8 Bit Quest

8-Bit Quest is a puzzle game created by X-Tech in RPG Maker 2003. As a puzzle game, the gameplay is the most important part, but there are other aspects that make a whole game so I will be scoring based on the sum of those parts. There will be spoilers for content, and the video will go into more detail than the written information below it.



Graphics are well used and what rips there are fit the style of DE's graphics quite well. There is some puzzling at the use of empty doors but they make sense in the context of the game, and overall the menus, sprites and chips work well together. I do wish the window had been more 8-bit in style to fit, but it isn't a bit detraction.

Sound was pretty good and fit really well. It didn't drown out the game but the tunes used were pumping enough that they worked well as background to such a high-energy game.

Writing needed a lot of work, sadly, and since this is more of a story-driven game than most puzzle games, it's important that it fits the rest of the game. There are a multitude of errors and while I understand that the developer is not natively English, it shouldn't take much to ask for someone to check over the script for the most glaring errors and fix them for the sake of clarity. I wasn't sure if it was intended for parts of the plot to make no sense or if it was due to badly worded sentences, but there were some points that came off as very strange.

That said, the gameplay is quite fun and adds a twist to the old Pacman style of gameplay. There are some minor issues, though - mainly that the balance is a bit off, starting you with some harder and more obscure puzzles. There also needs to be a bit of explanation about items and their use, but overall the gameplay itself is interesting and though I'm not great at Pacman-style games, I appreciate the effort that went into creating varied types of the puzzle, including such things as timed puzzles, enemy killing and traps to avoid.

Overall the game is quite good and even though I got frustrated and didn't finish it, I still had a lot of fun. I'm giving it 3.5 stars. Fix up the writing some more and balance the puzzles a little and I'd definitely give it a solid 4.