SAM'S REVIEW THREAD! (ETHEREAL DREAMS REVIEWED)

Welcome, one and all to...


You can post here to get your games reviewed by me, following on from WIP's complaints about there not being enough reviews on the site.

Instructions for how to apply to get your game reviewed, are posted AFTER the review below

I should warn people in advance that I can be incredibly harsh towards games at times, but only if you give me reason to be. I will say when a game does something right and sing it's praises. I will also come down on a game for poor or lazy design, as well as bad game mechanics.

Games Currently In My Review Queue
- Backstage 2 - Max McGee

Games Reviewed So Far
- Pokemon Hunter - Halababica
- Ethereal Dreams - Rachael

Other Things To Bare In Mind
- I do have Uni lectures, a job, and a girlfriend to keep up with. It may take a couple of days before I post a review of your game. Please be patient.
- Likewise, if there are say, five games in the queue, you may be waiting a while if you're at the bottom of said queue.
- I work on a first come, first served basis.

I started us off with Pokèmon Hunter. The original. Hala's been asking people to take a look at this game left, right and center so I figured I'd help the guy out.

Here we go!

Pokèmon Hunter


First Impressions
Now, I should start by saying that I'm a sucker for presentation. Whilst a game does not have to be jaw droppingly beautiful, I at least like to see that the creator has taken some time and pride in it's appearance and overall asthetic. Because of this, I am guilty of judging games by their title screens.

The title screen of Pokèmon Hunter quite accurately depicts what's to follow. It's a stock image supplied with RM2k and simply has a logo and a Mewtwo sprite slapped onto it. Whilst it does serve it's purpose, the lack of attention gives the immediate impression that Hala didn't particularly care about this game.

On the other hand, it could simply be that he's not well versed in the areas of graphic design - and this is the best he could do with his knoledge and tools. At any rate, I'm dissecting a title screen in too much detail when there are more important matters to discuss, such as the actual game.

The opening titles worried me quite a lot. It's basically a disclaimer, stating that if you like Pokèmon, you probably won't like this game - while if you don't like Pokèmon... You probably never downloaded it in the first place. It says it's a traditional RPG with the monsters replaced with Pokèmon. This is true, but I can;t help but feel if it weren't for the sprites, this could have just been... Hunter.

It's a brick wall Hala has slammed himself against, rather unfortunately. He's essentially stating that this game isn't intended for Pokèmon fans, and at the same time, isn't going to reach anyone who isn't at all interested in Pokèmon, so who is it aimed at? According to his own disclaimer, nobody.

First Few Steps
The game opens in full RTP, as it intends to go on. Four friends are standing by a lake when one decides to reminisce about how they all met. This essentially makes the entire game a flashback, where people are just talking about their past adventures (ala Tomb Raider Chronicles), and immediately tells you that's who'll wind up on your team, that everyone survives and that they'll all be relatively happy by the end of the story.

This removes any and all suprise, and thus, really brings down the plot. I have a tendancy to care less about a group's struggles when I already know they pull through. Now, if we look at a game like Abe's Odyssey, a title where we start at the ending sequence, you'll notice how these sequences are supposed to work. At the beginning of that game, Abe is in trouble, and it looks likely he's aout to die. This causes the player to want to know how he ended up in that situation and genuinely care about what he did.

A group of four friends happily discussing bygone days because the fish aren't biting that day does not have the same effect in any respect. It just felt like a very weak way to open the game.

You then stand in a very open, and very empty town whilst it's seemingly homeless population thank you for agreeing to rid them of their monster troubles. The town basically consists of four fences with shop signs on them. There's nothing of interest in the town at all. It's not even a town! What do these people do when it rains, or gets cold? Huddle up together behind their fence with "Pub" written on it? A pub with no tables, seats, bar or any visible alcohol in sight. Comprising solely of one drunken owner in the middle of a field?



You then speak to a psychic who informs you that your first of eight beasts to slay is a black dragon and resides in a cave to the northeast. Conveniently, this town has exits on all sides, that can fit a single person down them, and are blocked off until you need to head to that area. This town is also situated in the center of every climate and habitat known to man.

Having said this, it does give the game an immediate 'old school' feel. It's got a certain simplicity contained within your goal that you can't help but admire. It's not a pretentious, over complicated plot that comes off as being cheesy and poorly written, it knows what it is. Simply, go kill eight monsters, get some team mates along the way and save the town. With that checklist, I was off, into the first of presumably eight dungeons.

Dunegon Crawling Fun
Yes, I did say fun, because despite all my complaining there are some areas of this game I do respect and genuinely enjoy. The first dungeon being one of them. Once you get past meeting your first partner, Phat T, a character with no motives to help you besides that fact that you're both going in the same direction and enter the dungeon properly you'll be pleasantly suprised.

Considering the graphics are all RTP, the dungeon is actually laid out quite well. There are optional paths that lead to extra items. Multiple levels on the same map that you have to navigate through ladders and vines, and even an alternate route at one point.



It's very well laid out and designed, if a bit obvious now and then. There are some good ideas being used in the simple opening puzzles. For example, one sees you throwing switches to cntrol mine cart tracks, and walk around an area suspended above a giddying drop. Another is simply about standing on the right switch to open the door in front of you, started with two switches and slowly increasing to eight. Standing on the wrong panel means that you have to fight some enemies before trying another switch. They're simple, but they work, and even have their own learning curves. As stated, the switches in the floor to open doors, simply increase the amount of choices - making it less likely you'll guess the right panel. Unless you're extremely lucky like me and only picked the wrong panel twice. The cart tracks eventually have multiple switches, and you have to figure out a combination of flipped and unflipped switches to gain the desired result, thus opening a path.

Not only that, but the scope of the dungeon is quite commendable too. From a regular cave, to a minecart track, to a lava pit. It certainly beats seeing the same wall tiles for map after map, and it's refreshing to see such a basic yet underused design principle. It simply keeps the player interested. The monsters even change as you progress, the caves having more rock monsters and the lava pits more fire monsters. However much I might knock the lack of plot, poorly written dialogue and lack of graphical awe, Hala does seem to at least understand basic game mechanics. Including providing a save point which restores your health before the boss.

Let's Battle!
Battles take place via random encounters, the bane of most RM gamers, however, it feels suitable here due to the fact that it's got Pokèmon in the name. The Pokèmon you come across rarely pose a threat or challenge, but there's enough variety and suprises to stop you from fleeing every battle.

Each monster has it's own goal. There are very clear stereotypes in the monsters. Some can take tons of damage whilst dishing back very little, such as Onix, others can be taken down quickly but have powerful special attacks, such as Charmander. Yes, they're stereotypes, but at least it doesn't feel like you're fighting the same monster, but with a different graphic each time.

One feature that really suprised and pleased me, was when I was fighting a Voltorb that evolved into an Electrode mid-battle! It wasn't an isolated incident either, as an Abra evolved into a Kadara in one fight and a few Charmanders I came aross became Charmeleons!



The monsters also have the attacks they have in Pokèmon. Onix uses Rock Throw and Harden, Charmeleon uses Slash and Flamethrower. It's familiar and also gives each monster a bit more of their own personality - after all, we bonded with Pokèmon because of their unique abilities, strengths and weaknesses.

This beings me on to an annoying note though. One of the main aspects of battle in Pokèmon was selecting the right type of elements to fight each other - for example, using water against fire type enemies. There are no signs of this in Pokèmon Hunter, with a rock Pokèmon taking the same damage from a fire attack as, say, an electric Pokèmon would. This really disappointed me.

This took all strategy and planning out of the game as I just hammered everything with my most powerful attacks. It's never a good idea to give out some kind of Damage Equality Rights to RPG enemies, especially if they're Pokèmon!

On top of that, you begin the game with a healing spell that restores more health than a potion does. The ethers to restore your MP cost the same as a potion, so you naturally just stock up on ethers and head on out, able to save yourself from death every five seconds.

The first few fights, you'll simply be mashing the Attack command, taking a break every now and then to heal. You'll eventually come across items that teach you the moves of that dungeon's Pokèmon - and that's how learning new abilities works in this game. Sadly, all these attacks were solely for Eli, our main character, meaning that while Eli grew tremendously strong with multiple tasks and responsibilities in battle, Phat T just grew bigger fists with no new ways to use them. The other half of the abilities I found, couldn't even be used on any of my characters yet, presumably to be kept and used on another team mate later in the game.

It's not a bad way for your characters to learn new skills, and it allows for a lot of customisation. The problem is that the quantity of skills you get are never balanced, and Eli soon became so strong that Phat T was barely needed.

The pathetically easy difficulty of all the battles was another gripe of mine, but I'll cover that in this next section.

Here Comes the Boss!
When you think of a boss battle in an RPG, you picture an epic struggle against an enigmatic foe. The foe you're after is a black Charizard, one of eight legendary beasts stalking the village! So, why then, does it play exactly like a regular battle, but with different music?



You wouldn't know Charizard was the boss unless you'd been told by the NPCs, could see him stood still at a dead end on your map, and if there wasn't a save point right in front of him. Aside from having increased stats and stronger attacks, Charizard is no different to any other enemy in that dungeon. It's a real shame because boss battles are what you build yourself up to and anticipate in an RPG and when they're done this poorly and this carelessly you're bound to be disappointed.

The experience was also dampened by the fact that, before facing the Charizard, a Charmeleon I bumped into eveolved into a Charizard mid battle. I beat that with ease, and it had an Onix assisting it! It really didn;t help with my thoughts that the Charizard boss felt like just a regular enemy on steroids. It's the worst possible way to do bosses.

After an easy battle, you're all healed, another poorly written cutscene plays out, and you're teleported back to town.

Go East, Young Eli!
Heading east makes you bump into a pair of Pikachus harassing a young lady. Defeat these and it's onwards for more of the same. It's very much a wash, rinse, repeat game due to it's simple nature.

You kill one beast, go back to town, get told the location of the next one and go running off again. If you like old school RPGs or dungeon crawlers, this is perfectly acceptable - I prefer to have a little something more out of my RPGs, but I can't knock this game for knowing exactly what it is.

To Wrap Things Up
The dialogue is horrendously bad, and sounds like a bunch of 13 year olds sat around a room trying to impress one another. The characters are very shallow, very stereotypical and one dimensional, and the NPCs lack heart and interest. This can be forgiven seeing as you only have to hear these characters speak once every forty minutes or so and doesn't really bring the game down. As I just stated, the game knows what it is, and tries it's best to stick to that. There are no whiney monologues to be had here, which is somewhat refreshing. Just you, and your avatars of destruction.

Battles are solid, though the boss fights are extremely lacking. If the bosses were made harder and the encounter rates altered to be less disruptive and at times annoying, I'd say the battles were among the most balanced and well presented areas of this game.

The grapics are RTP, with Pokèmon rips for the monsters. You shouldn't expect anything special here, as it's stuff we;ve all seen before. I already told you that the town itself is abysmally shoddy and in need of a serious revamp, but the dungeons themselves are actually very well made and laid out.

The music is again, RTP. It's not always well placed, and it does get annoying and grate on you after a while.

So... In A Nutshell... (This is the last bit, I promise)
This game reminds me of my first clumsy attempts at RPG Maker. The games that forever stay hidden, on the hard drive of a computer you've long since stopped using. It's somewhat of a fond reminder of your roots in RM2k3, and worth a play if only for that.

What's a shame, is the fact that you are fighting Pokèmon. If you replaced the Pokèmon with regular monsters, then this would just be your typical RTP game. I think Hala believed there's be more interest in his game if it included Pokèmon in it. I can see his theory, as a popular name will grab you some attention. I think, in this case, it's gained him negative attention.

Give it a chance, forget that you're fighting Pokèmon, and sit through the introduction to the first dungeon. You might be able to have fun with this once you manage to immerse yourself a little within it and forget certain technicalities.



Want Your Game Reviewed?

Simply post a reply in this topic, with a description of your game, a screeshot, and a download link.

Please be aware that I hate downloading from certain hosts, such as MediaFire (though I don't mind MegaUpload or SendSpace) and prefer games hosted either privately, or via RMN.

Also, keep in mind that I will not pull any punches. What you'll recieve will be my honest opinion - but that doesn't mean it won't contain any praise or constructive feedback.

Thank you.

@Racheal: Still playing Ethereal Dreams, just come out of Fungal Forest North with Kix, after using the Dragon Bane on the log. I've got to say I'm really enjoying the game so far. Review will be up soon, last week was my first week back at Uni after Christmas so things got a little hectic.

@Halibabica: Of course you can put it on your site if you want.

@ Max McGee: I'll do Backstage II then.