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Do build on this.

I stumbled upon EITMOD at random, a low key game of only 111 downloads and no review. The dozen screenshots that were posted for it showed little to no artistic merit. Based off of those, this is not something I would normally choose to play. Then again, that's how I felt about Three The Hard Way; which for a lot of that game had about the same visual appeal. The map designs were so uninspired (minus the world map design) that the textboxes were a lot more interesting. I thought just maybe there would be a story I could appreciate. Might I suggest the title not be something so long?

Story and characters: 3/5
As I surmised, the story and characters are what makes this game worthwhile. The story has compelling subject matter, but Xanedil will have to answer more than a few questions before it is believable to the player. Douglas and Aira are getting married; but neither one of them had this in mind until Douglas needed her protection? If it's because Douglas put himself on the line for her too, well they got some co-dependency issues, don't they? To be fair, it is established that these two have affection for one another. Perhaps it's raw attraction. You can progress their relationship a lot more smoothly by including a bit more backstory.

Another thing, what's the cause if this racial hierarchy set up in the game? The racial prejudice may have ancient roots, but surely some ideology and rationale must still exist in this day. Bigotry isn't just present, there is history involved. And then we have Mr. Blackmore, someone with so much oratory prowess he can incite a group of people who have long worked for peace and equality to become genocidal maniacs in just two minutes. "I have such a charismatic way of talking. Everything is a speech with me." Well I don't know about all that, Mr. Blackmore.

Plot holes aside, the story is pretty entertaining. The pacing is such that you continually feel in the action. Your characters and NPCs have really good personalities and get quite a few good lines in. I did continue to play with interest, thinking this story can become really good. Poliester was my favorite character in the game. He is very bizarre and riddling. Can't say I have seen anyone quite like him.

Last note, there was no good reason to use textboxes that cut off automatically. It did not create any kind of effect and I was never able to finish reading them. I want my story back.

Graphics: 2.5/5
My impression from the screen shots is that the mapping was really bad. Well, it looks worse than it is. The maps are mostly uncreative and really empty, that's for certain. In game, though, the mapping provided a suitable atmosphere. I didn't see anything pretty or flashy and it was fine. There's an animation of Aira kissing Douglas that was very cute and impressed me - Pro!

When you read bookshelves in this game, the text box turns to paper and you get a sound effect when you turn the page. Cool, right? Not when the textbox is a messy eyesore. This very poor system skin was coupled with some blue colored text that was very hard to read.

Music: 2.5/5
The music was used very well for atmosphere and story telling. I did not recognize all the tunes, but they did have a very familiar feel. All selections felt very connected to what was going on. One piece of music called Dondoran_Castle.mid is in the game folder; not sure what that is about. Legacies of Dondoran?


Gameplay. 1/5
Extremely weak. The random battles work as if they were only inserted as placeholders; they do nothing for the game. You will not need healing items, spells, or tactics ever. Equipment exists, but it is irrelevant. The monsters don't hurt, so you don't know what you are doing fighting them. I could walk across the entire dungeon with 20 of these beasts gnawing on my back and probably be ok.

Scene based battles involve only slightly more tactics. This means use dark magic on your stereotypically holy enemy and holy spells on your stereotypically dark element enemy. It does not get much deeper than that. The only reason I give the gameplay one star is because I did like the battle in the cave with the yeti.
You should consider doing more things like that.

Xanedil, have some people play test your game before you submit it. There are graphical and text related glitches you could have smoothed out had you done this. You probably should have found these if you play tested yourself.

Overall Experience:
I found a lot to pick apart in this game, but let me say I really liked it. It has a lot of soul packed into that little demo. Try not to let your plot take such rapid jumps in story progression and develop an eye for quality control. Take gameplay more seriously, and do come back again with this.

Posts

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I agree mostly with this review as I've played through some of the game. I was going to review the game a long time ago or at least write a long winded comment but I guess now is better than never.

Main problem I have with this game is the story. It deals with a lot of big issues like LOLFANTASYRACISM, marriage, and radical rebellions yet there's this awkward pacing about it that doesn't quite lift it. The marriage scene for example seemed really forced in a "welp better get these to together for whatever plot reason, fuck any romance progression" idk man, I'm going to be honest to say I laughed when I realized the 2 characters were getting married seconds before the game even began. I can see the marriage thing working out if it took a little longer and had better reasons than just "oh well in order to get on this island you have to marry me TEE HEE" or something. Also if you want the characters to be already married so soon I'm hoping you'll make the relationship actually have a constant conflict. Movies like Heat where Robert De Niro's character is constantly trying to balance his job with his slightly fucked up family really works to add tension even to an established marriage.

Poliester was my favorite character in the game. He is very bizarre and riddling. Can't say I have seen anyone quite like him.


I disagree. I've seen so many anime characters replicate this "ohhh so he thinks death and destruction is like.. fun" His dialogue is really cringe-worthy and almost useless. http://rpgmaker.net/games/1320/images/6039/ lines like this made me head desk. Who would talk like this in this particular setting? Please actually make the way he speaks a little more interesting than some 12 year old in an MMO.

As you can tell I don't have an overly positive opinion on this game but at least it has the honor of wearing the "different" badge. Because it certainly is different from most RM games I've played, usually it's favorable to have good execution in order the game to be good. But hey at least it has something. I was at least entertained until after they got married on were on that island. Not sure how you'll deal with most of the complaints I've had but I certainly would like to see how you do!

But yeah I don't see this as a huge train wreck or anything. It definitely can be improved.
Thanks for the review, and yeah, I am am aware of some of these plot holes and such. Also I do hope to do something to help gameplay out, for that is definitely not my strong suite.
And Darken I can see where you are going on that. Perhaps I could've done a better job spacing out some of the conflicts, especially the marriage one.
And yeah, I thought Poliester's dialogue during that scene was clever, but the more I look at it, I do see your point.
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