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So fragile, and so strong...
TheRpgmakerAddict- 12/11/2022 02:22 PM
- 689 views
Good day and good weekend!
Today I'll review a recent game, His Fragile Mind by UminoAoi. This is a RPG Maker VX Ace visual novel with custom graphics, and many actions segments that will also determine what will happen to the various characters of the game, that we'll know together with our protagonist Niel.
Niel is a young blonde man that is trying to restore meaning to his life after something happened, but what was this will be understood while playing the game, so no spoilers! In short we have various chapters and in each of these our Niel will meet someone that is living some sort of difficulty, and Niel will try to help, even if a mysterious pink haired woman is constantly discouragin and teasing him to bring him down (who is she? Play and see!).
HEY! What happened to that little guy over there?
What happens each time is this: Niel will first have a chat with this person and gradually become a friend, and in the meantime he will live some extraordinary adventures in surreal and dreamlike scenarios together with his new friend. But in these dreams both him and the new friend will be transfigurated in some alter-egos, and for example Niel's new identity is a younger superhero version of himself, due to the fact he intends to help and save these new acquaintances.
Now, how can he do this? Well in these dreams he will face dangers, challenges and difficulties that are different minigames we'll have to play: there are stealth sections, real time combat, puzzles, quicktime events, button-mashing parts, timed sections and so on. Normally our hero has three lives but most of the time failing will just mean that we won't have money to buy bonus items, BUT the last parts of each dreamlike sequence will be a boss-fight that will determine the destiny of the person we're trying to help.
This game has lots of minigames, and this is just the first. SAD is a very appropriate words for some events of this game
The difficulty of these various tasks is extremely varied: I admit I had lot of difficulty with the first chapter of the game, failing the first minigames (that I found difficult!) meant that I had few money for consumables and this made the first boss e real pain. But I was able to survive, second chapter was a walk in a park compared to the first (except maybe for the boat part, but arm wrestling and climbing are among the easisest tasks), and the third was a middle ground (even if I was not able to do the rocket puzzle no matter how many tries! Impossible). Last two bossfights of the game were difficult but doable... and I ended my game saving everyone! YEAH! I'm sure that you won't get the same ending if you fail to save one of more person, of course, so I'm glad I made it! Oh and the whole adventure, that is linear, took me two hours and 45 minutes to complete.
Now, the consumables: each chapter has a couple of moments in which Niel (in normal, non-superhero form) will visit a bizarre bar where the bartenders constantly change, and here he can spend the money earned through the minigames to buy meds that have various effects: some can make him invulnerable or stronger temporarily, others will open the save menu even if there is no save point (normally represented by a blue haired girl that also exmplains the minigames), the chapest one is the antidepressants that will just heal... and are probably the only ones you really need! I mean these are cheaper and always useful. Increasing the damage is useful only in few instances, stopping time is useless because if you run our of time you just lose one life (and restoring them is cheaper), the save option is available only in the real world where there are no real risks. So why bother? Buy TONS of antidepressants, they are useful and (apparently) there are no side effects!
The cutscenes and illustrations are really beautiful! And well describe the events of the story!
Now the graphics: the game is 100% made of original assets, and there are basically three kinds of different visuals (except for some in minigames, for example in first person view): the classic rpgmaker navigation with tiny charsets in a big world, used for some cutscenes in the real world and the exploration of the surreal realms, the side walking pixelated scenes, present only for the real world and the weird bar, in which we can walk just from one side to the other and automatically interact with people (so no exploration), and many (mostly static but beautifully illustrated) cutscenes that will describe the most important moments of the game, for both good outcomes and bad endings. I especially liked how the surreal worlds are so colorful and imaginative, contrasting with the grey, drab real world that also has a progression from sunny day of summer in the park, to the dark cold evenings of fall in the same place. Maps are all well made and detailed, unique issue is that I was a bit lost in a couple of parts (in which you cannot go forward since you have to do some mandatory interactions) but not for long due to the absence of extremely large locations or mazes.
Music is also pretty good and appropriate, and custom made for the game too, if you are curious art is by UminoAoi and music by Nemi. Great job in both cases!
For what concerns the story, this is a well made game divided in different episodes that in the end connect and also explain Niel's story, present, past and future (that is determined by what will happen during the game). The dialogues is well written, I just remember a typo in one of the explanations of the minigames in the third chapter, but that's it.
The game will take our superhero Niel in many different surreal locations, including a corporative building with robots and human rats!
Final Verdict
His Fragile Mind is a very stylish and charming game, I liked the story and characters, it's a very emotional story about sensitive themes and real life situations, despite the presence of fantastic worlds with weird creatures and terryfing bosses to beat. I especially liked how everything happens in these fantasy realms is a reflection of the real world, enemies are real persons or situations that are affecting the various characters, that will fail without Niel's help. And the CAN still fail even with Niel's help if you won't be able to defeat each of their personal nemesis.
My only gripe is that some minigames are pretty much annoying or too difficult (like the free the animals part) and some consumables are quite useless, but these are the only critic I can move to this game. For the rest it's ok, I like the linearity since it's a story, a visual novel that still has different possible outcomes.
Is it a game I can recommend? Of course, especially if you liked what I wrote here, of course!
Today I'll review a recent game, His Fragile Mind by UminoAoi. This is a RPG Maker VX Ace visual novel with custom graphics, and many actions segments that will also determine what will happen to the various characters of the game, that we'll know together with our protagonist Niel.
Niel is a young blonde man that is trying to restore meaning to his life after something happened, but what was this will be understood while playing the game, so no spoilers! In short we have various chapters and in each of these our Niel will meet someone that is living some sort of difficulty, and Niel will try to help, even if a mysterious pink haired woman is constantly discouragin and teasing him to bring him down (who is she? Play and see!).
HEY! What happened to that little guy over there?
What happens each time is this: Niel will first have a chat with this person and gradually become a friend, and in the meantime he will live some extraordinary adventures in surreal and dreamlike scenarios together with his new friend. But in these dreams both him and the new friend will be transfigurated in some alter-egos, and for example Niel's new identity is a younger superhero version of himself, due to the fact he intends to help and save these new acquaintances.
Now, how can he do this? Well in these dreams he will face dangers, challenges and difficulties that are different minigames we'll have to play: there are stealth sections, real time combat, puzzles, quicktime events, button-mashing parts, timed sections and so on. Normally our hero has three lives but most of the time failing will just mean that we won't have money to buy bonus items, BUT the last parts of each dreamlike sequence will be a boss-fight that will determine the destiny of the person we're trying to help.
This game has lots of minigames, and this is just the first. SAD is a very appropriate words for some events of this game
The difficulty of these various tasks is extremely varied: I admit I had lot of difficulty with the first chapter of the game, failing the first minigames (that I found difficult!) meant that I had few money for consumables and this made the first boss e real pain. But I was able to survive, second chapter was a walk in a park compared to the first (except maybe for the boat part, but arm wrestling and climbing are among the easisest tasks), and the third was a middle ground (even if I was not able to do the rocket puzzle no matter how many tries! Impossible). Last two bossfights of the game were difficult but doable... and I ended my game saving everyone! YEAH! I'm sure that you won't get the same ending if you fail to save one of more person, of course, so I'm glad I made it! Oh and the whole adventure, that is linear, took me two hours and 45 minutes to complete.
Now, the consumables: each chapter has a couple of moments in which Niel (in normal, non-superhero form) will visit a bizarre bar where the bartenders constantly change, and here he can spend the money earned through the minigames to buy meds that have various effects: some can make him invulnerable or stronger temporarily, others will open the save menu even if there is no save point (normally represented by a blue haired girl that also exmplains the minigames), the chapest one is the antidepressants that will just heal... and are probably the only ones you really need! I mean these are cheaper and always useful. Increasing the damage is useful only in few instances, stopping time is useless because if you run our of time you just lose one life (and restoring them is cheaper), the save option is available only in the real world where there are no real risks. So why bother? Buy TONS of antidepressants, they are useful and (apparently) there are no side effects!
The cutscenes and illustrations are really beautiful! And well describe the events of the story!
Now the graphics: the game is 100% made of original assets, and there are basically three kinds of different visuals (except for some in minigames, for example in first person view): the classic rpgmaker navigation with tiny charsets in a big world, used for some cutscenes in the real world and the exploration of the surreal realms, the side walking pixelated scenes, present only for the real world and the weird bar, in which we can walk just from one side to the other and automatically interact with people (so no exploration), and many (mostly static but beautifully illustrated) cutscenes that will describe the most important moments of the game, for both good outcomes and bad endings. I especially liked how the surreal worlds are so colorful and imaginative, contrasting with the grey, drab real world that also has a progression from sunny day of summer in the park, to the dark cold evenings of fall in the same place. Maps are all well made and detailed, unique issue is that I was a bit lost in a couple of parts (in which you cannot go forward since you have to do some mandatory interactions) but not for long due to the absence of extremely large locations or mazes.
Music is also pretty good and appropriate, and custom made for the game too, if you are curious art is by UminoAoi and music by Nemi. Great job in both cases!
For what concerns the story, this is a well made game divided in different episodes that in the end connect and also explain Niel's story, present, past and future (that is determined by what will happen during the game). The dialogues is well written, I just remember a typo in one of the explanations of the minigames in the third chapter, but that's it.
The game will take our superhero Niel in many different surreal locations, including a corporative building with robots and human rats!
Final Verdict
His Fragile Mind is a very stylish and charming game, I liked the story and characters, it's a very emotional story about sensitive themes and real life situations, despite the presence of fantastic worlds with weird creatures and terryfing bosses to beat. I especially liked how everything happens in these fantasy realms is a reflection of the real world, enemies are real persons or situations that are affecting the various characters, that will fail without Niel's help. And the CAN still fail even with Niel's help if you won't be able to defeat each of their personal nemesis.
My only gripe is that some minigames are pretty much annoying or too difficult (like the free the animals part) and some consumables are quite useless, but these are the only critic I can move to this game. For the rest it's ok, I like the linearity since it's a story, a visual novel that still has different possible outcomes.
Is it a game I can recommend? Of course, especially if you liked what I wrote here, of course!
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UminoAoi
1499
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CloseAaaa, thank you so much for the review! I'm so happy that you enjoyed the game ^^! I'm really glad you liked the art and story because I spent probably the most time on them (and mini games, making them in RPG Maker was quite a challange XD).
Sooo thanks, this review made my day ^^! Its the first one I received haha~
Sooo thanks, this review made my day ^^! Its the first one I received haha~
TheRpgmakerAddict
60277
author=UminoAoi
Aaaa, thank you so much for the review! I'm so happy that you enjoyed the game ^^! I'm really glad you liked the art and story because I spent probably the most time on them (and mini games, making them in RPG Maker was quite a challange XD).
Sooo thanks, this review made my day ^^! Its the first one I received haha~
Yeah! Second (that maybe it's not very surreal, still I liked it a lot) and last chapter were my favourites. I know Rpgmaker is not great to do the action parts, I was not fond of the battles against the robots and the circus final part (sometimes due bad luck I was trapped and hit, no matter what) while the rest was pretty much cool and enjoyable!
I last played the game a few months ago, so my memory isn't that good. I have some comments on the gameplay parts you mentioned.
About the minigames:
* For the final robot battle. I tried that over 10 times.
The only way I beat it was through a combination of two bugs. First, I held down the Z (attack) key for a period of time. Somehow, the game continued to recognize the key press even after I released it. As in: after I unpressed Z, the game kept thinking I was pressing it like: Z Z Z Z Z Z (the attack sound was overlapping).
This helped me to win because in order to strike down a robot, I just had to turn towards it for a second, and immediately turn away. Instead of having to turn to it, quickly press Z (attack) before it hits me, andthen turn away.
Second, there was another bug that I don't know how I "activated". But on some of my runs, one of the attack-robots stopped moving completely, which made it much easier.
* The rocket one you mentioned you still can't beat: Yes, I found that one confusing as well. Even after I retried it to get the right sequence, I wasn't sure how the player was meant to come up with that order.
About the items:
* I agree with you, the Antidepressant (heals 1 life) item was most useful. But the way it was set up, there's no way the player would have been able to tell what was useful, before actually getting to the minigame where the items are useful.
Just like some of the minigame instructions (ex. find the crying girl), the items' gameplay use was cryptic and not really explained. So the player would feel a slight sense of panic, not knowing if they were doing/buying the right thing. Maybe that was kind of intentional.
** Also, I felt like there was some comedy in the way I would keep failing some minigames like the robot battle and some horrible thing would happen in response. Like "Aw, not again. Sorry dude, I failed you again".
* You said that the item that lets you save outside of save points is useless. I think there's one case where it would have been pretty useful for me—I wish I could have saved at the item shop, before buying anything, or before the minigames. By the time I got to the final Chapter 3 and ??? battle, I had spent my $ on the wrong items. I didn't want to go all the way back just so I could get more $ or healing items, to have a better chance of beating the battle. It would have been pretty useful if I had a save right before the final item shop or something.
About the minigames:
* For the final robot battle. I tried that over 10 times.
The only way I beat it was through a combination of two bugs. First, I held down the Z (attack) key for a period of time. Somehow, the game continued to recognize the key press even after I released it. As in: after I unpressed Z, the game kept thinking I was pressing it like: Z Z Z Z Z Z (the attack sound was overlapping).
This helped me to win because in order to strike down a robot, I just had to turn towards it for a second, and immediately turn away. Instead of having to turn to it, quickly press Z (attack) before it hits me, andthen turn away.
Second, there was another bug that I don't know how I "activated". But on some of my runs, one of the attack-robots stopped moving completely, which made it much easier.
* The rocket one you mentioned you still can't beat: Yes, I found that one confusing as well. Even after I retried it to get the right sequence, I wasn't sure how the player was meant to come up with that order.
About the items:
* I agree with you, the Antidepressant (heals 1 life) item was most useful. But the way it was set up, there's no way the player would have been able to tell what was useful, before actually getting to the minigame where the items are useful.
Just like some of the minigame instructions (ex. find the crying girl), the items' gameplay use was cryptic and not really explained. So the player would feel a slight sense of panic, not knowing if they were doing/buying the right thing. Maybe that was kind of intentional.
** Also, I felt like there was some comedy in the way I would keep failing some minigames like the robot battle and some horrible thing would happen in response. Like "Aw, not again. Sorry dude, I failed you again".
* You said that the item that lets you save outside of save points is useless. I think there's one case where it would have been pretty useful for me—I wish I could have saved at the item shop, before buying anything, or before the minigames. By the time I got to the final Chapter 3 and ??? battle, I had spent my $ on the wrong items. I didn't want to go all the way back just so I could get more $ or healing items, to have a better chance of beating the battle. It would have been pretty useful if I had a save right before the final item shop or something.
UminoAoi
1499
author=Lookatyou1
I last played the game a few months ago, so my memory isn't that good. I have some comments on the gameplay parts you mentioned.
About the minigames:
* For the final robot battle. I tried that over 10 times.
The only way I beat it was through a combination of two bugs. First, I held down the Z (attack) key for a period of time. Somehow, the game continued to recognize the key press even after I released it. As in: after I unpressed Z, the game kept thinking I was pressing it like: Z Z Z Z Z Z (the attack sound was overlapping).
This helped me to win because in order to strike down a robot, I just had to turn towards it for a second, and immediately turn away. Instead of having to turn to it, quickly press Z (attack) before it hits me, andthen turn away.
Second, there was another bug that I don't know how I "activated". But on some of my runs, one of the attack-robots stopped moving completely, which made it much easier.
* The rocket one you mentioned you still can't beat: Yes, I found that one confusing as well. Even after I retried it to get the right sequence, I wasn't sure how the player was meant to come up with that order.
About the items:
* I agree with you, the Antidepressant (heals 1 life) item was most useful. But the way it was set up, there's no way the player would have been able to tell what was useful, before actually getting to the minigame where the items are useful.
Just like some of the minigame instructions (ex. find the crying girl), the items' gameplay use was cryptic and not really explained. So the player would feel a slight sense of panic, not knowing if they were doing/buying the right thing. Maybe that was kind of intentional.
** Also, I felt like there was some comedy in the way I would keep failing some minigames like the robot battle and some horrible thing would happen in response. Like "Aw, not again. Sorry dude, I failed you again".
* You said that the item that lets you save outside of save points is useless. I think there's one case where it would have been pretty useful for me—I wish I could have saved at the item shop, before buying anything, or before the minigames. By the time I got to the final Chapter 3 and ??? battle, I had spent my $ on the wrong items. I didn't want to go all the way back just so I could get more $ or healing items, to have a better chance of beating the battle. It would have been pretty useful if I had a save right before the final item shop or something.
Aaa, thank you for more feedback! <3
Pages:
1
