Legend of the Mystical Deer

Intro

"Legend of the Mystical Deer" was developed by Dyhalto using Sim RPG Maker 95 for the Seasons of RMN IV event. An event that was held between January 22, 2021, to February 23, 2021, and required people to make a game based around one of the four seasons. This game in particular went with the theme of winter, because everyone loves the feeling of their hands going numb. At any rate this game is probably a bit harder than an event game needs to be while also being too easy to be a good tactical/strategy RPG. Though, I'll explain my reasoning for that position when I get to the gameplay section. For now I'd rather discuss the game's silly story.

Story

You play as Lord Soy, a young man, partaking in his final test for adulthood. He must hunt down the mystical deer in the Forest of the Dead. A forest that truly lives up to its name by being filled to the brim with zombies, skeletons, giant spiders, gorgons, and gargoyles. And considering the only living thing in the forest besides the heroes is the deer. I guess were dealing with the reanimated corpses of the last few things on that list.

At any rate the story is pretty bonkers for a game using art assets from the Fire Emblem franchise. Though, I suppose this sort of thing is pretty typical for event games. Even so I think "WWF vs. WWF" was more intrinsically funny than hunting a deer while trying to not become a new addition to the forest.

Gameplay

For starters the game tries to make the player feel like they are on a time crunch at the start of the game by having a bunch of zombies attack the mystical deer.



Unfortunately the zombies have such a low chance of hitting the deer that it can easily tear through half a dozen zombies with ease. So while the game acts like your under a lot of pressure. The reality is you can take your sweet time completing most stages since the deer really doesn't need to be saved from the undead horrors trying to kill it. I suppose this does make sense considering the deer is the only living thing in the forest. So it has to be able to take care of itself. About the only fight where you'll probably need to worry about the deer is the second map where a bunch of gargoyles will try to go after the deer, but those aren't as big as threat as they should be because of the next issue.

Another problem making the game too easy is that Lellen, the healer, can cast her basic healing spell for free.



This is a problem because Lellen earns 20 experience points every time she casts this spell. And since you don't have to worry about the deer dying you can simply cast this spell over and over and over again until Lellen has earned enough experience to become level 20 on the game's first map. The only way this could have been worse is if Dyhalto had placed an affordable class upgrade item in the store since you'd then be able to make her a level 20/20 unit before the game was over.

And finally Moars's defensive stat growth is way to high. This is an issue since it means he can easily become so defensively strong that enemies are unable to injure him. And since enemies only begin attacking you if your within a certain proximity. You can just send in the invincible Moars and let him give your enemies a new butthole or two. In a way he feels like Freddy or Jason. An unstoppable serial killer that's going to get you. And there isn't anything you can do about it.

Albeit it is possible for the enemy to at least damage Moars through status effects, but that isn't much of an issue when Lellen is almost as invincible in most cases due to her being at the game's level cap.

Another issue with the game is that it feels a little excessively slow. Albeit I didn't help things by letting Moars slowly stalk my enemies in certain situations or devoting twenty plus minutes to farming levels with Lellen's healing spell. So this issue might be self-inflicted for the most part. After all, turn-based strategy games aren't exactly known for being fast-paced.

Graphics

Graphically the game uses character sprites from "Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade" for the most part. So much so that the mystical deer really stands out like a sore thumb in this project.

Sound

While it's been a while since I played this game. I still have notes floating around from a while ago and none of them mention this aspect of the game. As such, I'm going to assume the sound effects and background tracks are serviceable, but not particularly memorable.

Conclusion

On one hand I'd normally give a lot more leeway for a contest game, but Dyhalto was given a month to make this game. So a lot more effort could have went into balancing the overall difficulty. At least if Dyhalto wanted to go the route of making a game whose difficulty surpasses what you'd normally get from an event game. If anything the game's overall difficult is more on par with "Bleach the 3rd Phantom".

As for my recommendation. I'd probably say this game is worth playing if your a more casual fan of this genre, but if your a hardcore strategist you'll find this game pretty boring if you don't place limitations on yourself.