SPACE FUNERAL AND WHY I LOVE IT

Space Funeral is an RPG Maker game made by one guy called thecatamites. It is unlike the typical RPG Maker game in many ways, but most noticeably its art style and choice of music.

After navigating through the title screen (where the usual START, LOAD, and QUIT buttons are replaced with BLOOD, BLOOD, and BLOOD,) you get a look at what’s to come; crude pixel graphics with skulls and blood everywhere you look.

The first thing that caught my interest here was the background music. Instead of having original songs made specifically for the game, Space Funeral’s soundtrack is composed of pre-existing music mainly from the 60s. The first song you hear is a piece of melancholic noise rock called White Awakening. Paired with the sobbing bald man you play as, and the drab locale of “Scum Vullage”... it's quite the way to kick off the game.

You soon get to try out the battle system. (the best part of which being the AWESOME battle theme called One-Eighty-One.) It's turn based and not too far from the average style of combat you’d find in plenty of other JRPGs. It does have a special feature, the “Mystery” option. It can do pretty much anything, and even has special outcomes depending on what enemy you’re fighting. You can get payed thousands of “rubles”, learn a new attack, or vomit. Try it out.

Eventually you find a talking pile of stitched-together legs called the “Leg Horse”, who joins you on your quest to find the “City of Forms”. You need to go there to revert the “Great Change”, a big disaster that turned the whole world ugly and gross. I won’t spoil the whole journey on the way there, but it’s packed with tons of funny (and a few creepy) moments.

Ok now I am going to spoil the game. So don’t continue reading if you’ve never played and want to see it yourself.

At the end of the game you find the City of Forms, and it is by far the biggest eyesore of a town in the game. The City of Forms is a place of pure chaos and primary colors.

After a bit of walking you find the game’s final boss, an artist named Moon. She found the City of Forms and was disgusted by how completely perfect it was, it made her never want to create anything again. So she corrupted it, in turn corrupting everything else in the world along with it. The once perfect world is turned to a gaudy mess. But according to Moon, this is a better way for things to be.

That is the message to take away from Space Funeral, and one that I really value as an artist. What’s the value in making a beautiful, boring thing, when you could really put your heart into something that’s flawed, but unique to you? Wonderful drawings, music, and games come from those who aren’t afraid to think outside the box and challenge the norms. Which is exactly what makes Space Funeral so memorable and fun.