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MAX MCGEE'S PLAYLIST
Posts
Dezz
1252
Dezz
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CloseHmmm.... Can you review my game, Faith, Max?
The demo is shown on the last comment, unless you're wanting to wait for the game to finish pending. :)
The demo is shown on the last comment, unless you're wanting to wait for the game to finish pending. :)
Dezz
1252
Alright, if you do you may wanna hold on until the next patch though.... There's been a problem with the quests.
I don't know, because Backstage isn't particularly like "strong" in the areas that One Night is weak. They are DIFFERENT in value-neutral ways. Then One Night has lots of other things that are unrelatedly wrong with it...some of them (battle system and puzzles) also weaknesses of Backstage.
As I mentioned in the review comments, I think you should avoid referencing your own work in a review. It takes away from the actual subject (the game you are reviewing) and draws attention to your own work instead of theirs. It also brings up a whole ton of other potential problems that are, honestly, best avoided (reviewer bias, etc.).
I'm pretty sure Max didn't have a problem with HOW the story was presented, but rather the PACING. Not enough plot-relevant stuff was given early-on to keep him interested.
post=136731
I'm pretty sure Max didn't have a problem with HOW the story was presented, but rather the PACING. Not enough plot-relevant stuff was given early-on to keep him interested.
I agree with this, F-G.
Yeah at least the first batch of in-game documents had too many puzzle hints and not enough tantalizing clues about the story. The fact that the main character was a complete cipher with no qualities did not help. Like I said elsewhere, the story might have improved later but after dying cheaply twenty minutes after I last saved, I was less than motivated to find out.
Karsuman,I do not care what you think I feel that said references HELP the review otherwise I would not have added them. It is not like I do not think (a lot) about how it will impact the review before doing something like referencing my own game. They had no impact on the actual score or evaluation of the game's merits, and were only a note that should be of interest to fans of the genre. This is explained more cogently (and politely?) in my comment on the thread for the review itself.
NOTE:
To those of you with en-queued reviews I have stopped pretending that upcoming reviews have any particular order.
Karsuman,
NOTE:
To those of you with en-queued reviews I have stopped pretending that upcoming reviews have any particular order.
I found an old review today and submitted it to the site!
Reviewer's Note:
I wrote this review ages ago but just got around to submitting it today as I was only able to recover it today thanks to Kentona's help. I am not entirely happy with it as written but for the sake of honesty it has not been revisedat all very much.
Reviewer's Note:
I wrote this review ages ago but just got around to submitting it today as I was only able to recover it today thanks to Kentona's help. I am not entirely happy with it as written but for the sake of honesty it has not been revised
BIRDIE GREW WINGS TODAY
At only 15 Minutes long, The Mirror Lied is still the best RMXP game I've ever played!
The Mirror Lied, by Kan "Reives" Gao is a COMPLETE RMXP game. It is graphically polished, brilliantly stylish, broodingly atmospheric, has an original score, and is fun, engaging, and thought provoking. In short: there is NO EXCUSE for not having played this. None WHATSOEVER. It takes just fifteen minutes of your life and it will use those fifteen minutes to not just consummately entertain and completely engross you, but will teach you some things about game design! How much better of a deal can you ask for?
This game is ART and as a result I am going to do everything I can to make this the most artful review I have ever written.
Premise/Story/Dialog/Execution:
In any other game, the writing that appears in The Mirror Lied would be only passable, and barely at that. Not only is the dialog sparse and unembellished and the object descriptions (which you'll be seeing a lot of) brief and cursory, but the game is plagued by several errors of usage with the English language, mostly relating to pluralization (a full sink is referred to as a "collection of water", a drawer is described as being full of "oversized clothings" and a potted plant is described as "a decorative foliage") which combined with the lack of characterization or explanation would have been a serious problem for other games.
Not so with The Mirror Lied.
Why? First off, the game's completely brilliant and deceptively simple premise. There is not much I can say about a game only fifteen minutes long without spoiling it. The safest thing I can say is this: the protagonist in the Mirror Lied is a little girl, with no face, in a world that is not at all what it seems. Absolutely nothing is explained, at least not in a way that spells things out for the player. The game is essentially a mystery, where the joy is in the player's discovering and unraveling of its small in scope but densely packed secrets.
I want to say more, to really over-analyze the game and get at some of the depth inside it, and that is what SPOILER TAGS are for. If you have not played the game before DO NOT READ THIS SHIT IT WILL RUIN THE GMAE FOR YOU:
It eventually becomes apparent that the house is a kind of illusion, a phantasmal construct that is serving as a temporal prison to keep Leah (which I kept thinking is, similar to and to a Japanese speaker indistinguishable from the sound of Rhea, as in the witch!) off the playing field and out of the game. It is a fantasy world for her, a return to childhood, a mental labyrinth, forever delaying her action like the 1001 tales of Scheherazade. She was originally an agent- of some mysterious government organization? of a powerful force for good? for evil?- of some group or faction that is out to stop birdie, who is a curiously childlike metaphor for the apocalypse, the angel of death, what have you, from flying over the world and making it dissapear, continent by continent. But birdie has imprisoned her in this weird twilight place, this empty house, this childhood doll's house, and you have to help her escape...but then Revies' wonderfully ambiguous ending makes you wonder if even that interpretation is true, or just some kind of subjective spin you put on this brilliantly chimeric rorshak blot of a game!
The game's sparse dialog works for it because every conversation with Birdie is incredibly ominous and intentionally vague. I can't take off points for Birdie's dialog being indistinguishable, in voice, from the text of the computer messages, because that made me wonder if they were the same entity. It got to the point where I was wondering if even the curiously childlike English mistakes were intentional, that is how complete of a mindfuck this game is.
In spite of Reives' (perhaps at least half-ironic?) assertion that this game does not belong to the horror genre, HE IS LYING. It is perhaps the creepiest, spookiest complete RPG Maker game I have ever played. It upstaged Backstage. It unraveled The Longing Ribbon. I don't know if there's a higher complement I can pay. There is no blood, no gore, no monsters, no "survival horror elements", just a word that is every bit as disconcerting and nonsensical as your most poignant nightmares, or the grimmest of fairy tales.
Story Score: 4/5 (8/10)
Graphics/Sound:
This entire game takes place in a house. An ordinary house, convincingly rendered. The house has two bedrooms, one upstairs, and one downstairs, and two bathrooms, adjoining the bedrooms on the first and second floor. There is a computer room and lounge on the first floor too, a dining room, and a living room. There is a drawer in the dining room; the first time you examine it is locked. Then, right before your eyes, it disappears. You wonder if it was ever there. With the dresser gone, you can examine the painting behind it. Someone has written numbers on it. In the basement, there is a boiler, a secret office behind a locked door additionally blocked off by a table, and a mysterious panel with three switches. One of the switches is stuck. It is carved with a mysterious note: "Wait for me. 3:26."
THE HOUSE IS ALIVE.
At first, it is a sunny day outside the house. But the sunlight streaming in through the windows is just enough to remind you how dim it is inside the house, in comparison, the best use of lighting effects ever in any RM game. When it is night time, it is moonlight streaking in.
THE HOUSE IS ALIVE.
On the living room table is a music box (sometimes there is a phone there, and sometimes it isn't. It moves, you see. The phone is moving again! haha. Like it has a mind of its own.) which, when you open it, sounds just like a music box. Childlike...innocent...but with dark and haunting undertones. (It is the ONLY track of music the game uses, composed by Reives himself, and it is absolutely fantastic.) You can shut the box, or leave it open, a relatively meaningless decision, just like the ability to dress Leah in three colors: tawny, midnight black, or blood red. If you leave the music box on, it continues to play the supremely creepy tones throughout the entire house...and when you leave it alone, the music continues to play...when you move into other rooms, it gets softer.
THE HOUSE IS ALIVE.
Everything in the house can be interacted with. Every light switch can be flicked on and off. Every drawer can be rifled through. The plants can be watered and sometimes THEY GROW. The toilets can be flushed. The piano can be played. The computer used. The phone (IT RINGS SOMETIMES) answered, if you make it in time. Some of these things are crucial to advance the game. Some of them don't matter at all. The house is the most fully realized and convincing environment in any RM game ever. THE. HOUSE. IS. ALIVE.
If you play this alone and think about what it is doing, you will be haunted.
From the totally slick animated menu screen and the chilling, Dark City-esque intro to the brilliantly ambiguous ending, every graphic, every sound, ever description....perfect. Some little details I didn't notice until I watched my girlfriend replay the game before reviewing ...at some point, as somewhere outside the microcosm of the house, Birdie flew over Europe, and approached Africa, the continents on the world map in the lounge vanished one by one.
A triumph of atmosphere, hyperbole be damned.
Presentation Score: 5.0/5.0 AKA 10/10 AKA 100% AKA A++
Gameplay
This game made me obsessive compulsive. For some reason I needed to have a full bucket on me and have all three sinks filled with water, at all times, before doing anything. The puzzles are clever. The puzzles themselves were like what you'd find in a any text adventure, point and click third person LucasArts style adventure game, or any modern game like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, or, for the indie scene, Backstage...only better. What at first I thought were game breaking glitches weren't; this phenomenon was nicely lampshaded by the clever title screen changing to say "Yes, I know about this glitch." the first time that I quit on it, trapped in a burning house I'd set fire to myself.
It does not have any battles. Few of the puzzles were truly deep, complex, or involving. And it is very short. That is why it did not receive a perfect score. BUT...
The gameplay approaches the INEFFABLE at times, requiring you to use dream logic to defeat the game's puzzles. In short, this is a game in which the correct choice, when you have set the house on fire, is to go back to bed amidst the flames. Brilliant.
Gameplay Score: 4/5 (8 out of 10)
The Mirror Lied is the ultimate triumph of atmosphere, presentation, and polish supporting a strong premise. It is truly different than any other games. It is emotionally and cognitively involving. It is my favorite RMXP game.
Final Score (NOT AN AVERAGE): 4.5/5 Stars (9/10)
I reached my "done with this shit" point in Darksteel today. (I lost to the Phantom Shadow/Shadow Phantom no less than five consecutive times. An incurable confuse effect + two party members can do that to you. Plus I think I was underleveled because I found avoiding battles much more fun than actually fighting them.)
I started to write a review but lost interest/ran out of energy/got distracted about 30% of the way through. Huh. That's never happened to me before. I'll try to finish it, maybe next week, maybe sooner.
I started to write a review but lost interest/ran out of energy/got distracted about 30% of the way through. Huh. That's never happened to me before. I'll try to finish it, maybe next week, maybe sooner.
One million posts in a row.
Darksteel review is done.
If Hero's Realm succeeds because it closely emulates the kind of Old School RPGs that Kentona liked (Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy 1), Darksteel succeeds because it closely emulates the kind of slightly-less-old school RPGs that I have always loved, classics like Final Fantasy 6 and Illusion of Gaia.
Story
Darksteel begins in the most cliche way humanly possible. In a flashback, we are shown that a PARTY OF ANCIENT HEROES (with, as I recall, unpronounceable names) DEFEATED/BANISHED/SEALED AWAY an ANCIENT EVIL OVERLORD/DEMON (with a definitiely unpronounceable name) in the ANCIENT PAST using a POWERFUL ANCIENT SWORD. You know, like in every RPG ever.
We then flash forward to an academy for mercenaries (who, in a strange twist, are also devoutly religious...or something). Two young mercenaries, Raif and Reuve, are given a mission to travel to a southern continent and oversee the excavation of a mine where ancient artifacts have been discovered. Hmm...could they be connected?
I liked this line the most out of what I played.
The writing in Darksteel is competent but not exemplary. However, the style in which it is written- in fact, even the unostentatious, workmanlike quality of it- emphasizes the feeling I get when playing Darksteel that I am playing a "real" SNES era RPG. For this, I award...points!
I could not see as much of the story as I would have liked due to a point where the gameplay became impassable because of a (to me) unbeatable boss.
Story Score: 6/10
Gameplay
The battles in Darksteel are really boring from the getgo. None of your party members have any attacks that deal anything but direct damage in fairly small amounts. Elements and status effects are not used. Even healing is barely used. You have the ability to switch weapons mid-battle, but enemies didn't seem particularly weak or strong against any weapon-types. For the most part, although boring, battles are reasonably well balanced. They're not impossible, they don't drag. And they tend to be rather on the easy side.
So, here's the problem. Avoiding battles is actually pretty fun. The patterns of enemy movement are varied and challenging. The relative speeds of the players and wandering enemy on-touch encounters are tuned just right. Dodging enemies is more fun than fighting them. As a result, when I fought the Phantom Shadow (Shadow Phantom), the game's first major boss, I was severely underleveled. And the Phantom Shadow likes to spam Confuse and Blind. And you have only two party members. And you have nothing to cure confusion. And it's not weak to any damage types (that you have access to). And you have only one Phoenix Down. And when you finally wear its health down by dumb luck/making the exact right (limited) choies available to you...it summons two allies and then massively heals itself. All the while keeping at least half of your party confused.
Um, did I mention I was underleveled?
This is where I quit Darksteel, after giving the Phantom Shadow the good old college try. Well, more like FIVE of the good old college tries.
But let's move on to the good stuff.
The dungeon/level design in Darksteel is FANTASTIC. Every standard Zelda/RPG dungeon puzzle/staple--pushing block puzzles, multiple levels, water level puzzles, moving platforms, jumping, guiding two mirrored characters to a switch--is implemented cleverly, cleanly, and WELL...WITHIN THE VERY FIRST DUNGEON. I enjoyed the first dungeon of Darksteel more than I did the dungeons in any other RPG Maker game, even the much-lauded dungeons of Kinetic Cypher. And managing to space my jump properly so I fell from the moving platform on the second level down to land exactly on the cracked tile on the lower level to break it and fall through to the hidden treasure chest on the bottom level? That moment was among the most clever and triumphant any video game has made me feel (although the optional loot I got was lackluster and didn't help me at all defeat the Phantom Menace).
I wish I had not gotten inexorably and frustratingly stuck in Darksteel, because it seems like playing through a game filled with such polished, professional, clever dungeons could be incredibly fun. Narcodis did an amazing job of filling his dungeons with puzzles/obstacles that were CHALLENGING but still eminently SOLVABLE. Bravo!
Gameplay Score: 6/10
Atmosphere
I do not have much to say about the music/graphics in Darksteel. Everything was more or less as it-should be. RTP was used well, with a slightly unusual 3/4 (as opposed to top down) perspective lending things a bit of uniqueness. Weather effects and screen tones were well used to set the mood. Again, the use of music, sound effects, and cutscenes made the game feel, somehow, like a REAL SNES era RPG. It is this ineffable and hard to explain quality that I enjoyed the most.
Atmosphere Score: 7/10
Bottom Line
Darksteel has great level/dungeon design and interesting obstacles set off by boring battles which, at the end, left me personally in a frustrating and unwinnable state. Still, the game is worth playing for the feel of it, which consistently resembles the feel of a classic SNES era RPG, something that surprisingly few RPG Maker games do. If the battles were improved, Darksteel could be one of the greats.
FINAL SCORE (Not An Average): 6/10
Darksteel review is done.
YNETRUZ WILL RISE!
Darksteel is a game with boring battles and great dungeon design!
Darksteel is a game with boring battles and great dungeon design!
If Hero's Realm succeeds because it closely emulates the kind of Old School RPGs that Kentona liked (Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy 1), Darksteel succeeds because it closely emulates the kind of slightly-less-old school RPGs that I have always loved, classics like Final Fantasy 6 and Illusion of Gaia.
Story
Darksteel begins in the most cliche way humanly possible. In a flashback, we are shown that a PARTY OF ANCIENT HEROES (with, as I recall, unpronounceable names) DEFEATED/BANISHED/SEALED AWAY an ANCIENT EVIL OVERLORD/DEMON (with a definitiely unpronounceable name) in the ANCIENT PAST using a POWERFUL ANCIENT SWORD. You know, like in every RPG ever.
We then flash forward to an academy for mercenaries (who, in a strange twist, are also devoutly religious...or something). Two young mercenaries, Raif and Reuve, are given a mission to travel to a southern continent and oversee the excavation of a mine where ancient artifacts have been discovered. Hmm...could they be connected?
The writing in Darksteel is competent but not exemplary. However, the style in which it is written- in fact, even the unostentatious, workmanlike quality of it- emphasizes the feeling I get when playing Darksteel that I am playing a "real" SNES era RPG. For this, I award...points!
I could not see as much of the story as I would have liked due to a point where the gameplay became impassable because of a (to me) unbeatable boss.
Story Score: 6/10
Gameplay
The battles in Darksteel are really boring from the getgo. None of your party members have any attacks that deal anything but direct damage in fairly small amounts. Elements and status effects are not used. Even healing is barely used. You have the ability to switch weapons mid-battle, but enemies didn't seem particularly weak or strong against any weapon-types. For the most part, although boring, battles are reasonably well balanced. They're not impossible, they don't drag. And they tend to be rather on the easy side.
So, here's the problem. Avoiding battles is actually pretty fun. The patterns of enemy movement are varied and challenging. The relative speeds of the players and wandering enemy on-touch encounters are tuned just right. Dodging enemies is more fun than fighting them. As a result, when I fought the Phantom Shadow (Shadow Phantom), the game's first major boss, I was severely underleveled. And the Phantom Shadow likes to spam Confuse and Blind. And you have only two party members. And you have nothing to cure confusion. And it's not weak to any damage types (that you have access to). And you have only one Phoenix Down. And when you finally wear its health down by dumb luck/making the exact right (limited) choies available to you...it summons two allies and then massively heals itself. All the while keeping at least half of your party confused.
Um, did I mention I was underleveled?
This is where I quit Darksteel, after giving the Phantom Shadow the good old college try. Well, more like FIVE of the good old college tries.
But let's move on to the good stuff.
The dungeon/level design in Darksteel is FANTASTIC. Every standard Zelda/RPG dungeon puzzle/staple--pushing block puzzles, multiple levels, water level puzzles, moving platforms, jumping, guiding two mirrored characters to a switch--is implemented cleverly, cleanly, and WELL...WITHIN THE VERY FIRST DUNGEON. I enjoyed the first dungeon of Darksteel more than I did the dungeons in any other RPG Maker game, even the much-lauded dungeons of Kinetic Cypher. And managing to space my jump properly so I fell from the moving platform on the second level down to land exactly on the cracked tile on the lower level to break it and fall through to the hidden treasure chest on the bottom level? That moment was among the most clever and triumphant any video game has made me feel (although the optional loot I got was lackluster and didn't help me at all defeat the Phantom Menace).
I wish I had not gotten inexorably and frustratingly stuck in Darksteel, because it seems like playing through a game filled with such polished, professional, clever dungeons could be incredibly fun. Narcodis did an amazing job of filling his dungeons with puzzles/obstacles that were CHALLENGING but still eminently SOLVABLE. Bravo!
Gameplay Score: 6/10
Atmosphere
I do not have much to say about the music/graphics in Darksteel. Everything was more or less as it-should be. RTP was used well, with a slightly unusual 3/4 (as opposed to top down) perspective lending things a bit of uniqueness. Weather effects and screen tones were well used to set the mood. Again, the use of music, sound effects, and cutscenes made the game feel, somehow, like a REAL SNES era RPG. It is this ineffable and hard to explain quality that I enjoyed the most.
Atmosphere Score: 7/10
Bottom Line
Darksteel has great level/dungeon design and interesting obstacles set off by boring battles which, at the end, left me personally in a frustrating and unwinnable state. Still, the game is worth playing for the feel of it, which consistently resembles the feel of a classic SNES era RPG, something that surprisingly few RPG Maker games do. If the battles were improved, Darksteel could be one of the greats.
FINAL SCORE (Not An Average): 6/10
I dislike having six consecutive posts and simultaneously dropping a 6+ month necro-bomb, but both seem inevitable.
I am looking for a game to review. The reason I am not doing one of the ones is my queue is that I started playing them an eternity ago, did not take coherent notes, and now do not want to REPLAY them just to remind myself of all the things I found annoying. A review is not an easy thing to "resume" several months later.
I am more inclined to review games I think I will enjoy--I don't enjoy the process of eviscerating a game nearly enough to intentionally put myself through a game I think will be bad--so that will effect my "process of elimination". Secondly (and lastly) I am more likely to review games with less reviews than thoroughly reviewed games for what (I think) are obvious reasons.
I am looking for a game to review. The reason I am not doing one of the ones is my queue is that I started playing them an eternity ago, did not take coherent notes, and now do not want to REPLAY them just to remind myself of all the things I found annoying. A review is not an easy thing to "resume" several months later.
I am more inclined to review games I think I will enjoy--I don't enjoy the process of eviscerating a game nearly enough to intentionally put myself through a game I think will be bad--so that will effect my "process of elimination". Secondly (and lastly) I am more likely to review games with less reviews than thoroughly reviewed games for what (I think) are obvious reasons.
Well, I don't know how much you'd enjoy it, or if you'd consider it well-reviewed, but would you try...
Considering it.
I don't know anything about Spelunky. I also don't HAVE spelunky. Should I (either)?
Anyway, yes I consider this pretty well reviewed/well received but I'll be willing to try it if I don't need any knowledge of/background in Spelunky and if the fact that I know more about the theory and critique of RPGs than platformers isn't too much of a drawback.
I don't know anything about Spelunky. I also don't HAVE spelunky. Should I (either)?
Anyway, yes I consider this pretty well reviewed/well received but I'll be willing to try it if I don't need any knowledge of/background in Spelunky and if the fact that I know more about the theory and critique of RPGs than platformers isn't too much of a drawback.
^ I remember that game!
No, you don't need regular Spelunky to play TLS. Knowing a little about it would help, but you don't need to know anything specifically. Quite the contrary, Spelunky is all about learning and discovering new things (in often painful ways). The same is true of this mod, perhaps even moreso.
But since RPGs are your forte, you should probably do that one Craze posted instead.
No, you don't need regular Spelunky to play TLS. Knowing a little about it would help, but you don't need to know anything specifically. Quite the contrary, Spelunky is all about learning and discovering new things (in often painful ways). The same is true of this mod, perhaps even moreso.
But since RPGs are your forte, you should probably do that one Craze posted instead.
