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Review by the user Isaac3000 from Reddit (/r/rpgmaker)

  • Ephiam
  • 03/27/2017 05:26 PM
  • 2026 views
Hello all, I decided to play the game called:
Chronicles of Tsufanubra, made by /u/Mercurylant (and Ephiam I think).



Let's start:

The Good:



Since so many things were good I don't know where to start haha, but I guess the OST will be it, and wow was it good!
The first thing that got me hooked in this game was when I heard Matthew's battle theme from Golden Sun Dark Dawn, since the Golden Sun series is my favourite gaming series my first thought was I will play this game no matter how bad it turns out to be, and I am glad I did! So many good tracks have been used, from games I intend to use myself (Golden Sun, Secret of Evermore, Sword of Mana, Fire Emblem), so music selection is top notch, since it is mostly from games I enjoy!

Characters:
I really liked your characters, they had more or less a purpose for being in my party, and their interactions was very good! One can argue that the 4th member is a bit underdeveloped but it is not so much as to ask who that guy is and why he is playable.

But I will not gonna lie, until quite into the game, I did not like the protagonist Celes. She is the chosen girl, aha ok. But I wanted an explanation as to why, not right on, but I feel like that explanation never came quite well over. She is likeable as a person though since she helps people in need, but not knowing why she is who she is took away from her as a character (to me at least).

Sando, I liked him. He had some humorous lines and was likeable, his story arc with his parents was nice (I uncovered the connection he has to a certain character in game just moments before they mentioned it, I might be stupid but since it was not talked about much, him in being an orphan, made me not realize the obvious connection, this was very well done).

Lifa, the at first bratty princess later on a well developed character. Since Celes is a girl and she a girl, there was a bond between the 2, also she is Sando's love interest, so she had some nice interactions with the party. Her line where she demands entrance to a city in the southern continent because she is a princess from an unknown kingdom was so funny (it didn't work haha).

Then there is Yoor, he was a likeable character (neither bratty nor dumb) but he was kind of there most of the time (it is quite some time since I played the game, I wanted to write this review earlier, so I do not remember all character interactions).

Cloaked Man(not spoiling his name): I really loved the main antagonist! At some point he said: I bid you adieu, and I immediately got Alex vibes from Golden Sun! He was intimidating, seemed to follow a goal (at points he seemed to act in the sake of being evil, like turning everyone to stone etc).
He has a tragic backstory (wow that twist towards the end came out of nowhere! Very well done, congratulations)! He has connections to that other race called Kjrn (how does one spell out loud that word? XD), a very well done antagonist, who made his presence known throughout the game!

This brings me to the Kjrn, a beast-animal like race (like the beastmen from Golden Sun Dark Dawn? I can't help but see similarities to Golden Sun all the time haha), that has a very tragic past as a whole. But for some reason I believe it would be better that instead of Yoor, a Kjrn joined my party (or leave Yoor and add a 5th member as well), that would make some conflicts possible, also I could experience the Kjrn's backstory a bit better, since a party member of that race would make things more sentimental (in rpgs, we care about our characters more than the rest usually).

There were many more characters I liked, like that mage Val (I think that is the shortcut to his name, sorry if not), he played a bigger role in the end which was nice!



Next, mapping-areas:
I loved how every area has it's own quirks (teleports, mazes, guardians to beat, invincible corridors). I got stuck a bit on the tower of the second town, and I loved it! The maps were not HUGE neither small, they had the perfect size to be enjoyable! Amazing work!



Gameplay: I am not a fan of first view battle systems, but the Golden Sun music helped me get to like it (admit it, you chose Golden Sun ost on purpose :-P), there was a variety of spells and everyone played his part in battle, some minor aspects to fix though, I will come to this again later on. I really liked how each area had a reward when defeating all enemies, so I made sure I defeat all of them XD



Storyline:
The story started of a bit weak, but later on it became much more interesting! At times a bit random as well (what was the purpose of the black woman in the mines? To get the memories for what exactly? I did not understand that part). Also there are 2 endings, I got the good ending the first time, and then replayed to see the bad ending, I liked both endings, but the bad was a bit abrupt, it would be nice if Lifa, Sando and Yoor battled a particular enemy that appeared, I will not spoil it though...

These are the good parts that stuck out to me, but some negative points are in there as well..



The bad:



Town Mapping:
My biggest problem with your towns was the fact that there was not a single house I could enter that was not tied to the main plot, having buildings and not letting me enter them is a game breaker to me. I want to enter the buildings, talk with people (yes, there were so many npcs roaming around the city, I could gather any information I wanted from them, they even changed their dialogue according to recent events but still..) also, the shops, when I enter them, I get to buy stuff immediately, there is no walking to the shop keeper inside the house. I generally do not like when I am not able to enter buildings (unless there is a story reason not to do it). You should really add the interior of buildings as well, that would give more life to your game!



World Map:
Don't get me wrong, I really liked the world map but the lack of an actual in game map made me get lost in the southern continent. It took away of the fun at times, other than that, your world map is very good!



Gameplay:
I mentioned that the gameplay is good, since the characters are usefull, but the difficulty is a bit off... at first the enemies are so so weak, it was a breeze to fight them (even bosses) when I reached the southern continent, there was a difficulty spike but not for long. Also 2 scythes were game breaking! The gorgon scythe and the Two guardian scythe...wow these weapons.

The gorgon scythe turns everyone to stone! And the second makes them lose their balance, when I got the second, I said I will try it out but I will not replace the gorgon scythe for long, since stone>balance loss, but to my surprise, the second scythe turned enemies to stone as well (something that was nowhere to be seen in the descriprion of the weapon), you can imagine how easy battles became! You might want to nerf these 2 weapons a bit.. The final boss was also very easy, same with the optional bosses, except for one! I do not remember her name, but it was the boss in front of the destroyed capital in the southern continent, wow she was tough! Also nice how there is an NPC mentioning their whereabouts so I could find all of them. Also a nice challenge was the (optional?)boss right before the final boss! It dropped an OP sword, but since I could use the sword only in the last battle it was no big deal.



Some glitches and bugs:
No big deal, but in the tower, after defeating all enemies the reward did not appear (I am sure I got all of them, I got stuck there as well, so there is no way there was a room I did not see, I checked all walls for secret pathways as well).
Also in the town of healing, there is a part I can climb on a cliff, while being on the cliff I could enter the black magic shop, I should not be able to, you might want to fix this.

No other bugs I remember finding! Good job!

All in all, Chronicles of Tsufanubra is a very good game (I did not see that Arbunafust is Tsufanubra back wards until I saw both names, next to each other haha), it has like able characters, a very well done enemy and nice mapping ideas! Some unresolved secrets (the little girl's laugh in the forest, unless there is a conclusion to this but I did not find it, but I like to think that laugh is kept in secret intentional in game). The balancing is good, albeit a bit on the easier side.

2 questions though, the game is called C.o.T. yet the in game title screen says Dragon Fantasy, shouldn't it be the actual game's title?
Also, what is the ost playing when encountering the Cloaked Man? I really love it, I think I heard it before as well!



My suggestion: Definitely play this game!



Source:

The original topic by isaac3000 on reddit.

Posts

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Corfaisus
"It's frustrating because - as much as Corf is otherwise an irredeemable person - his 2k/3 mapping is on point." ~ psy_wombats
7874
Isaac3000
I generally do not like when I am not able to enter buildings (unless there is a story reason not to do it). You should really add the interior of buildings as well, that would give more life to your game!


That's something I should keep in mind for CoT2.
Personally, I think it's a sensible way to save labor for the more important bits; being able to wander into random people's houses uninvited doesn't make that much sense, and you can build towns of more realistic-seeming size if you don't have to worry about mapping the building interiors also.

Being able to wander into NPCs houses is a genre convention, but it was always a kind of weird one.
It was one thing that annoyed me about the game, I'll admit. If you're going to do the 'cannot enter' thing, have it so that entrances are either blocked off (easy to see so that the player doesn't spend ages trying) or having the doors facing other directions.

It's how I usually do towns myself - have about 10 houses you can enter and all the others are non-enterable but still exist. It still saves time but makes the town look bigger. Also, edge-houses (that is, houses that are only half shown on the map) help make a town look bigger too.
I mostly kept that "feature" in there due to the original Dragon Fantasy handling villages and similar locations like that. It's a strange choice, I'll admit, but if I SOMEHOW end up working on another decent sized project in the future, you're guaranteed to have explorable interiors! =P
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