''Breath of Death VII: The Beginning'' is an indie turn-based role-playing video game developed and published by

Zeboyd Games Zeboyd Games is a Indie developer of 8-bit and 16-bit-style indie role-playing games . Zeboyd is run and its games are created by Robert Boyd and William Stiernberg. The studio got its start with ''Breath of Death VII'' and ''Cthulhu Saves the W ...

. It was released on April 22, 2010, for Xbox Live Arcade, and on July 13, 2011, for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. It was later bundled with its

spiritual successor A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel) does not explicitly continue the product lin ...

, '' Cthulhu Saves the World'', as a compilation pack. Despite the title, the game is standalone and unconnected to any other games. A parody of

16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two mos ...

Japanese role-playing games, it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in which humans have gone extinct. The main character, an

undead The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if alive. Most commonly the term refers to corporeal forms of formerly-alive humans, such as mummies, vampires, and zombies, who have been reanimated by super ...

skeleton knight named Dem, is accompanied by other undead party members in a quest to stop an evil force. ''Breath of Death'' was positively received by critics, who commended its gameplay, story and low price, but also called it overly basic and generic.

Gameplay

The player must travel through dungeons, which have random encounters. Battles are first-person and menu-based.

Health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

is fully recovered after battles, while MP must be restored at save points. Gameplay differences between the game's Xbox Live Arcade and PC versions include being able to remove old equipment from the inventory and save anywhere, not just at save points.

Plot

The game is set in the future, where humanity has gone extinct after a

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear w ...

. Dem, a silent protagonist who is incapable of speaking, teams up with various other undead party members, including Sara, who can understand him through mind-reading, in order to stop an evil entity.

Reception

Alex Fuller of ''RPGFan'' rated the game's PC version 3.5/5 points, particularly commending its battle system as easy-to-use, noting its time limit system in which enemies gain power each turn, and its combo system, allowing party members to join for attacks. David Sanchez of ''GameZone'' called it a "highly enjoyable parody adventure", that was short and somewhat generic but still worth playing at its low price. Supernovae of ''

Jeuxvideo.com ''Jeuxvideo.com'' (from ''jeux vidéo''; ; ) is a French video gaming website founded in 1997. History The website traces its history to a video game hint collection on Minitel, a precursor to the World Wide Web, and was founded by Sébastien ...

'' rated the game 15/20, comparing it heavily to retro games and saying that it was original, humorous and worth the price.

References

{{Zeboyd Games 2010 video games Indie games Parody video games Post-apocalyptic video games Single-player video games Turn-based role-playing video games Video games about skeletons Windows games Xbox Live Arcade games Zeboyd Games games