Nociel

Introduction

Nociel was developed by Wishiyo using RPG Maker VX and appears to be the developer's first game. As such I'd like to take a moment to state that my criticism of this title isn't meant to be belligerent or to scare the developer away from this site. I'm hopefully that my criticism will help the developer better understand what areas they need to work on so that their skills will improve for any work done on future projects. I'd also like to admit that I did have fun while playing this game, but I can't give it a high rating considering how many problems it has.

Story

On the story side of things the game utilizes a basic excuse plot where you play as a noble warrior sent on a quest to slay some kind of great evil taking up residence in ancient ruin. And while the basic nature of the plot doesn't offend me. I'm far less forgiving towards the simple nature of the playable characters. Most of them only get a few lines which I could easily fit onto your standard sized note card. In my opinion a RPG with a simple plot needs to sell itself based on its gameplay and characters. And, its hard to find the characters compelling when they are heavily lacking in terms of characterization and motivation.

Another issue with the game is I'm not sure if its meant to be a simple RPG or a botched attempt at a parody of a simple RPG. The final exchange between the main character and the final boss hints at a possible parody, but the rest of the work is so lacking in terms of lampooning the genre by ratcheting everything up a notch or ten that I'm just not sure what to think. Maybe the scene was meant to give the main character a little personality, but it feels a bit late in the game to be doing that.

Gameplay

On the gameplay side of things this game is such a mess its hard for me to think any thing positive to say about it. And to save on time I'm going to list my problems off:

1) The enemies in this game are largely to weak to hurt the playable characters.

2) The game makes it too easy to get cash in order to purchase stat increasing items. And those items are far to powerful for how inexpensive they are.

3) The final boss is a weakling that can be crushed with a single mighty blow.

4) The playable characters are allowed to hit their targets multiple times which further unbalances the combat system.

5) One of the playable characters is allowed to attack two different targets with three hits apiece.

And I apologize if that list was poorly ordered, but I'm functioning on about three hours of sleep at the moment so my brain isn't firing on all cylinders.

Graphics

Graphically speaking the mapping in this game feels sloppy. On the world map you can simply walk through multiple tiles that represent a town without entering it. Another issue that I noticed is that you can't leave the graveyard without taking damage since the last square you need to step on in order to exit the area is covered in poisonous swamp water. Another problem with the game is that most of the areas are interconnected even if that connection doesn't make a lick of sense. And, yes I'm aware that the developer claims to have connected the maps this way for the convenience of the player, but these connections don't make sense logically and make the game world seem smaller then it is. Though to end on a positive note the dungeons are a decent size.

Sound

The soundtrack is decent, but I'm pretty sure all of the tracks are lifted from the RTP for RPG Maker VX so there isn't anything here to give the game a unique feel or identity.

Conclusion

Despite all of the flaws I mentioned the game is fun to play, but this doesn't save the game from its long list of technical failures. As such I can't give this game a high score or really recommend it unless your looking for a game where you can walk through your enemies like an unstoppable juggernaut.