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An artistic world tour
Solitayre- 01/18/2010 12:21 AM
A Game Chill entry submitted by graphic artist Hyptosis, Harper promises to deliver heavily old-school influenced gameplay. Does it deliver on this promise? Well, yes, but not always in the most positive of ways.
Ruik is a young man who recently left the army and spends his time working on his family’s farm. One day he goes into town to pick up some seeds to find that the town has been ravaged by slavers and his childhood sweetheart has been kidnapped. Teaming up with the local badass, Morden, grizzled old war veteran and retired hero (who is level 2), Ruik sets off to save who he can.
Balance: 1/5:
I’ll admit up front I wasn’t able to play very far into this game due to very poor balance on a variety of levels. The battles make use of the popular Tankentai script for VX, allowing for side-view battles. Each character gains abilities as they level up, but you’ll rarely be called on to do anything other than have your entire party mash attack. By the time you start getting into real combat situations you already have a party of three people and encounters are frequent, so this level of ease quickly becomes stale. A little further ahead, things swing the opposite way and you’ll fight a boss who simply deals unfair amounts of damage. To make matters worse, healing items are incredibly weak (most heal for around 20 HP for a 600 HP character, and even weak enemies do more damage per hit than that,) revival items are very rare, and you’ll often be cut off from opportunities to rest or shop for more items. Emerging from the boss battle with two unconscious characters and no obvious way to revive them, I was obliged to quit the game.
Fortunately, most of these issues are easily remedied. Making healing items a lot stronger would solve a great many of the balance issues, as would periodically offering the player chances to shop and heal. As for balancing enemies, it's a bit trickier. But just having bosses deal lots of damage isn't the answer. Buffs and debuffs are good ways to add variety to encounters.
Level Design 3/5:
On to a more pleasant subject, the game uses almost entirely custom resources for maps, as well as monsters. The sheer volume of original work here is truly stunning, and it is all nothing short of exceptional-looking. The towns are vibrant, the monsters are incredibly detailed, and the dungeons straight-forward yet atmospheric in an old school kind of way. Along the way you’ll encounter traditional dungeon obstacles such as block-pushing, pulling a lever to make a bridge appear, etc. It’s a tried and true method of gameplay with no real spin added to it, but it’s a lot more entertaining than simply walking through empty maps until you get to the other side.
Characters 2/5:
Few characters besides Ruik and Morden got more than a handful of lines, and none of the characters were particularly engaging. Your party members have only a short expository blurb about themselves before joining your party for often inadequately explained reasons. However, the game had a major saving grace, and that was in that you could a great deal of Ruik’s dialogue options. Ranging from words to actions, you can slap a cowardly mayor for hiding while his village is attacked, threaten people, or just generally be a smartass to anyone you meet. It reminded me a lot of The Longing Ribbon, and went a long way towards making the bland dialogue a LOT more enjoyable. Finally, you are occasionally offered a chance to walk around camp and talk to your various party members to get their perspective on things, which is a nice touch.
One final note, this game has a ton of NPCs. Mountains of them. Which is very impressive for a project put together in such a short amount of time. Sadly, I got the sense that the time spent working out dialogue for these NPCs was time that would have been better spent fleshing out the main characters.
Storyline 2/5:
The game has some severe pacing problems, which you’ll notice almost right away. The game begins with you picking up some seeds from your local town and taking them to your farm. Upon returning to the town a whole 45 seconds later, you’ll find it has been attacked while you were gone. The main impetus for your quest is to save Ruik’s childhood sweetheart, Rita, a noble goal in of itself. The problem here is we are introduced to Rita only once before this point in a short scene where she somewhat coldly rebuffs Ruik’s fairly well-meaning advances, as she apparently does not want a relationship with someone who is nice to her and visits her every day. Returning to the burning town, my initial thoughts were that she had been killed which I, being a bastard, would have enjoyed seeing. Instead we are told we have to go save her, which puts the player at odds with the narrative because we are setting out on this quest to save someone we have been given reasons not to like.
Aside from that, there are a plethora of other problems. Roads we are not supposed to travel yet are merely blocked off, and party members are not given much attention and are generally mostly there to fill slots. All hallmarks of ancient RPG conventions that have generally been left behind for good reasons.
That said, the story does have some redeeming qualities in the form of the setting itself. The world is divided into multiple regions, and each region is home to different groups of people, each providing the party with a new ally. These groups have different names for each other, different customs and styles of architectures, and even seem to have prejudices towards one another. In short, there is a very well-established sense of culture in this world that is only rarely seen in other projects, even commercial games. It was really pretty cool, and I suspect that it is here that Game Chill’s theme of opposites, in this case a variety of conflicting cultures, reveals itself in a very interesting and subtle way.
Music and Sound 4/5:
The entire soundtrack appears to be comprised of original works by a single artist, Xerxes, and it is as worthy an addition to the game as Hyptosis’ own original art. The tracks have a very unique style unlike that often seen in other works, and the consistency is flawless, making for a soundtrack worthy of a commercial game. Don’t be put off by the game’s massive audio folder, the soundtrack here alone is worth the download.
Overall 2/5:
This game has plenty of style, but not quite enough substance. I suspect that with more time and attention, this project could have evolved into something great, but given the time limit on Game Chill entries, this project feels less than full. I suspect one reason may be that it feels over-extended, that it would have been a richer experience if the game had focused on a few areas and characters, rather than spanning the world and filling the party with many characters that rarely get a chance to express themselves, coupled with horribly balanced battles. But the wide variety of locales explored was a chance to showcase the creator’s exceptional artistic. More than anything, this game could be thought of as a tour of the art and music of two artists, and that is a journey well worth taking.
Ruik is a young man who recently left the army and spends his time working on his family’s farm. One day he goes into town to pick up some seeds to find that the town has been ravaged by slavers and his childhood sweetheart has been kidnapped. Teaming up with the local badass, Morden, grizzled old war veteran and retired hero (who is level 2), Ruik sets off to save who he can.
What would they do without him?
Balance: 1/5:
I’ll admit up front I wasn’t able to play very far into this game due to very poor balance on a variety of levels. The battles make use of the popular Tankentai script for VX, allowing for side-view battles. Each character gains abilities as they level up, but you’ll rarely be called on to do anything other than have your entire party mash attack. By the time you start getting into real combat situations you already have a party of three people and encounters are frequent, so this level of ease quickly becomes stale. A little further ahead, things swing the opposite way and you’ll fight a boss who simply deals unfair amounts of damage. To make matters worse, healing items are incredibly weak (most heal for around 20 HP for a 600 HP character, and even weak enemies do more damage per hit than that,) revival items are very rare, and you’ll often be cut off from opportunities to rest or shop for more items. Emerging from the boss battle with two unconscious characters and no obvious way to revive them, I was obliged to quit the game.
Fortunately, most of these issues are easily remedied. Making healing items a lot stronger would solve a great many of the balance issues, as would periodically offering the player chances to shop and heal. As for balancing enemies, it's a bit trickier. But just having bosses deal lots of damage isn't the answer. Buffs and debuffs are good ways to add variety to encounters.
Level Design 3/5:
On to a more pleasant subject, the game uses almost entirely custom resources for maps, as well as monsters. The sheer volume of original work here is truly stunning, and it is all nothing short of exceptional-looking. The towns are vibrant, the monsters are incredibly detailed, and the dungeons straight-forward yet atmospheric in an old school kind of way. Along the way you’ll encounter traditional dungeon obstacles such as block-pushing, pulling a lever to make a bridge appear, etc. It’s a tried and true method of gameplay with no real spin added to it, but it’s a lot more entertaining than simply walking through empty maps until you get to the other side.
Characters 2/5:
Few characters besides Ruik and Morden got more than a handful of lines, and none of the characters were particularly engaging. Your party members have only a short expository blurb about themselves before joining your party for often inadequately explained reasons. However, the game had a major saving grace, and that was in that you could a great deal of Ruik’s dialogue options. Ranging from words to actions, you can slap a cowardly mayor for hiding while his village is attacked, threaten people, or just generally be a smartass to anyone you meet. It reminded me a lot of The Longing Ribbon, and went a long way towards making the bland dialogue a LOT more enjoyable. Finally, you are occasionally offered a chance to walk around camp and talk to your various party members to get their perspective on things, which is a nice touch.
One final note, this game has a ton of NPCs. Mountains of them. Which is very impressive for a project put together in such a short amount of time. Sadly, I got the sense that the time spent working out dialogue for these NPCs was time that would have been better spent fleshing out the main characters.
Storyline 2/5:
The game has some severe pacing problems, which you’ll notice almost right away. The game begins with you picking up some seeds from your local town and taking them to your farm. Upon returning to the town a whole 45 seconds later, you’ll find it has been attacked while you were gone. The main impetus for your quest is to save Ruik’s childhood sweetheart, Rita, a noble goal in of itself. The problem here is we are introduced to Rita only once before this point in a short scene where she somewhat coldly rebuffs Ruik’s fairly well-meaning advances, as she apparently does not want a relationship with someone who is nice to her and visits her every day. Returning to the burning town, my initial thoughts were that she had been killed which I, being a bastard, would have enjoyed seeing. Instead we are told we have to go save her, which puts the player at odds with the narrative because we are setting out on this quest to save someone we have been given reasons not to like.
Aside from that, there are a plethora of other problems. Roads we are not supposed to travel yet are merely blocked off, and party members are not given much attention and are generally mostly there to fill slots. All hallmarks of ancient RPG conventions that have generally been left behind for good reasons.
That said, the story does have some redeeming qualities in the form of the setting itself. The world is divided into multiple regions, and each region is home to different groups of people, each providing the party with a new ally. These groups have different names for each other, different customs and styles of architectures, and even seem to have prejudices towards one another. In short, there is a very well-established sense of culture in this world that is only rarely seen in other projects, even commercial games. It was really pretty cool, and I suspect that it is here that Game Chill’s theme of opposites, in this case a variety of conflicting cultures, reveals itself in a very interesting and subtle way.
Music and Sound 4/5:
The entire soundtrack appears to be comprised of original works by a single artist, Xerxes, and it is as worthy an addition to the game as Hyptosis’ own original art. The tracks have a very unique style unlike that often seen in other works, and the consistency is flawless, making for a soundtrack worthy of a commercial game. Don’t be put off by the game’s massive audio folder, the soundtrack here alone is worth the download.
Overall 2/5:
This game has plenty of style, but not quite enough substance. I suspect that with more time and attention, this project could have evolved into something great, but given the time limit on Game Chill entries, this project feels less than full. I suspect one reason may be that it feels over-extended, that it would have been a richer experience if the game had focused on a few areas and characters, rather than spanning the world and filling the party with many characters that rarely get a chance to express themselves, coupled with horribly balanced battles. But the wide variety of locales explored was a chance to showcase the creator’s exceptional artistic. More than anything, this game could be thought of as a tour of the art and music of two artists, and that is a journey well worth taking.
