Epsiteria: The Holyword

This is the game I picked for the Secret Santa Review 2010! Event. This it not the kind of game I would willingly play in general, but I was open to any experience luck provided me, cause that was what random secret reviews is all about.

I want to start off by saying I did not finish the game, and I’m sorry for that. I really wanted to. I don’t like reviewing games without finishing them. But there’s a weird bug that made the UP arrow constantly pressed inside the game, forcing my party to move up and get me stuck at some point. It had happened to me once playing The Blue Contestant. It’s probably an RM bug, and it’s only fixed by restarting my computer. The thing is I was in the middle of a very big dungeon with a very complicated switch puzzle, and I had walked a very very very long and broad map to get there (twice). So I really don’t want to do it again. I had played the game for 3h already, so I think I’m ok to write a review.

Epsiteria: The Holyword is a very traditional RPG made in RPGMaker VX, using RTP graphics, RTP music, default-ish systems and a somewhat generic story. I have to say, I didn’t like this game very much. This is not my kind of game, and even within this kind of game, there’s just not much attractiveness in Epsiteria. But I didn’t hate the game either, it does have its strong points. I’ll try not to make this review a witty bashful one, and focus on making it constructive.

Shall we?

Story
You start as Rylo, a young guy sent to Magic School by his parents as a family tradition. The thing is, he doesn’t like Magic School, he’d rather spend his time on the Fight Club, beating other punks’ asses. His parents are initially shocked by his decisions, but they eventually come around. In one of Rylo’s fights, he ends up beating a guy too badly, and the guy dies after the fight (though it’s not clear if Rylo actually killed him). Rylo gets arrested for that crime. He escapes from jail with a half-crazy magic teacher called Tilo. They soon learn that the king and the royal guard are under the influence of... something EVIL. And they must stop this evil before it takes over the world.
As you can see, Epsiteria’s plot won’t blow you away. It’s very typical (I’m avoiding the word cliché, but... yeah). The good thing is, the game doesn’t focus on story much. There aren’t many dialogs, many plot events, or anything for that matter. The story won’t pull you, but it won’t push you from the game either. Some dialogs are actually mildly charming, especially in the beginning of the game.
What I recommend: Having few dialogs and cutscenes was actually a good thing. But it makes your game’s story nothing more than an excuse to battle and explore. The thing is, there are just so many other cool premises you could use as excuses... like “find your lost sock”, or “brew a potion to heal your sick dog”, or “find the identity of your birth parents”. Any of those would have worked just fine. The lack of dialogs and cutscenes makes the viability of such premises even bigger. Anything but “save the world from evil just because”, ok?

Graphics
This game uses RMVX RTP. Maps are not hideous, but they lack detail and are somewhat weirdly constructed. No real sense of aesthetics here. Inside the battles, monster sprites are taken from various sources with no real style consistency, but it didn’t bother me much. Well, graphics are just not very interesting, but they’re ok.
What I recommend: Smaller maps with more detail. Cooler-looking monsters, maybe.

Sound and music
Defaultlike stuff going on here. Music is overall fitting, doesn’t get annoying or repetitive.
What I recommend: Nothing really. Maybe a catchier battle theme?

Battles
Battles in this game are touch-based, which is good. Monsters are very easy to avoid, which is also good. The battles start very very easy, and they get more balanced with time, which is really good. The experience curve of the characters was also very balanced. I also like the fact that battles were turn-based (no ATB), and you could see monsters’ HP bars onscreen all the time. I guess the only problem with battles was... they existed. I mean, no, not really. The problem with them is that they were mostly attack-button-mashing. Skills were seldom useful (apart from healing ones), and there were not many. I don’t have a clear stand when it comes to battles, cause I don’t like difficult or complicated battles, but when they’re too straightforward, they bore me.
What I recommend: I don’t know. I guess the only thing that makes me like battling and grinding is character customization.

Characters
There are 7 members in the party total, and you soon get to have them all. You can switch party members any time, Rylo being fixed. There are three kinds of characters: fighter, healer and offensive-magic user. The fact that they’re not so different is good because you get to pick characters you sympathize with the most. Characters also gain experience even when they’re not being used, meaning no one will ever get useless after some time out of the party.
There aren’t many dialogs, and the very few attempts at character development fail, because they are all very bland and empty. With the possible exception of Rylo himself, who had some anger management issues going on.
What I recommend: If you’re using RTP (meaning you can’t make your characters graphically interesting) and you don’t want to have many dialogs, have each character follow a stereotype: the angry one, the silent one, the witty one, the grumpy one, and whatever. That’s not real character development, but it will make them all not look the same.

Pacing
Epsiteria has one major pacing problem: the maps are big. Huge. Gigantic. And empty. And there’s no world map. So basically, if you want to go from A to B, you have to walk a lot. And if you want to go back from D to A (which may happen), you have to walk A LOT. Considering these walks happen on empty maps and are mostly eventless (apart from easily avoidable battles), it’s just pointless and boring.
There is no real exploration in this game, as there are barely any hidden items and chests. Chests are extremely disappointing, because they almost never contain anything other than the cheapest healing items. Speaking of hidden items, there was a switch bug in the game that made me get infinite Redmists and Violetmists at some inn. I didn’t use them, it felt like cheating. But yeah, there are no useful items anywhere in the game but shops. Shop items are well balanced and nicely paced.
There is just so much emptiness in this game. At the magic school, there is an entire floor full of classrooms. The corridor map is big, and each classroom takes up a full screen of space. All classrooms are completely empty but one. Still, a normal player would check all of them to see if he’s missing something. He’s not. There’s just a lot of time wasting on empty maps.
The pacing of the story itself is ok, there are not many dialogs of cutscenes, but they are just frequent enough to make you not feel lost.
One thing I hated, and in a way made me quit the game: lack of save points. Inns were not that frequent. I hate rare save points. Hate hate hate.
The progression of battle difficulty was nice and balanced. But it was tricky because sometimes I felt like skipping battles, but enemies on the next area would be too hard. My fault though.
Overall, the game doesn’t change much as you progress. Party characters are all thrown at you at the beginning, so you shouldn’t expect to find new party member along the way. There are not many new items, not many story events (and the ones that happen aren’t really interesting), and areas pretty much all look the same. So sometimes it feels like you’re not progressing in the game, not going anywhere. I really don’t know if I was 30%, 50% or 80% through the game.
I should also mention that there aren’t many WAIT commands in the game, a mistake many games make. Transitions in this game are usually fast, which is great.
What I recommend: Smaller maps. Smaller maps. Smaller maps. Did I mention... smaller maps? It would make everything better.

Overall
This game is not technically horrible, it’s got its flaws as well as its strong points, and there are many things about it which should be more common in traditional RPGs. The real problem with it is its utter lack of charm. Any of the flaws I mentioned could be easily forgiven if there was SOMETHING about the game that made me WANT to play it. But there was nothing. No inspiring story, no pretty graphics, no addictive systems, no appealing characters. I’m afraid I’ll have to let this game fall into the “hey, I can make an RPG too!” category.
What I recommend: No one is ever good at everything, so take one particular aspect of the game (story, battles, custom systems or whatever) and really try to make your game stand out with it. There are just so many games around here (1102 at the moment to be exact), and there’s got to be a reason why someone would play YOUR game, in detriment of any of those.