Miaka's Great Adventure

So, I gather this is a fairly old game, seeing as how this hasn't even been updated since 2008. But it WAS the first game I played from here to completion. For what it's worth, it's definitely worth playing, if you can get past the old style.

Graphics

Regular 2k RTP used pretty well. There's touches of custom facesets and character sprites here and there, though sometimes they clash with the regular RTP sets (One in particular is actually made fun of, which was a pretty funny scene).

Sounds/music

Midi samplings from quite a few games. I'll be honest, some of them will clash, especially the Castlevania samples. You'll be hearing them a lot, since Bloody Tears happens to be the world map's theme, and Pressure is the normal battle theme. For the most part though, it's serviceable, and easy to get used to.

Story/Characters

First of all, yes, the titular character, Miaka is a fan character of Dragon Ball Z. However, you could strip all the DBZ references from here EASILY and the story would work just as well, so if it bothers you, don't worry, it's hardly mentioned. As for the story itself, it's pretty well done. I won't give anything away, only that it's worth hanging on to for the end.

The characters themselves though, are great! The dialogue is pretty well written, something I can't say for every RPG I've played. No romance, or for that matter, nothing really hamfisted getting in the way. Probably the best touch is the ending, which is cute and a bit heartwarming in it's own way.

Gameplay

Well...It's basic RPG stuff. I'd say the best comparison is maybe a fairly linear SNES RPG. There IS quite a bit backtracking though, and you will find yourself possibly getting irritated at the number of times you'll be going through some fields. The battle rate can be annoying at times, but I guess that's a factor of most straight RM2k games.

SOMETIMES, it can get hard to figure out where to go next, but if you've been paying attention, it's not too bad.

The puzzles are alright, namely figure out some clues, and flip some switches. There IS a death room that you can get trapped in about halfway through the game, but it's not TOO big a deal, provided you saved recently (unlike I did.) There wasn't any bugs I encountered, aside from the death room I never figured a way out of.

Anyways, I really enjoyed this game. Your mileage may vary, but it's pretty well lengthed, easy to play, and is well written. I'd say give it a shot!