• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS

A Generic Review For Something That’s Completely Generic About Being Generic

  • Addit
  • 05/15/2013 10:59 PM
  • 1945 views


A Game Made By: kentona
Created Using: RPG Maker 2003
It's A: RPG Game
That Roughly Takes Around: 6 - 8 Hours To Complete
And It's A... COMPLETED GAME!!!


Ugh… You know what, kids? There seems to be a lot of games around the block nowadays that borrow (or, like me, steal) too much content and various game mechanics from existing products in order for them to truly stand out among the rest of the heard. This latter term is called “originality,” a term used to describe a game or something of its type of genre that tries to do something completely different and creative – to stand out from the rest of the blowhards. Those are the types of games I’m trying to search for and would rather see plastered all over the site with perfect scores and the such (ah…if only). So, with that being said, “Why the hell are you reviewing a game that just screams, ‘I’M TOO NONSPECIFIC TO BE OF ANY GOOD!?’” Well, for two main important reasons, my friends: First off, I’m trying to suck up to the game’s creator - and master of this entire domain - for all the horrible stuff I’ve done in the recent past (it’s called community service); and two, I thought I would try something more…“Generic” for a change, seeing how tonight’s just one of those types of nights. Released waaaaaaayyyyy back in 2009 during Release Something Day VI, here’s Kentona’s 10 day mini-creation: Generica! (Hmmm…how generic…)

The Story


And I didn’t even need to finish climbing that awful mountain just to do it.


Our tale of Genericism begins with the coming of four friends that are about to set out on an epic quest to rid the world of Generica from the evil Slayer King, a brutal tyrant that controls the land and the people that dwell within in with an iron fist! While many others have tried to stand up to his regime in the past by forming a massive rebellion to rid him of power, none have been truly successful to do it…or even try (lazy bums). Legends has it that the only way to even remotely touch the Slayer King is by wielding a weapon called The Generica Gladius, a sacred weapon that only the Fisher King knows where it lies and the only hope for humanity to stand up to this brutal beast. It is up to you and your party of ingrates to go forth to find this Fisher King, recover the scared blade, and put an end to the Slayer King’s reign of terror (seriously, the people of this stupid land need to form a democracy next time so shit like this doesn’t happen – YA THINK!?!?!?).

The Gameplay


…This could TAKE awhile…


Generica pretty much says everything you need to know about this game by simply just looking at it, and that includes most of the gameplay elements as well. Like every other RPG, Generica takes its cues from such classics like Dragon Quest (no shit), Ultima and the original Final Fantasy games. You go through dungeons, fight monsters, level-up, you know, the whole nine yards. It seems like a lot of Kentona’s games seem to emulate the old school style of games which I happened to also grow up in - and Generica is no different. While the similar traits do work and provide some customization there are some things that just…annoy me a little with this game. Now to be fair on Kentona, he only had 10 days to work on this, so he didn’t have the time to work out all the kinks. Hell, if I had to work on a project in 10 days I would probably make something similar but even worse than this – WAYYYYY worse. But, still, these are gameplay problems, and they truly lower the game’s overall experience in the end because of them. First off, the battle speed is SLOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW *painful agonizing groan* - especially in the beginning of the game! Once you do learn spells like Haste and get advantage of some of the more special type of equipment, then its seemly fine. But man do these battles take FOREVER!!! Even with a Druid (which should be relatively fast), I still took a while to finish most of my fights. Throw in the constant spamming of Poison, Blind and Sleep spells from the enemies you fight – and you have yourself a game that you just want to strangle at times. Also, those Spirit like enemies that you’ll meet later in the game, yeah…they’re a pain when you don’t have a mage. These type of enemies suck royal because nothing can hurt them unless you use magical based attacks. And since I only have one character that can use low level attack spells, I HATED fighting these things – especially if you have to beat them when you get cornered in a battle in order to escape. Ugh... Also, the battle encounter rate was a little too high for my tastes. There were also some annoying glitches, such as decreases in walking speed and that Ice Dragon fight (UGHHHH)!!! Still, even with all these balancing issues, the overall gameplay is still pretty entertaining, especially when you get to the end and you get all those killer items that make combat a lot more doable. I guess if it ain’t broke, no need to fix what ain’t (except the battle speed. I HATE the battle speed).

The Soundtrack


R...Rydia? Is that you???


…Do I really need to explain the soundtrack to this game? Ah…okay… Let’s use the process of elimination here. Dragon Quest styled graphics and sprites + 10 days + Kentona = DRAGON QUEST MUSICAL MIDI’S!!! Ding. Ding. Ding. Oh, and, um, don’t forget about those lovely “bleep bleep” sound effects too (that may get annoying after a while). I really don’t have much to say on this, considering I’ve heard Dragon Quest music before countless times in other games. It works, I guess. I mean, the game is called Generica for a reason…

The Aesthetics


…What!?


Typical Dragon Quest styled rips. That’s all I have to say. Okay…I’ll say a bit more to make this section more reasonable… For a ten day project – and the fact that only one person was doing this entire game – I say if you’re looking for something with a little bit more…custom ordinated graphics you seriously have come to the wrong place. Kentona usually NEVER uses anything other than classic rips from older RPG’s, and I think that’s just fine; it suites his style. The graphics work well in this type of situation, and I never really had a real problem with it. Sometimes old school is the best school to work with, especially if you’re in a 10 day pinch.

The End Result


Of course!


Now you might get the impression from my lackluster comments that this game is, indeed, a bad game, because it’s too damn average and you can only go so far with a ten day attempt at something. Well…actually…even with the annoying battle speeds and even MORE annoying enemies I still had a remotely good time with this one. Sure, some days playing this game felt like more of a chore than anything else, which lowers the fun factor a little. But if you can see through all that and concentrate on the good, then this game really did a swell job. I have to really hand it to Kentona in creating a decently sized game with a few odd-and-ends with the limited time frame he had. That’s really something. If he had more time to polish this game and expand upon it, I think it would have been even better, which makes me want to try out some of his other games, like Hero’s Realm. I think, sometimes, simple does it best. In a world where everybody thinks that making custom graphics and having an amazing level of detail makes a RM game truly stand out, sometimes it’s the simplest of things that work best. There’s a reason why a lot of us return to the classics of our youth; because it was a much simpler time back then. For a few days, I felt like I was going back to being a kid again, playing with my old NES. Sure, this game isn’t the most original creation in the world, and it does have some issues, but, overall, Generica is a worthwhile pickup. I recommend it to anyone looking for a classic, but short, RPG. Just, um, prepare to get frustrated a little at times…just a little.

OVERALL GRADE:
3.5 / 5 - C+ ~ A Few Quips, But Otherwise A Great Game.

Posts

Pages: 1
Balancing is hard to do in 10 days. Thanks for the review and thanks for playing!
You're welcome. Lol, I actually remember playing this game the second day in and was like, "Oh - mannnnnnn, I don't wanna play this game anymore; it's too SLOW! And the story sucks! And my Lenny & Carl knights can't seem to hit anyone because they're always getting F’in BLINDED!!!" But then I was like, "Okay...I gotta do this; I gotta get this done; I can't quit now... Awwww - ICE PALACE DUNGEON!!!" But then when I got to end of the game and started getting the uber equipment and the game started getting a bit easier on me, I started to like this game, so much so that I was bit sad when the game ended that I wanted moar!!!

Still very impressed. I could never make a game in 10 days as rad as this one without having a shitload of bugs and what not.
Pages: 1