BETA

Beta is a small game by the first time game designer Milennin. This game is a short adventure starring a typical RPG hero named Roth the Thundergod. This game takes place in only one town and when you start exploring, you will find plenty of minigames. Beta starts you off with no story to fill you in and plops you in this town, so you can start doing whatever you want. This game is a great demo if you don't feel like playing anything big, and want to play something simple and fun. And by the time you finish the game, you'll want to play something big with the characters in this game.


Gameplay: To start, Beta is not an RPG; It is an adventure game with its narrative elements being an RPG medieval fantasy. The player will interact with characters and objects to move from one story event to to the next, and the game's story is about an RPG hero who does favors for the town. The main framework of the game is the adventure game aspect of finding characters in need, and finding items for them in order to advance the game's progression. During the game, you will come across many mini games, and this is where Beta shines the most.

Milennin is very talented at using action events, timers, and scripts designed for making simple minigames. You, the player, will participate in cow racing, ninja dodging, Jigglypuff chasing, monster avoiding, ice sliding, rock catching, and much more. The final challenges including the main boss actually is a culmination of all of the action skills you learn in the game. The mechanics of the action minigames are simply varieties of tag (As the chaser and the runner), and touch the right thing/avoid the wrong thing. Beta has many creative ways in presenting the same game with different narrative goals (e.g. Cow Racing: touch the dirt patches while avoiding obstacles, Rock Catching: Catch the regular rocks, while avoiding the dangerous rocks. Tag: Tag a kid, and when he scatters, tag the same kid, but do not tag a different kid) Hopefully in the next game, Milennin can work on action minigames outside the scope of tag games. One of the most unique minigames is a small town and wilderness that replicates the online game Runescape. You start in the town and must venture north in the wilderness while avoiding getting hit by monsters. The most elaborate minigames would be the cow racing game and the final boss.


Old man chasing young children. Nothing weird here.


Story: The game's narrative is very comical and simply silly. This game is simply about the main character looking for adventures and helping the town residents. The game's character archetypes rely closely on cartoon stereotypes: Boys are immature and break things, girls are innocent, adult personalities are dictated by their profession, and old people are either tired or very smart. There is no hint of mature themes, and the only sign of sentiment would be Eldin, the princess of the game, and her desire to explore the world, and her broken relationship with her former friend Matthew. The rest of the game is primarily lighthearted slapstick humor from boys American and Japanese cartoons like Sonic the Hedgehog, and Pokemon. Do not expect to feel any seriousness or feel character emotion, and just be prepared to laugh at the mini episodic flow of Roth's misadventures.


Roth just handed in a broken TV and a blind guy appears.....oh no.


Characters: The main character, Roth The Thundergod, is an RPG jerk. His main personality is bragging about his awesome powers and reluctantly doing good deeds, because that is what RPG heroes do. He also slaps his friends around and abuses the residents of the town like making loud noises in his SMASH-HOUSE. When it comes to the only young girl in the town, Eldin, he automatically likes her because she is pretty and nice, and with almost no time for character bonding, Roth is instantly jealous whenever another boy (Eldin's childhood friend) talks to Eldin. Roth's other allies Thieme and Rage are also trouble makers in the town like Roth. Thieme, Roth's younger brother, is the level-headed cool guy, and Rage is the simple-minded rage lover. Eldin is a young princess who wishes to explore the world and go on grand adventures, an ambition Roth also shares. The last major character would be the mad scientist who Roth meets. He is simply the experimenter who treat's Roth as the guinea pig and in return, Roth wants stuff examined or have stuff built.

Graphics and Music: The RTP resources, coupled with the game maker's custom art, blends well in being a cartoony parody in boys anime and games. Milennin borrows the look of the RTP and restyles them to make exaggerated aggressive spiky haired boys, gentle straight haired girls, and the opaque glasses scientist. The graphics are a very anime stereotype design, and it matches the art style of the RTP and the cartoon personality of the game. The maps are simple RTP style houses and are not elaborate. They are meant only to house the characters, set the stages for minigames, and only rarely do the maps provide settings for mystery. One of the coolest ideas in response to the small maps is Roth's confinement in a small town. Roth wants to go on a big adventure. In the small maps, there are many mysteries to be solved, and if the player keeps going forward in the game, there can be some interesting surprises awaiting to be uncovered, and maybe Roth's dream can come true.


Not all RPG heroes can get lucky.

The music relies, again, on the RTP resources and finding MIDI files of other anime and games. The music tracks used in the game are simplistic MIDI tracks. None of the music ventures beyond the simple MIDI instruments, so none of the songs stand out; their only purpose is to serve the mood of the game. The game uses the silly sound effects for almost any interaction in the game. Some of the funniest "sound effects" is hearing someone screaming things: "TO BATTLE" or "ATTACK." The sound effects range from simple to over-the-top funny, and more importantly, they are used in the right places for some quick and surprising laughs.

Closing: Beta is a nice 2 to 4 four experience of silly comical characters and simple action minigames. As a game that uses RTP, Beta is a great game to showcase the abilities of the RPG Maker 2000/2k3 engine to starting designers. Players of the game also see Milennin's talent in minigame design. His games are very approachable too. The instructions are clear, and if the player fails, he can tweak the difficulty level and receive hints on how to win. His story introduces itself nicely: There appears to be no story, but when you start doing things, Roth's adventure comes to you in an episodic fashion. This game is not hard to play, but it is still enjoyable. Currently, Milennin is making a game that will be the RPG adventure starring the heroes of this game. We can expect more adventures of Roth the Thundergod, and his funny mishaps along the way in Milennin's next game.


Beat up that Jigglypuff multiple times and watch what happens.