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A collage of frustration in different forms

  • Shinan
  • 01/01/2010 08:58 PM
  • 3103 views
Disclaimer: I did not actually finish this game. During the dimensional rift with the timing of the arrow-walking I couldn't get to the door in time and after a couple of hours of this I decided to just give up. (though first I went through the ice cave that I hadn't done) It was the end of progress in this game for me.

After playing some puzzle games kentona asked me to try this out for review. I noticed I had the game downloaded from some earlier discussion and thought that now was perhaps the time to give it a bit of a whirl. 13 minigames of varying frustration levels. Of course I did not know about the frustration levels when I started. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll go through all the mingames in order.

1. We need more spike puzzles
I actually gave up on this one immediately. Then I changed my mind. This was possibly one of the better puzzles. But it is also a perfect example of why I (will) dislike most of the puzzles in this.

It's based on timing. In this one the timing isn't too bad though and you have some time to spare at most of the moments. This was the first time I encountered what felt like RPGmaker's built in bad controls. Sometimes the character would just continue in a direction I didn't want him to walk and with one-hit kills it can easily get frustrating.

2. The Great Cube
This was not a bad one. The 3d-thinking involved gave it an extra dimension (hurr hurr), though in the end I did end up walking around semi-randomly trying to find the places I had been to before. At one point I spent too much time backtracking but in the end it wasn't too bad. It was a backtracking sort of track and worse would come.

3. Bottom of the Barrel
This was the second time I gave up. Again it was the fact that the character didn't always turn when I wanted him to. Making U-turns were essentially a bitch. I like Snake-games as much as the next guy but it is a game of precision and when there's no precision the game suffers.

4. Befuddle Quest: The Quiz Game Show
I was not going to play the prequels just to get through a couple of questions so I had a lot of them wrong before finally getting through. Since most were multiple choice it was simple to get through them by trial and error. The difficult ones were the ones where you had to input a number since there was no way of knowing what number between 0 and 99 to input in most of them.

I was tempted to answer wrong on the last question but I was afraid I would have had to sit through everything again so I didn't.

5. Step on Through to the Other Side
Mirror, mirror on the wall... Save was disabled on this one which was scary at first but fortunately it was a short one. I quickly grasped the concept behind it. But it sort of suffered from the fact that the mirror was outside the field of view so you couldn't exactly plan the route very well. Instead it ended up just pressing random directions hoping that it would be possible to move. I guess that with some extra thinking I could have looked at the field I was in and mirrored it but pressing random buttons was a lot easier and there was no penalty for doing so.

6. Crystal Shards
I hated this. There was only the vaguest of hints as to what would not be there in the beginning. And it wasn't as if there was a clear example of false walls early on in the maze either. This was a clear example of directionlessness. And then when I finally found the first false wall and started kicking crystals around the game was changed with a sick crystal without any hint of what to do with it. Wandering around directionless in a maze filled with fake walls. It was a most frustrating experience. I had to search the creator's locker space and found a walkthrough event map to finally find the last wall on this one.

This was the puzzle I meant when I said "and worse would come" about The Great Cube

7. Puzzle of Four Monsters
This was a nice one. The rules were fairly simple and it was more of a brainer than a timer. Which is always something I prefer. Especially when the game engine just isn't up-to-par with any fingerbending exercises. The only annoying thing was the girl you had to save. I said the rules were clear but not clear enough and every time I wanted to restart there was a lady nagging about being saved. It would have been better if the reset didn't have to completely reset. And after talking to the lady once I never wanted to again because that was a whole lot of pointless text boxes to go through before getting the rules of the game. (so many that I, in fact, missed the point of rocks becoming walk-through when a suit was placed on a base.

In the end though this was a nicely designed braintease.

8. Rock n'Roll
A rock avoiding thing. It was fairly simple and short and not as annoyingly bad as some others. Though it did have a small issue but then I noticed in the end that it was my own stupidity that killed me all the time. Again though the controls just don't feel responsive enough to be in much of a hurry. These are one of those few instances where a slower walkspeed would have helped a lot (combined with a slower rolling rock speed where applicable). It's just too easy to hold the button down too long and end up in the ass of a rock.

9. The Befuddling Quiz
Some nice classic riddles. I can't really complain about this one a short, nice diversion and I am a bit of a fan of the old riddle style.

10. Strange Room
Collect the blue rings before time runs out. This was not a bad one. It wasn't too difficult (i.e. it didn't have an insane time limit) and I could easily see this as "try to beat your high score" kind of game. It didn't leave too much of an impression on me but considering what kind of impression most of these puzzles had on me that's probably a good thing.

11. Shop 'til You Drop!
This is a strange one. In one way it is perfect. It's a neat concept and I played this for a long time. I was determined to play it without cheating.

An hour later I cheated. Having amount a staggering amount of 874 gold out of the apparent 5000. The game starts out nicely. It's slow-paced and it sort of conveys a nice mood. A shopkeeper in a small town, not very many customers. Things are going along slowly. You can look at your stuff and try to be attentive when a customer comes around.

It's very cute and atmospheric.

But it's also a bit like Desert Bus. It goes absolutely nowhere. After an hour of this I had not sold a single one of my most expensive items (that would yield enough profit to let me get out of there) and though I made my customers very happy, very fast it turned out that didn't matter much so I started to put down the hammer of high prices for everything.

Even then the money just didn't pour in. After that hour I was frustrated. The customers spent more time looking around at wares and I knew they'd come around to me eventually but the time was always different so I had to sort of keep vigilant or I could lose a sale while I tried to restock.

Again. This was all very atmospheric but damn it annoyed me. And then finally I just said "fuck it" and cheated my way through this game.

It's possibly my favorite of all the minigames in this but it's either horribly broken or a very nice representation of real life. But the fact that it takes so long really should make it its own game instead of a part of a group of minigames.

It's a weird one because I started out loving it and ended it wanting to tear my hair out in frustration at the slow pace and just wish that this whole gameplaying thing was over and done with.

12. Tigers & Tokens
I've always had a dislike for Pac-Man. I hear there's some strategy to it but I just never can deal with it properly. Like I have an almost irrational love for Tetris I have an almost irrational dislike for Pac-Man. Fortunately this minigame was short and simple enough for me to get through in a couple of tries. The superpills/crosses were plentyful enough to get me through most of the game. The only trouble was knowing where you could walk and where you could not. Those walls were not very clear and occasionally I walked into a dead-end that I didn't see was there originally. Not the best graphical design on that map.

13. Dimensional Rift
This was the game that finally beat me. It started out weird enough, again like the neverending maze of nowalls it had no direction what so ever. I saw that it this one came with a walkthrough so I was looking forward to a true mindbending experience but what I got was mostly timed stuff yet again.

Avoid the monsters. Avoid the traps. Avoid everything and go through the door before it shuts. Time, time, time. In the end one of the mini-alexes with the arrows got the better of me. I usually like arrow-puzzles because they tend to be about preplanning a route that is not obvious at first sight. But I was stumped pretty early on with a switch and a long line I had to go on. And if I missed a single beat I was too late to the door and it shut in front of me.

I tried this a couple of times and finally decided to finally say FUCK THIS SHIT. Loudly and clearly in IRC as well.
<Shinan> !"#¤&!#"%&#%"¤%&%¤"¤W/
<Shinan> FUCK TYHIS FUCKVSDAGIBHJÖNJSÖO GHAME


This part of the game also suffered from a lot of dialogue. And a lot of it with pauses I just couldn't take anymore.


Final thoughts then. This minigame collection isn't a very good one. Some of its problems could be helped with a "pick what game you want to play" menu or area in the game rather than the linear progression through the different minigames (thankfully the game didn't start with Dimension Rift...). Apparently you could shortcut to the different games through the hallway in the beginning but that seemed more like a secret debug feature or similar than something that was actually part of the game. (mostly because nothing hinted at it). I have a hard time scoring this game though. The fairest would be to give it a N/A score since every single minigame could have it's own score but as a collection...

It's fairly worthless.

There were some gems, like the shopping game, but even that one overstayed its welcome and ended with me hating it. Most of the minigames had a clear case of "just not enough playtesting" and probably also some problems with "I'll run it through the editor so I can walk through walls because this shit is impossible"

Well I don't have an editor. And for us normal people this is a frustrating experience, something I wouldn't really wish for anyone. But still, because some of the games are fairly nice I will still give it one star. But many of the minigames don't even deserve that. And some of them actually deserve more.

Not a single one deserves more than two though. Sorry about the very long review.

Posts

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I have to agree with this review. I had to cheat on a lot of the puzzles, and never got past Dimensional Rift. Though Bottom of the Barrel and Shop 'til you Drop were both fun for me. I also enjoyed the Lovely Logic question in the game show map. =P

Beffudle Quest 2 was a bit better imo.
You know, I never really noticed how many games relied on reaction and timing until you pointed them all out. I kind of glossed over that.

But I didn't have nearly as much trouble as you seem to have and I'm not all that great at twitch games. I know that RM2k3 has pretty bad hit detection, but it's not quite as bad as you make it sound. Do you have a crappy keyboard or something?
Well, you liked the two ouzzles I put in at least =P
I might have a crappy keyboard. But it can also have something to do with me wanting to press two buttons at once to move diagonally. Essentially pressing one button too early or another too late, making me either start out in a wrong direction not not ending up where I wanted to be. Essentially it's also a case of getting used to controls. Not having played a lot of rm2k games and not having played tile-based four-directional walking games in a long time it just isn't something that comes naturally to me at all.
I liked Befuddle Quest the original okay. But some of the puzzles were seriously messed up, in terms of how long they took to solve. That is, either you got it immediately, or like the one with the time warp, you got a general sense of cause and effect, but didn't get how to string everything together. I got literally stuck there for most of one day, before breaking down and looking at a walkthrough.

#10, 13, others that involve time, I find timed parts are extremely difficult using a keyboard. For RPGXP, you actually have the option of using a controller (I something played mine with one, although it certainly didn't add anything), so that makes things alot easier, but time puzzles really aren't ideal for 2k3. Also, if you do puzzles with timing and monsters, the penalty should be a battle, not restarting the puzzle (example, getting past enemies with a horizontal or vertical movement pattern). This way, if you aren't one for solving puzzles you can have the option of just mowing through. Between restarting due to potential gameover, and from simply messing up a puzzle, this is usually preferable.
Re: Tokens & Tigers
"The only trouble was knowing where you could walk and where you could not. Those walls were not very clear and occasionally I walked into a dead-end that I didn't see was there originally." Dude, there are DIRT PATHS :D. The only dead end is the exit, and if you get trapped there occaisionally (more than once) you deserve a tiger bitting yer bum!
However the dirt paths are hidden by the coins. So occasionally you think something's a coin but it turns out it's a wall instead. Of course once you've eaten the coins the paths are pretty clear.
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