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Good enough for some routine breaking


We are having a nostalgic and well-known battle system this time! Eye-catching, bewitching characters with their own personalities to play with. Mysteries to solve, and a short but enjoyable landscape to explore.



Character Background and Development

It´s nice to see each character haves own personality and preferences, so I can say they escape from the “typical RPG party companion” frame. That´s nice, however that is as much as I can say, since on a short duration there´s no room for their personalities to change and grow.
Other minor character´s presentation and development are not bad either.

That last surviving girl´s story and her actions were well presented through notes and her diary. It was enjoyable to find her and talking to her.



Soundtrack - graphic design and concept of art

I can only praise the aesthetically highly-detailed, beautifully portrayed character pictures and the well-designed atmosphere, from developing an isometric scenery to explore in the outside (including 2D exploring in the inside of buildings) mentioning also the light effects going from lighter to dimmer according to your field of vision and the special effects, like clouds, on the external scenes.
Music does a proper job in accompanying the moments; mute music on certain timings are as well for exploring on a suspense setting. Stil, it´s a relatively simple design of the surroundings and explored areas.


Interface and user interaction

Interesting battle system, different from the usual. But with great power comes great responsibility. I think some of the serious problems on the battle interface too much complexity and little information and EXP distribution.

Having so many skills, items, characters and possible actions. Besides 6 characters, each one having an energy skillset (NRG) and a TP skillset (which uses a bar that fills according to combat actions or damage taken it seems?) for experienced RPG players this is not a great issue, but beginners will be confused. Usually, RPG games start with simple commands and gradually become more complex.
Besides that, the experience of a monster goes to the one landing the finishing blow, and given a limited number of monster per stage that does not allow to level the characters adequately. Although given the short length of the game it´s not a great problem either, but that being the case, for this kind of platforms, games like Disgaea usually allow team-attacks (when 1 to 3 other characters may help the attacker on a normal attack). It would be good to include either this or other methods for EXP sharing.



Also, although I congratulate the creator when aiming to develop such a complex and dynamic battle interaction, whether is fluent or lagged combat depends on the computer. Citing again Disgaea, using the original console or a PC emulator helps avoiding the lag, but on a RPG Maker system it may become too lagged. I think having more battles, with less characters and monsters per battle, would help, at least in the prologue and first stages, if this were a longer game.


Story and general world development

Although the current situation is not explained we get enough clues as for what´s happening. Exploring the surroundings and looking for clues is enjoyable, and the information released is the proper amount; not too little as to discourage you, but not too much as to make lose interest either.
For the exploring to be interesting by itself is a good achievement.
As for the story and some aspects of this world, if it were to be analyzed as an independent game (with no sequels or prequels, not being part of a saga either) there are unanswered questions.

What´s a shatterer, a prion, and Ivy core? We don´t really need to know these things in order to enjoy the game; through playing we can get the general picture. May also be cleared along the way. But for a very short game it may leave doubts and wonder what was all about. Well, I´m aware that this is related to another of the creator´s games, so it´s ok with a “if you liked the story you can play the sequel/prequel called xxxxx” or something.





*Note: This game was made for the 2017 IGMC, which as far as I know allows either 1-hour games or the first hour gameplay to be evaluated for the contest.

Posts

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Thanks so much for your review!! It's exciting when someone plays your game and is invested enough to share their thoughts with the world!

You have some great points and suggestions. I'm glad you liked the characters and story overall, even if it was a bit short. The complexity of the battle system, the number of characters, skills, and enemies has been a major comment from just about everyone. This includes people on the internet as well as IRL people who have tested the game. It really does throw you into the deep end quickly. Thanks for sticking through it and for your thoughtful review!
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