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Miaka saves a world! (but not hers!)

Hello!
Today I'm going to review a veeeery old game: Miaka's Great (and very old) Adventure, a complete game by none other than Iishenron, author of Three the Hard Way, that I re-reviewed recently. Anyway this game is even older, Miaka is in fact present also in the other game, but she was first introduced in her own adventure here.

Miaka's Great Adventure is a very old and very classic fantasy jrpg adventure made with Rpgmaker2000 and tells the story of Miaka (you expect that didn't you?) a Sayan princess (seriously!) that for some reason is used to fight with a spear but she also knows (and unlocks as she level up) several of the classic moves from Dragonball. Anyway this is NOT a Dragonball fangame, since our Miaka is soon dragged into a fantasy world that she is destined to save.


Be ready to fight dangerous enemies like... wait... bushes? Sigh. No do not worry, there will be also zombies, ninjas and other hostile creatures!

Miaka starts her adventure alone but it won't take long until she is able to earn her first companion, anyway expect to have lots of changes in the party: some people that join the team and then leave, to come back later, and these are both fully playable characters and minions. What is the difference? Playable characters are controlled by the player (of course), can level up in order to unlock new skills, their equipment can be changed and upgraded. Minions instead attack on their own, they usually have no special move and just a standard attack, and they do not level up. They provide some support but once they leave they're never seen again.

Combat is based on classic random-encounters and bossfights against tougher enemies, and sometimes it's necessary grinding a bit in some areas (like the prison or the ninja hideout, where there are beds that can be used to restore your party for free as long and you want between fights) because these monsters are often VERY tough and possess deadly attacks. Luckily you can also save anywhere and anytime, not only on the main map.


Ok, if you are a real jrpg expert you can probably recognize who is the person in front of Miaka, that she is mentioning in his dialogue!

Speaking about the map, expect to do a lot of walking: while apparently there is a lot of freedom, the game is extremely linear, since you have to go from point A to point B, to point C, maybe then you have to go back to point A to talk with someone and then to point C to deliver an item. Some roadblocks will be removed after a while, and sometimes it's a bit odd because they could have been removed even before but... it was not the time so it was not possible!

Speaking about the story, unfortunately there isn't much to say: bad guys are trying to destroy the world with undeads, ninjas and monsters, and we've to stop them going around and fighting. Yes, it's not very deep, there are some events like the disappearance of the ship captain that would have been an interesting quest instead he's found later, just by chance. All happens just by chance, and unfortunately the various characters aren't even remotely as interesting as those from Three the Hard Way, on the contrary they are rather boring an uninteresting, except maybe for Miaka and the bad guys.


You'll see often this interlude part especially between chapters. Big Miaka on the tiny ship is quite funny to me!

Now, the graphics: this is a very old game, so what you can expect is the use of lots of Rtps and some sprites and assets from other games, like for example FFVI or other rpgmaker games. This sometimes creates a style dissonance that some players hate, but it happened in other games too, because these resources where rather popular at the time when it was released. Anyway there is another problem: mapping! Iishenron was an ok mapper in Three the Hard Way, but this was one of the first games, so mapping is bad: most locations suffer of the "big empty room syndrome" or the "weirdly shaped corridor made to make you face several enemies". And no, there aren't interesting interactions with the surroundings. Anyway there are two things worth of note.

1) There are some parts in which you have to find a cave (first for the troll mission, another in the gnomes part), but the walls you have to inspect do not have marks that will let you know the exact point in which you have to interact! I wandered a lot around before realizing I had to interact with every single tile until I found the right one!
2) There is a trap what will lead to a room with no exit and toxic floor in which you can only die! Uhm ok, anyway it's true that you're warned not to go there...


Ok, someone died, still we have the Phoenix Down, don't we? Uhm ok those did not work on Aeris, so I guess there is no use for them here!

Final Verdict
I get that Miakas's Great Adventure is an old game, unfortunately there are some parts that aren't really well made and here I am not speaking just about maps: story is really linear and not very interesting, despite some rare amusing dialogues and fourth wall breaking that you may or may not like, references to Fallout 2, Final Fantasy and Dragonball, of course. There are also some problems like the difficulty to recover Magic Points (MP) since I did not remember shops selling mana potions, but maybe they're just rare. Maybe. Also most companions joins at low level and it's a good idea levelling them up, but it's also a waste of time since they will later leave, except for Miaka, of course, because you cannot drop the protagonist.
Despite the flaws the game is moderate enjoyable if you like old rpgmaker games, even if pretty long and a bit rough. And also a bit dull in some parts, but yes, every great developer has a first game that was not as good as their best works, isn't it?