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

Beautiful Little Christmas Game



Introduction

Pandora's Present is a game made for Game Chill 2013, an event where a person had to create a single winter-themed dungeon for a player to go through. They had to include several items in the game: this one included gingerbread men, Frosty the Snowman's hat (which is a top hat, as is referenced in the game), and maybe hockey? Fancy dinner party? I'm not sure if there was the required 3rd item placed in-game, perhaps because this game was not finished in time for Winter Chill 2013's deadline.



Graphics
The first thing I noticed about this game was that I was absolutely floored by its graphical/visual content. Byah has drawn a whole bunch of custom, beautifully exquisite pixel art, and the presentation oozes out of every pore of this game. This feels like the game wasn't made in RPG Maker. It is one of the most beautifully cute RPG Maker games I have ever seen, with a lovely comical vibe to it, and lush winter forest maps. The character sets in particular are gorgeously cute, looking almost like South Park characters but with a bunch of sugar added to their DNA.

The game is presented with a lot of polish, and a welcoming attitude to newcomers of RPGs - even children. The developer has poured buckets of polish over this game, squeaking it to a shiny sheen. One of the most beautiful games of this style on the RPG Maker engine that I have seen, period. My mouth was open for at least the first 2-3 minutes in awe at this.



Story

The story centers around Pandora's Present, the titular gift where whoever opens it something bad will happen: all evil will be freed into the world! Or so Santa Claus said one time. This forbidden present was delivered to Dora's doorstep by mistake, in a strange mix-up on Santa's part (he's terribly sorry, it won't happen again). But what happens is a few hooded/cloaked guys come and steal presents from the town. All of Dora's friends have had their presents stolen, so they must, with the help of the trusty Frosty the Snowman, retrieve the presents that got stolen from them by climbing up a huge hill and killing monsters.

The whole story is a bit silly and light-hearted, but that's how it's meant to be. This game is aimed for all ages to enjoy, so the characters are suitably happy, joyful and carefree. What is strives to do it does well, nothing delves into cringe-material thankfully! The characters can get annoying, but overall they are just little kids who want what they want and who can blame them for that? I personally liked Leo. He kind of just has this enormous ability that contradicts with him being dumb as a lamppost that is pretty hilarious. So not many gripes on the story front, considering the target audience.

But there's kind of a stupid ending tacked on that makes the journey feel not that much worthwhile. I would have liked to have wrapped up each character's story, or provided a satisfactory happy ending that fitted the story. Instead it just ended kind of abruptly on a little gag and, well, fizzled out. So altering the ending would do good to this game.



Gameplay
It takes a while to get into the actual gameplay of this game, considering that the first 5 minutes are a cutscene basically, and the next 10 minutes are switching between each person's story exercising each person's moves. The section where you listen to each kid's story and learn their moves broke the pace, and the game basically forces you to learn the same thing 4 times in a row. Even though you should already know how to use skills, it still makes you learn which is kind of annoying.

The puzzles and gameplay during this portion are too easy, but at least they make sense to introduce the mechanics and background of the characters. Battles are mostly linear at this point, and a breeze to get through. However when you get to the main portion of the winter dungeon (going up the snowy hill), there are some formidable opponents that allow you to use minimal strategy. I found this strategy to be mostly lacking, where you mostly just chose the move with the highest resource cost to inflict the most damage. The equipment engine would be confusing to a beginner or even intermediate of the genre, with complex mechanics like "learning skills" not being explained in the game at all despite the most simple of mechanics being explained over and over again in the tutorial.

The pace of getting into the gameplay should be a lot quicker than it is, shortening the first tutorials/original cutscenes from 15 minutes to 5 minutes. This is especially considering the length of the game being only about 30min-1hr.



I enjoyed the addition of mechanics such as jumping off cliffs Pokemon-style, and the ability to keep going after a battle without a Game Over screen. This function means the game is very forgiving, and that every time you die you just spin around, and shake it off. No Game Overs in a game is almost always a plus for me, since Game Over screens often break the pacing of the game. This mechanic doesn't mean the game isn't difficult though. Some battles can be very hard and you will die unless you grind for them and come back.

I liked how wearing equipments lets you grow skills that are inherent inside the items. However there is something about the low, low numbers that damage deals that didn't agree with me. When you use such low numbers, you eliminate some of the meaning of what the formulas do. Even though small numbers are "cute" in such a "cute" game, it still doesn't give much satisfaction to the player when they realize that the moves don't have that much difference in damage at all.

Sometimes due to the lack of moves there is very little strategy involved, especially since they don't seem to require much understanding of the skills' use to utilize them skilfully. Oftentimes it's just a "use the best skill you currently have in your possession" type deal, until you lose the SP and have to drink some milk or cookies or something. The final boss in particular is difficult, and has a desperation move that can wipe out your party pretty quick. The bad thing is that when you lose to this boss, there isn't much you can do to grind your levels up for it again unless you want to keep taking 1 gingerbread man at a time from Frosty the Snowman.



Overall Verdict
Pandora's Present is a cutesy Christmas game with good battle mechanics, exceptionally beautiful graphical style and some interesting ice slide puzzles that will give you light entertainment. A beautiful amount of polish has been poured over this game, resulting in a product that looks and sounds very "finished". The humour and story are catered to kids, but it is tolerable even if it's not in your interests to follow.

  • Presentation:9/10 || One of the more nicely polished RM games I've seen.

  • Graphics:9/10 || Beautifully mapped, with cute tilesets and characters.

  • Story:6/10 || Story was unique, but lacked interesting character development.

  • Gameplay:6.5/10 || Satisfactory, but lacked depth.

  • Lasting Appeal:7/10 || It is a cute Christmas game that is unique because of its appeal to children.


Overall: 7.5/10 || Beautiful little christmas game