Demonic Tutor

Game Title: Demonic Tutor
Engine: RPG Maker VX Ace
Status at review: Complete

Background:
I do not keep up with the storyline in relationship to Magic: The Gathering. Nonetheless, I have 4 "Modern" decks, and 11 "Commander" decks with 3 in the works. Saying that, I should be able to appreciate something about this game other than it's title and the art it borrows. That... sort of happened.


Graphics:
The game borrows various card-art from Magic: The Gathering. Primarily, this is contained to battlebacks, though I recall one screenshot that had Sorin Markov. Or some version of him. The cute DS pack character sprites are a nice touch. The mapping is generally competent, though, the way only one tile at the edge of the screen activates the next area is eye-quirking. It's not overly cumbersome since it's essentially marked.


Audio:
Aside from the bits of RMN Music Pack that I heard, I can't say much popped out at me. Exceptions include that one Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past track (The first second, or so, did not sound right at all. Maybe my memory is faulty.), and Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life" (This brought all the facepalms).


Story:
You are not a planeswalker, nor do you fight other planeswalkers over the very fabric of reality in a battle of wits. With that out of the way, the story is split in three ways, so let's touch on each.
Hope worries that her husband, Vince, is not satisfied with their quiet life together. One day, Vince announces that he wants to go to Aldon. Hope goes with him on the off-chance that such a journey may be just what their relationship needs. I can't help but to think that they are trying go from plowshares to swords. Which is not how it's done. Well, unless it's under unusual curcumstances.
Faith has been hired to kill Prince Justin, the one-and-only heir to the throne. She is offered a millon gold and an under-the-mob's-thumb cleric to help her get to her destination. I'm not sure if she trusts her employer with the amount she's being promised, but a job's a job.
Cid is questing for the Holy Grail. Er, wait, no, Excalibur, the sword of Arthurian legend. Not some other legendary sword.


Playing the game:
While I do try to be as generic as possible, there may be a few spoilers in here.



General Observations:
Maybe it's just me, but the ATB makes battles slower? I dunno, maybe I shouldn't complain too much.
Holding down Shift in battle causes a character to skip a turn. Well, "skip a turn" may not be the right word, as the ATB bar isn't completely reset (It's more than 90% full), but it's still an oddity.
Why are some (not all) flowers obstructions? Am I missing something?
There's a spatterings of the word "your" where it should be "you're". Stupid homonyms not being caught by the spell-checker!
One of the ways to be defeated in this game is to have one's MP reduced to 0. There's generally more ways for the player characters to deal damage to HP than there are to deal damage to MP. I've certainly had moments where my characters where low-MP thanks to MP damage skills that my opponents were throwing at me. On the flip-side, I've 0-MP-killed at least one opponent. So, I'm not really sure where I stand on this issue.
Speaking of health and mana, it rubs me the wrong way how skills that use HP as a cost are based on some percent of a character's maximum health, while skills that use MP as a cost are flat-rate. Saying that, I can understand why it might be a bad idea to have them both be percentage based. Having them both fixed-rate, well, I don't know. It might cause unintended balance issues, it might not.
I'm a little fuzzy on Hope's "Mana Heal". I mean, yeah, it might be a little backwards to spend MP to restore MP (or maybe not), but I totally expect it to restore as much MP as it costs. I dunno. Maybe I'm thinking too much on the "Transfer" ability in the Breath of Fire series?


Summary:
The gameplay isn't really something to write home about. It's pretty standard fare. Story-wise, I get the sensation that all the arcs seem to want to meet, or possibly combine, in the Town of Caspers. However, the only story I actually care anything about is Faith's. With the amount of money she's being offered, you just know things aren't going to go smoothly. As for the other two story-arcs, Cid's quest doesn't engage me, and I've written enough about my issues with Vance and Hope.


BOTTOM LINE: 2.5/5


Side note on ratings (since there is/was/will be somewhat of a spate on what rating means what between each user):
1/5 -> Terrible. Forget about hitting an audience. The game is so bug-ridden, or otherwise unplayable, that what entertainment can be found in the game has a hard time coming to the surface.

2/5 -> Bad but playable. I had a poor experience with the game. When played by a player the game actually caters to, it would serve it's purpose.

3/5 -> Average. A solid experience, but snags somewhere along the line cause it to be held back from being "good".

4/5 -> Good. I enjoyed the experience, and have no qualms supporting it if was considered for a featured game (if it wasn't featured already).

5/5 -> Excellent. Among the paragons of gaming experiences, and instant feature material in my humble opinion (if it wasn't featured already).