Basuphana (Tide Of The Eclipse) DEMO

This is a demo review.
This is a review of the file which is downloaded on Nov 5, 2020.
I'm not sure if I finished the demo, but I found no way to proceed the game.

Intro
Basuphana (Tide Of The Eclipse) starts with an adventure of a witch girl and her talking cat. It's unclear what their intentions are at this point although it's worth noting that it might be related to what happened in the prologue... or not.

Graphics
The first thing that I noticed is that there are some duplicated rooms in a lot of areas with minor tweaks. I got bored exploring the ship cabin in the first few minutes after I played the game because they almost look the same. Also, it's strange to see that there are cannons inside the cabin rooms.

The towns are also unnecessarily big. There are 3 exits from the beach that leads to the housings in the first town because of how big it is. There are also too many save points located in every area; there are 3+ save points in the housings area in the first town alone and you'll find at least one in every area in each town. There's no need to put so many of them especially if there's nothing that you need to watch for.

That being said, I like the dungeon design. There are so many branching paths and you might get lost from it. However, most branching paths are in the form of secret rooms that looks almost the same as other secret rooms. I ended up getting tired of exploring these rooms at some point, especially considering that it took me ~2 hours to explore the first dungeon. The thought of me having to come back to it again sometime in the future even scares me.



Story
To be honest, I didn't understand the prologue at all. I only noticed one thing though, and that's how tragic the main character's past was. Melenta, the main character of the game, sounds like a cocky girl that is backed up by her immense strength. However, her soft sides show whenever there are children involved. I wasn't sure whether this was the same character that was acting cocky and cruelly kicked a dog to the edge of the ocean when the shift happens.

One thing that bugs me is that the dialogue uses a lot of hyphens and capital letters. It wouldn't be a problem if they are used properly, but they tend to be used in almost every sentence that I found.

The Game
Exploration
Exploration is the main focus of this game; I had to spend half an hour just to explore the first area before I reached the first boss. Towns also have a lot of areas to explore that you would spend roughly the same time to explore everything, especially since items and gold can be obtained easily just by inspecting pots and chests that are located in these areas. Strangely, there is a bug where you can get unlimited items and money from reinspecting pots since the contents will be refilled by revisiting the room it was in. Money ended up being useless, especially since I could get 10k+ from inspecting one pot. The same thing can also be said to inns due to the save point placement in the game.

The game never gives a clear sense of direction of where to go. Although the first area is acceptable because of the limited area, the area spans very vast after the world map is introduced, giving you a problem if you don't know where to go next. It's not clear at this point whether the game encourages you to explore the areas in any order that you want or not, although the demo only has the story progress after you reach a certain town.

Some areas are locked by colored rooms. The game never tells you where to get the key and which key you can use to unlock it. Luckily, it's not that hard to find out that you can get the keys from chests. However, there aren't enough keys that you can use to unlock every room, leaving some of these rooms to be permanently locked.

Combat
The game mostly has touch-based encounters. You start at level 10, giving a massive stat advantage to the enemies. However, I found it hard to defeat the first enemy, which also happens to be your first boss, with normal attack until I gave up and decided to use Auto-Fight, a feature to let the game chooses which skill my party use until the fight finished, because I felt overwhelmed by the number of spells my character has from the first battle. The boss ended up dying with a single hit of a certain skill which also surprises me since that skill can almost one-hit most enemies.

Knowing that there is a skill that can recover my MP and how forgiving the game is by healing my party after changing screens and introducing a lot of save points, which also heals you, I ended up relying on Auto-Fight most of the time. The game uses an ATB bar and relies on my quick response to finish the fight, which the Auto-Fight feature does better than me, especially since the feature mostly does everything that you want to do.

Enemies in this game are abundant. Some of them are hard to avoid due to the area design while some will chase you until you fight them. Exploring dungeons soon becomes unpleasant when I have to reenter rooms a lot of times and encounter the massive amount of enemies over and over again. There was even one area with 4+ enemies in one room that is chasing me as if I'm stealing their money or something.



Although I said that the first boss is hard, I couldn't say the same for the second boss. I literally finished it in one turn with two normal attacks, which of course, was decided by the Auto-Fight feature. I'm not sure if it's because of the equipment I got from the enemies, but the armored knights that I met in one of the rooms are even tougher than this boss.

Puzzles
Although it's not exactly a puzzle, the game has some box-pushing mechanics that you can do to reach some chests. Strangely, the boxes seem to have magic in it since it tends to move not in the direction I pushed it to.

Pros:
- Very long dungeons for those who love exploration

Cons:
- Keys are not distributed evenly
- Too many enemies
- Too many healing spots at the same place

Final Rating: 2/5
Despite all the negatives, I had fun with the dungeon. I did burn out after exploring it for hours, but it was fun at the beginning. Some mappings also look great if you don't mind the strange items that are placed in it. However, I believe that the game needs more improvement to make it better. I know that a lot of work has been put into the game, and although I like some of it, I believe the game deserves to be better.

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Typo:
- When you talk to the brown-haired man outside your cabin room: "The cafeteria resturant is an excellent place to sit talk & rest." should be "The cafeteria restaurant is an excellent place to sit, talk & rest."
- When inspecting one of the bookshelves in 2nd-Cabin: "Remember, very few treasure's are foun in chests." should be "Remember, very few treasures are found in chests."
- When talking to the yellow-haired woman in 4th-Cabin: "the Inner wall, where the Knightd and their families" should be "the inner wall, where the Knight and their families"
- After the previous dialogue: "So... if the peasants dissolved into the Knight class, who would seperate the Royal Court from the Knights?" should be "So... if the peasants dissolved into the Knight class, who would separate the Royal Court from the Knights?"
- When you inspect one of the bags in 5th-Cabin: "A Hill Pill!" should be "A Heal-Pill!" (the game also tends to mention it as "Healing-Pill" at some point in the game)
- When you're talking to the man in orange clothing in 5th-Cabin: "Armorys and cutlerys may sell a lot of good weapons and armor, but their products almost NEVER compare" should be "Armories and cutleries may sell a lot of good weapons and armor, but their products HARDLY compare"
- When you're inspecting the pile of boxes in Cabin-Hallway... F-2: "How greatly in-order of the captian packing his Ship-boat Junk, within so many tackly looking, Wooden boxes.." should be "How greatly in order of the captain to pack his ship-boat junks with so many tacky-looking wooden boxes.."
- When you inspect the fourth cupboard from the left in the Ship-Kitchen... F-1: "There's recipee books in here." should be "There are recipe books in here."
- After you defeat the Sekata Squid in Ship-Deck-Top: "Excuse me, the captain wishes to see you immediently." should be "Excuse me, the captain wishes to see you immediately."
- When you talk to the ship captain: "But atleast take this as a reward for bothering." should be "But at least take this as a reward for bothering you."
- After the previous dialogue: "That is supposively a key to the shrine of the Emerald Forest south of Rothia. I got is as a gift from a" should be "That is supposedly a key to the shrine of the Emerald Forest south of Rothia. I got this as a gift from a"
- After you land: "Landing proceedures." should be "Landing procedures."
- When you're talking to the woman in a red cap in Deckweel-House: "You're a pro squid elimnator!" should be "You're a pro squid eliminator!"
- When you talk to the boy in red pants in Paradime-Beach: "-You better be carefil;" should be "-You better be careful;"
- When talking to the girl sitting alone in Paradim-Beach-Club: "-DO I LOOK FREAKING 26 Too you?" should be "-DO I LOOK LIKE FREAKING 26 to you?"
- After the previous dialogue: "-I can drink if i want too!" should be "-I can drink if I want too!"
- When talking to the man with ponytail in Paradim-Beach-Club: "-That's when I did a crosschop and broke it's neck!" should be "-That's when I did a cross chop and broke its neck!"
- When you're talking to the woman near the towels in Paradim-Housings: "People use so many towls at the inn, it's not even funny! I'm washing towls 24/7." should be "People use so many towels at the inn, it's not even funny! I'm washing towels 24/7."
- When talking to the guards at Limestone-Caves-Entry: "-Sorry No Witch's are aloud inside!" should be "-Sorry, no witch is allowed inside!"
- When talking to the drunk guy at Pub-Inn... F-1 in Rothia-Town: "The poor slob's unconcious." should be "The poor slob's unconscious."
- When talking to the shopkeeper at The-Synthesis-Shop in Rothia-Town: "-Thanks" don'tz forget to Stop By again laters." should be "-Thanks. Don't forget to stop by again later."
- When talking to the shopkeeper at Rothia-Weapon-Shop in Rothia-Town: "We had all sorts of supplies untill;" should be "We had all sorts of supplies until;"
- "Mayors-Manor" text should be "Mayor's Manor" (and everything that said "Mayors" in this building)
- When inspecting the barrel at Keblins-House in Rothia-Town: "*sniff* Potatos?" should be "*sniff* Potatoes?"
- When inspecting two of the gravestones in Rothia-Graveyard: "Carpender-Smith" should be "Carpenter-Smith"
- When talking to the kids in Rothia-Graveyard: "Alls you know how to do is bicker and make yourselves look important in the eyes of eachother." should be "All you know how to do is bicker and make yourselves look important in the eyes of each other."
- When you're inspecting the writing in C-01; Graveyard-Dungeon... B-2: "There's writting on this wall." should be "There's writing on this wall."
- When you are inspecting the writing on the wall after you are teleported to a room after inspecting the writing in C-01; Graveyard-Dungeon... B-2: "Why is there writting on this wall?" should be "Why is there a writing on this wall?"
- When you're inspecting the sign on C-01; Graveyard-Dungeon... B-2: ">Welcome-Back-Too;" should be ">Welcome back to"
- When you're talking to the Graveyard-Dungeon boss: "Now, instead of just an snack, I'll have a main course!" should be "Now, instead of just a snack, I'll also have a main course!" (the sentence can be improved too)
- When you're going to the Graveyard-Dungeon entrance after finishing it: "We can't disterb this site unless we get permission from the mayor of this town..." should be "We can't disturb this site unless we get permission from the mayor of this town..."
- When you're talking to the hooded man above the statue of "Those lost in in Marbella-Kalophi War" in Rothia-Graveyard: "My long dead familiy and relitives." should be "My long-dead family and relatives."
- After the previous dialogue: "Someday we'll see eachother again in another lifetime..." should be "Someday we'll see each other again in another lifetime..."
- When inspecting the statue of "Those lost in in Marbella-Kalophi War": ">Those lost in in Marbella-Kalophi War." should be ">Those lost in Marbella-Kalophi War." (no need for double in)
- When talking to the woman in Rothia-Graveyard: "You Call This Ah Paark-!-?" should be "You call this a park!?"

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Bugs:
- When you inspect the anchor in your bedroom from the upper side, you also trigger the text that shows when you inspect the bookshelf. This happens to most bookshelves in the cabin room as well.
- When you inspect the fourth cabin, it said that it's locked but you actually can get inside.
- In 4th-Cabin, you can inspect an invisible item next to the cannon.
- Sometimes you're frozen a bit when you inspect something that has nothing in it.
- You can get infinity items by re-entering the rooms since the pots will be reset.
- I can always see Siau running to Melenta every time I switched screens. Sometimes it bumps into a wall and not following her properly too.
- Collision error (you can't go left and stuck in this place):

- Two teleporters in Graveyard-Dungeon's room before the last boss room teleports you to a different place if you use it back and forth
- You can't enter the locked door in Shrine-Of-The-Kings

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Suggestion:
- The "...You disintegrated them..." text (and the texts afterward) in the prologue is quite hard to read because of the white background. You might want to make them more clear.
- The bat enemy is hard to see in the Graveyard-Dungeon because it has a similar color to the ground. Maybe you should adjust it or something.