Game Title: Atherion
Engine: RPG Maker VX
Status at review: Completed

Background:
While I want to eventually play all the Summer Game event entries, this one piqued my interest most. Why? To put it simply, it was because the team that made Averice was behind it.
As "Team Losers" has indicated that the game will have expanded content later on, note that this is a review of the 2011 Summer Games Event version of the game.


Graphics:
I suppose I could post screenshots of the astoundingly beautiful graphics that the game has (Full respect to Kirsanna!), but the "Images" tab, and the character introduction blogs, has this game covered. Or, I could just post the Alaria image:



Audio:
The majority of the pieces used in this game are from NewGrounds. They are woven together for an excellent listening experience, despite being from differing authors that may not have had this game in mind. There is also a piece from Rei- that works very well for the situation that it arises in.
On a personal note, I enjoy listening to "Ozarka is the Devil" most, followed by "Forest of the Damned" and "Rose at Meridiem".


Story:
Players take the role of Edan, a new student of A.R.C. (I can't precisely remember what that acronym stands for, but it could mean Arcane Research Center). At first, he is tasked to just find a tutor. Circumstances allow Edan to make his own decision (I get the impression that students are normally assigned tutors), and decides that he wants Flynn (who he innocently mistakes as a "famous" guy). Flynn, who wants nothing to do with him, tries to pass him on to his "old friend" Alaria.
What follows is a trip into the first dungeon of the game. The in-game explanation of this area, and the monsters that are fought, is a tad over my head (Perhaps, though, I was being distracted by the looks of the place), but to say that the dungeon areas fits the theme of surrealism for my way of thinking.


Gameplay:
There's a bit of exploration (The school is awesome.), some treasure-hunting (Gotta get the shiny!), and, of course, combat.
Combat-wise, if you've ever played Grandia, things should be fairly familiar, though there is a twist on the general idea. Even if one has not played Grandia, the in-game explanations for it's workings (like Flynn's) are humorously awesome.
Anyway, to make a long story short, the game uses something akin to an ATB system, but certain abilities have a "charge time". Being hit during this time delays the use of the skill. If the "charge bar" (for lack of a better term) depletes, the action is canceled. There's currently no real way of knowing which skill has a "charge time", but there's indications that a future release will fix this.
Another thing that I find odd is that characters gain experience (or something akin to it), and gain levels. However, I cannot, for the life of me, find where the "EXP" or "LEVEL" fields are on the character's status screen.





Overall entertainment:
I managed to beat the game my first time around in about two hours without much grinding. As I mentioned before, some of the plot-points were a tad over my head (which could have been the point), but I had an enjoyable experience nonetheless.
The fact that "Team Losers" is planning on expanding the content of this game after the Summer Games event concludes is an exciting possibility onto itself.


Summary:
Even if this game doesn't win the Summer Games event (by some miracle), I believe that this game is good enough to be featured.


BOTTOM LINE: 4/5


Side note on ratings (since there is/was/will be somewhat of a spate on what rating means what between each user):
1/5 -> Terrible. Forget about hitting an audience. The game is so bug-ridden, or otherwise unplayable, that what entertainment can be found in the game has a hard time coming to the surface.

2/5 -> Bad but playable. I had a poor experience with the game. When played by a player the game actually caters to, it would serve it's purpose.

3/5 -> Average. A solid experience, but snags somewhere along the line cause it to be held back from being "good".

4/5 -> Good. I enjoyed the experience, and have no qualms supporting it if was considered for a featured game (if it wasn't featured already).

5/5 -> Excellent. Among the paragons of gaming experiences, and instant feature material in my humble opinion (if it wasn't featured already).