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I'm walking among the Stars!

Hello!
Stars Walkers is a game made in RPG Maker MV by misterdovah in 2021. This game was originally made for a Game Jam RTP ONLY, in 2020, and this revised new version preserve all the old characteristics of the first entry. Since I did not play that I cannot tell you which or what are the improvements, anyway let's start from the beginning of the story:

Joseph is a hunter with a past in the army, married and future dad of a couple of twins, that lives in the woods near the city of Santarien with his wife. All seems going normally, Joseph lives a quiet life and today is the the annual Yemote Festivals, a time to celebrate the memories of the dead. Still nothing new or out of the ordinary, until something weird happens: suddenly time stops and Joseph is the only person able to move in the castle even if he cannot exit the place, while the rest of the people are all frozen in time! What's happening?

Stars Walkers is an rpgmaker adventure game, not an rpg since combat is not the focus and there aren't even level ups (also we play as Joseph that will be a one-man party for the 90% of this adventure). The game also has some extra optional secondary quests, but I was able to complete only three out of five, and I do not know that it's even possible to finish the others... maybe they're not even quests? I do not know, anyway time for a little spoiler:

I did the "Blue Serpent Hunt" quest, that gives some potions as a reward, the "Offering in the Hunting Grounds" one and the "Love Poem" one. I wasn't instead able to complete in any way the "Love Potion" or "Convicted Innocent" ones, not I was able to open the door to the graveyard... IF these are quests, because I'm not sure if these are just some events made to enrich the game world, or maybe quests that were cut from the final game



Yay this seems useful! To tell the trust it is NOT, but in this library you have to look for another book to finish the game!

Game is for the most part investigati on about the weird happenings, but there's still the possibility to hunt since this is important for a quest AND also to get consumables: potions are not bought but crafted from wild animals body parts and fluids, you just have to bring them to the little witch and consult the book for the recipes, then talk to her. Pity that this isn't explained from the beginning, but ok. Consumables aren't even that necessary, because despite the lack of levels (you never level up, EVER! So facing creatures is just useful to get consumables... that as I said will become useless...) after the first half of the game, when we will get the Stars Walkers powers that includes a self-healing spell with zero cost (even if you need to spend a turn to use it, of course!). There is only a little problem: there are enemies that can poison Joseph and the effect is never removed without an antidote, so you have to use the healing power once in a while to keep the protagonist healthy.
For the rest combat is the usual: Joseph is not a mage so he has a couple of abilities that use the TP (and not the usual MP or Mana Points) that are gained during combat, while the only other temporary party member hasn't even a single skill. Anyway the difficulty is quite low, you can also save anywhere and flee whenever you want, except for some obligatory boss battles, but you just have to select the right skill to attack and remember to heal.

So yes, Stars Walkers is pretty simple and linear, but there are some cool effects here and there, I get that this was made for a contest and only RTPs were allowed, but I admit that for what concerns mapping and aestetics, it's not a bad game at all, except maybe for some odd choices (like the wise woman standing at the end of a looong pier, or the city of Santarien that alternated some generic ncps and boring buildings to others that are really well characterized and unique, so much that I expected they had a part in the story... but apparently no!). The story is nice even if I admit that it would have been even better if it was a bit more fleshed out and less shot/abrupt, but that's a personal point of view of course (on the other hand I liked the humor of some parts).

Finally there are a couple of flaws: while I did not find mapping errors, I noticed a couple of typos here and there, and there are also some interactions with books and documents missing (in the sense that despite being interactable there will be no effect, not even a couple of lines, nothing!), but this is not a problem. The real problem is that IF after the "freezing part" in which everyone is paralyzed is finished (and after a particular and very important cutscene all goes back to normal) you approach the king and queen a second time, the event will repeat itself, but it will be impossible to exit this situation a second time! So I guess you will be stuck, I am not 100% sure, but pretty sure about that!


Poor guy... I did this quest even if I'm not sure that there's a reward for that!

Final Verdict
Stars Walkers is a game with a simple gameplay and a nice short story, I also did not mind the mapping for the most part, and the effects are used pretty well most of the time, except when there is an excessive use of mist and darkness, but I admit that this contributes to give a "fantasy horror" feel to those parts. I liked many details, I mean there aren't a lot of interactions with items and combat is pretty average, but there are many situations and characters that are interesting. For example there is a flashy foreigner that stands out and has a chat with Joseph, and he's a very mysterious man, but I guess it's not obligatory to talk with him. Well, I was convinced he was a bad guy or maybe a helper in the story, and instead no, he has no relevance, as some other characters like the orc cook or the captain of the guards and even Joseph's friend (yes, this is practically a solo adventure of Joseph the Hunter and no one else)! But it's ok, I mean this was made for an event, and despite the flaws the story lead me from the beginning to the end, even if it's not very long, maybe 30 minutes to an hour, maybe even less if you speed through the main story without taking in account extra quests and dialogues.

This is an ok game, some may like it and others won't, anyway it's ok, so it will be an average 3/5.

Posts

Pages: 1
Wow...what a surprise!
Thank you.
I plan to work on the game soon and I loved your avaliation. Really a surprise.
C ya.
author=misterdovah
Wow...what a surprise!
Thank you.
I plan to work on the game soon and I loved your avaliation. Really a surprise.
C ya.


Cool!I will wait for that!!!
Pages: 1