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A rough diamond in need of some dusting
Crimson_Legionnaire- 12/03/2010 04:22 AM
- 2101 views
Disclaimer - A Dust Tale's playable demo is merely a teaser - an affair which will take you no more than half an hour, at the most. This "review" is more or less feedback for the demo. Please, do take into account that this is more or less a tool for the creator.
At first glance, the game's presentation is almost impeccable. The creator presents the controls and gameplay elements to you in a way that's reminiscent of commercial games. The menu is an edit of FFXIII's menu, but it is very clean and sleek. If you're new to RPG Maker games or have become jaded by too many medieval fantasy games, the interface here in this Sci-Fi adventure certainly won't scare you away, as everything is neatly in place and rather simple to grasp. The game even streamlines the aspect of exploration, pointing you to areas of interest without wasting your time. Judging on your personal preference, however, this could be a good or bad thing.
There are some aspects here that need attention, though. Sometimes, messages would cut off at the end of the window, like what happened during the second scripted battle. Secondly, punctuation needs a bit of work as well, such as this -
"If a path or door does not have an arrow, it means you cannot go through it." Fixed. Also, contrary to popular belief, cannot is perfectly acceptable.
I found many errors in the demo. Fix them. I'm not an English professor, nor am I the greatest writer in the world, but if this were improved to a respectable degree, I would be okay with that. Also, work on removing many of those ellipses (. . .). More often than not, their inclusion is entirely unnecessary.
After reading about all the lag, I only encountered a bit of it in the cargo hold. Combined with the mediocrity of my computer and the shoddy programming of VX, I probably had it easier than most. Still, it can be jarring for some players.
This is awesome, but if I were to be really nitpicky, I would say Olaf's portrait needs to be a little more centered within the right border.
Gameplay & Balance
There's not much to this demo except battles, which were a mixed bag. If you're going to heal your player's party after every battle, produce some more engaging encounters. The miners were easy to dispatch, while it was hardly difficult to abuse the machines' vulnerability to a certain attack and spam the hell out of it *coughOverloadSabercough*. While the Reload and Recharge commands are novel, their implementation may need some limits. There is no danger to ever wasting your ammo or battery, since those two commands were always there when you needed them. I propose a limit on those commands, since it's very easy to abuse them. Maybe an item or two that would replenish the need for those two commands, or an overload/cooldown feature.
Perhaps there's another limit you can impose on these commands that I have not described, but really, they take the challenge away. There's no need to make your game "uber" difficult or insanely easy, but as it is, some tweaking is appreciated. Some of the skills were useless as well, such as Bullet Time, which I never used, but this could be because of the lack of difficulty in battle.
Level Design
Solid enough. Although interactivity within the environment was incredibly sterile, mapping as a whole was satisfactory. However, there were a few graphical errors within the maps, such as this -
Can you spot the graphical errors? I can count at least three.
A little bit of tile editing should do the trick. Otherwise, level design is acceptable.
Character & Plot
For now, I will not elaborate extensively on this area, since this was just the Prologue. Some of the characters, particularly Edward and Jonny, seemed a bit bland. The dialogue is a bit dry and I can hardly differentiate between the two main characters in terms of their personality. I know this a prologue, but give them more to work with. They were too stiff and it seemed like the characters really wanted to get out of their shell, but the dialogue written would have none of it. Even their stock messages after victory can use a bit of touch-up, especially since they repeat the same line after every victory.
Apparently, these guys aren't human. They can neither break a sweat nor say something different after every victory.
Paying attention to small details like that can only benefit your game and further immerse your players into the story and lore.
Overall, I'd really like for this game to be completed, and with some very important improvements over the presentation, balance, visual consistency, and characters, this Space Opera could very well become a contender in the future, provided the creator spend some time tweaking and improving every aspect of the game from here on. It certainly has caught my eye.
+ Good Presentation so far
? The foundations for the gameplay aren't sound, but there is potential here
- Characters need a bit of work
At first glance, the game's presentation is almost impeccable. The creator presents the controls and gameplay elements to you in a way that's reminiscent of commercial games. The menu is an edit of FFXIII's menu, but it is very clean and sleek. If you're new to RPG Maker games or have become jaded by too many medieval fantasy games, the interface here in this Sci-Fi adventure certainly won't scare you away, as everything is neatly in place and rather simple to grasp. The game even streamlines the aspect of exploration, pointing you to areas of interest without wasting your time. Judging on your personal preference, however, this could be a good or bad thing.
There are some aspects here that need attention, though. Sometimes, messages would cut off at the end of the window, like what happened during the second scripted battle. Secondly, punctuation needs a bit of work as well, such as this -
"If a path or door does not have an arrow, it means you cannot go through it." Fixed. Also, contrary to popular belief, cannot is perfectly acceptable.
I found many errors in the demo. Fix them. I'm not an English professor, nor am I the greatest writer in the world, but if this were improved to a respectable degree, I would be okay with that. Also, work on removing many of those ellipses (. . .). More often than not, their inclusion is entirely unnecessary.
After reading about all the lag, I only encountered a bit of it in the cargo hold. Combined with the mediocrity of my computer and the shoddy programming of VX, I probably had it easier than most. Still, it can be jarring for some players.
This is awesome, but if I were to be really nitpicky, I would say Olaf's portrait needs to be a little more centered within the right border.
Gameplay & Balance
There's not much to this demo except battles, which were a mixed bag. If you're going to heal your player's party after every battle, produce some more engaging encounters. The miners were easy to dispatch, while it was hardly difficult to abuse the machines' vulnerability to a certain attack and spam the hell out of it *coughOverloadSabercough*. While the Reload and Recharge commands are novel, their implementation may need some limits. There is no danger to ever wasting your ammo or battery, since those two commands were always there when you needed them. I propose a limit on those commands, since it's very easy to abuse them. Maybe an item or two that would replenish the need for those two commands, or an overload/cooldown feature.
Perhaps there's another limit you can impose on these commands that I have not described, but really, they take the challenge away. There's no need to make your game "uber" difficult or insanely easy, but as it is, some tweaking is appreciated. Some of the skills were useless as well, such as Bullet Time, which I never used, but this could be because of the lack of difficulty in battle.
Level Design
Solid enough. Although interactivity within the environment was incredibly sterile, mapping as a whole was satisfactory. However, there were a few graphical errors within the maps, such as this -
Can you spot the graphical errors? I can count at least three.
A little bit of tile editing should do the trick. Otherwise, level design is acceptable.
Character & Plot
For now, I will not elaborate extensively on this area, since this was just the Prologue. Some of the characters, particularly Edward and Jonny, seemed a bit bland. The dialogue is a bit dry and I can hardly differentiate between the two main characters in terms of their personality. I know this a prologue, but give them more to work with. They were too stiff and it seemed like the characters really wanted to get out of their shell, but the dialogue written would have none of it. Even their stock messages after victory can use a bit of touch-up, especially since they repeat the same line after every victory.
Apparently, these guys aren't human. They can neither break a sweat nor say something different after every victory.
Paying attention to small details like that can only benefit your game and further immerse your players into the story and lore.
- - - - -
Overall, I'd really like for this game to be completed, and with some very important improvements over the presentation, balance, visual consistency, and characters, this Space Opera could very well become a contender in the future, provided the creator spend some time tweaking and improving every aspect of the game from here on. It certainly has caught my eye.
+ Good Presentation so far
? The foundations for the gameplay aren't sound, but there is potential here
- Characters need a bit of work
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CloseAll right, I give up.
I spot one graphical error after looking really hard (the vertical white paint line goes "over" the gray boxes at the bottom).
Where are the other ones?
Good review, though. A bit nitpicky in some parts, but some would say those are the best reviews haha.
(Of course others might say not)
I spot one graphical error after looking really hard (the vertical white paint line goes "over" the gray boxes at the bottom).
Where are the other ones?
Good review, though. A bit nitpicky in some parts, but some would say those are the best reviews haha.
(Of course others might say not)
What's with this lag you and the other reviewer are talking about in the Cargo Hold? I don't remember having lag at all!
@ Marrend: I only encountered a small amount of lag. The framerate dipped only a smidgen in that area. It disappeared when I encountered the boss, though. Like I said, my computer is mediocre, but it didn't give me too much trouble.
@ rabitZ: Graphical errors can mean anything. The one you spotted is the most noticeable. The second one is in the shading for the control panel-looking item near the entrance to the cargo hold (it looks off compared to the other tiles), while the third are shadows - there are hardly any. There are numerous light sources, but I don't see shadows. If there are any, they're really miniscule.
I will admit - I'm nitpicking in some areas, but only because I see immense potential in the game. Small details do count, imho.
@ rabitZ: Graphical errors can mean anything. The one you spotted is the most noticeable. The second one is in the shading for the control panel-looking item near the entrance to the cargo hold (it looks off compared to the other tiles), while the third are shadows - there are hardly any. There are numerous light sources, but I don't see shadows. If there are any, they're really miniscule.
I will admit - I'm nitpicking in some areas, but only because I see immense potential in the game. Small details do count, imho.
edumazieri
414
Well you were harsh, but that's just what I want, thanks a lot for taking your time to see such details that can easily be fixed and improve the "nitpicky" guys view of the game lol.
Anyway, the personality is something i was worried about, because my focus on making the prologue was... like a tutorial, you know? not supposed to be hard, in fact i reeeeeeally didn't want anybody dying and giving up. i mean, have you ever died on the first scene of a final fantasy game. that could frustrate people, specially since the save point is only on the boss area.
the battles will get much more "content" once the different classes, hero changing, and the maaaaany skills come into play. since the enemies are machines and edward doesnt do much dmg to machines the bullet time skill wasnt very useful, but think when you're fighting a bunch of soldiers having him spam his high dmg bullets in super fast turns is good ;D
there are tanks, psionics, status effects, buffs debuffs... i mean, i will try to make sure the game FOCUSES those things much more than focusing on regular attacks. Every game we play by mashing the confirm button to spam regular attacks and i want that to be different.
But i guess by the start of chapter one you will start to notice the kind of people they both are, jonny being more of a "self-testing" guy wanting to improve his abilities to be approved and maybe even envied by high society which usually represent his class of fighting. While edward has a troublesome intern conflict with the idea of officers sittin in desks while the soldiers die... he being the son of a marshall, highest ranking officer in the empire and hating his father for thinking he is just one more of those fat generals who send people to their slaughter for profit, so he rejects those positions and decides to go into action in the most suicidal team possible. eventually he'll have to become commander of something, which i won't spoil, and will have to make peace with the fact people's lives will be put in the line to save his own... anyway, its what i intend for them at least.
about the dialogues, well i'm not a native engligh speaker, i might be good at it, but i'm not perfect.... and its one thing i have only seen ONE and ONLY ONE GAME do it right. ABL was the only rpg maker game with good dialogues, in fact, most commercial games suck in dialogues if ur gonna be very picky lol so its for me the HARDEST of all parts to do... and i hope you understand it will take A LOT OF TIME before i come up with the final versions of all the lines. Oh, the lines gettin cut i have fixed already btw.
also most maps in the prologue are their first version, a lot of the objects i added as placeholders, specially in the scene you screenshot there lol, all those boxes are NOT SCI-FI AT ALL lol so they are just there until i make better objects... anyway i like simple designs i don't wanna be perfect and fill them up with objects that dont belong there just for the sake of filling...
the lag is computer dependant.. will be hard to fix since i dont experience any myself, i guess trying it in full screen would help tho. also will add a switch to lower some effects.
edit: sorry about the text after battle, that is the basic text that comes with the script. i have already added new ones lol.
Anyway, the personality is something i was worried about, because my focus on making the prologue was... like a tutorial, you know? not supposed to be hard, in fact i reeeeeeally didn't want anybody dying and giving up. i mean, have you ever died on the first scene of a final fantasy game. that could frustrate people, specially since the save point is only on the boss area.
the battles will get much more "content" once the different classes, hero changing, and the maaaaany skills come into play. since the enemies are machines and edward doesnt do much dmg to machines the bullet time skill wasnt very useful, but think when you're fighting a bunch of soldiers having him spam his high dmg bullets in super fast turns is good ;D
there are tanks, psionics, status effects, buffs debuffs... i mean, i will try to make sure the game FOCUSES those things much more than focusing on regular attacks. Every game we play by mashing the confirm button to spam regular attacks and i want that to be different.
But i guess by the start of chapter one you will start to notice the kind of people they both are, jonny being more of a "self-testing" guy wanting to improve his abilities to be approved and maybe even envied by high society which usually represent his class of fighting. While edward has a troublesome intern conflict with the idea of officers sittin in desks while the soldiers die... he being the son of a marshall, highest ranking officer in the empire and hating his father for thinking he is just one more of those fat generals who send people to their slaughter for profit, so he rejects those positions and decides to go into action in the most suicidal team possible. eventually he'll have to become commander of something, which i won't spoil, and will have to make peace with the fact people's lives will be put in the line to save his own... anyway, its what i intend for them at least.
about the dialogues, well i'm not a native engligh speaker, i might be good at it, but i'm not perfect.... and its one thing i have only seen ONE and ONLY ONE GAME do it right. ABL was the only rpg maker game with good dialogues, in fact, most commercial games suck in dialogues if ur gonna be very picky lol so its for me the HARDEST of all parts to do... and i hope you understand it will take A LOT OF TIME before i come up with the final versions of all the lines. Oh, the lines gettin cut i have fixed already btw.
also most maps in the prologue are their first version, a lot of the objects i added as placeholders, specially in the scene you screenshot there lol, all those boxes are NOT SCI-FI AT ALL lol so they are just there until i make better objects... anyway i like simple designs i don't wanna be perfect and fill them up with objects that dont belong there just for the sake of filling...
the lag is computer dependant.. will be hard to fix since i dont experience any myself, i guess trying it in full screen would help tho. also will add a switch to lower some effects.
edit: sorry about the text after battle, that is the basic text that comes with the script. i have already added new ones lol.
Was I really so harsh? O_O
Good to know. :) This was just my observation of the Prologue (tutorial, as you put it) area of the game, which was obviously not indicative of the final version. In the full game, I would expect more of what you described.
Very, very true. Are you Spanish, by chance, or from any of the Latin American countries? The dialogue is actually fair for a non-native English speaker, BTW. I'm not perfect either, but if you ever need any help, I'm available. It's perfectly understandable that it will take time. This is true of all things.
Oh, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Your mapping was satisfactory, as I mentioned in my review. However, I just pointed out some graphical errors which needed some attention. The full game will probably be far more polished.
My computer is mediocre, but there was only minimal lag in the cargo hold.
Anyway, I'm glad you did not take my comments to heart. I reviewed for the sake of improvement on your part, not to put your game down or anything. I see potential here, but ironing out the mechanics and polishing everything up for a future release is always for your benefit, as well as that of your potential players.
Oh, and if you were wondering about the "No Rating," there aren't any ratings not because of the quality of the game, but because I think ratings are useless.
edumazieri
Anyway, the personality is something i was worried about, because my focus on making the prologue was... like a tutorial, you know? not supposed to be hard, in fact i reeeeeeally didn't want anybody dying and giving up. i mean, have you ever died on the first scene of a final fantasy game. that could frustrate people, specially since the save point is only on the boss area.
the battles will get much more "content" once the different classes, hero changing, and the maaaaany skills come into play. since the enemies are machines and edward doesnt do much dmg to machines the bullet time skill wasnt very useful, but think when you're fighting a bunch of soldiers having him spam his high dmg bullets in super fast turns is good ;D
there are tanks, psionics, status effects, buffs debuffs... i mean, i will try to make sure the game FOCUSES those things much more than focusing on regular attacks. Every game we play by mashing the confirm button to spam regular attacks and i want that to be different.
But i guess by the start of chapter one you will start to notice the kind of people they both are, jonny being more of a "self-testing" guy wanting to improve his abilities to be approved and maybe even envied by high society which usually represent his class of fighting. While edward has a troublesome intern conflict with the idea of officers sittin in desks while the soldiers die... he being the son of a marshall, highest ranking officer in the empire and hating his father for thinking he is just one more of those fat generals who send people to their slaughter for profit, so he rejects those positions and decides to go into action in the most suicidal team possible. eventually he'll have to become commander of something, which i won't spoil, and will have to make peace with the fact people's lives will be put in the line to save his own... anyway, its what i intend for them at least.
Good to know. :) This was just my observation of the Prologue (tutorial, as you put it) area of the game, which was obviously not indicative of the final version. In the full game, I would expect more of what you described.
edumazieri
about the dialogues, well i'm not a native engligh speaker, i might be good at it, but i'm not perfect.... and its one thing i have only seen ONE and ONLY ONE GAME do it right. ABL was the only rpg maker game with good dialogues, in fact, most commercial games suck in dialogues if ur gonna be very picky lol so its for me the HARDEST of all parts to do... and i hope you understand it will take A LOT OF TIME before i come up with the final versions of all the lines. Oh, the lines gettin cut i have fixed already btw.
Very, very true. Are you Spanish, by chance, or from any of the Latin American countries? The dialogue is actually fair for a non-native English speaker, BTW. I'm not perfect either, but if you ever need any help, I'm available. It's perfectly understandable that it will take time. This is true of all things.
edumazieri
also most maps in the prologue are their first version, a lot of the objects i added as placeholders, specially in the scene you screenshot there lol, all those boxes are NOT SCI-FI AT ALL lol so they are just there until i make better objects... anyway i like simple designs i don't wanna be perfect and fill them up with objects that dont belong there just for the sake of filling...
Oh, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Your mapping was satisfactory, as I mentioned in my review. However, I just pointed out some graphical errors which needed some attention. The full game will probably be far more polished.
edumazieri
the lag is computer dependant.. will be hard to fix since i dont experience any myself, i guess trying it in full screen would help tho. also will add a switch to lower some effects.
My computer is mediocre, but there was only minimal lag in the cargo hold.
Anyway, I'm glad you did not take my comments to heart. I reviewed for the sake of improvement on your part, not to put your game down or anything. I see potential here, but ironing out the mechanics and polishing everything up for a future release is always for your benefit, as well as that of your potential players.
Oh, and if you were wondering about the "No Rating," there aren't any ratings not because of the quality of the game, but because I think ratings are useless.
edumazieri
414
well just commented to let you and the rest of the people know of the things i plan to add and fix about the game, i really appreciate the review and the feedback on the game
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