"Tales of Game's Presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa" is a post-apocalyptic RPG set in 2053 Neo New York starring Charles Barkley. 12 years prior to the events of the game Barkley performed a Chaos Dunk - a terrifying move that killed millions and led to The Great B-ball Purge of 2041. Basketball had been outlawed, many basketball players were hunted down and the world ushered into an era of post-cyberapocalypse. Now, over a decade later, fate has it that Charles has to go on a journey throughout the sleazy, vile world of Neo New York and beyond to fight the demons of his past and save the world. Canonically the game is set after the events of both "Barkley: Shut Up and Jam" and "Space Jam".
RPGs are a ripe genre for comedy games. Few games come to mind that has been as good and consistently funny as Mario RPGs or the recent South Park: Stick of Truth. Structure of the genre allows for creation of complex, hilarious plot lines and bizarre combat scenarios supported by well-conceived script. Obviously, these are different to the game that's the subject of this thread, they were created by prestigious studios with actual development budget. This is an indie game made in RPG maker by a ragtag team of people that go by their community usernames, it's obviously a joke game to boot. So, what makes Barkley Gaiden special? It's actually a darn good game. What could have been a throwaway joke (ha-ha, post-apocalyptic jRPG with Charles Barkley) is one hell of a memorable experience because the devs knew exactly what they were doing and they did a tremendous job. Style, care and knowledge about both the genre and subject matter ooze out of the game throughout the whole experience.
The writing is a hoot. Almost every single line in the script is well thought out, barely a moment wasted. Every time any character gets to speak you are guaranteed to at least crack a smile. The plot is absolutely incoherent, yet almost never ceases to amuse. And what I think it is that makes it so good is that it's played completely straight. As nonsensical as the whole game is there are very few moments where the game shoves it's stupidity in your face and screams in your face 'IT'S A JOKE, GEDDIT'. It's never obnoxious and it never overstays it's welcome. There were moments where I drifted away and ran with it, only to realize after a while what the hell I read, how bizarre it was.
However, that's not all. The game is a legitimately competent, really well designed jRPG. The battle system is one of the best in the genre. It features Mario RPG-esque active commands and is surprisingly varied, with every character that joins your party possessing a distinct combat style. Seriously, not two of them play anything alike. Enemies are unique and varied throughout the game. They are visible in the overworld and never respawn, which is both a huge relief and a great way to balance difficulty curve throughout the game. "Tales of Game's" obviously played a ton of jRPGs and know their stuff, which shows all the time in the design of the game.
About audio-visual design... it's delightfully terrible. An absolute ton of sprites, themes and even entire environments are shamelessly ripped from other sources, usually 16-bit era jRPGs. The soundtrack is hilariously on point. Spritework is inconsistent and never not funny (shout-out to amazing post-victory animations!). There are obvious, glaring inconsistencies between battle sprites, overworld sprites and character portraits. Names of both locations and characters are jRPG-inspired nonsense (it's set on Earth... yet everyone worships 'Clispaeth'). There are instances of gratuitous Japanese and broken English 'translations'. The game parodies jRPGs and various Internet subcultures, but never becomes cheap, lowest-common-denominator mean parody.
Barkley Gaiden could easily have been a disposable piece of garbage which amuses one by it's bizarre premise, but is soon forgotten. Instead, it's a memorable experience and one hell of a hilarious ride, complemented by great gameplay. I finished it yesterday and almost immediately started to watch an LP and honestly, I'm laughing as hard as I did when I played it. If you know a thing or two about jRPGs you owe it to yourself to play it. If you don't, it's still absolutely worth it. Hey, it's free and only 5 hours long! If you didn't experience it yet, go play it is what I mean!
Everybody come on, it's time to slam now
