Aleph
A downloadable game for Windows
Originally created starting back in around 2010, Aleph took several years and a successful Kickstarter campaign to finish. The end result was an incredibly long and detailed RPG where your choices matter. And now it is available to all who wish to play it!
You are the Seer, a stranger in a strange world. You're drawn to this world by forces unknown, and tasked with the purpose of delivering it from the grips of a terrible evil... whether or not you do so, or join it, is up to you.
Your choices make a difference in Aleph. The party you recruit, the mercenaries you hire, the items you acquire, the dungeons you visit, the objects you craft... all of it will influence how you ultimately play the game. But more importantly, the moral choices you make will greatly affect numerous outcomes throughout the game. Commit murder in town, you will be attacked by the guards. Steal too much? You can be thrown in a dungeon.
More importantly though, the great evil that threatens the world upon its waking state is directly influenced by the moral choices you make throughout your journey. The more you adhere to the Principles of the Aleph and make good moral choices, the easier the fight against the great evil will be. Should you make numerous nefarious choices, you may not be able to defeat the evil, though you may join it...
Challenge comes to you not just in the form of combat against a huge multitude of enemies and boss encounters, but also in the form of numerous puzzles and riddles to solve, artifacts to find, and a huge world to explore.
Indeed, the world of Aleph is very large, and it is also open. You are free to visit whichever towns, whichever dungeons whenever you please. A boat is required to sail to some of the locations.
This might sound daunting, and perhaps it is, but you are not alone and unprepared. Many allies await you throughout the world of Aleph, happy to join your party. Each ally brings several unique skills to the group, so it is up to you to make the tactical choices - do you bring with you a healer? A potent mage? A stalwart knight to tank damage? How about a girl that transforms into a golem? Beyond the help in the form of friends, you are bestowed with one of the titular Alephs, a small round gem that allows you to locate objects, people, and locations.
Aleph also comes with a Seer's Companion Tome, a separate PDF that will provide useful and insightful information for numerous aspects of the game world.
If you are looking for a challenging RPG with an epic amount of content, this is the RPG for you.
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LOVE IT. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I went to the library, then used the Home spell. From that point on, I could not leave the area. Just walk along the edge, no transitioning to a new area. I had free range before this too. Very odd.
Love the game. One question, I can not leave Freehold. Not sure why. Is there a bug?
Thanks
I am not sure what the issue is off hand, this is the first time anyone has reported being stuck in Freehold!
Second post here, just wanted to say that this game is *AMAZING*!!! Wow!! I have not been blown away by a CRPG in a long time like i am with this game. Utterly brilliant dude! Wish I could discuss the game with you (the dev), because I have some really simple bugs that could be fixed easily and just wanted to see what the dev is up to because man...this game is crazy good! I would pay $39.99 for this on Steam no problem. Just saying. Anyone reading this and found this obscure gem please do yourself a favor and play it asap! Dev where art thou??
Sorry for such a late response but your kind words mean a lot!
Hey there! I started playing this game about a week ago and I have been HOOKED since!! It's seriously great! I was wondering if you were still taking bug reports for the game, as I had a few to report, such as the Iron Claw not being able to be equipped with a shield of any sort or the game crashes in combat. Also, the Sword of Binding can't be Tagged in the Aleph or else the game crashes, just small things like that. Anyway, this game is *fantastic*! I wish there were more like it. This is perfect in pretty much every way, especially for how I like my RPGs!! Thank you so much for making it! I also am LPing it on YouTube so feel free to check that out if you'd like. Cheers! :)
I appreciate it a lot! The game is very old at this point so there are no bug fixes being done for it (I don't think I even have the software currently that I used to make it). Maybe someday I will make a much better version of the game!
Hey, just hoping to get a bit of help because I seem to be stuck in the first area of the game where my manor is located. I can't move to any other locations. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
Hey! Just hopping in to say that I love this game and it seriously deserves more attention.
Never got very far in it though - the kinda-slow-even-when-sprinting speed bogged things down for me, and the map glitch where you appear in a mountain/ocean and can't move was too frustrating.
But I was hoping - is there any way to get the soundtrack used in the game? I'm looking forward to starting a good 'ole D&D thing with some friends, and I think the ambient background noise/music used for Aleph would be great for it.
If I am not mistaken, you should be able to access all of the music files inside the game directory :)
Oh man, I didn't bother checking there, thanks a bunch!
for some reason when I downloaded this game, it's always disconnected when it reached 240-320mb.
I really love this game, but i am actually very confused as of how i should play this game. I really need a walkthrough, or atleast a guide which shows inportant quests, optional ones and must ones.
Can anyone give me some tips on the etched tablet part? I just don't know what to do with the code there...
It's the Insciens 3 etched tablet
heya! There are two tablets in that area, both use the same simple substitution cipher (same cipher key). http://practicalcryptography.com/ciphers/classical-era/simple-substitution/
Basically write down the coded messages and start figuring out substitutions for the letters. It’s easier to guess letters for smaller words and then intuit larger words and letters from there.
I'm sorry...but i've been trying till now, and still nothing close , why is it so hard? or did i miss a hit in-game?
When you know some of the tricks to cracking a simple substitution cipher, it really is not terribly difficult! :) Here are a couple of links that tell you how to generally solve simple substitution ciphers: https://www.dummies.com/games/cryptograms/cryptography-101-basic-solving-techniques-for-substitution-ciphers/ and https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Solve-Simple-Substitution-Ciphers/ -- If you wrote down the messages from both tablets, it should actually make it even easier to ultimately create the cipher key needed to decode them. As to why it's "hard" is because one of the two areas that are locked behind the gates there contain one of the single most powerful items in the game. Also, these are optional - the way out of level 3 and to level 4 has nothing to do with the cryptographs :)
I see, thank you 😥
After playing the game for a while... I tend to like it but it's the user interface that puts me off, but it's more like the thing of personal taste. Although there are still some issues despite the taste things.
FIrst of all - map and navigation. I would be so glad to see a dot on a map indicating my curent position when using the cartography spell. Yes, I understand, that I'm supossed to be in the middle, but quite often it doesn't solve anything and I still have to wonder quite a bit untill I find a distinct land feature that can give me a clue at to where I'm. And considering rather small field of wiew it's really not that easy most of the time. Navigation at water, when you've got the boat - is pure luck for the most of the time and small ilands are sometimes almost imposible to find. I would suggest to add some small pieces of dryland of distinct shape all over the place to make it easyer to navigate.
The tag the location/object feature is broken and when something is tagged it flings you all over the map when you travel between regions. Also having a quest log with short descriptions of what you need to do would help a lot. While key characters and locations can be tagged I often simply don't remember what I have to do with those.
And as to more specific bugs:
- You can not enter region H-3 on a boat from neighboring regions. I mean you can enter it but you can't move onto it - only back. And it would be fine if it wasn't for a fact that a large island is situated there, which, I assume is important to progress in the game.
- In a couple of most easterm towns (Easthaven is one of them, if I'm not mistaken) you can not exit potion stores. When exiting it puts you back in front of the exit, but also it messes your save file turning this position into your last save.
- It also messes your save file in Simultas. The stairs between levels are messed up on porpouse, suppose, leading you somewhat randomly to other transition points. I saved before enterind the staircase at some point and when I loaded the save I was positioned not at the point I saved at but at the exit point I was directed earlier. I mean, it transfered me where I didn't want to and then rewrote my save file to stay there.
With all that being said I still appreciate the amount of effort put into making this game and wish you further successes.
First of all, I'm liking the game so far.
Second, I noticed a bug where I would move from one area to another, but it would move me between mountains (when leaving to the right the town area where yo find Lady Molly) and between water (somehow by leaving to the left of your base). I noticed this mostly happens when you have coordinates to something up, and have had to load from a previous save file just to exit. This bug/error keeps you at the edge of the mountain/water and you can only enter/exit from that spot to one other area and back. Forgive me if I'm not explaining it well enough. I don't mind reloading a save; the bug just makes gameplay annoying.
Third, not sure if you're suppsed to find out about her from the town/city? Lady Molly is in, or from another town/city, but you come across a thief in the area past Aernum and she mentions that the guards must have sent you to her or something. I either missed something in previous dialogues, or I was suppose to find out about what she's done elsewhere (I have yet to travel to any town/city apart from Lady Molly's).
On a side note, it's a shame that none of the party members follow you around, even if only the tamed wolf would be able to do so. I'm just a big fan of seeing companions follow my character around, especially pets and the like. XD
Thanks for playing! The bug you mentioned, yeah, it's a bit of an edge case and it was not something I ran into when I played through the game (this was years ago of course), but clearly it is a thing that is there. My apologies! The whole issue with not having characters follow you on screen is because this engine is very old and that feature didn't exist for it at the time (I still don't think it does!)
I can confirm the mentioned bug: For me it happens almost everytime I use the "see"-option with the Aleph. If I change location after doing that, I get stranded in a mountainous region where I can't move, only leave the screen - to end in another mountainous region without a possibility to move. When I load an earlier savegame, it tends to crash first, after the second attempt it works again. It seems to happen only if I use the "see"-opiton.
I love the strong Ultima-vibes I get from your game, very beautiful atmosphere, the soundtrack is perfect and graphically it's very well done. The only (tiny) thing I don't like very much is the running-speed - it's too slow for my taste. Apart from that minor aspect it's an interesting and engaging game with a very classic feeling so far. I'm a fan of your games generally and this one is no exception.
Thank you! I really hope you do enjoy it. If running is too slow, there are fast-travel options as you progress. Mark and Recall can be used to mark a spot anywhere and instantly travel back to it. Egress can instantly get you up and out of dungeons. A high-end spell allows you to instantly travel to any towns you've visited, etc. Hopefully that will help :)
Thank you for your fast reply! I've only played a little bit so I'm sure I'm not even scratching the surface of your game. By the way: I totally admire your art and was browsing through your resource packs. They are without any doubt the most professional I've ever seen. They evoke the heydays of the RPG-genre. I wondered if there is a list of games using them.
I've gotta say, I'm impressed. The sheer depth of the lore alone . . . I read every word of the PDF- really nice touch, it's really got me pumped to dig into this world. The combat is a bit standard, but the progression and exploration aspect makes up for it.
Thanks! I am glad you like it! Yes, the combat is a bit a standard, but we are also looking at something made in an old RPG Maker engine many years ago! :)
Considering that, it's certain impressive that you've accomplished what you have. Have you considered remaking what you have on a newer engine? I know it sounds like I'm suggesting you start from scratch, but I think it would be easier than it sounds.
Honestly, I would very much like to make a proper sequel using my newer resources and a better engine :)
That sounds like a great. Are you going to be using RPG Maker MV or going with something else?
No clue, it is all just theoretical right now :)
Failing to launch from the itch desktop launcher, seems to retry the extraction rather than launch the application, had to go find the exe myself
I am not terribly familiar with how itch does things. I did upload the zip, so it very well might just be triggering the zip file.
Fun game, though the window is very small and makes playing for a while a little uncomfortable, being able to scale to screen size would be great. Awesome job though!
Thanks! That's 10-year-old technology for you :)
problems: I somehow got stuck at Aernum X=87, Y=1. Since there is no jump button the rocks just prevent you from moving.
I tried to track down Lady Molly but her coordinates' name bottom half was cut out.
No matter how much time is spent bug-fixing, something always slips through! Thank you for pointing those out :)
heheh, you're welcome. Also, I think the quest distances are a bit too far, for instance I tried going from Lady Molly to the place she recommended next but even from home (F-11) to Lord Word (B-7) takes a bit too long, I know I could probably do sidequests in the meantime, but it'd still take a really long time and I doubt Molly to Word is the sole quest
That is intentional as it is meant to direct you to the big city where you can find the King (not that you HAVE to do it mind you, but it can be beneficial).