great classic-style RPG, probably from a small developer

I often love games from small-team studios. Im only an hour in, but I can already see evidence that SRRN is probably a relatively small developer -- evidence both good and bad. I could be wrong though!

Ash has a lot of issues and minor glitches and such, clearly not professionally debugged, but for me this fault is WAY more than made up for by its charm. It has way more good, fresh ideas than the average big corporation game, it has waay better writing than the average RPG, it has really interesting (not way too professional) artwork both as detailed drawings and small sprites, and it doesnt hold your hand like most modern RPGs (big world map to explore where its easy to get in over your head ... I miss that kind of stuff from early Dragon Warrior games and such).

I really want to see what happens to Nicholas and the red-haired guy, both very likeable characters, in a world where something strange is happening to many people. Oh, I like Ashs world, where at the beginning anyway the enemies are stuff like people with dishonorable professions, rats and dogs, rather than fantasy monsters, and your party makes an effort to "incapacitate" rather than kill.

Dont misunderstand, I know big company games can be phenomenal, but in my eyes they usually lack the soul of a beautiful game like Ash.

While Ash is not currently my favorite iOS JRPG ... in fact that honor belongs to a rather big release involving fantasy and dimensions published by an *ahem* enormous, extremely well-known corporation ... Ash does seem special, and very worth playing, and I fully intend to enjoy the whole thing. :)

edit:

... And I did. ;) (enjoy the whole thing) All my early impressions proved accurate in this fine game.

Ash is a fairly short game but has plenty to it to be easily worth the $1. It kept up the quality level throughout ... I love the story and the writing especially, including the humorous stuff when I search containers and such. I wonder how many pages of writing this game contains.

Ash has more glitches than the average iOS game (probably an understatement), but I only found one bad one (the crash when searching any one of several containers in one room of a boat).

Tom "slowbro" about Ash