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Watch Out, It Is Black, Here Comes That Heart Attack
Addit- 05/27/2013 10:08 AM
- 4168 views
A Game Made By: Neok
Created Using: RPG Maker 2003
It's A: ADVENTURE Game
That Roughly Takes Around: 4 - 8 Hours To Complete
And It's A... COMPLETED GAME!!!
Man…*sobs* I so don’t wanna do this game - I REALLY DON’T WANNA! *cough* *cough* *sigh* But, I guess like the entire full Rocky Series on VHS tape – I have to face my demons someday… And speaking of demons, man did this experience turn out to be one (get it, because this game features a demon wraith thingy… Get it? …Ah screw you, people, can’t even be funny anymore…)
Neo – freakin’ – Kuriyo (or Neok for short) is somewhat of a legend around these parts here on the RPG Maker circuit. You may remember him from such instant classics such as Alter A.I.L.A., Alter A.I.L.A: Genesis, and “Alter A.I.L.A: Variant (which was, sadly, never completed – GOD DAMN IT!), three massively action packed RPG’s for the incredibly timeless machine known as RPG Maker 2003. While these
The Story
Surrrrreeeeee you don’t…
Our tale begins with an introduction scene summering up the whole background story thus far: Doctor Victor Ristof Valhallas and his assistant, Mr. Wellington, have chosen a group of university students from Australia (well, I’ll be damned! A U S T R L I A, here it is, right beside U R U G U A Y :D) to undertake in a three day workshop period at his scientific research facility: a big mansion in the middle of nowhere on a private vista – FAR away from the nearest known level of civilization (Hmmm…I hope nothing BAD happens during this unusual setup to what seemingly seems to be the beginning of most horror related movies)! You play as a young girl with long brownish hair and, seemingly – her parents seemed to be fully loaded with tuition funding, Kana, who is a pretty brave live wire at times for SUCH an ordinary girl, as she claims to often be. While on the same field trip as her, Kana is also accompanied by her best friend, Lily (who not only joins Kana for some of the game on her midnight stroll, but she is also the main protagonist in the sequel, which is kind of cool). During the first night of their stay, nature seems to be calling as Kana gets up to look for the bathroom. While out and about she notices Doctor Valhallas and a young boy traveling together out through the hallways. Instead of minding her own business and not being a total snoop – Kana decides to follow them and be a total snoop (idiot). As Kana follows the pair to the courtyard, she notices that the pair manages to open a secret elevator in the middle of the yard and proceeds to go down to a hidden basement. Kana follows. As she continues her search to find out what’s going on, she stumbled upon a secret room with a test-tube inside holding some sort of black gas thingy; it is a known as a Wraith. While attempting to slink away without being detected, Doctor Valhallas and Mr. Wellington are about to destroy the Wraith in its capsule but finds that something has gone horribly wrong. The test-tube suddenly opens, and Kana is ripe for the soul harvesting! As she tries to desperately fight back to no avail, Doctor Vallhallas jumps to interfere using a Light Stone which seems to repel the Wraith from inflicting anymore harm to Kana. Just as things seem to cool down, a bomb has been detected and goes up in flames inuring both Kana and Doctor Valhallas. When Kana awakens from her minor injuries, she soon turns over to find that the good doctor has been mortally wounded from the explosion. Also, Kana is in utter shock to find out that Wraith creature has escaped, and is somewhere floating around within the facility looking for new souls to harvest. With his dying breath, Doctor Valhallas gives Kana some Light Stones and a Soul Mirror while telling her that she must destroy the Wraith and survive the rest of the night. Reluctantly, Kana agrees to help. And thus her long winding night is about to get even more winding.
*phew* That was a long plot summary. And that’s just the beginning! The rest of the plot has Kana trying to learn more about the secret experiments done here at the manor while trying to seek out and find a way to eliminate the Wraith from not just hunting down her but the rest of her classmates as well. The preface to this story reminds me a lot like Silent Hill, where the main character has to solve the mystery behind the acts and try to avoid the creatures within. For what the game has, the story is done pretty well. The central character is likeable while the rest of the game’s cast seems to offer their own little private moment here or there. While the story is interesting and gets the job done, I can’t help but sometimes be taking out of the experience because of what the other characters are saying in certain scenes. Scenes like when Kana and Lily catch two students sleeping with each other behind closed curtains and the guy happens to go off spouting sexual comedic outbursts to the group really sucks the air out of me taking this game seriously. I understand that most B-related horror movies do that, offer a little joke to calm the nerves before the beast arrives on the scene but it isn’t done well here. There are also some inconsistencies with how the whole grim situation is downplayed by having the whole theme behind surviving the night is to “stay together” but it’s completely flipped upside down when Kana has to drag people to a hiding spot only to have them say, “Nah, I’m cool, bro,” and they just walk off on their own, obviously to what’s going on or what Kana’s been telling them. I know this game is trying to find humor in the situation, but horror games…aren’t supposed to do that; they’re supposed to be scary and make you actually feel the fear that the characters are going through during the whole ordeal. As much as some of the humorist dialogue goes, the story itself is pretty good and provides an interesting level of intrigue throughout the game. And just like with his other titles having bonus pathways and multiple routes to explore, this game manages to have more than 1 solid ending to it depending on what you do. I really do appreciate these minor touches to the overall story to offer more complexity to the overall experience. While this type of thing has been done to death countless times over, you’ll still enjoy this one for the intrigue alone.
The Gameplay
- OMFG IT’S COMING AFTER ME WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DO!?!?!?
Wraith seems to split into two types of sections for its core gameplay: one when you’re exploring around the manor and solving puzzles and the other is when you get into an encounter with an enemy or group of enemies. The first leg is your typical exploration type of game. You must travel throughout the manor while picking up key items, like keys, matches, crowbars and the works to help solve the many puzzles that lurk within. You can also bring up a map, if you manage to get one to help you out on where to go. You can also press the shift key to make a mad dash for the exits if something happens to chase you. I found that the running action was a bit offkey to me. Kana would just speed up and after around four seconds just go back to normal like a bike going on a sudden stop. When you press shift again, it takes a few seconds for it to speed up again. I would have liked it better if there was a bar in the corner that told you how much time was left before you could run or use the run command again instead of just counting or guessing. Also, the puzzles…my god - THE PUZZLES!!! I have to admit, Neok doesn’t quite make the most user-friendliest types of games around. Some of these puzzles and problem solving will leave you scratching your head and trying desperately to find a guide. Most of the times, I had to look at a guide or a Let’s Play of somebody playing the game to figure out certain things – AND I STILL HAD TROUBLE ON A LOT STUFF! Man…
Oh, but the puzzle solving part is NOTHING, and I mean, NOTHING compared to the game’s over-complex controls for its encountering system. When you touch an enemy (or the Wraith) you will enter a battle scene. Unlike the default battles that RPG Maker 2003 has installed, this one is completely customizable. As the enemies approach you to drain your energy, you must use a set of 4 different commands to die another day. The hand will push some enemies back if they’re getting a bit too close to you, giving you more time to react. The flashlight won’t work on normal enemies but they will repel the Wraith away if you manage to run out of Light Stones. Light Stones will scare the Wraith away and blind some enemies. And the gun, which you won’t get for awhile, will kill mutants and other solid beings. Now this may seem easy to understand from me just explaining it, and it is, but the controls…the controls is what will get to you. In order to switch between items, you need to use the cancel key to cycle through ‘em. Which means, if you want to use the flashlight you will have to hit the cancel key twice in order to select it. If you miss selecting it, you have to press the cancel key again a number of times to select it again. Why can’t Neok just assign a numeral key to each item in the slot to make it easier to switch items. Anyways, attacking is pretty simple (push enter), but it’s how to assign different targets which is a headache. In order to select different targets that are approaching you, you don’t use the left or right arrows – you use the DOWN key to select between multiple enemies. And even if there is only one enemy in front of you, the down key will highlight the corners forcing you to press it back to go back to your original target. Ugh! To run (which I did a lot thanks to this stupid setup), you have to press left or right to go to another direction with no enemies on it and press the up button repeatedly to get out of there. While the battle system may appear to be simplistic on the outside, the controls just take so much time to get used to that I can see a lot of people quitting after their first session with this game. Seriously, half the time I’m pressing something else only to find that it’s doing something completely different. It’s just frustrating how this was designed! Also, take into the account that there are no healing spots and very limited items in some cases, and you have a game that is born to frustrate the pants of you. Like I said, the battle system does take a serious amount of time before you get used to it. But for some people that may be too late. And for this game, I seriously had many moments when I just wanted to say, “F*** it, I’m out.” But I persevered and soon understood the controls after some time. The only good saving grace with the battles is that enemies will take a LONG time to take Kana and her party out of commission, so that should give you plenty of time to select the right command or run away from the battle altogether. For someone, in my opinion, who made one of the best original default battle systems for Rm2k3 in Alter A.I.L.A: Genesis, it’s amazing how the opposite effect seems to be the case for this game (it’s like a Jekyll and Hyde sort of thing going here). Anyway, I’ve ragged on the battle system enough. It’s confusing, a hella of lot confusing.
On two notes that I found rather funny and pissed me off is how the Wraith would appear in random rooms whenever you happen set foot in one. You could be in the middle of a cutscene talking to people, then BAM! HERE COMES THE BIG BLACK DADDY MACK HIMSELF! It did give me a chuckle once in awhile to see it just…floating there, right beside Kana while I was talking or examining something. The second thing was after a cutscene finished, the person will tell you to go somewhere for the next objective, right? Well, you think all you need to do is just…go there, right? Not necessary. You see, when you arrive at that said place, you’ll find you can’t go any further. After trying a few tricks, you still can’t go any further. You’re like, “What the hell. The person just told me to go there. Why can’t I get in?” You go ALLLLLLLL the way back to talk to the person and find out that you needed a key, and then she gives you that said key. What the hell… WHY COULDN’T SHE JUST GIVE ME THE STUPID KEY BEFORE THE END OF THE CUTSCENE AND NOT PULL THAT KIND OF JUNK! Seriously, dick move, Neo. Dick move…
The Soundtrack
Oh, something tells me I willlllll!!!
Wraith’s soundtrack definitely fits the creepy vibe but also delivers some incredibly jump pumping-up tunes as you progress through. While some of the music may not stay with you once you turn the game off, they seem to do its job quite well and really deliver something that isn’t as doom and gloom as other horror based soundtracks, which I actually like. I really don’t like too many horroresque games where they don’t use any distinguishable music other than rely on total ambiance and wind noises to set the motion in track. I really liked the Mutant - Nightmare track because it gives off that cheesy 80’s vibe when you’re fighting those mutants down below. Also, the final boss track (which reminds me that I’m at a sweet rave party) and Oustide - Richi Ryaku (because it reminds me a little of the War Of The Worlds) are also some of my notable standouts. The music, rightfully, does its job. The sound effects also deliver a spooky ambiance and help contribute to the scare factor. The only theme I didn’t really enjoy too much because of how loud it can get on the ears is the first floor of the manor theme. Man – my ears! Luckily, the other two floors tunes sound good. Thank god for that.
The Aesthetics
Shh…I’m trying to read a ghost story here!
For Neok’s first-time project, the graphical presentation delivers quite nicely thanks to all the pretty special effects and hand drawn cutscenes between certain acts. This game definitely looks pretty for an older game, and I don’t really have a problem with it. Actually, it’s kind of interesting to see some of Neok’s older art work before he really started to improve later in the years; it’s like a flashback through time. The mapping is also pretty decent, with a few tile inconsistencies here or there. The actual portraits having different expressions during talkative scenes also look nice. And the sprites have different poses depending on the situation. Overall, the game looks pretty good. While it may not be as gritty and “dim” as most horror games, I do like the fact that I can actually see my own character in the dark. Not a bad looking game, if I do so say.
The End Result
F*** HEADGEMAZES!!! F*** ‘EM!!!
Despite the confusing controls for the battle system and the whole WHERE IN HOLY HELL AM I SUPPOSE TO GO directional attitude, I would say that Wraith was a pleasing experience for most of the game… I say most because well…quite frankly, despite the remarkable qualities within it – especially for a first time project - I just…never really had much fun playing it. Most of my time was spent trying to get around the confusing mechanics for the encounters and solving certain frustrating puzzles. While I understand that part of an exploration game is trying to figure out stuff on your own and taking certain satisfaction of solving that said puzzle on your own, I don’t mind this as long as the game isn’t as super cryptic as it tries to be with this one. With most horror games, I can usually find some fun and enjoyment to keep myself playing, wither it be the scare factor or gameplay. But with Wraith, the game just…isn’t that much fun for me playing it. I rather much sit down and read this game like a book rather than play it. It’s actually funny, because the sequel would kind of take a similar approach in its design rather than use the style set for this one. I still would recommend you all give this a try. But as for me, I’ve played more enjoyable horror games than this particular title. Neok’s first encounter into the world of games in my opinion appears to be a trail-and-error process. While this game is a…pass for sure, I can’t help thinking that this would probably do better as a visual novel series more than an action horror game. Sorry. But if I can’t enjoy this game as much as I would like to, then I really don’t enjoy it. Still, check this one out if you’re curious or a fan of the horror type of genre; you might actually find some enjoyment in it.
Neok, I love you, bro. But I just can’t love this game. Luckily, I will always still love you – even in spirit. That’s something, right...right?
OVERALL GRADE:
2.5 / 5 - C- ~ Passes, But Just Barely.
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Biggamefreak
1799
They are always so cleanly formatted and it has a storytelling charm with plenty having plenty of detail.
Addit
6394
Well, it usually depends on the type of game, my mood, and if I know the game's creator(s) a little bit. Sometimes, I just throw something together and hope for the best. I'm glad you enjoyed it, once again.
Addit
6394
*gasp* (A special, late evening appearance by the mighty Neok?)
I AM NOT WORTHY OF SUCH PRAISE!
I AM NOT WORTHY OF SUCH PRAISE!
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