Uchioniko

Prelude

Uchioniko was one of the first games I discovered on RMN. The magical girl theme seemed interesting enough, so I decided to give it a go. The game isn’t bad at all, but it does have it’s flaws.

Introduction



Uchioniko is a modern RPG game made in RPG Maker VX Ace. The story follows Ruri Momotami, a student who is transferring to a new school. However, we soon learn that there is more to the area that surrounds the school...

Story
Score: 3.5



The game starts out with an overture, introducing two characters by the name of Jun and Michi. There is a little bit of dialogue that starts off, but then the game quickly lets you loose. You really don’t get a lot of background information from the two characters besides the fact you’re in this dungeon to defeat someone. Now at this point you can either grind battles--or you can just head towards the end of tunnel. I chose the latter because I didn’t really know what I was against, and I figured I could just redo the battle. When you meet the boss, you learn that his name is Kurobichi. Now, I actually lost the battle with him, so I got sort of confused with what was going on with the story because I didn’t grind enough. However, if you win you learn that Jun and Michi sealed the spirit away.

The story goes to present time where we are introduced to Ruri Momotami, your stereotypical genki girl. We are also introduced to the cold Mayu, the intelligent Izumi, and the quiet Shoko. The archtypes/tropes actually fit each character fairly well. Each girl eventually gets a pendant that they all randomly obtain somehow. So with their new magical powers, they must reseal Kurobichi.

Now the story fits perfectly for a magical girl storyline and it is set up really well. The only issue I have is that the characters are very static. Nothing really changes with the characters and that’s not necessarily a requirement but I was really confused when Ruri initially changed. There was no dialogue when the magical girls actually changed which I really feel is a missed opportunity. The ending also felt a bit out of place with Izumi. I didn’t think it fell in line with the magical girl theme.

Gameplay
Score: 3.5



There isn’t much to say in this category except that the gameplay in Uchioniko is mediocre at best. The spells are okay, however, they didn’t require a lot of thinking. Each battle did fall under the tank and spank formula with every character. I literally could just spam my AOE spells every battle (even with bosses) and easily win with the exception of the first boss. The grinding got old very quick, but I was glad that we weren’t spammed with auto battles.

An interesting design in game that I found was Ruri’s speed. I thought this was implemented quite well and it fit Ruri’s personality. A good example of making your characters memorable. I was a bit disappointed though when there wasn’t any puzzles associated with it. It would’ve opened a lot of opportunity.

Graphics
Score: 2



Now I’m not an RTP hater by any means, but the graphics were so basic. They weren’t awful by any means, but there was nothing remotely interesting about them. The park just felt depressing and it was dull due to it feeling so empty. The school classrooms were a lot better than the exterior maps by far.

The character graphics were actually nice, I just don’t get why they didn’t match the sprite sets! Ruri in her picture has pinkish hair, but her sprite has purple hair. Even on the screenshot posted above Mayu’s hair on her sprite is way lighter than the one present in her picture. It would’ve been an easy simple edit too.

Sound
Score: 4

I don’t have much to say here, except that the sound was good. It keep me interested and the battle theme was really nice. A lot of the songs and themes fit the mood really well which set a good atmosphere.

Conclusion
Final Score: 3



This game has a lot of potential and needs tweaking. It’s not a horrible game by any means, but there is a lot of missed opportunity and confusion at certain points. I’d definitely recommend this game if you like grinding though.

Photo Credits: Marrend