BEGINNER'S INTIMIDATION AND HIGH STANDARDS

Gameplay: 1/10

Although not strictly gameplay, I feel I should mention the introduction to this game first, and the reason I think I should mention it is because the introduction is very, very boring. It is perhaps one of the worst I have ever seen. It really does little to remove the initial feeling of "cliché-ness" you get from reading this game's synopsis and it basically consists of a monologue over the top of an RTP image of a planet. In fact, the monologue is straight from the synopsis, so including it seems sort of pointless.

The introduction to this game raises a point I feel I should make to other game makers: Long blocks of text are not an ideal way to start a game, and such a beginning will not get people hooked.

Unfortunately, what happens after the introduction isn't impressive either. The player is just dropped onto the world map near a town and a forest without any real direction. This might've worked for the first Final Fantasy game but it just doesn't fly now. Back when FFI was released, games (all games, not just RPGs) rarely gave you much input before the gameplay started, but doing this in an RPG now is simply unacceptable. In fact, doing this in almost any type of game now is simply unacceptable. However, I am ranting about things that are only loosely related to gameplay, so I will switch to gameplay mode.

The gameplay, or what I saw of it, seemed very traditional. The DBS is used, which I have no problem with, but the battles themselves are rather uninteresting. The enemies seem to use only basic attacks/critical attacks on you and it leaves you lusting for enemies that change their battle patterns or attempt to use skills/status effects. Also, as the battles are random, the monotonous nature can get kind of annoying as there isn't any way around them. There is nothing wrong with random battles when the enemies are interesting, but if they are not then they get old, fast. This is all fairly average for an RPGMaker game, though, and is something I can ignore since many commercial RPGs suffer from the same problem from time to time…

Except then you'll meet the imps and will get the want to smash your keyboard. I started a battle with a set of three imps and all three uses a skill that read "Imp swiped with a sharp object". The skill killed whichever member of my party it hit in one attack, dealing around 30-35 damage (characters start with less than this, at around 20 depending on class). The next turn saw one of the imps use the skill to wipe out the remaining member. Four attacks and I'd hit a game over screen. Now, I'm not sure if this is a skill that is meant to kill in one hit, but given how often the imps use it I assume it is not, so this one skill basically destroyed any sense of balance the game could've ever had. In fact, the imps were enough to stop me playing before the first boss as I simply could not get by them. Even running seemed to do absolutely nothing to help. Seriously, there is a difference between difficult battles that are enjoyable but challenging (i.e. Everything Turns Grey) and completely game-breaking misbalance.

I did decide to give the game another chance, though, and used the database to remove this skill. I played through to the first boss this time and saw nothing that changed my mind; even the boss battle was incredibly boring, and boss battles is something a lot of games do right when the normal battles themselves are monotonous (Alter A.I.L.A comes to mind here).

Characters/Classes: 4/10

The characters play no part at all in the storyline and are simply there to smash the enemies with their weapons and spells, and there is nothing wrong with this style of character for some people. However, I am someone who likes a connection with the characters to form as I play through a game so this irked me slightly. Giving the heroes any sort of characterisation would've been nice, even if it was only cliché reactions to the events occurring around them, and on that note I'd recommend looking at Demon Tower for a good example of this. The characters there are largely present just for fighting, but also have enough characterisation to drive players forward to find out more.

As for class balancing, the classes seem fairly well balanced (although I can't escape the thought that picking a team of red mages would destroy any sort of balance just as it did in Final Fantasy III). The classes are also diverse enough to make you think a little when choosing a party. However, being able to buy stat-altering items seemed to defeat the point of having classes. I could easily make a White Mage class character and buy them enough Strength altering items to make a Knight kind of character. You could argue that this would require a lot of effort in terms of gathering the items and money needed, though, so I guess this point isn't much of a criticism; just a general observation.

Another “problem” with the classes was that the mages do not seem to have any items that boost their magic stat. What is the point in buying a staff when all it does is increase the Strength stat by a small amount? More class-based items are a must in this sort of game!

In short; the characters need to have some sort of personality, even if it isn't developed too strongly, whereas the class balancing is passable.

Storyline: 1/10

A group of four heroes appear out of a ball of light to defeat a reborn evil that is again purging the land whilst being dragged into trivial quests that the people who “heralded their return” should know better than to drag them into. *Yawn*.

Graphics/Mapping: 3/10

The graphics in this game are mostly RTP and, as a result, fit together quite well. Anything not from the RTP that has been mixed in is generally mixed in smoothly and nothing really ever sticks out like a sore thumb. However, having seen the same graphics in so many games makes them a little boring on the eyes, so I can't exactly praise them.

Unfortunately, the graphics fitting together well is defeated by the mapping. Houses that are small on the outside cover whole screens on the inside and are full of wide, open spaces. The dimension problem many games seem to have to some degree is completely out of proportion in this game. The town mapping is lack-lustre also, as it is devoid of any sort of "levelling" and basically tends to consist of large maps scattered with isolated houses filled out with NPCs walking around saying useless things. Useless things like "Yay! The heroes have arrived!"

Music/Sounds: 5/10

The music in this game is typical, fantasy RPG fare and none of it is out of place. However, the transition between different tracks is far too jumpy. Songs do not fade out and fade in smoothly when they really should be doing and it can be slightly annoying (if only for a second) to hear. Another tip for other RPGMakers: Jumping from one track to another should really be reserved for the times when you want to make a statement or shock the player. Think about how this is done in movies, for instance.

As for the sounds, they do what they're supposed to do so it is hard to fault them. I don't have much to say about them.

Overall: 1/10

Having sat through a boring intro, spoken to boring NPCs, walked through empty mapping and having been killed several times by a simply game-breaking enemy, I cannot recommend playing this to anyone. People may pass this off as me being harsh, which I admit my reviews usually are, but this time I really mean it. This game is simply an awful game that shows no glimmer of hope. Usually I can recommend things I think need fixing that will make the game better, but with this game I simply can't do this. If I am honest, starting a whole new project seems the best way forward. Even if the balance was fixed, the mapping was fixed and the characterisation was improved, the storyline would still be enough to keep me away from playing this game all the way through.

In fact, this game is so bad, I am considering re-writing my other reviews from this Release Something because I see now I was judging those games based on standards that were perhaps too high. Standards I was basing on commercial games rather than homebrew ones. If this is the lowest tier of homebrew RPG then the other games I have reviewed so far clearly deserve greater praise…

And no, seriously. I'm not joking about this.