RRRRRPG has no plot, no unique enemies or dungeons, and no sound. The graphics are minimal, with enemies and players being represented by simple geometric shapes. Effects and attacks consist of nothing more than a little shaking and a number floating off into the distance. This game is about the core gameplay values of the JRPG being revealed, hiding all of the nonsense of one-winged angels, space pirates, and hymn-based soundtracks. Understandably, the game can be run on just about any computer, and takes up less than a MB of space!

The gameplay of RRRRRPG follows the traditional JRPG model. At the beginning of the game, you select the group of adventurers that will be making up your party for the rest of the game. These adventurers have a list of attributes, with each of them being self-explanatory. For example, evasion increases the chance that monsters will miss, and power increases the effectiveness of your specials. You can never choose another adventurer to replace one you already have, and there are only three possible classes to choose from. Each class has a specific role to play, and their stat growth reflects this.

• The Fighter is the standard physical attacker. His best statistics are strength, health, and accuracy, as they will let him survive attacks longer as well as deal more damage on a reliable basis. His special ability raises his strength score according to his power for a few turns, allowing him to briefly increase his single-target damage output. The Fighter has no multi-target damage capabilities.
• The Wizard is your offensive, multi-target caster. His best statistic is power, as it determines the strength of his amazing special. Health and evasion are also important, as they determine how long he survives. The special ability of the Wizard is a multi-target attack that deals damage roughly equal to your power. This is a great way to grind, as with a high enough power, the Wizard can blow through enemies with ease.
• The Cleric is the support caster and back-up single-target hitter. His important statistics are health, accuracy, and power. He doesn't hit as hard as a the Fighter or Wizard, but makes up for it with the special ability that allows him to heal a single target for his power attribute. However, this heal effect is not all its cracked up to be, and the spot of a Cleric is better given to a Wizard for the increased damage output. You won't take damage if enemies die faster, after all.

Upon composing your team, you are sent out into the world, and we use that term very loosely. Moving around in the game takes place in an area of concentric circles, with the further you are from the center corresponding to higher level monsters. For each new area you enter, you have to clear the boss before you can continue, and they are significantly harder than any other enemies in the area. Upon coming to a random encounter, the game goes into a standard turn-based battle, with order being determined randomly at the start. You can do normal attacks, a special attack that is dependent on your class and consumes exactly one MP (which is shared among your party), defend to take less damage, or try to escape. That is it. Nothing more. No item use or anything of the sort. It's either kill your enemies or run away. This lack of items is what makes the Cleric so useless, as the point of MP used for healing is better off being used for the Wizard's spell.

Beyond just fighting is the Void, which is what would pass for a town in a normal RPG. Here you can heal yourself, revive dead teammates, upgrade your gear, check your status, and save. Healing restores your MP and HP to max for a small cost, reviving brings back a dead teammate for a cost dependent on his level, upgrading gear reduces damage taken and increases damage dealt, status shows you the stats and upgrades of the selected party member, and save... saves your game. All very basic and functional. It's also well balanced, at least until you get past the first few bosses and start making insane amounts of money to upgrade insanely fast

RRRRRPG may be the genre distilled to its core elements, but it definitely proves the addiction that us as gamers have to the simple numbers grind. It's fun, a smart statement on what truly makes a game addicting, and free. You can't get much better than that, especially as far as freeware games goes. You can download the game from the developer's blog, which is (right now) inactive. The game is relatively long, possibly infinitely so, and in general a great game to have.

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