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A Demo about Going to the Past to Save the World

This is a demo review.
This is a review of the file which is downloaded on Oct 14, 2020.
My playtime: 13:22:05

Intro
An Assassins Odyssey: The epic of the dark scrolls is a game about a hero who went back in time to stop someone from doing whatever he wants. You'll play a turn-based RPG Maker game with huge and repeated maps.

Graphics
The game uses a combination of RTP and custom assets. Most characters have a custom, full-body portrait whenever they are talking although I found them to be lacking in individuality because everyone has the same pose based on their gender.

Mapping needs a lot of improvement. Towns are too big to explore and there's nothing in it. I had to spend ~1h to explore the first town just to find that most houses are locked. There's also a section with a lot of small houses that are not necessary, especially since all houses have the same interior with minor tweaks in the NPC that was inside. Speaking of interiors, a lot of them are lacking aesthetic. Most big areas have a lot of small, empty spaces while the ones who do not have a lot of repeated items in it.

The dungeons, on the other hand, look better than the towns. The first dungeon has an easy, straightforward path although the next two dungeons have more branching, connected paths to step up the difficulty. However, the second and third dungeon, 2 out of 3 dungeons available in the game, has a portion of its map that are repeated. The second dungeon has a map that is leading to the same map with minor tweaks while the third dungeon has 2 portions of the same map combined together. I know making a map is difficult, but this is just plain lazy.

The mapping problems don't stop at that. Aside from the big and repeated maps, some places are just too small for me to pass through. I had to wait for an NPC to walk through a straight, narrow path just to be able to pass through him/her. There are also times when I felt like I got stuck because the NPC doesn't seem to budge from that narrow path and I couldn't do anything but wait for the NPC to pass which takes forever.


Entering this house will make you stuck. I have to wait for a long time to be able to get out


On the positive side, I like the effect that shows up whenever someone is learning a skill and the area title that show up when you move between places. Both are designed beautifully, especially the latter one since it looks simple and animated.

Story
The unclear animation made the story to be confusing at the beginning. There is no SFX and animation effect whenever someone was doing something and I had to read the dialogue to recognize the situation. Some animations also happen at the same time when I was reading a dialogue, making me not realize what was happening. There is a need to show the scene in either dialogue or animation, and not both at the same time.

The dialogues are mostly straightforward with no character development at all. Almost everyone in the game is the easygoing type that always follows the main character's order without questioning anything. There doesn't seem to be any conflict in the story and the only thing that looks exciting is the main story which is still full of questions. However, the wording for the dialogue still needs a lot of work since most of them don't have any punctuation. Some of its sentences also need to be improved to make the story more exciting and meaningful.


Come on, less talk, more action!


The Game
Quests
The game has a series of fetch quests where you have to go to point A and do something. You have to explore the huge town to find most quests and it doesn't seem rewarding at all to finish them because of the huge map. There is also this quest where I had to buy a weapon in a bar and I couldn't exit the bar because I need to talk to the bartender several times before going out, which are not mentioned in the game.

Combat
The game uses random encounters with a high encounter rate. It doesn't seem to be a problem at the start because enemies drop a lot of healing items, but it gets annoying later on because it hinders exploration - imagine if you have to get into a battle in every ~5 steps and have to explore the huge map. It gives me trauma to get inside dungeons because of this although there doesn't seem to be any way to skip any dungeons that you have visited.

Bosses are quite challenging with the huge HP and damage from normal encounters. Sometimes they also recover themselves to full health, which gives more trouble since healers tend to get outdpsed and high-level healing skill requires a lot of MP. There's no way to recover MP unless if you're using items and it seems that the game favors more to use healing items instead of skills because of this.

Although the game becomes more challenging if you're not using potions to kill the bosses, you still need to use it in between battles to heal your party to the fullest. There is a dungeon where you have to fight 2-3 boss before you can return to town to recover and it will be a problem if you are lacking any healing items. I got enough items for my party because of the enemy drops, but I might have to replay the game from the beginning if I didn't.

Minigame
The game has a sniping minigame where you can move your mouse and snipe animals with the left mouse click. This looks fun at first glance although there are a lot of problems with it. First of all, the tutorial is lacking. I didn't know what to do to move my cursor until I re-read the instruction several times through saving and loading. You can't revisit the control after you get into the minigame and you can't exit the minigame until you're done.

The game has a second problem after you finished the minigame. The sniping minigame will automatically be activated after you revisit the area and you can't exit the area because of that.

Pros:
- Sidequests

Cons:
- Repeated and huge map
- High random encounter rate that is hindering exploration

Final Rating: 2/5
The game is still playable, but a lot of things need to be improved to make it enjoyable. I particularly don't like the map design since the town is too big and almost every house has a recycled map while some parts of the dungeon maps tend to be duplicated to make it look bigger. The random encounter rate is also something that needs to be tweaked since it hinders exploration.

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Typo:
- When fighting Vlad: "His vamperic powers cannot keep him alive for much longer!" should be "His vampiric powers can not keep him alive for much longer!"
- After fighting Vlad: "Do not wollow in despair." should be "Do not wallow in despair."
- After "Time Passes" screen: "Century's have passed since Vlad was defeated, and Unknown has secluded himself." should be "Centuries have passed since Vlad was defeated, and Unknown has secluded himself." (note that most of "century's" in this block of text should have been written as "centuries" as well)
- When talking to the supreme mage: "Luckilly there is still a way to prevent this terrible news!" should be "Luckily, there is still a way to prevent this terrible news." (Fortunately might be a better word choice)
- When talking to the soldier in Mesopotania: "You need the kings permission to enter Achse Forest." should be "You need the king's permission to enter Achse Forest."
- When talking to Ronja for the first time: "Is there Anything I can do to help?" should be "Is there anything I can do to help?"
- When talking to the black-haired NPC girl in East Kuru: "I was thinking about a solution to our kingdoms thief problem." should be "I was thinking about a solution to our kingdom's thief problem."
- Florians House: should be written as "Florian's House"
- When you talk to Flaming Spices HQ receptionist: "Welcome to Flaming spices. Our company specialises in chillies." should be "Welcome to Flaming Spices. Our company specializes in chilies."
- When talking to the wife in the red house in East Kuru: "I would want to leave this kingdom but this mansion is has been in our family for generations." should be "I would want to leave this kingdom but this mansion has been in our family for generations."
- When talking to the child in the red house in East Kuru: "I wonder if I could taste a bit of daddys beer?" should be "I wonder if I could taste a bit of daddy's beer?"
- When talking to Metal Works HQ receptionist: "Our company specialises in distributing metal to the rest of the continent." should be "Our company specializes in distributing metal to the rest of the continent."
- When talking to The Red Lion Bar guard: "Hope you had a good time sir." should be "Hope you had a good time sir." (one space between "had" and "a")
- When talking to Ronja after recruiting Florian: "Is this woman implying that ridding a whole town of thieves is equally hard or easy as getting Florian to go on a journey?" should be "Is this woman implying that raiding a whole town of thieves is equally hard or easy as getting Florian to go on a journey?" (not sure tho, the sentences need to be improved)
- When inspecting the door in one of the red houses in West Kuru: "It's Locked." should be "It's locked."
- When talking to Chelsea for the first time: "After all, a lot of the thieves are jealous of my priveledges with Memphis." should be "After all, a lot of thieves are jealous of my privileges with Memphis."
- When talking to Chelsea after she joined the party: "Well, I'm FLorian." should be "Well, I'm Florian."
- Witches House tag: should be written as "Witches' House" (or maybe Witch's House since there's only one witch.
- When interacting with the boy locked in Witches House: "Nothings happening." should be "Nothing's happening."
- When interacting with the scrolls in Witches House: "A few worhless scrolls." should be "A few worthless scrolls."
- When Chelsea talked to the warrior captain in the king's army: "Unfortunately for me, this school was inhabated by a group of thieves." should be "Unfortunately for me, this school was inhabited by a group of thieves."
- After Chelsea read Memphis' memorie: "I bet even Max here wants revenge on all witches considereing what's been done to him by one." should be "I bet even Max here wants revenge on all witches considering what has been done to him by one."
- When visiting Mayor House in Alem for the first time: "You will be completely independant!" should be "You will be completely independent!"
- After the previous dialogue: "I was able to manipulate you to suite my needs." should be "I was able to manipulate you to suit my needs."
- Gunmasters House tag: should be written as "Gunmaster's House"
- After the king is murdered: "We shoulld keep this to ourselves Florian." should be "We should keep this to ourselves, Florian."
- After defeating the orc boss: "Sure thing Chelea, let's go!" should be "Sure thing Chelsea, let's go!"
- When talking to the Flower shop seller: "He was carrying a beautifull red headed baby." should be "He was carrying a beautiful red-headed baby."
- When talking to two of the NPCs in Flower shop: "After hunting all the wild boar in the Dark Forest it sure is nice coming to this store and just enjoying the smell!" should be "After hunting all the wild boar in the Dark Forest it sure is nice coming to this store and just enjoying the smell!" (one space between "store" and "and")
- When talking to Zetsubou king: "Well, for a while now the route that leads to Kleine Dorf has been blocked by some kind of interferance." should be "Well, for a while now the route that leads to Kleine Dorf has been blocked by some kind of interference."
- After the previous dialogue: "I've sent messengers and even post pigeons to the Asalena Kingdom to requesst the help of the supreme mage, but so far I've heard nothing back." should be "I've sent messengers and even post pigeons to the Asalena Kingdom to request the help of the supreme mage, but so far I've heard nothing back."
- When you enter Dark Forest for the first time: "and yet I can't shake this awfull feeling." should be "and yet I can't shake this awful feeling."
- After killing SYSTEM: "I wonder what it ment by worthiness?" should be "I wonder what it meant by worthiness?"
- After the previous dialogue: "Maybe it was reffering to the dark scroll." should be "Maybe it was referring to the dark scroll."
- When talking to the guy with the red clothing near the Icy Path: "If you continue to pester me, I will have to engage you in battle and forecebly make you listen." should be "If you continue to pester me, I will have to engage you in battle and forcibly make you listen."

---
Bugs:
- The door in Kuru Inn will always keep on opening after you open it. It'll only be fixed after you revisit the building.
- When inspecting the gate in Witches House, the lock disappeared.
- When Unknown heal the boy locked in Witches House, the boy disappeared for a while.
- You can talk to the gunmaster when you're in the sniping minigame.
- Going to the left door in Zetsubou Kingdom inn will teleport you to Alem inn
- Entering the rightmost middle same-looking house in Zetsubou Kingdom will teleport you to the top left house.
- You need to snipe 11 animals in the second sniping minigame in Holzern, not 10.
- The second gunmaster changed its hair color after you finish the minigame.
- When you re-enter the sniping minigame after you finish it, you'll automatically go to the sniping mode once you get close enough to the corner and you won't be able to exit from it.
- Collision error.


---
Suggestion:
- Change the HP bar color in battle. It's hard to know how much the enemies' HP is with both on the same color. The same also applies to your party.
- Remove the pause whenever the character is saying "...". It's so annoying.
- Explain the sniping minigame properly. Maybe put HUD on the controls?
- Make it so that the gunmaster doesn't talk the dialogue when you enter the sniping area. You need to talk to him twice (and read the same dialogue twice) to initiate the minigame.
- Fasten the time when you learn the skill from gunmaster. The black screen and repeated SFX makes me think that the game was bugged.
- Move the option menu to the in-game menu and save the settings.

Posts

Pages: 1
Thanks for the feedback. It's greatly appreciated! I will work on some of the issues and do my best to create a better game. Most of which you had a problem with (bugs for example) have already been fixed since the release of the demo. However I am still working on a lot of the dialogue, since my skills are lacking at current. The game is about 70% done (main story line), so I think I'll have to push back the final products release date quite considerably so that I can release a game I can be proud of. I plan on this being a trilogy in the long run, so I want to release a game that everyone likes to ensure that my future games will be liked and played. Sincerely.
No problem. I'm glad you are striving to make the product better. It has a good potential, so i'm sure you'll pull it off.
author=aquatorrent
No problem. I'm glad you are striving to make the product better. It has a good potential, so i'm sure you'll pull it off.

Hey aquatorrent, I've added quite a lot to the game over the past two weeks and feel like I can add a new more better demo by the end of the month, but I would like to know why you previously said that there is "no character development at all". I thought that my story has quite a bit of development, because I really put a lot of effort in that aspect of the game. However it doesn't seem to get through to you at least, my initial idea was to form the development for Chelsea in the Zetsubou kingdom and later on more character development for Max in Asalena. Could you perhaps give me some pointers so that I can further better the story in terms of character development? My writing skills are pretty novice like as I'm sure you've noticed, so any help with this will be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely
author=awakenedfaith182
Hey aquatorrent, I've added quite a lot to the game over the past two weeks and feel like I can add a new more better demo by the end of the month, but I would like to know why you previously said that there is "no character development at all". I thought that my story has quite a bit of development, because I really put a lot of effort in that aspect of the game. However it doesn't seem to get through to you at least, my initial idea was to form the development for Chelsea in the Zetsubou kingdom and later on more character development for Max in Asalena. Could you perhaps give me some pointers so that I can further better the story in terms of character development? My writing skills are pretty novice like as I'm sure you've noticed, so any help with this will be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely
heya, it's been a while. It's good to hear that you made some progress to the game. My memory is a bit vague on this, but i'll do my best to explain from what i remember on the game.

I couldn't resonate with the characters at all. They feel like pawns to the boss that only agree to whatever he said without any complains (they only reply with something like "yes boss" like a soldier...). They lack personality (even Florian who was lazy at the beginning suddenly becomed so motivated and agreeable after he joined the party, it's as if he's brainwashed or something). As for the story on Chelsea, I felt it's more like she remembered what happened in her past, that's all. There is no continuation from that (maybe she got softened to her "dad" after that, but I kinda forgot, especially since it got overshadowed by other event).

Character development usually refers to someome who underwent changes for the better (like someone who is very scared suddenly tries to save someone that he want to protect or something), not a story about the past. Character's background story can also be an initator for character development, but it doesn't mean that it always is.

I hope you get what i meant, and good luck with the game!
author=aquatorrent
author=awakenedfaith182
Hey aquatorrent, I've added quite a lot to the game over the past two weeks and feel like I can add a new more better demo by the end of the month, but I would like to know why you previously said that there is "no character development at all". I thought that my story has quite a bit of development, because I really put a lot of effort in that aspect of the game. However it doesn't seem to get through to you at least, my initial idea was to form the development for Chelsea in the Zetsubou kingdom and later on more character development for Max in Asalena. Could you perhaps give me some pointers so that I can further better the story in terms of character development? My writing skills are pretty novice like as I'm sure you've noticed, so any help with this will be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely
heya, it's been a while. It's good to hear that you made some progress to the game. My memory is a bit vague on this, but i'll do my best to explain from what i remember on the game.

I couldn't resonate with the characters at all. They feel like pawns to the boss that only agree to whatever he said without any complains (they only reply with something like "yes boss" like a soldier...). They lack personality (even Florian who was lazy at the beginning suddenly becomed so motivated and agreeable after he joined the party, it's as if he's brainwashed or something). As for the story on Chelsea, I felt it's more like she remembered what happened in her past, that's all. There is no continuation from that (maybe she got softened to her "dad" after that, but I kinda forgot, especially since it got overshadowed by other event).

Character development usually refers to someome who underwent changes for the better (like someone who is very scared suddenly tries to save someone that he want to protect or something), not a story about the past. Character's background story can also be an initator for character development, but it doesn't mean that it always is.

I hope you get what i meant, and good luck with the game!

Yeah that makes sense to me. Thanks for the info, I'll start to work on the story more thoroughly from now on. I'll see if I can get a friend to help me with the development of my characters.
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