Koli's Sorrow

Introduction

"Koli's Sorrow" is a game that's difficult to compliment in my opinion. This is largely because the game's flaws are so glaringly apparent that it tends to drown out any of the game's more positive qualities. Albeit, the few areas of this game that aren't outright terrible are simply average. As such the overall quality of this game ranges from "meh" to unrelentingly bad.

Story

On the story side of things the game tries to keep it's hand close to its chest throughout much of the early adventure. Sadly, this doesn't really work to the game's advantage in my opinion. This is because the game's combat is rather bland and boring. As such the game really needed a central cast of interesting characters in order to keep the player interested in the adventure; even if they'll be bored to tears when it comes to fighting the next boss. Sadly, this game really doesn't have any interesting characters in my opinion, and by the time the developer attempts to turn this around with a few plot twists. It's too little, too late in order to catch my interest.

Gameplay

"Koli's Sorrow" features your standard turn-based combat system found in a lot of RPG Maker games. As such the combat in this game is rather unremarkable. Sadly, this category isn't simply "meh" though. If anything, the combat in this game is downright frustrating when it comes to the bosses. This is because almost all of the bosses in this game tend to have rather high HP levels while also being vulnerable to negative status conditions like sleep, stun, or paralysis. As such the bosses tend to just sit their helplessly trapped by a negative status condition while the player spends 10 to 20 minutes whaling away on them until they go down. As such, none of the major boss battles in this game are particularly enjoyable, and to make matters worse. The bulk of your time in this game will be spent fighting bosses. So much so, that the only regular enemy that stands out is the one that appears in the distorted world. Since, it will pop up so many times while your trying to clear that area that you'll want to pull your hair out.


Not even the final form of the the final boss is immune to status effect locking.

Graphics

On the graphical side of things "Koli's Sorrow" features a few interesting mapping choices. Of course, interesting in this context largely refers to poorly designed maps then maps that are so amazing that they'll simply blow your mind. Outside of a few mapping issues, the game features your usual staple of RTP compiled tiles and enemies. As such, there isn't anything particularly interesting happening with this game from a visual perspective. Though, I suppose not ever game can be as amazing as "Dictionary" when it comes to this topic.

Bugs


If you exit this area from the South you'll be warped on top of a building from a previous area. Thankfully, you don't get stuck on top of that building, but it does return you to the area where you fight Blood Artemis and resets the boss fight if you'd taken it out previously. As such, you can fight the second to last boss in this game as many times as you want.

Conclusion

In short, "Koli's Sorrow" is a game that isn't rewarding to play through. As mentioned above the game features a lot of boss battles, but almost all of the bosses in the game can be easily shut down by status effects like sleep, stun, or paralysis. As such, most of the bosses in this game simply spend their time in battle soaking up hits like a sponge soaks up water. As such, most of the boss battles in this game are extremely boring and leave the player unfulfilled. And as I've stated in previous reviews and Let's Plays. I shouldn't have to hold back in a game in order to have fun with it. As such, I can't really recommend this for people looking for an old school dungeon cralwer. And the game has so little going for it story wise. I can't really recommend it for that reason either. As such, I'd largely suggest for people to simply skip over this game and move onto something else like "Luxaren Allure" or "Devil Hunter: Seeker of Power".