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Sacred Reviews: LockBall

"LockBall" is a sports game developed by Sagitar using RPG Maker VX, and much like "DotAgumons Adventure" by MrPrinz this game is actually a mini-game that is part of a much larger project. It's simply been made available for individual download incase people are looking for a way to play 1 on 1 soccer matches without the need to play "World's Dawn" in order to do so. Though, I suppose the real question is can this mini-game hold it's own. And that's more of a mixed bag in my opinion for a few reasons.

For starters this game lacks any sort of narrative to get the player invested in winning the campaign mode in order to be recognized as the best LockBall player there is. Admittedly this issue does plague other classic games like the first generation of Pokémon games. After all, your only reason to go out and explore is to simply catch monsters and use them in legalized cock fights in order to prove your the best monster tamer around, but at least that game presents the player with a need to stop an evil organization using pocket monsters to perpetrate crimes. So at least we have something to do that makes the main character seem like a silent hero.

You don't even have that much going for you in "LockBox". In fact you can change the names of the playable character's after every match. As a result the character's feel more like those Na'vi controlled by the humans from "Avatar". As such it's hard to really get invested in them since there merely a blank slate simply meant to represent the player. Admittedly this was pretty standard for sports games for the longest time. So I really can't get too upset about the game lacking any sort of notable character or narrative beyond beat me as quickly as possible.

Another issue is that the games themselves are pretty easy to win for the most part as long as you abuse the corners to set yourself up as shown below.



About the only opponent that will push the player and make winning a match is Paxel because he has the highest stats in the game and can easily rush down the field and block the player. He even finds himself in the best spot to take advantage of a corner kick a lot of the time if your careless, but even so you can still beat him with this strategy if your patient and play solid defense when he has control of the ball. Though unlike a lot of games like this you aren't trying to score as many goals as you can within a set timeframe like "Yooyuball" from Neopets. Instead your playing until someone scores five points which makes it sound like games could go on forever, but I beat the entire campaign and the bonus match in about 20 minutes.



So most matches are actually rather short and only take a couple of minutes at most and the only exception to this rule is Paxel whose high stats make taking him down an intense affair as the player tries to maintain a lead against him.

As far as the visuals go there alright I suppose, but I do wish the game included a few different locations to play at. Which could have been achieved by having the player play games on clay or artificial turf. Though I suppose this is a mini-game so every match taking place on the same field was probably to be expected.

And as far as the sound depart goes it just sort of exists. It really didn't catch my ear, but I don't have anything negative to say about it either.

With all that being said I'm still not sure if I would recommend this game. On one hand you don't see that many sports games that were created with RPG Maker VX which makes this game a rather unique specimen in a lot of ways. On the other hand most of the matches are rather boring since you can use the same tactic to score easy goals over and over and over again on most of the AI opponents. So while the game is unique, it's also rather boring once you've found the best method for scoring easy goals. At least it would be extremely boring if the game didn't clock in at around 20 to 30 minutes to complete. I suppose you could play more to gain additional levels to max your own stats, but that seems rather pointless in my opinion since the most fun you'll have is probably trying to overcome Paxel when your stats are very low.