesces into a coherent political narrative. This abstraction serves Will’s personal journey, grounding the fantasy in relatable themes of displacement. Towns and dungeons, while functional, feel sterile due to RPG Maker’s default tilesets, with repetitive layouts and placeholder details. Yet, the developer weaved in small, evocative touches—abandoned houses teeming with spiders, or taverns brimming with gossip—that hint at a richer world unseen. The airship, in particular, symbolizes freedom, offering panoramic views of continents dotted with ruins and forests, even if these vistas are more symbolic than interactive.

Visually, the game is a paradox: nostalgic yet generic. Stock RPG Maker sprites and animations evoke classic 16-bit RPGs but lack originality. Character designs, like Will’s androgynous appearance or Xen’s flamboyant witch aesthetic, are charmingly simplistic, while enemies are recycled sprites with minor palette swaps. The art’s strength lies in its consistency; the 2D top-down perspective and vibrant colors create a cohesive, albeit unremarkable, aesthetic. Sound design, similarly, relies on RPG Maker’s stock audio library. Chiptune melodies and battle effects are serviceable but forgettable, with no standout tracks to anchor key moments. Despite their limitations, art and sound work in tandem to reinforce the game’s retro aspirations—evoking the simplicity of Earthbound or early Dragon Quest—while failing to leave a distinct impression. This adherence to familiarity, for better or worse, positions Victim of Xen as a time capsule of mid-2010s indie RPG aesthetics.

6. Reception & Legacy

At launch, Victim of Xen received a lukewarm reception, epitomized by its Metacritic user score of 3.4/10 and mixed Steam reviews (averaging 61/100). Players lauded its premise and quirky charm, with one Steam user calling it “fun” despite “horrible dialogue,” while others decried its “low-effort design” and “poor playtesting.” The combat economy and technical glitches—like screen flickering in fullscreen—were frequent complaints. Yet, a subset of players found value in its brevity and ambition, noting it was “worth €1” for its unique story. Over time, the game’s reputation has shifted from dismissive to cultishly appreciative. Its community, though small, celebrates its narrative idiosyncrasies, such as the branching storylines and hidden letter mechanics, which Smolders acknowledged as intentional design choices. Discussions on Steam reveal players dissecting missed content, reflecting a niche appeal akin to experimental cinema.

Legacy-wise, Victim of Xen remains a footnote in RPG history, more influential as a cautionary tale than a trendsetter. Its use of RPG Maker exemplifies the engine’s double-edged sword: accessibility for solo developers versus the stigma of stock assets. The game’s greatest contribution lies in its narrative bravery—prioritizing personal stakes over epic heroism—a concept later explored more deftly in titles like Cubicle Quest. Yet, its technical flaws and uneven execution prevent it from being cited as an innovator. Instead, it endures as a testament to the passion of indie creators working within constraints, a reminder that ambition can sometimes outshine polish.

7. Conclusion

Victim of Xen is a game of dichotomies: its narrative ambition shines through its technical and mechanical failings. Will’s quest to reclaim his identity is a refreshingly intimate lens on the RPG genre, while branching storylines and hidden content reveal a developer daring to experiment. Yet, these strengths are repeatedly undermined by clunky dialogue, unbalanced combat, and an overreliance on RPG Maker’s assets. For players, the experience is akin to discovering a handcrafted trinket—charming but flawed, with rough edges that may delight or frustrate. Its legacy is similarly ambivalent: a cult curiosity for genre enthusiasts, but a cautionary tale for aspiring developers. In the pantheon of indie RPGs, Victim of Xen occupies a unique space—unpolished, unapologetic, and unforgettable. While it may never achieve the reverence of classics like Chrono Trigger, its audacious premise and heartfelt core ensure it remains a fascinating, if flawed, artifact of gaming history. Ultimately, Victim of Xen is worth exploring not for its mastery, but for its sincerity: a game that reminds us that even the most humble quests can reveal profound truths about selfhood and circumstance.