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An RM2K classic gets a nourishing facelift.

  • Gibmaker
  • 04/26/2014 11:50 PM
  • 3079 views

by Nocturna Fidchell


Wild Wings was originally completed years and years ago. It was an earnest effort, but boy was it clear that this was Fidchell's first finished game. The fact that it was based off of Kenneth Oppel's Silverwing, a novel about a bat who gets seperated from his colony on his first migration, gave it a whiff of originality that set it apart from generic save-the-world games, and it also included an ambitious slime-battling side game; but it was really buggy, the dialog was full of lolspeak, the custom art was drawn in MS Paint, and there was an unmistakable Renamon thing going on.

Unlike many artists, Fidchell has actually dramatically improved in the last five years. Unwilling to let his crappy first project stand as it is, he went through and improved the dialog and custom art, and also remixed most of the game to have better combat and better design overall. The result is a much more cohesive game which, while not fully shaking the sense of being the designer's first project, is much better overall and worth playing if you never saw the original.


The Renamon thing is still there a little.


If you are a Silverwing fan you will find this game gleeful. You play as Shade, the protagonist of Oppel's novel, and roughly play out the events of the book. Very roughly. Rough like Eidos Montreal's comprehension of the Thief franchise. As in the novel, the carnivorous bat Goth has been imbued with great powers that will let him make enough sacrifices to ressurrect his god, Cama Zotz. Shade gets seperated from his colony and is initially only interested in trying to find his own way to Hibernaculum, their winter roost, when he inevitably gets mixed up in Goth's schemes and must take on the be-fanged baddie himself.

What doesn't happen in the novel is the part where, before the migration, Shade's elder makes him navigate a dangerous cave in order to retrieve a special ring! Then a gang of trendy Nintendo characters appears to try and steal it back. Then he gets a fairy companion.

It's for the best that Fidchell expanded the story, since the story as presented in the novel wouldn't have provided enough characters and settings for an RPG, but the inclusion of such incongruous elements as aliens and fairies is one of the things that makes it continue to feel like a My First Project Ever, despite the improvements to the art and writing.


I totally remember this scene from the book.


The Nintendo characters are all apparently under some sort of mind-control spell (an RPG staple if there ever was one) and in certain battles you have the opportunity to save them by using an item after their health is low, but before actually killing them. It's a good way to shake up the boss battles, even though evidently the only consequence for failing to save them is that you'll feel bad.



Just so we're clear, all the main character battle graphics were drawn by Fidchell just for this project, and they're legit, there's no question about that. I suspect this game will be plundered for its battle graphics.

For music we have mostly midi selections from Seiken Densetsu, Final Fantasy et al -- typical selections for RM games from the 2K era. Some kickass wav-based music from Metal Gear Rising was added for the boss battles in this version.



One special feature of this game is the ability to "fly", as befits a bat game. Not that you get to experience the exhiliration of soaring weightless above the landscape, but it increases your movement speed and makes special nodes appear that let you cross over obstacles. Nifty as it may be, this feature proved to be redundant since once I turned it on, there was no reason to turn it off again, ever. The faster movement speed is convenient and there's no benefit to not having the flight nodes active all the time. Whenever a scene turned Fly Mode off automatically, the first thing I did was turn it on again.

Furthermore, in many places, the fact that you can fly is laughably ignored, such as when you have to get up to the top of a tall castle -- plainly the best way up is a grueling crawl through the interior!


If only I had some ability or talent that would let me get over an obstruction.


The Slime Utopia side game also got a pleasantly improved HUD, but under the hood it still seems to be buggy. More crucial than the bugginess, however, is the fact that I never wanted to take time (or money) away from the main story to play it! At every suitable break in the story I just wanted to push on to the next part. The main story gets quite difficult too, and I felt I couldn't afford to divert precious money away from my main party to outfit my slime. Not even the promise that Shade's most powerful skill could be acquired through slime battles could make me divert Shade from his hero's journey.



As it stands I probably wasn't hurting much for want of this skill anyway, since my regular attacks eventually became much more powerful than skills once I had the best equipment. Why use up AP on a special skill that usually caps out at 50 damage, when every character's regular attack can hit more than that, TWICE per turn, with the chance of a critical hit that soars into the hundreds? My final strategy for the game was simply attacking and healing.



There used to be a simpler time when you didn't need a $12,000 kickstarter fund to use RPG Maker. A time without alpha channels. A time when a midi rendition of "The Kids Aren't Alright" was a viable substitute for the actual music. Wild Wings: First Flight still has its roots in this era; it will probably "feel" like a first-timer game no matter what. But with the improved graphics, music, writing and programming, it delivers the best experience that a first-timer can.

And it's got Renamon.



So if you're a Silverwing fan you'll definitely want to give this game a try. And if you're not a Silverwing fan, you should become one*, and then give this game a try.

Final score: 3.5 / 5




* The third book in the series gets weird. Just a warning.

Posts

Pages: 1
Thank you, Eric, for this review. :) Another consequence for not saving them is not acquiring their respective secret item drops!
Gibmaker
I hate RPG Maker because of what it has done to me
9274
So that explains that 1 chest that appeared. I did not find the others!
Nice job with the review. I have the old version, but never could get into it, in spite of enjoying the series it was based off. It seems this remake will be the way to go.

Your review has sold me. I'm going to ditch the old and go with the new.
Gibmaker
I hate RPG Maker because of what it has done to me
9274
Glad to have inspired! :D
Pages: 1