Postgame Review: RPG Maker – Cold Front

Last Updated: December 30, 2024

Table of Contents

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Cold Front chills minds, not just weather

Key Takeaways:

  • Emotional Depth: “Cold Front” delivers a raw, character-driven story packed with psychological twists.
  • Atmosphere: The pixel art and moody soundtrack create an unsettling yet immersive horror vibe.
  • Replay Value: Two endings give you a reason to dive back in and see how choices shift the story.
  • Short but Impactful: At just under an hour, it’s a quick play that leaves a lasting impression.
  • Monster Chase Lag: Occasional lag during chase sequences can disrupt the tension.
  • Brief Experience: If you’re looking for a longer game, this one wraps up fast.

Introduction

Ever had a warm summer day where the sun’s bearing down on you but you suddenly felt it was more like deep, isolating winter? Well, in “Cold Front” by RachelDrawsThis and STUDIO INVESTIGRAVE you get thrown into just that—a blizzard that comes out of nowhere.

However, the snowstorm isn’t the scariest part of this chilling nightmare. This short RPG Maker horror game is packed with emotional twists, haunting visuals, and a psychological story that relates to connections and how our mind can act as our true worst enemy.

If you want more cold indie horror games to chill you to the bone, check out my 7 Cold Indie Survival Horror & More!

Now, let’s dive deep into the frigid horrors of the indie horror RPG Maker – Cold Front,

Overview

“Cold Front” was developed in 25 days for a Korean RPG Maker game jam, and it’s got that indie charm down to a science. Psychological horror plays a big role in this story, which is character-driven for the most part.

You’re looking at around 1 hour of playtime, but the two distinct endings will have you diving back in to see how things could have gone differently. Or just to see the what-if scenario. This game’s all about choices, and trust me, some of them will make you pause and reflect on your way of interpreting events.

The Story

Like any good story, in “Cold Front” we get a brief background on Augustine (our main character) and Winnie, his best friend. Both have been close since elementary school. But things were changing. Winnie’s heading off to university, and Augustine’s feeling iced out.

Their last summer day together turns upside down when a freak blizzard hits them while on the road driving. Trapped in the storm, they must confront more than just the weather. A deadly monstrosity, hallucinations, and abnormal changes in the surroundings haunt them.

Expect a heavy dose of jealousy, paranoia, bonding, and emotional tension as the story unfolds.

Spoilers

If you don’t want spoilers for “Cold Front”, here’s a heads up. So, stop skip this if you don’t want spoilers: we are introduced to Augustine as a kid, when his mom took him to visit the new neighbors—Winnie and his mother.

Winnie’s mom notices Augustine and suggests he introduce himself to a withdrawn Winnie upstairs. Augustine makes note of how high the stairs are and proceeds to Winnie’s room.

Here you can choose how to get Winnie to open his door. I chose to fake an injury, which played out funny when Augustine got called out for his bad lie. Anyway, after Winnie lets you in, Augustine questioned why Winnie was crying. Assuming Winnie really must not like being around others.

Winnie explains he was lonely and felt he’d never have friends in this new place because it would be too difficult and they would only befriend him because his parents told the kid to talk to him, instead of the friendship growing organically.

Augustine, as a kid sometimes would, bluntly tells Winnie that he was making scenarios happen without giving it a chance by pushing people away. He even stated that he came to see Winnie out of curiosity, not because he was told to be his friend.

Further he added that you must earn a friendship. Winnie takes Augustine’s advice and the two develop a bond.

As the years passed, Augustine noticed the trajectory their lives have taken. Where Winnie steadily became more popular and achieved more and more things such as getting into university, becoming the top player on the hockey team, having “fans”.

Augustine even noticed how Winnie distanced himself from their friendship for months after his leg got broken last winter.

While talking in the car, Augustine saw Winnie shift in demeanor. He heard Winnie call out their glaring differences, highlighting his successes and calling out Augustine’s failures—referring to Augustine as “Trash”.

Shocked by what he heard, Augustine had an outburst, accusing Winnie of always doing that, when the sunny day became a stark, cold blizzard in July?

Trapped in the freezing car, you have Augustine kick open the frozen car door. Upon stumbling out, unless you react fast enough, Augustine falls out into the snow. Inexplicably, he finds himself dressed in his outfit from last winter.

Winnie also had on an outfit from last winter. As both try and figure out the strange happenings, they concluded to look for a source of warmth since Winnie is freezing in his less-than-optimal outfit for storm.

Augustine searches in the car for something to draw heat. While searching, he finds out the fuel is suddenly empty. He also found in the glove compartment a pack of cigarettes, which confused him.

However, he soon recalled how Winnie didn’t smoke but probably pretended to fit in with a group of popular students that called Augustine a loser. This further made Augustine believe Winnie was distancing himself.

Suddenly, Augustine heard Winnie and exited the car, only to see Winnie with a tiny snowman (Winnie made it). Winnie revealed he saw a ominous shadow stalking in the blizzard. After finding no means of warmth as the blizzard pummeled the car, they concluded to trekking their way out of this sudden snowy mess.

Upon their trek, Augustine and Winnie encounter streaks of blood in the snow and soon discover two dead bodies of kids. The kids were them. As soon as they recoiled from the discovery of seeing their mangled bodies, an amalgamated, massive creature snuck up behind them and attacked.

After outrunning the creature through the snow and blizzard, Winnie falls. Here you can choose to help or not. If Augustine helps Winnie up, you both escape onto a weak ice patch.

After timing your two stomps, the ice breaks and opens into a chasm, swallowing up the monster but almost Augustine too. As Augustine pleaded for Winnie to hold on and not let him fall, Winnie admitted his hands were too numb from the cold and Augustine lost his grip and fell.

Augustine awoke at the bottom of the chasm, lying in snow. Once you help him struggle to his feet, Augustine finds himself in Winnie’s house while snowing inside. Remembering Winnie mentioned he left his lighter at home, Augustine begins his search.

While exploring, Augustine finds sticky notes on the bathroom mirror, hinting at where to find the lighter (in Winnie’s room) and the key to Winnie’s room. Blaring sirens were in the bathtub, flashing red and blue lights.

In the laundry room, Augustine finds a suit that looks like him. After finding the key, he enters Winnie’s room and gets surrounded by versions of himself, older and younger.

Overwhelmed by his insecurities and suspicion of Winnie, Augustine spirals and now sees Winnie as stealing everything from him. His goals, achievements, friends, and attention all taken by Winnie. He suspected Winnie was now trying to get rid of him, the last remainder of Augustine.

Upon this realization, Winnie came into the room. Questioning how they were even in his room, Winnie soon reveals he found fuel for the car.

After Winnie left to wait for Augustine at the top of the stairs, Augustine soon followed. Seeing Winnie at the top of the stairs, it is here you decide whether to push Winnie down the stairs or not.

Ending #1 – Push Winnie

If you push Winnie, Augustine watches with glee as Winnie lay bloodied at the bottom of the stairs. This shows that Augustine was there when Winnie fell down the stairs for the first time, which led to the broken leg mentioned earlier in the story. Augustine admits that he may have wished Winnie died that day.

Suddenly, Augustine wakes upside-down in the passenger seat of the car. Having been in a car accident, Augustine sees and hears the ambulance. Immediately, he looks over to see Winnie not breathing. Upon realizing what this meant, Augustine grinned.

Augustine learned Winnie died in the car accident. Seeing how the death was instant, Augustine concluded there was nothing he could’ve done to prevent it. After Augustine was rescued, he found he escaped the accident with bruises and scrapes.

As he recovered, people he thought he lost came to comfort him, recognize him, be there for him, and give him attention. Feeling noticed and cared for, Augustine smiled, not feeling alone anymore.

Ending #2 – Don’t Push Winnie

If you don’t push Winnie, Winnie reacts by trying to snap Augustine out of his unhinged mental state. Winnie asks Augustine why he keeps accusing him of things he didn’t say. Soon, Winnie admits this type of dynamic can’t go on and asked Augustine about the incident.

Winnie stated that he knew Augustine did not push him but wondered why he just watched him fall and didn’t call an ambulance. It was then Winnie began to give Augustine space as he was scared about how Augustine felt about him and was confused.

Winnie then pushes for them to finally talk about what was really going on. Augustine eventually opens and admits to the jealousy and isolation he felt while thinking Winnie was stealing everything from him.

As they talked, Winnie admitted how he always admired Augustine and never meant to cross that boundary.

Augustine then realized that he had done what Winnie did as a kid, confirming things are happening before they happened. Realizing that Winnie wasn’t his enemy tormenting him but that he was his own enemy doing the tormenting, Augustine opened and admitted he was wrong.

The two then figure out that what they were experiencing was shared memories while unconscious. The only way to escape was to fix their tangled friendship and get rid of the monster that represented it.

The blizzard, clothes change, hallucinations, and monster were all representations of their fracture relationship. Eventually, they confront the monster and douse it in fuel. Augustine then throws the ignited lighter at it and watches in burn. However, they burned too.

Their being set ablaze in the memory, allowed them to wake up alive. The ambulance took Augustine and Winnie to the hospital and treated them. This time, Winnie escaped with bruises and scrapes, but Augustine broke his leg.

During his recovery, Winnie stayed by Augustine’s side. Even after Winnie left for university, Augustine never felt alone because he knew Winnie would always be there for him.

Spoilers End

The story shows Augustine’s jealousy and insecurity come to a head when Winnie’s involved. A pivotal moment leaves Winnie injured because Augustine hesitated, and this fractures their relationship. The blizzard? It’s a metaphorical wall of all the unresolved baggage between them.

The Gameplay

“Cold Front” blends that classic 2.5D RPG Maker feel with visual novel vibes. You’re exploring, interacting with objects, and making dialogue choices that steer the ship.

The atmosphere is thick with tension, and every little interaction feels like it counts.

The game’s pretty linear, but there’s enough room to explore different paths and trigger those two distinct endings.

Game GuideChase Scene Included

Need a little help getting through the storm in “Cold Front”? Here’s a quick breakdown:

  • Breakdown of monster chase scene: Start running down the middle of the path. If run does not work by holding SHIFT, refresh game.
    • Turn right at the first tree stump, and then stay on the farthest right until you reach the last fallen tree trunk.
    • Run toward the center, under the fallen tree trunk and run straight down.
  • Exploration is key: Interact with everything in “Cold Front”. Some things hold clues to the story’s context.
  • Dialogue options matter: The way Augustine responds to Winnie can shift the tone of their interactions and even influence the ending.
  • Endings split: “Cold Front” branches based on how Augustine handles his emotions. Pay attention to how you respond in key moments—does it all add up?

Graphics and Audio

The pixel art is fantastic in “Cold Front”, simple yet detailed to be immersive. The environments are moody, and the character designs feel personal and full of life (even if that life is unraveling emotionally).

The soundtrack keeps the tension on a tightrope, balancing soft moments with unsettling undertones. It’s minimal but effective—exactly what you’d want in a short horror experience. I also loved the music by Kevin MacLeod in this.

Performance and Technical Aspects

“Cold Front” runs smoothly on Windows and macOS, and for a game jam project, it feels polished. There is some lag during the monster chase. However, there are no glaring bugs or performance hiccups, just a solid experience from start to finish.

Length and Replayability

It’s short but sweet (or bitter, depending on your choices) gameplay experience in “Cold Front”. Clocking in at under 1 hour, “Cold Front” doesn’t overstay its welcome. The two endings are the big draw for replayability, and if you’re the type to hunt for every hidden dialogue option, like me, there’s more than enough reason to revisit.

Closing Thoughts

“Cold Front” might be brief, but it pulls its weight with emotional storytelling and atmospheric design. If you’re into narrative-heavy horror with a sprinkle of RPG mechanics, this one’s worth the download.

So, what did you like about “Cold Front”? Did you get the Ending #1 or #2 first? Share your thoughts and comments below. Check out “Cold Front” on itch.io here!

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