Oxtongue Heroes

Intro

"Oxtongue Heroes" is a turn-based strategy game that was being developed by DFalcon using Java. Unfortunately this game never got past the demo stage and is instead on an indefinite hiatus that seems to be a byproduct of the developer never being truly happy with the AI governing the actions of the enemy units.

DFalcon
In short, I didn't. I guess for brevity's sake I won't get into depth here. Despite occasional encouraging signs, I never got things on the AI to a point I was really happy with.

Oh well, I suppose I'll review what is here even if this project serves more as a tech demo for a bunch of ideas DFalcon had at the time he was working on this project.

Story
Summary

Sadly the demo doesn't have a story. We don't even get mission briefs for the four playable missions. A decision that makes the game feel a bit pointless since even when you win it's not clear what you accomplished. And if I wanted to play a game like that I'd go play some chess against the AI for Major Glory on easy difficulty in "Dexter's Laboratory: Chess Challenge". After all, the AI that controls Major Glory in that game is more than willing to trade his bishops and knights for pawns in that game on the easy setting.

Characters

Oddly enough the names of the playable cast in this game come from the list of names for the 1989 Atlantic hurricane season.

Allison	Barry	Chantal	Dean	Erin
Felix	Gabrielle	Hugo	Iris	Jerry
Karen	Luis	Marilyn	Noel	Opal
Pablo	Roxanne	Sebastien	Tanya	Van
Wendy

Albeit a few of these names went unused for the game such as Iris which is kind of disappointing since she would have obviously been an alchemist that lobbed bombs that unleashed various elements such as ice, fire, and lightning upon her enemies.

Gameplay

While the game does have some interesting ideas like a fatigue system. This system really doesn't feel all that realized within the confines of the demo since it only contains a couple of tutorial battles and four playable missions. Albeit the mission labeled the path always causes the game to crash on my computer. To make matters worse it failed one time after I delivered the killing blow on the final enemy. And when I tried to complete it a second time the game failed even sooner. As such, I've only been able to complete two of the missions. The one in the library I don't care for since I have no reason to protect a bunch of flags from hordes of enemies.

And some of the other systems present remind me of "Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth" to a certain extent such as moving limiting your attack options. Albeit that game allows the player to attack multiple times in a single turn. While this game hinders ranged units from both moving and attacking in the same turn almost altogether. Albeit the funny part is you have very little reason to move ranged units in this game since you'll typically be under near constant pressure from enemies rushing towards your starting position. So it's usually better to just let your ranged units sit near your starting position and begin sniping them as they move into range.

The game also mentions zones of control which I assume the developer got from board games like "Dungeons and Dragons". Albeit what this system does beyond show green squares for the player and red squares for the enemies is beyond me. I'll admit the tutorial doesn't explain it very well and it doesn't seem to do much during combat either. Though maybe I need to take another look at the tutorial on this system to get a better feel for it. Though, I suppose the need to view tutorials more than once in this game is kind of an indicator that the game needed better tutorials to explain some of the game's intended mechanics.

Though oddly enough the most interesting system in this game is probably the magic system. This is because your characters gather mana as you kill enemies. So your mages can only unleash their big spells after you've taken down a few enemies. This is definitely an interesting idea on how to limit the impact of magic in a game like this since classes that can throw around area of effect spells willy-nilly tend to be rather overpowered in games like this.

Though oddly enough the game doesn't seem to include any options for healing during combat. The only exception to this rule appears to be Erin who has an ability that allows her to absorb half of the damage she inflicts in order to restore her HP.

Graphics

Graphically this project is rather bare in a few places in terms of details, but considering this is more of a tech demo to get feedback on the game's combat system. I'm willing to look the other way as far as this area is concerned.

Sound

Sadly the game is dead quiet. There aren't even sound effects in this game when you use area of effect magic on your enemies. Nor is there any music running in the background to make what your doing feel important.

Conclusion

"Oxtongue Heroes" is a project that has some potential in my opinion, but I'll admit the lack of a narrative makes battles in this game feel rather pointless. A criticism I'm not alone in since even Dyhalto felt the need to point this out in the game's comment section. Though I suppose at the end of the day this issue no longer matters since this game is most likely dead in the water considering DFalcon hasn't been seen on this site for years.