ONYX

Never, never NEVERRR... judge a book by its cover or an rpgmaker game by its graphics. This is an important lesson, since I usually play good looking games first, and then I discovered that I missed a gem like Onyx.

But how was my experience with this game? Let's find out:

The beginning that turned me off
Yes, the game hasn't a particularly exciting start. First thing: mapping is ok, average in some points and the chipsets used are decent... most of the time. I found weird that some buildings are modern outside, and then BAM you find the village interiors chipsets used inside. Ok, in many games like A Blurred Line there is a mix between sci-fi and fantasy resources, rural villages and cyber cities coexist, but this here was too odd, as I found also people dressed like middle age peasants in a modern city (also what is wearing the protagonist? Isn't he a normal guy from 2014?). And what made me confused is that the second city you'll visit is... far better! Both for mapping and charsets/chipsets used.
Ok. Well...
Also music is just average, but not bad.



Let's speak about combat: it's the usual front view battle already seen a thousand times. People complain that there is little balance, anyway I found it not too hard and I liked some fights, like the one with the "zombie family": they are all different, and the first time my party was annihilated! Anyway I confronted them again with the same party, not a level changed, and with some strategy, I was able to defeat them with little effort! Yes, because each character has a different specialization, be it combat, magic, healing, the ability to strike more opponents, and so on.

I am thankful for the detailed guide inside the game since it's very old school for some choices (i mean the dungeons with random encounters, for example), but I like that because I was forced to play this game.
By what?

Yes, what I really liked?
The story, of course... and what a Story!
This isn't your usual Final Fantasy ripoff or generic fantasy, it's a... no I won't spoil anything! But it's really different from most of the things I played.

But there are still a lot of many good things in this old classic, such as a great number of playable characters (the large cast is composed of many different and colorful individuale), some temporarily some not! A good number of different enemies (lots of heroes but lots of different villains too), dungeons, some not too difficult enigmas, and lots of dialogues. Humor and horror, funny and epic scenes... there's a bit of everything in Onyx.

Also, you can save anywhere, and this is something I always like!



So, how is Onyx?
In my opinion it's a good old style rpgmaker game. I found some typos ("Europoena" instead of European and a couple others I can't remember) and a couple of map errors (such as a stair that works like a corridor), and while I didn't like some chipset choice and the lack of facesets, I liked all the rest.
A lot.
This game spawned also a sequel, but I've still to try it, it's not the prettiest game (the author is the same of Mystery Man Zero, a great looking game, with far better mapping, sadly unfinished), still it's a good experience in my opinion. And it should be noted that there are no errors or game breaking bugs, so, while this is clearly one of the first works of the author, it really shines compared to many other complete games of the same period. And even some that came later.
Ok, a "modernization" of this game, with better maps would be nice, anyway this is a true classic that I still liked playing.
And I'm sure I am not the only one!