Dragon's Gate

Introduction

Dragon's Gate is an entry in the "Swap in the Middle with Two" event that was created by Jeroen_Sol and Marrend using RPG Maker VX Ace. As far as the game goes, it's a relatively simple puzzle game that features a pair of bickering explores whose sarcastic personalities real limit my ability to make fun of them for being brain dead morons. Though, I suppose I'll have plenty of opportunities for that in the future considering the typical decisions you'll see made by a protagonist in an RPG.

Story

To be honest, there isn't that much story to be had in this game. Which I suppose isn't that much of a surprise considering it's a short puzzle game that can easily be knocked out in about an hour if you go in blind and in less then 15 minutes if you know what your doing. As such, it's a surprise the developers put as much time and effort into fleshing out the characters personalities as they did on the way to the Dragon's Gate.

Gameplay

On the gameplay side of things the game throws a series of relatively basic puzzles at the player ranging from finding hidden switches to navigating your way through the darkness. If anything, I'm surprised at the number of unique puzzle types this game manages to include considering the game only has six stages. Albeit, the bulk of the game's puzzles are relatively easy to solve.

Graphics & Sound

On the graphical side of things the game seems to largely stick to the RTP, which isn't much of a surprise considering the game was put together in under a month. Albeit, it would have been nice to see a few custom assets here and there.

On the sound side of things, the game features songs by a few different people. Albeit, the once that stood out the most to me was Kevin MacLeod, because I thought I was familiar with every lead character in the "Highlander" franchise. After all, I watch the TV series, all of the movies, seen a few episodes of the cartoon, and even watched the anime adaption as well. Though, I suppose people would really prefer to keep Kevin out of the lime light considering how boring his name is in comparison to Connor, Duncan, Colin, or Quentin MacLeod.

Conclusion

As a game crafted in a shot period of time for an event, this game does alright for itself, but if your looking for a puzzle game that really ramps up the difficulty and forces you to put on your thinking cap. I'd suggest checking out "KiYoKi" by dandorf.

Bugs

Thankfully, all of the bugs that were present in the original download have been fixed to my knowledge, but I'm still a bit annoyed about the fact that one of the puzzles was impossible to clear because of said bugs.