Decline

Decline is a sci-fi game by PianoTm made for the event Season of RMN IV.
Let's sum up the intro: humanity has reached what they call enlightenment. The Ascendant is the society that has reached its peak, being able to create life, but what they are hiding from the masses is that all life on Earth has begun to wither and is slowly dying. But this deadly plague doesn't seem to affect those liferforms that (as I wrote before) are created by humans. Simulants is the name of these "new, artificial humans" that maybe will save humanity for his doom.

In Decline we play as two women Arda and Nya, but they are very different: Arda is a human soldier, she plays the role of the team leader and in combat is a capable fighter, using a rifle. She is a mother figure to Nya, that is instead a simulant and more of a support character (even if she has a decent standard attack), being also a skilled medic and a buffer/debuffer that will assist her companion during the entire adventure. The concept is easy: while Nya debuffs enemies and protects/heal/empowers Arda, the strong veteran destroys the opposition.


Remember to upgrade your software!

The game is a classic adventure game of exploration/investigation with dungeons that includes combat encounters (random, fixed and bosses too), interactions, dialogues, and puzzles (oh yeah, these too!). I was impressed because this is a short game and story but with a nice variety of different puzzles and activities, considering that it takes less than two hours to complete (there are a couple of dungeons, no more). Expect to visit shops to buy better gear and consumables, pay to rest and recover strength, but also visit the simulant facility to upgrade Nya!

Graphically the game is interesting: the author made use of some original assets and they look good, a bit old style (these are realistic portraits, but since the charsets are the tallest kind, and not the chibi ones, they are appropriate and do not give a sense of difference of styles). There is not a great variety of locations but considering that the game takes place in a short time and few locations, it's ok. Dungeons are ok, short and linear, you won't spend hours wandering empty labyrinthine halls so I liked the length and how these are structured.
Sounds and music are also good and not particularly invasive, appropriate to the various situations and fit perfectly with the rest.

So everything good? Unfortunately there are a couple of issues with this game:
The first is that there are some typos, ("Lairs" instead of "liars" in the graffitti part, "correllation") a small bug (after a certain event entering the room 203 makes you enter the room 204 and entering the 204... well you enter the 204 anyway! Not that this changes much or that you lose something important, but... uhm ok).


These two goons killed me because I entered their room unprepared! Do not be like me!

Finally there is a problem with combat: I mean, there are some clever combat encounters, but having to use just a fighter and a support character makes sometimes things a bit hard if you did not level enough. For example there is a boss that has two healers and an attacker, so you obviously have to focus on the healers first, but combat dragged a lot also because I had to heal both my characters and in the meantime the dead enemies resurrect after some time... combat was NOT unbalanced at all because I was able to triumph on my first time without needing to grind, still it took me some time.

Instead I had to grind a bit (not much, just get to level 7) to complete the final dungeon. Oh well there are some strong opponents, but you will also level up very quickly inside (I got 3 levels, finished the game at level 10) learning some kickass skills that will destroy the opposition (multi attacks + multi debuffs will make you destroy easily the final opponents. Even the final boss as easily dispatched after getting those nifty skills!).
I don't know, combat is ok, using a party just two characters isn't easy at all when they are weak and loot is not particularly generous, but I admit I liked the challenge. It was doable, and some bosses required a particular strategy, but I can see that not every player may appreciate this kind of situation, later when you get some levels games is easier and more relaxing, but well, this was my experience!

For the rest there is no complain at all! Puzzles were all cleverly designed and fun to solve, story was good even in a bit predictable after the first half, but taking note that this was a short game for a contest, this is still impressive. I liked the idea, the characters, from the protagonists to the supporting cast (Sari & Zoe).


Did I say... puzzles? Nothing too difficult for me, luckily!

The final decline
Well first, as usual I take in account that this game was made for a contest. And, well if you expect a short and boring game, you are wrong! This game is original and offers much more than combat and dungeons with random encounters, thing that I usually hate (well the rate of encounters is not that frequent, you can often escape quite easily, and it's possible to save anytime!).
Game length was 1 hour and 40 minutes for me (I never spent time in the training area and I did just 4 extra random combat encounter to level up. Remember that level 7 is enough to complete the last dungeon). Oh and the puzzles were all very good. First one especially took me some time but was ingenious, and still not too difficult.

I won't spoil the story but I admit I liked it. It's more complex than the usual you can expect from an event game that lasts less than two hours, and I liked that, especially the first half (as I said before the last parts were a bit predictable but hey, this is an investigation, once revealed who's the bad guy there is nothing else but stopping him/her/it!). By the way I liked a lot that this is not the usual and boring "guards Vs criminals" or "soldiers Vs terrorists", that is a banal concept that would be perfectly acceptable for a short event game, but no, our PianoTm created an insteresting and serious story (that was what I meant in the beginning. It's not a lighthearted tale or even a simple "we are good, we kill/arrest bad guys, we win!") with no perfect or idilliac ending (just like Vega Legacy or Age of Myth, from the same developer). This happens rarely on event games.

Kudos for making all this in a short time: puzzles, custom art and story (including characters), are all good in my opinion, and are the what I liked most of this game. There are some minor flaws and maybe some rebalancing needed for what concerns combat, but this was just my experience, and I cannot deny that I had fun anyway. Yeah, some small flaws do not mar a solid and varied experience that presents a good challenge to the player.
So what? 4/5 is what I think this entry is worth. Good one!