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A challenging and serious quest

As a note, this is a review I originally wrote and posted on my personal blog, which is typically read by exactly one online friend and involves brief reviews of the games I've been playing lately. The review was written in terms of the broad range of games available in the commercial market, but the star-score I'm giving it on here is in context of the type of games posted on rpgmaker.net.

*****

This one's another free game that was tossed in the RPG Maker Humble Bundle. I actually skipped over a couple others after getting a little ways into them. So many games, so little time (especially when it comes to RPGs, they're time vacuums :P). But this one held my interest long enough to complete it.

Mechanics-wise, it's a fairly standard JRPG for the most part. It plays a lot with status conditions, having some skills that slather tons of them on a target (or all targets!) at once. They also have a some items that act as skills, and a few of them are reusable as many times as you like. I found the Child's Coronet, which inflicts Attack and Speed-reducing conditions on an enemy for a few turns, to be indispensible for surviving some of the bosses. Considering it's something you pick up by thoroughly exploring the town where you start the game, I have to wonder what I'd have done if I'd been the sort to pursue the meat of the story first. -.-; Finally, some of the skills in the game use not MP, but IP, which I assume stands for Injury Points because it accumulates when a character takes damage. It's a rather interesting mechanic, giving you a little more power in situations where things are tough enough to drain your HP quickly.

As hinted at above, some of the bosses in this game are extremely tough. In a way I like that, it makes the game something you actually have to figure out and optimize in order to win instead of just an activity that will go slower if you don't do it right. On the other hand, the fact that there's little margin for error means there's also little margin for bad luck, and until you've tried and died enough times to figure out little things like, "Oh, I can actually stop the boss from getting two actions every turn by inflicting a speed-reducing status" and "Ah, he does his super-whammy attack every five turns, I need to brace my party for that", it feels like you're just getting unfairly trounced with nothing you can do about it. :P Definitely a lesson I need to bear strongly in mind for my own game design, communicate to the player what they're doing wrong (or at least that there is something they can do to improve their chances besides go grind against mooks for a couple hours).

The story takes place in a world of magic-as-science similar to that of In Search of Immortality, although it's not as humorous. It follows the adventure of the prince of a small kingdom on a snow-covered island, as he discovers that the tranquility of his kingdom rests on a spell that his parents placed to keep it essentially ageless and tied to his own well-being. A lot of effort was poured into the graphics of the game, which evoke an old-time, paper-rough book illustration feel with a bit of anime influence. Most of the game has rather subdued, solemn feel, in keeping with the snowy setting where it takes place. It definitely seems like one of the more serious and well-crafted RPG Maker games, perhaps even more so than the commercial ones I've seen.

Bottom line? If you like RPGs enough to spend the requisite time on them, this is a pretty good one, and yeah, it's free, so check it out.

Posts

Pages: 1
Ronove
More like Misao Stealing Prince
2867
If you don't get the cornet or the mask at the start, you find them in the town after the first boss. IP really means Item Points but Injury Points works, I suppose. One thing I would do if I went back to redo the game is to adjust the bosses a bit more. I'm not a fan of how constricted RPG Maker is when trying to make a unique boss (I'm learning this more and more as I'm making a new game and if I tried this in SSP I would have frustrated myself out of making a game at all.) and I feel that definitely shows in SSP because it largely falls more into RNG than I would like, but c'est la vie at this point.

I'm confused why you compare it to a game that came out after my game did (wouldn't it be the other way around? :P), but it's your review I suppose. I think it would be better to compare it to a game that came out at around the same time as my game did. The whole "magic-as-science" comment confuses me as well since I didn't think I made any connections with science and magic. It was supposed to be structured similar to a fairy tale, so I'm just confused.

I also am having trouble figuring out why it's 3.5/5. You say "but the star-score I'm giving it on here is in context of the type of games posted on rpgmaker.net. " but that doesn't make sense? I mean sure, you didn't like the bosses and that's fine, but is that what the star score is based on or?

Thank you for the review.
3.5 stars also equals 7/10. It's not a bad score by far. He said that it was a fairly standard JRPG (mechanic-wise, which sounds like an average 2.5). I believe that that he brought the rating up to a high score due to the bosses being tough.
Ronove
More like Misao Stealing Prince
2867
Yeah I didn't mean it like "OMG WHY DID YOU GIVE IT THIS SCORE", I was just having issues discerning the reason from the review provided. Cause essentially the review went from talking about the Cornet, explaining some mechanic bits, talking about the bosses and what they would personally do with bosses, then a small description on the story without really telling what was or wasn't to their liking and what influenced the score.

It's cool though. I'm glad people are still finding Star Stealing Prince and playing it. Though it makes me feel old now.
author=Ronove
I'm confused why you compare it to a game that came out after my game did (wouldn't it be the other way around? :P), but it's your review I suppose. I think it would be better to compare it to a game that came out at around the same time as my game did. The whole "magic-as-science" comment confuses me as well since I didn't think I made any connections with science and magic. It was supposed to be structured similar to a fairy tale, so I'm just confused.


I made the comparison because I played and reviewed (on my blog) In Search of Immortality a couple months before Star Stealing Prince, so for me and the one other person who actually reads my blog, it was a fairly recent memory. I've also submitted the review for In Search of Immortality for the Review Fantasy IX event, so check that out if you want some context.

I also am having trouble figuring out why it's 3.5/5. You say "but the star-score I'm giving it on here is in context of the type of games posted on rpgmaker.net. " but that doesn't make sense? I mean sure, you didn't like the bosses and that's fine, but is that what the star score is based on or?


The star score is mainly just my highly subjective general feel for how much I personally enjoyed the game, with a bit of influence from comparing to the other games I've played on RMN and what scores I'm giving/have given them. It's worth noting that I've mostly just played games from Humble Bundles, which are probably already the cream of what RMN has to offer. If I literally played every game available on RMN and assigned them scores on a strictly linear scale from worst to best, I wouldn't be surprised if Star Stealing Prince ended up a bit higher on the scale. X)
author=AubreyTheBard
The star score is mainly just my highly subjective general feel for how much I personally enjoyed the game, with a bit of influence from comparing to the other games I've played on RMN and what scores I'm giving/have given them. It's worth noting that I've mostly just played games from Humble Bundles, which are probably already the cream of what RMN has to offer. If I literally played every game available on RMN and assigned them scores on a strictly linear scale from worst to best, I wouldn't be surprised if Star Stealing Prince ended up a bit higher on the scale. X)


Sorry but I disagree with rating games based on other games. A game should be judged based on what experience it gives it players. Not if it's as good as another random game that's been made, because there will always be better or worse games out there based on personal opinion.
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
I think it's fine, we mostly rate movies based on how good other movies are, in fact that disclaimer should just be assumed, unless you want to rate RPG Maker games based on the scale of games as a whole, in which case I think ratings would be lower, actually.

Comparing Star-Stealing Prince to a recent game like In Search of Immortality is absolutely fine. Anything is fair game. He was saying it is similar to that game, but not that it copied that game, and I'm sure that it didn't dock any points off for that. Perhaps the reviewer could have emphasized more of the reasons why the game was good and why it wasn't, but I'm aware there's more constructive criticism here than I see in a lot of other lesser written reviews. Good review.
author=Mirage88
author=AubreyTheBard
The star score is mainly just my highly subjective general feel for how much I personally enjoyed the game, with a bit of influence from comparing to the other games I've played on RMN and what scores I'm giving/have given them. It's worth noting that I've mostly just played games from Humble Bundles, which are probably already the cream of what RMN has to offer. If I literally played every game available on RMN and assigned them scores on a strictly linear scale from worst to best, I wouldn't be surprised if Star Stealing Prince ended up a bit higher on the scale. X)
Sorry but I disagree with rating games based on other games. A game should be judged based on what experience it gives it players. Not if it's as good as another random game that's been made, because there will always be better or worse games out there based on personal opinion.


You're always going to rate things based on your own experience with said thing. If you don't have much experience, then your ratings will be based on the next closest thing that is similar. Someone who has played only CoD clones will judge differently to someone who has played only RPGs but the more they play of other games, the bigger the difference in their initial experiences and expectations for a game will be, thus their scores will change to reflect that change.

There's nothing wrong with scoring based on other games you've played in the past because that is what everyone does (unless it is their very first game ever, in which case they'd score by whatever media they've experienced that most closely resembles a game). It's just human nature - those who say they rate a game based on it's own merit are kinda shoving their head in the dirt about the fact that they're doing the exact same thing without realising it.
But it's one thing to compare games and another to rate them based on other games. For example I've played the demos for both Amulet Of Athos and Linus. I can compare them in that they are both more mature and dark compared to many other rpg maker games out there, they both use darker tones in their art and mapping. But I wouldn't give one a lower rating just because I didn't enjoy it as much as the other one.
Ronove
More like Misao Stealing Prince
2867
but not that it copied that game

If he said that I would have asked him to look at when the games were released in relation to each other (mine was first, hence the initial confusion--I don't really see many reviews comparing an older game to a newer one (granted they are both old, but SSP is one year older)). I just found it odd because my game was released first and that one after and I usually don't hear of reviews comparing a game made in 2012 for example to something made after it in 2013. Usually it's the 2013 game being compared to the older one. So that's on me. I find it odd but again, you write however you want to write. For me, I wouldn't review something and compare it to Free Spirits because they both happened to have some kind of ghosts. But that's just me and just semantics at that point.
author=Mirage88
But it's one thing to compare games and another to rate them based on other games. For example I've played the demos for both Amulet Of Athos and Linus. I can compare them in that they are both more mature and dark compared to many other rpg maker games out there, they both use darker tones in their art and mapping. But I wouldn't give one a lower rating just because I didn't enjoy it as much as the other one.


You should if that enjoyment is changed due to how much better one does things over the over. For example, if we have two tactics games and one is clunky while the other is not, it's fair to compare the clunkier to the other as an example of what they did wrong and how it could be done better. You'd be rating lower because it's been done better, so you are rating by comparison.
author=Liberty
You should if that enjoyment is changed due to how much better one does things over the over. For example, if we have two tactics games and one is clunky while the other is not, it's fair to compare the clunkier to the other as an example of what they did wrong and how it could be done better. You'd be rating lower because it's been done better, so you are rating by comparison.


I guess we have to agree to disagree. But for what it's worth I see your point and I do agree to an extent. If both games are for example a Call Of Duty game and it's many clones, then yes it's not so bad to compare them cause hey they are very similar and yes one will probably do better then the other. But comparing Star Stealing Prince to any other game simply because it's also an RPG isn't the way to do it. After all just because two games are RPGs doesn't mean they'll be similar at all.
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