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The Xbox 360 era came alongside the rise of indie gaming, and the Xbox Live Indie Game program helped give the smallest developers a much larger problem. Now, it seems a standout JRPG tribute called Breath of Death 7: The Beginning has stood the test of time well enough to earn its own remaster.
While the title 'Breath of Death 7' might suggest this is a late-era entry in some epic, long-running series, it's actually a standalone, comedy-minded tribute to 8-bit JRPGs. While somewhat bigger games got highlighted on Xbox Live Arcade, Breath of Death 7 was a standout among the smaller Xbox Live Indie Game titles, offering a Dragon Quest-style experience that you could wrap up in about six hours.
Breath of Death 7 was one of the top-rated XLIG titles up until the platform went defunct, and the game remains available on Steam to this day with "Very Positive" reviews. It's now bundled with developer
Zeboyd Digital Entertainment's follow-up, Cthulhu Saves the World, for $3 - or just $0.59 during the current Steam Autumn Sale.
Now another studio called Shadow Layer Games is set to launch Breath of Death 7: The Beginning Reanimated via Steam on December 12. This version cheekily promises "new detailed visuals, animation, audio, and quality of undead updates," and the new graphics look quite nice - like a lost SNES JRPG we never got to play.
The best part? The devs have confirmed in a press release that just like the original, Reanimated is going to have an "amazing price point" - this time it's $5. Sure, that's a lot of inflation over the first game, but five bucks is still a more than fair asking price for a breezy JRPG in the classic style.
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