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Sacred Reviews: That Damned Redhead

Introduction

"That Damned Redhead" was created by bulmabriefs144 using RPG Tsukuru 2003 and is one of the many entries in the Theme Roulette event. Albeit the version of this game that I played has been modified since the event in order to make it easier. Though, I suppose I can be a bit harsher then normal because the developer has had more time to go back and address the balance issues and what have you with this game.

Story

Plot Summary
On the story side of things you play as Parley and Habanero a pair of lovers who've recently stumbled into relationship troubles because they really can't put up with each other's quirks. As such, Parley has set out on a quest to rebuild Habanero's house so she can move out.

Strengths
The game features a simple plot that's easy to follow and gives the player a clear list of objectives to clear in order to beat the game.

Weaknesses
Considering the summary of the game you'd think this game would feature a lot more comedy then it does.

Gameplay

On the gameplay side of things "That Damned Redhead" features a turn-based combat system that tweaks the usual formula by giving the enemy the edge over the player. This is because the enemy always gets to attack before the player does. This can lead to some really annoying situations where its difficult for the player to get out from underneath the AI's thumb and go on the offensive. Though, this issue usually only pops up against enemies that rarely pop up during random encounters, but when they do rear their head you'll be left crying about the unfairness of it all.



Another weird aspect of this game is just how random the damage is. While I realize random damage is a staple of most turn-based RPGs because they include a little RNG behind the scenes when it comes to how much damage your attacks do. The sheer gap between between the same spell being used in the same battle can be astronomical. Which is the case with the two images this section is smashed between. In the image above I manage to inflict 4,262 points of damage while my cast of the same spell later on in the battle does 7,341 points of damage. That's a gap of more then 3,000 points. I suppose part of that might be explained away as the difference between a regular attack and a critical hit, but even when you don't have to factor in critical hits the gaps in damage between casts of the same spell on identical enemies in a battle can vary by more then a 1,000 points.



Graphics & Sound

On the graphical side of the equation the game does alright for itself. A few of the areas feel a bit barren, but at least the game doesn't feel visually over bloated like "Blue Skies 2" does at points.

On the other hand, the choice of battle themes in this game comes across as rather eclectic. After all, certain random encounters in this game play "Here Comes the Bride" a song composed by Richard Wagner for an 1850 opera while others play "Mr. Roboto" by Styx. And theirs whole collection of songs in between those two. While, I won't say this is an entirely a bad thing. Since at least the game has a diverse soundtrack. On the other hand, it's rather unusual for a game to have more then one battle theme for random encounters.

Conclusion

"That Damned Redhead" is a game that really struggles to be fun to play in my opinion. The underlying story concept should definitely lend this game towards being a comedy game where Parley is constantly being driven around the bend by Habanero's various quirks. After all, this game kicks off with the player being attacked by a horde of rats because she didn't make her bed and is crazy enough to charge Parley rent in order to sleep in his own house. Add in the fact that the game's combat isn't particular fun because how it goes about trying to make itself resource intensive. And your left with a game that really isn't all that fun to play. Add in the fact, that this game is chalk full of bugs and your left with the game that feels like an event game despite having been updated in order to address some of the game's problems.

Bugs


Early on in the game there's a text box that contains cut-off text. I'm guessing this is a result of changing Akuma's name to Habanero.



Even if you manage to surprise the enemy it still gets to attack first. Which makes absolutely zero sense. After all, I managed to catch them with their pants down so I should get the first attack.



Another weird bug is that you can sometimes push rocks perpendicular to the angle your pushing them. On one hand this is used to solve a puzzle and probably shouldn't be considered a bug. On the other hand, I can't think of any other game where the player can do this where it was intentional.

Posts

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Arrrrgh, chopped off text! And yes, random damage is critical and magic variance.

The turn based patch was used here, it is very broken, because the initiative doesn't work. First Strike works though, but there wasn't really a way to make this happen easily. Sorry. I thought I removed the ability to surprise the enemy, though.

The game is hard, because it basically forcibly teaches you the underlying theme of the game: TEAMWORK. The point of this game is despite hating each other for being in each other's personal space, they do love each other, so it's like one giant couple's therapy session.
Parsley has constant MP Regen due to one of his items (which you are expected to exploit the hell out of by being party healer). The enemies are rather harshly random in terms of challenge, so you will need to keep everyone healed up, which sometimes involves an uphill battle of healing. He can also give his extra MP to Habanero.
Habanero is the brawn of the party, at least until Parsley learns mass spells. She also has the Haste ability and a number of special physical skills (one of which sucks out MP, another stops regeneration, etc).
Also, during the last battle when Parsley gets his Mp-regen item stolen, she gives her excess inventory from her store to keep the party healthy.


To give you an idea just how key this is, Parsley and Habanero can occasionally run into a hidden enemies like a Cerberus, which is strong enough to raise your party like 15 levels and WILL kill your party if you don't understand the strategy (heal, use Habanero's earth atk, give MP when low). In fact, unless you use the right attack, you won't be able to deal damage, much less survive.

There is another game that does this boulder thing. Hero's Realm had that happen in a cave (though they did it better).

All of my games have a huge list of music resources. I don't believe in using "battle music" so I make music appropriate to enemies (Mr Roboto for droid enemies, Here Comes the Bride for women in long sweeping dresses which btw the enemy are called Bride of Heaven/Hell depending on black or white dress, Ducktales for bird soldiers, etc). Part of the humor came when I did plan something specific for a creature set. I couldn't do this for everything, but I tried to mix things up. But yeah, I have several times the music I need probably.
The game is hard, because it basically forcibly teaches you the underlying theme of the game: TEAMWORK.


I really don't see why the game needs to be hard in order to teach that. After all, any veteran of RPGs is going to look for skills and abilities that can be exploited the Nth degree in order to win. In fact, one of the most powerful abilities in this game is probably one that Habanero can cast for free.

Parsley has constant MP Regen due to one of his items (which you are expected to exploit the hell out of by being party healer). The enemies are rather harshly random in terms of challenge, so you will need to keep everyone healed up, which sometimes involves an uphill battle of healing. He can also give his extra MP to Habanero.
Habanero is the brawn of the party, at least until Parsley learns mass spells


In other words, you've created a character who needs to serve the dual role of party healer as well as being DPS at the same time. A role that can't possibly be handled by one character and can lead to fights where its near impossible for the player to win because they can never launch any soft of effective offense. If anything your offering up a reason for why I should go back and give the game and even lower score.

Also, during the last battle when Parsley gets his Mp-regen item stolen, she gives her excess inventory from her store to keep the party healthy.
You do realize I beat this game before I reviewed it right? So, you really don't need to hide this little tidbit from me. Even so, it doesn't make the battle any less frustrating considering you gave the final boss the ability to instantly revive his minions for free. As such, it's hard to do anything beside heal in that fight.

She also has the Haste ability and a number of special physical skills (one of which sucks out MP, another stops regeneration, etc).


And yet whenever I used the MP stealing skill it never managed to steal any MP. And, I noticed that her ability to silence enemies doesn't appear to work either. As such, I really didn't bother with most of her skills and largely focused on having her guard or spam her 0 cost ability to inflict berserk on enemy parties.
Argghhh.

And yet whenever I used the MP stealing skill it never managed to steal any MP. And, I noticed that her ability to silence enemies doesn't appear to work either. As such, I really didn't bother with most of her skills and largely focused on having her guard or spam her 0 cost ability to inflict berserk on enemy parties.


I beat the game too, just to make sure it was in fact doable.

That would be like me using Ultima all the time in FF6. Seriously. How can you possibly write an honest review if you didn't attempt to use even a third of the abilities offered? As you start using these skills, how this game is supposed to work becomes obvious.

I misspoke. As in, reduces MP. If I remember correctly, the phoenix boss continues to revive so long as (a dummy monster) has MP. If you drain MP from the phoenix, it reduces the dummy and tries to restore the phoenix MP, until there is none left (and yes, I did test it). It does indeed inflict silence. There are simply less creatures weak to that than normal, I suppose. Bad status is something that doesn't work 100%.

I actually put some thought into each of their techniques, and how they work together. His transfer, unlike the others which were highly random, always restores 10 MP, making him have to wait out a few turns for her stronger skills, which you'd see if you used them more). The provoke helps vs casters, but physically strong creatures are still a threat. I also put thought into the redesign, making the group's defense high enough to not die with the average monster at low level, but low enough to still take damage even at level 99. I even planned all bosses so you could technically finish them off at low levels because you had all the needed spells and abilities. At higher levels, your healer does become strong enough that he can also use nuke spells.

I'm renaming her something shorter. And removing party surround. That's two bugs gone.

Most of the game can be mastered simply with the following pattern:
Early game: Parsley spam heal, whatever-her-name-is attack, use skills, (if Parsley has high hp and she's out of MP) Parsley transfer MP.
Later game: Parsley heal (if HP is low)/transfer (if MP is low), Parsley use elements (if physical attacks are weak), she uses attacks/skills to attack (if physical attacks are strong), she also uses support skills or items (if needed).
Final Boss: She uses items for healing/low MP/revival, Parsley revives (if she dies) and de-status, otherwise Parsley blasts the leader first with water/ice (when it's dead they don't revive). In other words, you reverse everything from before.

If you didn't learn this strategy after having it literally hammered into you, that's your issue, not mine.
Seriously. How can you possibly write an honest review if you didn't attempt to use even a third of the abilities offered?


I probably used about half of them over the course of the game, but the cost to benefit ratio was usually too low to justify the time investment. As such, I usually just relied on Parsley hitting enemies where it hurt in order to move on.

It does indeed inflict silence. There are simply less creatures weak to that than normal, I suppose. Bad status is something that doesn't work 100%.


I'd be surprised if you could inflict negative status effects 100% of the time, but if I make use of a skill around dozen times and never manages to inflict status. Then, I'm going to the conclusion that it either doesn't work or that it's odds of inflicting status are so low as to make the move pointless. After all, there's a reason you never see people that play Pokemon competitively use moves like Sing. It's the same reason any high level Yu-Gi-Oh! player is going to build their deck to be as quick and consistent as possible when it comes to reaching their win condition.

The provoke helps vs casters, but physically strong creatures are still a threat.


Actually, even physically strong characters are largely rendered impotent by provoke if it manages to successfully trigger them. After all, if they go into a berserker rage their unable to throw around physical skills that hit more than once.

If you didn't learn this strategy after having it literally hammered into you, that's your issue, not mine.


Considering I beat the game, I obviously figured out enough to get by.
i saw the video, it was mostly just provoke causing enemies to either be confused or silenced
Provoke causes enemies to go berserk. And is probably one of the most useful (if not most useful) arrow in Habanero's quiver of skills.
Blue cuz quote mess.

author=thesacredlobo
Seriously. How can you possibly write an honest review if you didn't attempt to use even a third of the abilities offered?
I probably used about half of them over the course of the game, but the cost to benefit ratio was usually too low to justify the time investment. As such, I usually just relied on Parsley hitting enemies where it hurt in order to move on.

It was intentionally high. You are supposed to use Parsley to help you out. That was kinda the point.

It does indeed inflict silence. There are simply less creatures weak to that than normal, I suppose. Bad status is something that doesn't work 100%.


I'd be surprised if you could inflict negative status effects 100% of the time, but if I make use of a skill around dozen times and never manages to inflict status. Then, I'm going to the conclusion that it either doesn't work or that it's odds of inflicting status are so low as to make the move pointless. After all, there's a reason you never see people that play Pokemon competitively use moves like Sing. It's the same reason any high level Yu-Gi-Oh! player is going to build their deck to be as quick and consistent as possible when it comes to reaching their win condition.

Some creatures are immune. If you used it alot with no effect, chances are you ran into something that it didn't work on. Others had about 25% chance (resistant) of being hit with it. If it was a spellcaster, that is probably a glitch. Because it's a physical attack, it can also miss (cast failure). Since I don't have the monster list in front of me, offhand I'm not really sure what the issue is.

The provoke helps vs casters, but physically strong creatures are still a threat.


Actually, even physically strong characters are largely rendered impotent by provoke if it manages to successfully trigger them. After all, if they go into a berserker rage their unable to throw around physical skills that hit more than once.

Hmmmm. I edited berserk on my most recent update (it was lowering INT for some reason, now it's doubling ATK). This might change that equation.

If you didn't learn this strategy after having it literally hammered into you, that's your issue, not mine.


Considering I beat the game, I obviously figured out enough to get by.

More like getting lucky, from the sound of it. I can grind my way through an RPG too, but this isn't the same as managing to beat much tougher enemies from strategy alone.


Provoke causes enemies to go berserk. And is probably one of the most useful (if not most useful) arrow in Habanero's quiver of skills.


...Hmmmm. What version of the game are you using? Because I think the latest copies, the provoke was called Humiliate and could either inflict confuse or berserk. I believe I also raised the hit % of Silencing Stab to 100% in the last few updates, and lowered the cost of some abilities to about 5 MP.

As for that, I highly disagree. Silencing Stab (despite being sucky at actually silencing), is the most effective way to reduce the phoenix boss's ability to respawn (it'll try to restore MP, but keep draining). Otherwise, you have to fight it more than once. It also cuts monster effectiveness because it causes around 1500 MP damage.
Jump Thrust is a mass physical attack that slashes a bunch of monsters. During early game, it can clear mobs.
Speed Slash is good for single targeting, as it deals more single damage than Jump Thrust. It's also efficient so you should be able to use it fairly often.
Wave Thrust deals earth damage, so earth weak creatures (including one boss) are pretty dead looking after that attack.
Pierce removes the Regen status. Regen is kinda a menace in this game. You kinda need this more than berserk.
Flying creatures have high evade. Wind Sword deals wind damage and removes this effect.
Cross Slice is a holy effect, effective vs zombies.
Back Sword hits with the flat of the blade, dealing blunt damage. Some monsters resist slashing (slimes especially) so this helps out.
Cold Sword inflicts slow status and deals cold damage.
Seraphim Slice deals huge damage, although it's slow (need to spend items or turns building MP).

Provoke (or Humiliate) would actually be the LEAST useful ability except for me designing Berserk wrong, something I'm working on addressing.
It was intentionally high. You are supposed to use Parsley to help you out. That was kinda the point.


I'm quite aware of that, but it was usually far more effective to have Parsley throw around field wipes then devote turns to restoring Habanero's MP.

More like getting lucky, from the sound of it. I can grind my way through an RPG too, but this isn't the same as managing to beat much tougher enemies from strategy alone.


Grinding is a valid tactic. Albeit, it's not the only one. After all, I managed to take down Whitney's entire team one time with a level 17 Igglybuff.



...Hmmmm. What version of the game are you using? Because I think the latest copies, the provoke was called Humiliate and could either inflict confuse or berserk


It was called humiliate. I simply called it provoke because of how it operates.
author=thesacredlobo
Grinding is a valid tactic. Albeit, it's not the only one. After all, I managed to take down Whitney's entire team one time with a level 17 Igglybuff.


This is heresy. You need Ash's lineup (fire, thunder, grass/poison, water, flying, and bug). No fairies allowed. I totally understand this. I'm just giving you grief.

Anyway, I'm not likely to work more on it. It was just a simple romantic comedy that I was trying to keep bug-free and some stuff crept in anyway. Sigh...

Currently, I'm editing Oracle of Tao. I'm making the world flat so you can fall off the sides. :D


It was called humiliate. I simply called it provoke because of how it operates.

Ah ok.
No fairies allowed.


Don't you mean normal type? After all, the games didn't include the fairy type until well after Generation II.
I'm well aware that Igglybuff is a fairy/normal type in the current generation, but fairy type wasn't introduced until much later on in the series. Before that Igglybuff was a pure normal type.

Prior to Generation VI, it was a pure Normal-type.


The above quote comes from the bulbapedia article on Igglybuff.
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