Under World 3

The RMN Journey - Episode 1 - Under World 3; Action-RPG by moam

General Rating

Gameplay - (+++)
Story - (+)
Characters (+NPC) - (++)
Graphics - (+)
Music/Sound - (++)
Discovery - (+++)
Quests - (++)
Layout - (+)
Skills/Skillsystem - (++)
Items/Itemsystem - (++)
Bugs - (++)

Welcome to the first entry in a Series of Reviews I plan to continue throughout my visit of rpgmaker.net, "The RMN Journey". Today we're looking at a game I had alot of fun with, the second sequel of the "Under World"-Series. Technically this game was released before the first one was, so it is the second Game released by moam.





First Impression

So I'm cruising around RMN, searching for games to play. I'm a little tired of reading over-ambitious dialogue of complicated and poorly explained lore. Turn-Based systems were the majority in the last couple weeks, so I don't really search for anything like that.

This is when I stumble across a game called "Under World". Right away I am suspicious. It is an Action-RPG, therefor a realtime fighting system is to be expected, which is done poorly so often that it makes my mind tense up. So I played it and, big shock, had no issue with its fighting system whatsoever. More than that, the fighting system is the major focus of that game, everything else is downplayed in favor of it. So I got hooked.

Lucky me, there are 2 sequels. Playing through "Under World 2" I witness a more flashed out story, refined systems with the fighting being still a major focus.

And then the 3rd game happened. The soothing silently-epic Music greets me. I already rushed and slashed my way through two games so this is welcomed warmly. A hill, a dude, some mist. The Journey can begin. After some (minor) reading exercise I can walk around. Chests and Books beside them are all over the place. Who put them there? Of no concern.


The tutorial is free roam, you can take your time getting used to the controls whenever they're explained, you can re-read them as often as you want. While this is exactly how a tutorial should be, the systems are not difficult to grasp, especially having played the previous games. I continue my journey.



Gameplay

The major focus of any Under World game is the fighting. While in this 3rd installment many systems have been refined or reinvented, the fun comes from this. It is a Rush&Slash system, where you press the Action-Key while walking in one direction causing the Character to rush forward and slash through the enemy.


While this stands true throughout the previous games, here it is really not quite the fulfilling representation of the way you can fight. After all, there are actually 5 different kinds of fighting you can pursue.

Aside from the classic Rush&Slash, you can equip a bow to shoot at your enemies from afar with an option of rushing away from them, you can use magic to reinforce yourself, your attack, or to just lay waste to your enemies. You can even go Bruce Lee and learn the Martial arts of doing punch combos or you can become a shapechanger with a repertoire of different creatures you can become with each of them having different traits and skills.


You specialize in either fighting style via the Skillsystem which will be discussed a little later, of course it is up to you to decide if you want to pursue a double-career or if you want to reinforce a fighter with alot of mana so that he can heal himself more often.

Aside from the fighting there is also a share of Mini-Games (found in the Skill Mansion) and alot of socializing and discovery to pursue, though the most satisfying experience is still defeating enemies your style.



Story and Cutscenes

Since the second installment already introduced a more fletched out story it is not surprising to find that alot of care was put into it this time around. The main difference between this and other games is, that the story focuses on the necessary and ditches overanalizing or overexplaining things.

Nontheless, since it was never the true focus one cannot talk about a groundbreaking revelation of a story. However it holds everything together and we know what we're doing and why we're doing it. Actually, story-wise the character should be in a bit of a rush, but in reality you want to search for secrets, ring-combinations, help people out with more or less shadowy tasks and you want to loot their stash of things whose location they openly tell you if they like you enough.

If one, however, really doesn't care one bit about the story and wants to just continue playing, the developer had the curtosy to include a way to skip each and every cutscene that spans longer than 10 seconds.


The cutscenes themselves are done right, no issues of bad coding are present. Really, a rather solid presentation is what we find.



Characters

Now the Main-Characters and personalities of Non-Player-Characters are a different story. The Motivation of the former is not only clear but also keeps room for emphasizing. Flashbacks and their reaction to different situations show us who these people are and that the crazyness that happens around them is shacking them. The Main-Character however seems to lack a certain amount of advancement and evolution. He never seems to be angry and he is always kinda naive.

The strong point in Characters really comes from all the different dudes and maids you can socialize with in the cities you visit. Some of them are intertwined, others are rather shadowy and some are nowhere short of being crazy. Each of the three cities presents certain personalities, from the ambituous mage-girl who's trying hard to get this ring-combination right while next to her is a cleric-women who wants you to kill her because she's supposed to be evil. If you decide to follow through with killing her, the mage-girl shows resemblance to a figure called "The Lady of Pain", though rather like an imposter.


One thing that is sure however is that most of the people you meet you will be able to differentiate from oneanother and probably even remember certain people depending on your reaction to them.

Either you love them or you hate them you will not ignore them.



Graphics

Let us be honest, if you've played your share of recent games, especially RPGs, this game is not what you call an "eyecatcher". It is more of a good example how to use a rather limited share of recourses to get it done in a satisfying way.

From a traditional aspect, the towns are very distinctive, the atmosphere is sold through the different enemies, especially the more demon-like ones later on, the self-drawn Bosses, while a little out of place most of the time, are still a good example of gameplay over graphics. Also one must admit that it shows a sense of creativity if you can design, draw and include such huge enemies yourself.


By the way, this image is flat out stolen from the image-gallery of Under World 3, since I had no footage of any boss fight since I was busy fighting them. This one in particular is difficult but exciting and presents a certain way of defeating it which is not the usual "hit it with your sword until it stops moving". No, really, you should do everything you can not to touch this enemy at all. Or his death ray... ouch..



Music and Sound

The Music is fittingly implemented into various situations, the BGM folder is rather huge. While personal preference will decide which is your favorite theme I'm sure you will easily make your pick. A mixture of midi tracks from different games and unknown ones as well as a few mp3s allow for good audio.

My personal favorite is the theme of the Skill-Mansion (explained further below)



Soundeffects like hitting an enemy with the sword are effectively used to increase the excitement whenever you slash an enemy.
Nothing I could complain about here.



Discovery

The other strongest point of this game shows that this is made for people like me with excessive OCD.

Joking aside I spent so much time just searching for whatever there is to explore and that is surprisingly much given that the story itself is mostly linear. The 3 cities that the player will visit are full of new things to discover, new stuff to buy (including Magic, Shapechanges, Weapons and Armor), people to meet and ring combinations to find.


Even the Level up process is one huge expedition into the rediculously huge Mansion, with Mini-Games, rare ingredients and unique skills everywhere.

The game rewards you for your curiousity and you will be at an significant advantage if you pay attention to detail, which will even allow you to breeze through some sections on hardcore-difficulty.



Quests

The MainQuest is simple enough: Find out what the hell is going wrong, who is responsible and kill him. Though easy in concept it is not always clear who the villain is or how to come to terms with him. Really, the Mainquest is just an excuse to let you go places so you can play around with your skills and kill stuff.

The Sub-quests are where you will spend alot of your time in cities, since everybody on this friggin' planet cannot do anything without you. You're basically Jesus, really. Except that Jesus would refuse to go steal stuff for someone to get some demonic transmutation scroll. Though he may do it for friendship...


Either way, the amount of little quests to do as well as your personal quest of getting customers for your shops go hand-in-hand. Your real goal will either be to amount enough money to get the gear you want or to get some extra special Item from somebody. Also, stealing is rewarding anyway.



Layout

The Layout is fine. Some might say that there is alot of empty space, which may be a good thing or a bad thing. It definetly helps with the battles that there is not too much stuff in the way, except if it is part of the challenge (in rare occasion you have to flee from something vicious and have to maneuver the field.

A few issues rarely came up as I played, where I got stuck on a stone in a cave while fighting without being able to escape from it, since I finished the fight when it happened and the rush-function was locked for the moment. This becomes a non-issue ones you get your telekinesis skill with which you can move around pretty much anything except trees.

All in all nothing bad, but sometimes one wished that the cities were not zelda-like sectors but complete one-maps.



Skills and Skillsystem

This is an example of how a simple idea (from Under World 1) turns into an evolution of itself. Leveling up is semi-automatic, skillselection is not. Whenever you kill an enemy you are awarded with EXP based on the monster and difficulty (adjustable anytime with the D-Key). These you cannot spend right away, but have to wait for the episode to end. Once it ends you "Level Up!" and are presented with (*dramatic Que*) the Mansion.


The Mansion itself it exactly that, a huge building with shiny red, blue and yellow orbs on pedastals and floating rectangular cubes blocking different paths. These cubes vanish with a certain amount of skill points spent, which you do by picking a skill by picking an orb and confirming the "purchase" for a certain amount of EXP.

Red Orbs stand for physical damage (melee or ranged), personal prowess (rush-speed, Life Points) and its share of unique skills.
Blue Orbs stand for Mind-focused Skills (magic and mana) and such that affect Shapechangers and also its share of unique skills.
Yellow Orbs stand for the Brawler-class skills (punch-combos and stamina) as well as social/personality skills (charisma, hagling, luck)


Included are also Doors that lead to Mini-Games which, if successfully finished, provide additional EXP to spend. Some shiny plants pop up one time in some rooms which provide rare ingredients for Ring-Crafting.

The Skillsystem while easy to grasp requires the player to think about which skills to get, so it will be necessary to decide which set of skills are most important for personal fighting style. The freedom of choice allows for complete customization which might actually proove difficult for some people. Nontheless, great concept.



Items and Itemsystem

Items. What can you say about Items? There are many, and in contrast to the traditional "new shop, stronger equipment" there was put more thought into what Items can do. A Hammer to ignite barels, which then explode on the enemy, staffs that can cast magic of their own, shields that allow to teleport away from the enemy. Melee-Weapons tend to in- or decrease the rush-range depending on their type or heavyness. Armor protects lifepoints, but wears down and has to be repaired to be used again, which is why one should have more than one armor with him. The same amount of detail can be found with magic and Shapechange.


Another thing is the Crafting which is the only way to aquire rings which are equipped to their own slot. These rings have different benefits, from decreasing Mana-depletion to protect from exhaustion (low-stamina). To craft those one uses a rather reasonable amount of ingredients in different combinations which are found an the floor of some buildings, on torn-out papers or are given as questreward.


The crafting system itself however is clunky and it takes longer to craft a ring than it should. Since one will probably quickly decide which ring he wants to use, since ingredients are rather rare, this issue isn't as painful as it could be. Either way, the system is usable and another entry on the long list of features this game provides. An easier to use system which allows to pick ingredients from a list would have been nice though.



Bugs

This game is mostly bug-free. The few bugs that are present are as follows:

1 Ring-Combination that can be aquired in the very beginning doesn't work. Also, some ring-effects (like unlimited stamina) work fine on normal but loose their power on hardcore difficulty, in comparison the spell that does the same thing works on either difficulty.

1 Side-Quest in Town 3 can, depending on the choices the player made, not be finished due to absence of another NPC after solving her Quest.

Due to the need to prohibit the player of using his rush (Action-key) on some occasions there is an unlikely possibility of being stuck if a certain story-line skill has not been aquired yet.

Nothing gamebreaking. Since Savepoints are omnipresent it is also very unlikely to send anyone back in frustration if something unexpected would happen.



Conclusion

This game is two things:

Fun.

And a perfectionists nightmare or dream-come-true depending on angle.

This is an overall very good game and hope I could showcase why in a manner that will lead to you giving it a chance. Kill some demons now, will ya?

I also suggest to play the previous games as the included features with each new game are easier to process that way.

Final Verdict: 4.5/5

Greetings,
Krolan
The Twisted