Koli's Sorrow

This will sort of be my introduction here at RMN, I guess. I didn't see a thread for it anywhere and didn't want to post anything on the forums for a two-line topic. Anyway, here's the review.

Pointless game mechanics followed up by obvious design flaws and poor mapping.
Final Score: 2/5

Koli's Sorrow doesn't have a big pause before you have control of your character. Meaning, there isn't a long cut-scene or a few paragraphs explaining the events leading up to where the story is. Right away, you're in full control of your character. I consider this a good thing, especially with an RPG Maker project. There is just something about sitting there and watching a cut-scene that isn't really a cinematic experience.

When you arrive in the village of... right, the village is nameless. That's correct. Although a little weird, I believe it has some what of a serious relief to it. Whether it was meant to be or if it's just me, I found Koli's Sorrow to be pretty humorous. Anyway, you begin the game in the nameless town and right away you're introduced to the main character and some dead chick. Apparently the chick was killed by her husband or some non-sense and joins the party right away! How fun. She didn't even ask if you needed her.

After some very pointless dialogue and running around, you come to the fun stuff: dungeon-crawling. Whether it was the developer's intention or not you are constantly crawling through areas full of monsters and then at the end of the day fighting a boss. There are a slew of bosses. It becomes very repetitive pretty fast. Luckily, there are rewards and some are even pretty good. Basically, this is how it works:

Step 1: A few monsters fill a area, you hack n' slash your way through.
Step 2: You come to chest that'll give you an item to help you defeat the boss(es).
Step 3: Tortuously long battle that is full of using the same spell over and over and over and over.

When you do eventually win the battle, you're given some sort of reward (usually a weapon) that was magically crafted from a piece of the monster. This idea I like. Perhaps one of the best design pros I noticed. I like being rewarded before and after a boss fight, it's nice.

Continuing on to the mapping aspect of the game. Nothing really worth noticing here. The developer entirely uses RTP (I think, I hope) and it's sort of okay. I, personally, don't have anything against using the RTP but at least use it wisely and appropriately. I'm looking at you, Mr. Mountain being used as a border for a map. As I said, pretty much not noting but eh, it's not horrible.

Let's take a look at one of the key aspects of Koli's Sorrow, gameplay. Gameplay plays a huge role in this game. More than usual because it's full of gameplay features like teleporting to previous bosses, solving puzzles (even if it's by luck or chance (??)) and wrapping it all up with the talking bear being useful and the dead chick becoming useful.

After you defeat a boss, a teleport appears. You can then teleport back and forth via the teleport "pad" and revisit old boss areas. Cool, huh? Not really. There is absolutely no reason (that I saw) to revisit these areas unless you forgot a chest or something. Before you fight some bosses, a puzzle is required to be solved, even if it's running to one area and back to another or fighting two mini-bosses in order to face the big fellow. One of my favorite gameplay features is the talking bear. Yes, there's a bear. And it's helpful! The bear will give you a potion (or five) before you fight a boss which helps keep you alive, obviously.

The gameplay consists of fighting minions, encountering a boss and being rewarded before and after, and a talking bear. Those are the main notable features from the gameplay aspects. But, of course some may not like the bear and that's okay.

Some obvious design flaws here was the lack of what the developer was exactly doing. What's the point of all the boss battles just to advance the story? I didn't really see a main reason. If you like boss battles, at least tone down the HP of each one a little bit. Other design flaws are covered in the music and mapping sections.

Moving on to music, it's RTP. No big surprise here because most first attempts do the same thing. I didn't take any points away from this because I remember that it was hard for me to find music for my first game, too. The sound effects are pretty nice although they're RTP, probably. All in all, the music aspect isn't bad but it's not good. It's original but hopefully not familiar.

Finally, we encounter the story aspect of Koli's Sorrow. There is some dialogue that could've been removed because it was pretty pointless, I think. Adding extra lines that don't either: a) further immerse the player in the developer's world or b) explain directions and where or what to do next is not necessary. But, here's a basic run down of the game's story:

The story progresses as long as you continue to destroy bosses and their minions and eventually discover the reason for all the snow. A few twists occur like discovering that that one guy's wife is really the source of the evil and terror that turned the world to a polar bear's paradise. And of course discovering that you defeat one boss only to encounter another (or forty... thousand). The story is a little iffy but it begins to become more enjoyable as it continues, as the story is suppose to. I just wish it was enjoyable or interesting from the beginning.

I believe I covered everything and I doubt this will help the developer but hopefully it'll help the player to decider whether or not to give this game a try! If the developer, Storyteller, would like some tips or pointers for help with RMVX, well, I'm not the fellow. I review games, not make them.