[MAR] MISAO MONTHLY ROUND-UP

Liberty
I found it to be interesting to see where the game went. It started out as a simple idea of four heroes thrown together, trying to get out of a tough situation, but Red_Nova took it another direction completely. Graphics are pretty decent, and the writing is mainly well done. Battles are a bit on the hard side, and there are some issues that come from that, but overall it's a solid enough game.
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Liberty
While there's some issues with the sheer amount of enemies you have to face (hordes, I tells ya, hordes!) overall the game is solid and very well balanced. Lyra and Hecks are monsters and the rest of the gang cover what weaknesses they do have quite well. The story is pretty neat and for a game made in two weeks it's very solid and quite long to boot!
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Liberty
An interesting little game with a lot of humour, which had the fun side effect of being able to be broken over your knee if you wanted it to be. The graphics are pretty nice and though there were some hinky bits here and there, overall it was a solid game.
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Liberty
While there were some neat design ideas, the game comes off as very rushed and a bit of a mess. It's a pity because the story had promise, as did the presentation of it. Unfortunately, it is more than a little buggy in areas and there's a definite game stopping issue. I can't recommend it in it's current form for anyone to play.
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Ratty524
This is a dungeon crawler with nice level design, but it's unfortunately brought down by it's repetitive combat system, myriad of bugs, and a difficulty spike that brings the game from mind-numbingly easy to brutally hard. There is a lot of fluff through the use of its customized visuals and menu systems, but ultimately fails to be enjoyable to play.
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Liberty
A cute little game that has a few bugs, it's short and the story is silly but hey, it was made in two weeks and it's definitely playable, fun and cute! I have learned to douse all with alcohol and let it all burn down!
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Ratty524
While notably buggy, the game is still a functional, well-made RPG romp. The game packs itself well with flavor and charm, and while it's not the best game out there, it's far from bad. Give it a shot.
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Liberty
An interesting little puzzle game, the story is pretty well written for the most part, and the ideas behind the puzzles are really good, but the difficulty levels make it almost impossible to get through without checking for a walkthrough/opening the game to see where to go/googling for answers.
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Ratty524
Puzzle game enthusiasts will be stricken with awe at the complexity this game brings to the table, but anyone else, unfortunately, will often be left frustrated by the game's obtuse design choices. To make matters worse, the only reward you get for beating the game's puzzles is a rather half-hearted, rushed ending that doesn't really tie an otherwise interesting beginning together. It's rather disappointing overall.
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Liberty
A weird game that has a lot of gory descriptions about kitty deaths and choices on how to handle certain parts of the game, unfortunately the monsters and bosses are far too hard to deal with unless you grind, grind, grind. Add to that some game-breaking bugs and story-skipping areas and it's not really a game I can recommend people try in it's current state, despite a cool start with a cute kitty sidekick.
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Ratty524
This is the case of a game with a lot of things going on, but little substance or meaning behind them. You'll be treated to large environments sprawling towns with a lot to interact with, but instead of contributing anything meaningful to the gameplay, they serve primarily as time-wasting fluff which drags the game's length. It doesn't help that the combat transitions between boringly simple to mercilessly difficult, and has quite a few bugs which will crash your game entirely.
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Liberty
Another neat little game, this time a comedy. It's skewed to be very easy to breeze through and the ending is a little meh, but the basic writing and story itself, as well as the characters, are charming and well worth checking if you don't mind not having any challenge what-so-ever in a game.
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Ratty524
A well-made, fun little romp of an RPG. Level design suffers from lack of clarity in some areas, and while the combat promises some resource management in the form a unique ammo system, it almost never run out, leaving the game lacking in challenge. It's still a charming game with funny writing and a light-hearted atmosphere, though, so if you don't mind the relatively casual experience, this game might deliver for you.
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Liberty
It starts out in a rather Undertale-like vibe, and becomes a little bit of a battle-fest (with a few too many encounters). The last boss is a killer, but at least there's multiple paths to take and multiple endings. Not the best of the event games, but not the worst. At least it looks and sounds quite pretty.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ratty524
This game starts off as a light-hearted RPG with a specific focus in puzzle-oriented gameplay, but then devolves into a bit more of a standard JRPG towards the end. The biggest flaw this game has overall is that it's battles have the potential to be punishing if, say, you don't have enough items to restore key skills needed to beat a specialized enemy. Overall, it's not a bad game, but not one I would personally recommend.
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Liberty
Another game that can be broken over your knee if you know what you're doing and don't mind grinding up a little. The story is a little cliche but overall quite good, and the graphics are very fresh, being custom made. The music is lovely and the battles are pretty balanced, though they do take a little while to get used to. Worth checking out.
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Ratty524
With gorgeous art and a solid combat system, this game will definitely hold your attention for its moderate playtime. Its writing is somewhat trope-heavy and a few design decisions that aren't particularly clear, such as obtaining skills from bookshelves when there is very little clues as to how exploration matters in this game. It's still a solid event game, however, and I highly recommend giving it a shot.
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Ratty524
This dungeon crawler, at its current state, is hardly playable. Your character's skills will often never connect for seemingly no explicit reason and the difficulty pacing between each floor is flawed; enemies get way too tough too fast. A shame, really, as the game has some pretty impressive visuals even by RTP standards.
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Liberty
Crazy. Zany. Discordant. Hilarious. It starts out as an ode to Phoenix Wright and ends up as an adventure through alien space. Very much a mash of very different styles and tones - it's worth checking out just to see the crazy and measure your sanity against. Also, both sides look pretty damn pimp.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ratty524
A quirky visual novel inspired by the Ace Attorney series. It starts off as a pretty psychedelic experience, but then ventures towards comedy and scifi. The writing is unfortunately plagued with spelling and grammatical errors, especially towards the end, but if you can get past that, you'll be in for a rather hilarious experience.
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Liberty
A decent little game with an interesting story and some neat dungeon mechanics. Not a fan of the spike puzzles myself, but I can appreciate the aim behind them. The battles were well balanced, bosses were hard but not impossible, and the challenge was quite good. There were some neat little gameplay ideals like shortcuts out of dungeons, which were very appreciated.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ratty524
You play as a skeleton out to get revenge on mankind, which in itself is a pretty unique concept that isn't explored often in RPG Maker games. It has dungeons with nice puzzle design and a battle system that has a bit more of a complex set-up from what's offered by the default. The game can be difficult, however, as its bosses often offer spikes in difficulty compared to anything else in the surrounding area, and being well-stocked in resources is vital for completing the game. This causes some forced backtracking and grinding that somewhat drowns out the charm this game has, resulting in a mixed experience on my end. Give it a shot if you like, though.
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Liberty
Well, it started out with a generic enough plot and ended up being a crazy piece of crazy. It was pretty funny though, but it was quite an odd one.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ratty524
The beginning may not be what it appears, as what starts off as a cute, yet rather streamlined RPG adventure becomes somewhat of an interactive, 4th-wall breaking mapping tutorial. There isn't a lot to this game, but it offers a fun experience, especially to those familiar with the RMN community.
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Liberty
Starts out as an Adventure game and turns into an RPG with a focus of saving the world from an actually pretty alright evil god. Go figure. Graphics are all custom and look great and it's pretty short. Battles are balanced though you might need to grind a little bit towards the end, depending on whether you skipped many battles or not, in order to defeat the boss. Definitely worth playing.
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Ratty524
A solid RPG with a simplistic style. Combat is challenging without being too punishing or too rudimentary. The game doesn't offer much in terms of variety or replay value, but for what it is, it's a fun, short game that does what it sets out to do very well.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Red_Nova
I'm a little torn on it. On one hand, it's a great game that I'd recommend to anyone! On the other, looking at it from a Swap Event standpoint, this is a 90% unity game, which makes me sad. Obviously, unity did the best she could with what little she had with the first half, and taking it in a completely new direction was understandable, but I would have liked to see some more ideas from the first part make the transition into the second. The best example I can give is the lack of a crafting mechanic to acquire items when it was introduced in the beginning.

As a game taken on its own merits, though, it's excellent.
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Liberty
A quiet, short game that leaves a feeling of empty sadness. Worth checking out, even if only for the visual aspects and the thoughts of what could have been. Does need a little polish but even then, it's worth looking at.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ratty524
A short, narrative-driven experience that doesn't really offer much in terms of gameplay. It does what it does well, but will leave those looking for variety in interaction dissatisfied.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Gourd_Clae
A very pretty little game which does well at establishing intrigue, but only just begins to deliver on the initial intrigue when it ends. I think it was worth the five minutes I spent on it though!
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Liberty
A game about getting revenge, even when you know it's gonna bite you in the ass. Stealth needs a little work in some areas but otherwise it's a pretty solid game and the different components work well together to create a well-rounded experience. You'd never pick it for being made by two devs who had no contact with each other over it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Red_Nova
I've never seen stealth combined with an actual RPG battle system before. I'm used to seeing one or the other. Revenge of the Fallen, though, blend the two together quite well, as getting caught forced you to fight against every enemy left on the screen when you would have enough trouble with just one. I like it, since you still have a chance to save yourself even after getting caught, but will still be punished for playing poorly.

Personally, it's my favorite game that came out of the Swap Event.
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Liberty
A gem of a game about a vampire, a chick and four heroes out to save the day. Characters have personality through their skillsets and what is used is used competently. A little easy towards the end, and you can eat the keys, but overall a really neat little game.
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Ratty524
A fun, combat-oriented RPG with bitchin' music and a cool Horror/Thriller vibe. Party dynamics work quite well and the game doesn't get boring at the start. However, the later half of the game feels somewhat underwhelming as weak encounters are recycled and no longer offers a challenge. There are minor bugs and typos that all have varying severity to the game, but otherwise it's a blast to play that I can definitely recommend out of the Swap Event games.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Red_Nova
A game that starts off strong with a kickass soundtrack and a diverse cast of characters whose skills make for some interesting and challenging fights. However, the game fizzles out around the second half with recycled enemies and dialogue that pretty much screamed, "I didn't care."
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Liberty
The plot got a little lost and there wasn't much direction at the start about what to do or where to go, but it did pick up a bit more towards the end. The battle system is interesting, but pretty difficult to get the hang of. It will probably take you a while to defeat some of the enemies, and good luck defeating the last boss. You'll need it. A lot of it. Yeah.
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Ratty524
It'll call attention to itself with it's unique visual style and action-command-based battle system, but the game is brought down by poor communication of direction and a combat system that, while has much potential, is presented in an overwhelming fashion that feels more unwieldy than it actually is. There are some enemies that can also use cheap tactics, like an instant-death move, that really makes the game's core feel more punishing rather than challenging.
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Liberty
Play. This. Game.

That is all.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ratty524
What begins as a somewhat bland, RNG-ridden battle arena game becomes something so charmingly goofy that it's impossible to hate it (unless you're jaded). Trust me, getting past the chore of the battles will be worth it for the sentimental entertainment you'll experience in the second chapter of the game.
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Liberty
The game started out with a very interesting premise which sadly got a bit lost along the way. The maze with the encounters? Yeah, no. And then the boss afterwards... yeah... It's a pity because the game really had a lot of promise to go in a direction that was very interesting.
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Ratty524
This game offers a foreboding atmosphere, nicely made visuals and a gut-wrenching story told without dialogue, which in itself is quite impressive. Combat, unfortunately, ranges from being moderate to frustratingly difficult due to RNG playing a huge role in the outcome of battles, which only ruins any enjoyment you could have out of this experience. Worse of all, combat doesn't actually reward you with anything you can use, and combined with a random encounter system, they feel like a nuisance rather than a welcome change of pace. It managed to offer something I don't see a lot in RPG maker games, but it's hard to say it did it well.
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Liberty
I don't know whether to recommend you play this or run away screaming in horror. Ka-KAW?!
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Ratty524
The entirety of this game is an attempt to place a band-aid on what is arguably one of the most half-hearted efforts in an RPG Maker game I've seen in a long time. No music, trial-and-error puzzles that makes you automatically lose the game if you choose a "wrong" answer, disjointed writing, passability errors that make no sense, the list goes on. You'll at least get a kick out of the multiple paths you can take, depending on whether you are violent or longing for peace, but otherwise this game is probably best to stay away from.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Red_Nova
In all seriousness, I really feel back for luiishu for being handed that game. It would have taken a true miracle to just get the game in an acceptable state, let alone make it good. Sometimes things happen that prevent work on the game, or maybe there was no thought put into it in the first place. Either way, "tragedy," is the only word I can think of anymore when describing this game.
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Red_Nova
My memory of the original game a year ago is a little hazy, but there was at least one issue that I distinctly remember the game having that I see has been fixed here: conveyance. Talking about it in too much detail would be delving into spoiler territory, but I can absolutely recommend you giving it a shot. It's a nice little exploration piece that gives strong story weight to conventional RPG mechanics.
Paying attention to how well you're doing against enemies is a necessity to complete the game, and don't get discouraged if you see the Game Over screen more than once.
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