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I can't even sound clever describing how good this game is.

  • Gibmaker
  • 01/17/2014 02:31 AM
  • 3363 views


WARNING. THIS GAME CONTAINS FOUL LANGUAGE AND OFF-COLOUR SUBJECT MATTER. NO ATTEMPT HAS BEEN MADE TO CENSOR IT OUT OF THIS REVIEW. WARNING!

Epic Elf 2? Well, after the events of the first game, Dagree the dark elf has become bummed out with life and spent a year boning around in a cave. The "Red Evil" that entrapped him in the previous game now kicks around as an apparition, providing guidance and commentary. In a moment of insight Dagree decides it's time to peel himself out of his rut and look for adventure.

And here's the sort of adventure that happens:



If you're highly unamused by that, avoid this game forever. Nothing else about it will matter to you. But this just happens to be my favourite kind of humour ever.

This is crude comedy in the great tradition of Ancient Greece; characters volley dirty insults at each other while pompous orchestral scores swell over the battles and field maps. The game never stoops to Adam-Sandler-esque levels of exploitation, though; Dagree gets called a piece of shit, but there is never any on-screen bodily efflusion. (And that's good.)

In one brief happening, a soldier announces that he is a failure and is going to kill himself. Dagree blandly utters, "Don't do it. Really." But he does it, and then the event is summarily forgotten. I love cheerfully unsentimental shit like that. The original Epic Elf was a little bit slap-happy, but Epic Elf 2 has pulled a full Conker's Bad Fur Day (without the plodding pace of that game either!).

At the same time, Spirit Young has squeezed tons of honest challenge and innovation out of the RM2K3 engine and battle system. The one person who never feels insulted in this game is the player.



Often, an unsentimental GFYS attitude like this one belies a game that the designer put no real effort into; a "joke game" as they say.

Nothing could be less true about Epic Elf 2, though. It's clear that more effort and fine-tuning went into this game's RPG meat-and-potatoes than in many games that take themselves totally seriously. (Observe, just above the "Eat Pussy" skill in the first screenshot are eight totally legit battle and field skills.)



The world of this game is small, but it is highly dynamic. There isn't a single area that stagnates with neglect over the course of the game. Roaming enemy encounters are constantly changing. The terrain itself transforms as the story progresses. Gaining (or losing) different field skills also shifts around the regions that Dagree can access. Think Basil Woods is just the "starting area", to be discarded after only a few hours? Think again!

By now, those Mac & Blue chipsets have so much mileage on them that it's hard to find exceptional applications, but this is one of them! Not a single area in this game was half-assed.



This game sweats personality. One boss will actually toss you healing items during the battle, just for maximum badassery.

One disappointment is the game's central antagonist, though. When he rears himself, he seems a lot like a villain-of-the-week, just something for Dagree to beat up so he can get out of his funk.



This game uses the default RM2K3 battle system, and makes it look good. The first few battles are extremely easy, with enemies dying in just one hit, and the game uses a convention where characters recharge SP after each battle. I was fooled into thinking that it would all be too easy because of this. But this was just the first stage of a smooth and challenging difficulty curve.

Every character has a variety of offensive skills and buffs and debuffs; by the end of the game I'd developed a strategy that let me kick ass against most enemies (as long as they weren't immune to physical damage). The endgame bosses were difficult, and I truly felt that my victory over them was earned, because I'd learned how to best leverage my characters' resources, instead of depending on high stats and spamming healing items.



I haven't even mentioned yet the creative trading system, where instead of using money to get items, you must trade artifacts dropped by enemies to vendors who each offer you a specific deal. Enemies also give you "kill points," which are spent to open special chests.

(You can also sell unused items to one character for extra kill points, which I never realized, because I somehow misunderstood her job. So I never used her, and basically went through the whole game with a handicap.)

Traders "bounce" when you have the required items to trade with them. It's a great indicator that keeps you from having to talk to them every time you visit. Leaping characters also indicate who to talk to in order to advance the story.



There are so many creative features in this game that this review would grow tedious if I tried to enumerate them all. In fact, I'm all ready running out of things to say without simply describing the entire game from start to finish. Many many more parts of this game will just have to go without mention!

All the better, because you can discover them for yourself when you play it.



I had a 5/5 time playing this game. But, despite how enjoyable the potty-mouthed anything-goes experience was, I have to admit that it's very easy for a designer to excel in an atmosphere like this, where the main character is a flippant bastard and the fictional stakes are actually quite low. If this game had a more serious and ambitious breadth, while still being as fun, without needing the metaphorical middle finger to smooth everything over, then it would have earned my first 5/5 ever. So as it stands:

Final Score: 4.5 / 5

... but then, I realized Epic Elf 2 is not just a trashy joke game full of cussing and sex jokes. The world design is exquisite, battles are interesting and balanced perfectly, the RM2k3 systems are used in original ways.

If this were a commercial game that I'd thrown $60 at, I might complain that the scope and length of the game are a little small. But it's a free RM game. Thematically, Epic Elf 2 doesn't take a lot of risks; but because of the light emphasis in that department, it can't flop. And in every other way, in every way that many devs neglect because they think story and theme are paramount and can hold up a game on their own, this game is fantastic.

So I have returned the 0.5 stars just like Dagree returns purple dildos to their chests, and effectively declared that this is the best RM game I have played so far. A position that will be extremely hard to defend.

Final Score: 5 / 5

But don't take this score to mean that you should keep doing the same thing forever. Flippant, anything-goes games like this will get old if it's all you ever make! Don't get complacent like Adam Sandler.

Best feature?
The dynamically changing world, with new possibilities unlocking as you gain new field skills.

Worst feature?
Arbitrariness of main conflict and main antagonist.

Fun Challenge:
Which of the following is not a screenshot from Epic Elf 2?



Posts

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Ah . . . this review made my day! Thanks Gibmaker! I love the Epic Elf 2 Title you made! I forgot how much 5-star dialogue this game tosses out at ya! Lol all the way to the bank! (BFD reference)
Gibmaker
I hate RPG Maker because of what it has done to me
9274
You are welc :) Thanks for the fun and amazing game.
I just released the Final Cut version to celebrate the five star goodness! I think it would be sick if somebody did a LP on the RMNTV ASAP FYI! I'm a nurd.
Gibmaker
I hate RPG Maker because of what it has done to me
9274
ER, AH

Well I am back in work mode right now, when i feel it is time for another break I will try the new version 8|
Ah, work mode is good! Yeah, the new version is worth running through I think. Lately I've been workin' on Console Hunt 3 tryin' to figure out fun stuff to do in that one; so maybe in a few months I'll have another successful game out there! This will be my attempt to try and make a more 'serious' game.
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