Ghostlords feels completely out of place next to developer Kyle Rodgers' other output. No offense intended at stuff like Emoji Tower Defense or Bread Duck, cause they are obviously personal projects aimed at learning programming and game design. It is just quite the novelty to see a scenario-based JRPG with a monster collection system among the rest of his work. And Rodgers actually did a solid job of realizing this vision. While it is unfortunately relying on the dreaded "roguelite elements" for encounters and map layout, the campaign I finished was short enough that this didn't pose too many issues. The art has this amateurish MS-DOS quality that is frankly ugly, but some of the monster designs are hilarious. Like the little freezer with googly-eyes. Inevitably there is a lot of jarring tonal inconsistency when you have an armor-clad "Justice Knight" next to a sentient freezer box, but it works a lot better than if the game tried to play things 100 percent seriously. The irreverence skews similar to Shin Megami Tensei. I think Rodgers simply didn't have the means to go for a more serious endeavor and that is fine, because the results are far more interesting. Combat is somewhat of a mixed bag, with stock-standard mechanics but a harsh difficulty curve. My personal experience with the endgame reflected this, as every fight came down to the wire and required careful sequencing and sacrificial gambits. The free switch mechanic I think somewhat undermines this, but its a necessary evil due to how much raw damage the later enemies deal on even resisted hits. I actually quite enjoyed it in comparison to the earlygame stretch.

While the game doesn't particularly have any strategic or narrative depth for video essayists to dissect, I find genuine value in ambitious indies like Ghostlords because of the potential of the concepts they play with. The setting and specific mythology used for the monster designs; the level-up system allowing you to choose between new moves or passive bonuses; the shared energy bar system between the monsters; the overall structure of the game as 5 distinct but interconnected roguelike campaigns; these are just some of the ideas present that could be further explored. Rodgers is a smart developer and he has a lot of room to grow if he ever chose to dip his toes back into RPGs, to the point that I frankly think it would be a waste if he never did so again.