Weird Dreams

Intro

"Weird Dreams" is a short, turn-based RPG developed by Marrend using RPG Maker VX that was created for the 2011 Summer Games. A event held back in August of 2011. Albeit were going to be discussing the updated version of this game that was released after the contest was over in order to address some of the criticisms of the original release. A version I'll probably take a look at a later date in order to see which version is better in my opinion. At any rate the theme of the [2011 Summer Games was surrealism and I suppose discussing how well this game hits that theme is a good starting place.

The Theme

I'll admit I really don't think this game is surreal. It lacks the crazy imagery that tends to be associated with that genre such as this painting by Stephen Gibb.


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Surrealism tends to be associated with extremely weird imagery, but this game relies on the RTP and doesn't even use stuff it in a way that is off putting or confusing such as using tiles from numerous sets and areas in a mad hodge-podge. Instead it presents itself like everything is perfectly normal. The only thing about this game that does come across as a bit odd is that your character transforms a few times as you progress through the game, but you'll have to try a lot harder than that to come across as surreal in a day and age with shows about transforming magical girls and super villains that have more forms than I have digits on one-hand.



After all, the above image doesn't include Frieza's newest transformation of Black Frieza. I suppose one could argue the game sets itself up with a sense of Deja Vu with the player defeating the final boss only to try and eat breakfast and get another phone call about going to the cliffs, but it takes more than a time loop for me to think a game is surreal. After all, I've learned from the Doctor that time is a big ball of wibbly, wobbly, timey wimey stuff. And even if I ignored that the order of events in this game is so straight-forward that it doesn't even come across as weird. Though I suppose Marrend's goal was to make us wonder if everything happening in this game is part of one big dream, but the story isn't interesting enough in my opinion for the method he used here to actually work.

Story
Summary

You play as Francesca, a young woman, whose apparent dreams involve her climbing a mountain and defeating a demon lord that looks like one of her friends. And the story ends in a way that is meant to leave us wondering if anything that happens in this game is real as far as Francesca is concerned.

Greatest Strength/Weakness

I'll admit I really can't think of a strength this game has going for it beyond coming across as rather straight-forward for something that was aiming to be surreal. Though if I had to pick the game's biggest issue is that none of the characters in this game are defined all that well and their position in the story is flipped between friend to villain at the drop of a hat. As a result the story just comes across as highly random and makes it even harder to care about any of the characters.

Gameplay

As far as I'm aware this game relies entirely on the default combat system for RPG Maker VX. As such there really aren't any surprises her beyond the playing having access to an item command, but no way to purchase or acquire items. So it's inclusion in this game is entirely pointless. To make matters worse combat in this game is highly skill focused. So you'll be constantly spamming your best skills in order to defeat the various enemies as quickly as possible. In fact, my best advice for defeating the final boss is to ignore how much damage you've taken and simply spam Energy Beam until the final boss dies.

As a result combat in the enhanced version is both easy and highly boring. After all, it's not like your going to be at risk of dying at the hands of the enemies in this game unless you've entered a fight with both low health and no mana points to use your abilities.

Graphics

As previously mentioned this game relies heavily on the RTP for it's assets. As a result this game isn't that visually impressive. Add in some rather bland maps full of snow and your left with a game that isn't that fun to look at.

Sound

As far as I can tell this aspect of the game also relies on the RTP. So the game doesn't even stand out in this category as well. Though at least the music is used in ways that are acceptable. So this aspect of the game is mostly forgettable.

Conclusion

I'll admit I'm willing to cut this game some slack considering Marrend probably didn't spend the entire 30 days working on this game, but I still feel like this game really doesn't match the intended theme nor does it do anything particularity interesting. As a result my general opinion is you should just skip over this game. After all, there are much better turn-based RPGs on this site.