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Sacred Reviews: End of Winter
thesacredlobo- 05/14/2023 12:01 AM
- 386 views
Intro
"End of Winter" is a short action RPG that was developed by Beregon for the Great Winter Game Jam 2020
over on itch.io. A game jam that started near the end of November 30, 2020 and ran until the end of December 20, 2020. And while this means the jam itself gave developers around three weeks to make a game.
It looks like Beregon was either too busy at the start of the jam to work on an entry or learned about the jam rather last minute since he/she barely managed to squeak in an entry. Seriously, this game was submitted with less than two minutes left on the deadline clock. Though, I suppose I should move off this topic and get to discussing the game's plot.
Story
Summary
You play as Ratibor, an archer, whose decided to hunt down Morana, the Goddess of Winter, in order to end winter and allow for the emergence of spring. And that's really all there is to the story.
For the curious Morana is a Slavic goddess whose death leads to the rebirth of the goddess of spring. And her being set ablaze before being tossed into a river is part of the process of celebrating the coming of spring. Though obviously in the real world people use effigies for this celebration instead of the actual goddess herself.
Strengths/Weaknesses
On the plus side the game moves at a fast pace since all of the dialogue exists to move the plot forward. On the other hand this means the character of Ratibor isn't particularly interesting or well developed. So this game's narrative really isn't that engaging.
Gameplay
Gameplay wise the game's controls are understandable, but a bit poor in terms of layout for the most part. Though the developer's choice to change the shift key from the run button to the change which direction your facing button was a really poor decision in my opinion. After all, if you've played as many RPG Maker games as I have your going to default to hitting the shift key in order to run. Admittedly you'll eventually adapt, but probably after you've taken a few hits. Another issue I have is that most of the keys you need to press and hold are on the top row. As such your going to naturally move your hand from the home row and place it over the top row instead for faster key presses. Which means it's a lot more difficult to access the menu if your used to using the x key in order to pull it up.
Another issue in my opinion is that you need to hold a key in order to lock down which direction your facing. And your going to want to do this since otherwise your shot is going to probably be wasted in the ice caves as you try to dodge enemies. After all, you don't fire an arrow as soon as you press the q key in this game. Instead you need to hold down the q key and will fire your arrow after you've fully drawn your bow. And while this does make sense from a real world perspective. It's a bit more questionable to include such a mechanic in a video game in my opinion since most gamers are geared towards twitch reflexes where you push a button/press a key and something immediately happens.
Minor Bug
You can't actually equip the Mithril Bow in this game despite your only character being an archer.
Graphics and Sound
On the graphical and sound side of things the game relies on the RTP. Admittedly that isn't that much of surprise considering the short development time this project had, but it does mean this game looks and sounds like a lot of other games you can play for free.
Conclusion
"End of Winder" is a pretty short action RPG with controls and mechanics could use a bit of tweaking in my opinion. On the control side of things I'd recommend using the keys on the home row over those on the top row. That way it's easier to reach the x key in order to pull up the menu. I'd also recommend making the shift key the run key and have the d key change which direction the player is facing. And if possible I'd lock the player's direction to the direction they initially began firing in. That way the player doesn't need to constantly remember to hold down a key in order to face their target.
As for the game's mechanics I'd consider removing the draw feature for a cool down timer between shots. That way the player can more readily avoid taking damage in the ice caves if they find themselves getting pinned down in a narrow hallway. After all, the fastest way to beat this game is simply to just rush into the cave with a bunch of stamina and health potions and try to immediately find Morana. After all, you can instantly kill her with an arrow shot from any bow in this game.
"End of Winter" is a short action RPG that was developed by Beregon for the Great Winter Game Jam 2020
over on itch.io. A game jam that started near the end of November 30, 2020 and ran until the end of December 20, 2020. And while this means the jam itself gave developers around three weeks to make a game.
Author=Beregon
I made this thing over the course of a few days (I think it was 3 days) for the Great Winter Game Jam on itch.io.
It looks like Beregon was either too busy at the start of the jam to work on an entry or learned about the jam rather last minute since he/she barely managed to squeak in an entry. Seriously, this game was submitted with less than two minutes left on the deadline clock. Though, I suppose I should move off this topic and get to discussing the game's plot.
Story
Summary
You play as Ratibor, an archer, whose decided to hunt down Morana, the Goddess of Winter, in order to end winter and allow for the emergence of spring. And that's really all there is to the story.
For the curious Morana is a Slavic goddess whose death leads to the rebirth of the goddess of spring. And her being set ablaze before being tossed into a river is part of the process of celebrating the coming of spring. Though obviously in the real world people use effigies for this celebration instead of the actual goddess herself.
Strengths/Weaknesses
On the plus side the game moves at a fast pace since all of the dialogue exists to move the plot forward. On the other hand this means the character of Ratibor isn't particularly interesting or well developed. So this game's narrative really isn't that engaging.
Gameplay
Gameplay wise the game's controls are understandable, but a bit poor in terms of layout for the most part. Though the developer's choice to change the shift key from the run button to the change which direction your facing button was a really poor decision in my opinion. After all, if you've played as many RPG Maker games as I have your going to default to hitting the shift key in order to run. Admittedly you'll eventually adapt, but probably after you've taken a few hits. Another issue I have is that most of the keys you need to press and hold are on the top row. As such your going to naturally move your hand from the home row and place it over the top row instead for faster key presses. Which means it's a lot more difficult to access the menu if your used to using the x key in order to pull it up.
Another issue in my opinion is that you need to hold a key in order to lock down which direction your facing. And your going to want to do this since otherwise your shot is going to probably be wasted in the ice caves as you try to dodge enemies. After all, you don't fire an arrow as soon as you press the q key in this game. Instead you need to hold down the q key and will fire your arrow after you've fully drawn your bow. And while this does make sense from a real world perspective. It's a bit more questionable to include such a mechanic in a video game in my opinion since most gamers are geared towards twitch reflexes where you push a button/press a key and something immediately happens.
Minor Bug
You can't actually equip the Mithril Bow in this game despite your only character being an archer.
Graphics and Sound
On the graphical and sound side of things the game relies on the RTP. Admittedly that isn't that much of surprise considering the short development time this project had, but it does mean this game looks and sounds like a lot of other games you can play for free.
Conclusion
"End of Winder" is a pretty short action RPG with controls and mechanics could use a bit of tweaking in my opinion. On the control side of things I'd recommend using the keys on the home row over those on the top row. That way it's easier to reach the x key in order to pull up the menu. I'd also recommend making the shift key the run key and have the d key change which direction the player is facing. And if possible I'd lock the player's direction to the direction they initially began firing in. That way the player doesn't need to constantly remember to hold down a key in order to face their target.
As for the game's mechanics I'd consider removing the draw feature for a cool down timer between shots. That way the player can more readily avoid taking damage in the ice caves if they find themselves getting pinned down in a narrow hallway. After all, the fastest way to beat this game is simply to just rush into the cave with a bunch of stamina and health potions and try to immediately find Morana. After all, you can instantly kill her with an arrow shot from any bow in this game.
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Beregon
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CloseThanks for the review!
Yeah, I did only learn about that game jam after there were only a few days left to submit. So I took it as a challenge to make a short game quickly. Almost didn't complete it, but managed to do so shortly before the submissions were closed.
Somehow, it ended up as the second-most popular game of that game jam. And it still holds that place after all this time. Not sure why. Probably because it's made in RPG Maker. And a browser game. A few people actually messaged me to ask me how I managed to pull off some of the mechanics (the limited dash and the bow hit detection). I did tell them, however I'm not sure that this game is a good example to take ideas from or basically anything, since it's basically held together by duct tape. :-D
Originally, there was supposed to be a boss battle with Morana, but I had barely any time left, so I just made the ending this way and ended it. I also originally planned to have two weapon types: Bow and a Crossbow, with the Crossbow working the way you proposed for the Bow. That had to be scrapped too.
My primary focus during that limited time I had was to ensure that the arrow's hit detection was good enough and only did damage if it actually hit the monster sprite (RPG Maker doesn't provide anything like that by default). Considering you never talked about that it means that there weren't any problems with that particular part of the game, which I'm glad about!
Now, to adress your criticisms:
Regarding that Mithril Bow bug, well, this game uses the default equipment from the database and 'Mithril Bow' is originally 'Mithril Crossbow'. I guess I forgot to change the weapon type after renaming it. I never discovered it because I always just got a Longbow first, then saved up for the Dragon Bow.
The control scheme gave me trouble to set up, since most of similar games are meant to be played on a Gamepad, so there wasn't really anything for me to reference for keyboard controls (I did look). Another reason is that RPG Maker only has certain specific keys that it allows you to map by default, so I just went with those that were provided. I only discovered how to map my own keys at the very last day, so the controls aren't very well thought out. I agree that Shift should've been the Sprint button. I realized that myself soon after. But that was already after I submitted and referenced the key in a bunch of script calls.
That idea with the direction lock being applied automatically while you are charging the bow is a great idea! I should've done it that way.
As for bow charging mechanic... well, I think this is the only thing where I disagree. I can certainly see your point. However, this mechanic is the whole point of the game and the game is built around it. Removing it would make it way too easy if you could just snipe enemies before they even get near you.
And besides, in my opinion, the game would lose more than it would gain if you could just shoot instantly and then you would just have a cooldown before you could shoot again. That would just turn it into a boring version of the average action game. Right now, you have to hold the button while navigating the map, dodging enemies at the same time and still having to ensure that your shot will land where you want it to. All of that would just be replaced with dodging enemies and waiting until your attack goes off cooldown. There's much less personal involvement that way and I don't think it would feel good in practice.
It would also make it a very different game and it would lose a part of its identity. I don't think there's anything wrong with it being different from the norm. That's what game jam games are good for in the first place. Come up with some unusual mechanic and then see if it works in practice.
And yeah, it's possible to just run past the enemies to where Morana is if you know the route. However, you're bound to get a game over before reaching her if you aren't careful, there's lots of enemies in your way. Happened to me half the time I attempted this "pacifist run". The game was supposed to be longer, but this is all I could manage to make in those three days.
Thanks again for your review, it was great to read and your criticism was on point. Hope you review some of my other games in the future!
Yeah, I did only learn about that game jam after there were only a few days left to submit. So I took it as a challenge to make a short game quickly. Almost didn't complete it, but managed to do so shortly before the submissions were closed.
Somehow, it ended up as the second-most popular game of that game jam. And it still holds that place after all this time. Not sure why. Probably because it's made in RPG Maker. And a browser game. A few people actually messaged me to ask me how I managed to pull off some of the mechanics (the limited dash and the bow hit detection). I did tell them, however I'm not sure that this game is a good example to take ideas from or basically anything, since it's basically held together by duct tape. :-D
Originally, there was supposed to be a boss battle with Morana, but I had barely any time left, so I just made the ending this way and ended it. I also originally planned to have two weapon types: Bow and a Crossbow, with the Crossbow working the way you proposed for the Bow. That had to be scrapped too.
My primary focus during that limited time I had was to ensure that the arrow's hit detection was good enough and only did damage if it actually hit the monster sprite (RPG Maker doesn't provide anything like that by default). Considering you never talked about that it means that there weren't any problems with that particular part of the game, which I'm glad about!
Now, to adress your criticisms:
Regarding that Mithril Bow bug, well, this game uses the default equipment from the database and 'Mithril Bow' is originally 'Mithril Crossbow'. I guess I forgot to change the weapon type after renaming it. I never discovered it because I always just got a Longbow first, then saved up for the Dragon Bow.
The control scheme gave me trouble to set up, since most of similar games are meant to be played on a Gamepad, so there wasn't really anything for me to reference for keyboard controls (I did look). Another reason is that RPG Maker only has certain specific keys that it allows you to map by default, so I just went with those that were provided. I only discovered how to map my own keys at the very last day, so the controls aren't very well thought out. I agree that Shift should've been the Sprint button. I realized that myself soon after. But that was already after I submitted and referenced the key in a bunch of script calls.
That idea with the direction lock being applied automatically while you are charging the bow is a great idea! I should've done it that way.
As for bow charging mechanic... well, I think this is the only thing where I disagree. I can certainly see your point. However, this mechanic is the whole point of the game and the game is built around it. Removing it would make it way too easy if you could just snipe enemies before they even get near you.
And besides, in my opinion, the game would lose more than it would gain if you could just shoot instantly and then you would just have a cooldown before you could shoot again. That would just turn it into a boring version of the average action game. Right now, you have to hold the button while navigating the map, dodging enemies at the same time and still having to ensure that your shot will land where you want it to. All of that would just be replaced with dodging enemies and waiting until your attack goes off cooldown. There's much less personal involvement that way and I don't think it would feel good in practice.
It would also make it a very different game and it would lose a part of its identity. I don't think there's anything wrong with it being different from the norm. That's what game jam games are good for in the first place. Come up with some unusual mechanic and then see if it works in practice.
And yeah, it's possible to just run past the enemies to where Morana is if you know the route. However, you're bound to get a game over before reaching her if you aren't careful, there's lots of enemies in your way. Happened to me half the time I attempted this "pacifist run". The game was supposed to be longer, but this is all I could manage to make in those three days.
Thanks again for your review, it was great to read and your criticism was on point. Hope you review some of my other games in the future!
thesacredlobo
62966
Yeah, I did two runs for this game, but their both scheduled for release on June 1st. The first run is your standard run where I saved up and bought the Dragon Bow. The second run is a speedrun where I spend the opening money on a combination of healing and stamina potions in order to ensure I can make it to the goddess.
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