The Gathering... Tu-Lips Island

Intro

"The Gathering... Tu-Lips Island" is a turn-based RPG that was being developed by Kedanna using RPG Maker VX that never got past the demo stage. And I'm really not sure the demo itself was even worth dropping since the bulk of the content in the demo is being able to explore a few incomplete areas as well as engage in battles using the default combat system for RPG Maker VX. In other words while it'll probably take you around 30 minutes or so to explore Tu-Lips Island the amount of meaningful content on tap in this demo can be seen within the first few minutes.r RPG Maker VX.

Story
Summary

It appears you and your beloved were attacked by pirates. As a result of this attack your ship has sustained damage and is taking on water at an alarming rate. In order to address this issue you decide to sail to the nearby Tu-Lips Island for repairs. A decision that doesn't sit well with Jideth considering Tu-Lips Island is known to the outside world as that crazy sex island.



I guess this place is this universe's version of Poopiter or Planet XXX or That world that can't be mentioned in polite company in Futurama. Though considering know one gets slapped for saying it's name.



I guess it's more like the first two options than the last one. After all, it's real name is so filthy that it can't be uttered. At any rate after arriving at Tu-Lips Island you can find a few hints at potential quests but none of them go anywhere.

Humor

On the comedic side of things the game relies on dirty jokes such as the slimes being spilled cum or old men asking Jideth how much it costs to spend the night with her if you catch my drift. Or in some cases you have the proprietor of a whore house asking her if she wants a job. After all, she knows plenty of people that would love to do her.



As you can imagine this horny teenage humor is pretty cringe to say the least.

Greatest Strength/Weakness

Sadly I really can't offer a positive for this game at the moment. While it does have a few hooks setting up things for the player to investigate. None of these hooks actually go anywhere yet. As such there's no way to judge if the story would have at least featured decent pay-offs for the various quests you'd have to undertake. Though it's biggest weakness is pretty easy to decide on. It's incomplete state it's biggest problem is just how much this game feels like it was written by a sex obsessed teenager.

Gameplay

On the combat side of things the game relies entirely on the default combat system that comes with RPG Maker VX. As such I don't have anything to say about the game's underlying combat mechanics that hasn't been said before at this point, but for those that are unfamiliar with it. The combat system in RPG Maker VX is your bog standard turn-based RPG combat system where the deciding factor of who goes first during a turn is based on the character's speed stat.

In fact, the only notable thing about the demo is just how unbalanced combat is.
You can be wandering around in an area running across puddles of cum that can barely hurt you and then find yourself in combat with a pair of assassins that can tear your party a new butthole. To make matters worse the player doesn't start out with any skills. So a lot of your early fights are going to be just spamming the basic attack command until your enemies die. And even when you level up and start gaining spells. The only person that gains skills you'd want to potentially use in combat is Reiki who gets spells that potentially give him the ability to inflict negative status effects like poison, blind, or confusion on your enemies. And if your crazy enough to grind for an overpriced morning star for Jideth/Reiki you'll probably earn enough experience to get Reiki to level eight so he can learn his free multi-hit attack.

Graphics

The bulk of the graphical assets in this game are obviously from the RTP with the only obvious exception to this rule being Jideth's faceset. And while I don't have any issue personally with using the RTP. It's hard to deny that custom assets are always appreciated considering how many games have been made with the default assets over the years. Unfortunately the developer included a few maps in the demo that are full of "placeholder" assets. So a few of the maps are extremely ugly and showcase the developer using floor tiles as wall tiles.



Sound

On the sound side of things the demo also suffers in my opinion. This is because the game makes use of really ominous sounding music in the Orc Caves, but this music isn't justified in my opinion since the developer never scripted the horrible events that meant to take place there. So the highly ominous music just sounds out of place. And these sorts of issues apply to other areas of the game as well.

Conclusion

"The Gathering... Tu-Lips Island" is a demo project that really isn't worth taking a look at in my opinion. This is because the game is pretty devoid of story content. As a result you'll spend most of your time just aimlessly wandering around killing things. And at least if you were playing a completed game you could do that with a clear goal in mind. Plus the default combat system in RPG Maker VX is extremely basic. So it makes for fights that are rather boring as well if you've spent as much time on turn-based RPGs as I have over the years.