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I backstabbeth thee!

  • Waxius
  • 04/23/2018 05:26 PM
  • 1872 views
3Rogues - by Redd



First Thoughts:
I really like the premise of this game. A game where stealth and backstabbing are your only tools to survive. With some tweaks, this could be really fun to play as a challenging short game. The current version of it however is impossibly hard to beat.

Story:
It's a normal day for Light, Trad, and Vigor. Sitting with their princesses outside their hideout. Suddenly out of nowhere, the princesses are taken away by thugs! The heroes immediately begin chase.



Game Play:
You play as one of the three rogues: Light, Trad, or Vigor. These guys are rogues (though they look like ninjas). Light wears green gear and has low attack power with high hit points. Trad wears blue and has a normal attack power and normal hit points. Finally Vigor wears red and has high attack power, but low hit points. Their luck is also a factor when choosing who to pick, as luck determines the items you find in treasure chests.

The first world is set in a lush green forest. There are three stages that you have to pass in order to rescue the first princess. Every stage has a start and a crystal to mark the end. The enemies consist of Moths and Snakes and for the most part, you can avoid them and not kill them. They follow a set route, and do not chase after you. It's not necessary to attack every living thing. However, if you are able to touch them in the back, you'll score a hit on them which may or may not kill it. If you touch them head on or from the side, they will damage you instead.

Your starting HP is determined by the character you picked. When you die, you have to start that world over again. If you die in front of the crystal in stage 3, you'll start over on stage 1. You don't regain HP in-between stages, but you can find HP+ or HP++ items in chests.



The 2nd world is an ocean/island type world. It's no longer a matter of finding the crystals anymore. Now you've got to find and flip switches throughout the stages. Once all of them are switched, the crystal will appear in a centralized location.

Even though I passed world one by avoiding enemies altogether. The enemy movement patterns get more complicated in world 2. I never made it to the third world.



Graphics and Music:
The graphics are RTP except for the characters themselves and the monster sprites. It all fits well and nothing looks out of place graphics-wise. The music is custom made by the developer and sounds fitting for an SNES style game.

Overall:
Overall, I like the game and I think a few tweaks could improve the player experience greatly.

For example, at the end of a stage, maybe give the player a rating as to how "Stealth" they were. Maybe consider how many kills, how many hits you took, or if you killed anything at all.

Maybe allow the player to start over at the stage they died in, instead of all the way to stage 1. Or.. heal the player before starting stage 2.

Another idea is to make it impossible to use one character throughout the whole game. So that if you used Trad for world 1, and he rescues a princess.. make sure it's HIS princess, and then you MUST continue to World 2 with one of the other guys. This could possibly add a strategic element making sure you plan our which character to use in which world.

Again, these are just ideas of mine... others may think differently.

Posts

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Hey, thanks for the review!! I'm curious, is there anything you didn't like about the game other than the difficulty? It was meant to be very difficult but fairly short, much like an old NES game, so that aspect isn't going to change ;) I like the ideas about the stats and the characters becoming unavailable for use though. I might implement that!

Here's a tip: each character has their own HP pool, so if you think you're pretty low on health you can switch at the shop before the next level! Your HP refills upon going to a new world as well. Just make sure to unequip armor and such because those stick with the character too.
Waxius
"Someday I'll finish my game... someday.."
3898
Hi Redd!

The difficulty was the only issue I had with the game, otherwise I love the concept and the very simple fast paced story. Some of the butterflies move as the same speed as a dashed run, I didn't see how it was possible to catch those.
I see! Some enemies only give you a few frames to attack due to unfortunate engine limitations. Other enemies just go really fast, which is why the game mentions that attacking may not always be the best course of action ;)

I mean no offense by this, but it is interesting to see that you were not able to finish the game. All of my testers were able to. If this is a continuing trend I may lower the difficulty a tad or add another difficulty option.
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