Looks cool, very ZZT-like.
Ah, Caves of Thor is a legend!

Yes, I'm using oblique/isometric projection, just like the SNES era JRPGs, and I don't believe any or at least many textmode games have been created with this angle before. In the typical top-down view of ASCII games, the ASCII glyphs work as more like symbols. I have a very different approach, where I'm actually trying to draw graphics with the text glyphs. This has been done in some rare ZZT games before, but it's a very rare approach.

By the way, you can press Alt+Enter to switch between different screen modes, so playing the game in a smaller window is definitely possible.

Thanks for the comment, I appreciate it!
Heh, you gotta start somewhere. Good luck with your project!

I'm approaching textmode art in a different way than ASCII games generally do. In the typical top-down perspective ASCII game (roguelikes et cetera), the glyphs indeed have a more symbolic nature. I'm using a different perspective (oblique, isometric, or whatever you want to call it), and this allows me to draw with the glyphs instead of just using them as symbols.

As for the DOS-era window, the game is indeed a textmode game and marketed as such from the start. Without trying to sound passive aggressive, I have to point out the obvious: the game's target audience isn't people who find DOS-era aesthetics unmanageable, quite the contrary.

Thanks for the feedback anyway, I appreciate it.
You're right, and it's a good shout. The graphics used in this game are essentially ANSI graphics, although created without ANSI escape codes. Or the extended ASCII set (256 characters) with foreground and background color. However, I don't think many people have even heard the word ANSI, while ASCII gives some instant context to everyone.

The game uses standard DOS-style textmode graphics (QBASIC's SCREEN 0), with the old DOS font and 16 colors.

Thanks for the feedback. Overall, I don't think the word "retro" can be reserved to only mean games from some very narrow timeframe in the past. I think of it as a general word, referring to a game made to look and feel like old video games from the past.

Textmode graphics indeed don't have their roots in JRPG history. They've been more common in old RPGs made in the west, roguelikes, et cetera. But I'm still drawing all of my visual inspiration from the NES/SNES era JRPGs and using a similar perspective than those games instead of the typical top-down ASCII approach. The difference is that I'm using an archaic and very limited medium to convey the graphics.

Also, the gameplay, story, worldbuilding, mechanics et cetera are all deeply inspired by the classic JRPGs. So overall, the inspiration is all JRPG, while the execution is (at least graphics-wise) closer to the history of some other genres.
Drawing inspiration from somewhere doesn't mean that the game has to match the source visually, which is only one aspect of video games. Pretty much 100 % of the inspiration drawn to Whispers in the Moss comes from the 8-bit and 16-bit era JRPG classics. The fact that the game uses a very different approach to graphics than those games, will not change that one bit.

I've played some really good text-based interactive fiction games, that were completely inspired by Final Fantasy. These games didn't even have graphics.

Ken to Mahou is a good shout, though.