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Omega, these puns are sooo bad!

  • Marrend
  • 12/27/2012 03:44 PM
  • 1144 views
Game Title: The Quest of Dude 3 - The Omega Quest
Engine: RPG Maker VX Ace
Status at review: Completed

Background:
Dudesoft's name appeared in my PM from this thread. No specific request was given, but I figured that I'd do a review of one of his showcased games. I would have liked to have done Atom Pulsar and the Rusty Libido, but I didn't see a demo, or any kind of download for it. I suppose I could have gone with Take Down: Lambs of Destiny, but I ended up choosing The Quest of Dude 3 - The Omega Quest.

This game was made as an entry into the Nugget Crash Course. I played a good number of the entries, back when the event was running, but I don't think I recall playing this one. Faded memories aside, let's take the game on it's own merits.


Graphics:
I've seen some of Dudesoft's considerable work in the forums, and on the gamepage of the aforementioned Atom Pulsar. Sadly, this game doesn't really take advantage of this talent. My guess is that the event's time limitation had something to do about this.

As the game stands, you'll be seeing mostly Ace's RTP with some characters and faces made with the built-in generator. I'm not a huge fan of some of the faces, but, I suppose it's an experiment in how ugly/silly things can be. The exceptions to the RTP are the attack animation for Dude's weapon (Those fists!) and a battler (A piece by alterego, actually).


Audio:
I've got this nasty tendency to check out a game's music, if it's readily available, before playing the game. I didn't find anything that stood out to me, either by being recognizable, or as being a good song. Of course, that also means that nothing stood out as bad either.

The only other thing of note here are some of the sounds effects I heard. I recognized some of them, such as "Power up!" from Altered Beast, and "Toasty!" from whichever Mortal Kombat that was from.


Story:
I don't think the story took a very high priority for this game. The only thing I can really tell about it is that players take the role of Dude, and he's out to avenge the death of his father. I dunno, maybe this game would have more background if one has played the previous games in the series. Then again, maybe not.

The writing of the game can be fairly humorous. Characters break the fourth wall on occasion, usually to confirm that previous games exist, but there is at least a few lines in that point out the nature of this game ("Because there's a thin pathway that forces my Omega Quest on a linear journey?"). Then there are the one-liners that are spouted by the enemies before and after battles. I understood most of the puns that were trying to be made, but others took quite a stretch for me to comprehend.


Playing the game:
The game drops you on the World Map, and into the shoes of Dude, with very little fanfare. While this suggests that players are allowed to explore as they see fit, I noticed that the map is set to a specific path. I swear, there was a game that had a world map that worked like this...

In any event, I visited Dude's house, and picked up some power-ups. For me, just picking up these skills was a somewhat silly moment. Even sillier was that they weren't actually added to Dude's skill set. Well, okay. He did manage to learn "Under My Bed". But he's supposed to have two others!

After Roy joined me (which is a pretty silly event in itself), I went to Calm Village. There, after learning some skills (In that "not" kind of way. At least he learned "My Favorite Cloud"!), I fought my first battle. The enemy's name indicated that it was a boss. The challenge normally associated with bosses simply wasn't there to back up this claim. Then again, the game didn't come across to me as being remotely serious about anything, so this really didn't bother me too much.

After that, I get a blat with Roy and Dude. It gives a bit of background information, and included my favorite line in the game (I mention it in the Story section above). I obtained another skill, or not as the case was, then I was off to meet the next party member, Shira. It seemed that she would tag along, but we need to help her own quest first. The game directs us to the mountain just north of where she was standing, as trying to move past that point causes a bounce-back event. Yes, Dude, your Omega Quest is set on a linear path!

The first thing I noticed on this mountain were the treasure chests that I couldn't immediately get to. I don't think there's a way to actually get to them, though. As for the climb itself, well, wasn't really a climb. It was a fairly straight path, though I found three skills for Shira along the path. The were all actually added to her list, which is something I wasn't totally expecting. It was a welcome surprise, to say the least. By-the-by, did Shira actually eat that whole thing? I'm thinking "probably", but some questions are best left unanswered.

I played a bit more, getting a new character, his abilities (In that "not really" kind of way), a vehicle, and got to the Castle of Doom. There were some slightly tougher fights there, but nothing I couldn't handle. The events with the last battles in the Castle were a little messed up, though. Things went smoothly until the boss achieved it's third form. The game seemed to want the event be an auto-run, or a parallel process, but it turned out that it started with the action button. The party was supposed move a certain way, but, to say the least, the move-path was considered "blocked". I must confess, I "cheated" a bit, and changed the event so that I would see the game's conclusion.


General Observations:
I was a little curious, and did a little peeking in the database. The skills that people where not learning were set to the "Special" skill category rather than the "Magic" skill category. The class attributes only granted access to "Magic". So, in technicality, they were learned, but the access to the skill-group never happened. Or, they were supposed to be set to "Magic", but that particular property wasn't set, for whatever reason. However, the fact that I didn't have all the skills I was supposed to have really didn't affect my overall experience with the game.


Summary:
The only bug that I really consider a problem is the one at the end-game. All the others, while they still exist, didn't really break the game for me. As the game stands, it's a fairly decent distraction that takes no more than a half-hour to complete. Or, at least, complete as much as possible.


BOTTOM LINE: 3/5


Side note on ratings (since there is/was/will be somewhat of a spate on what rating means what between each user):
1/5 -> Terrible. Forget about hitting an audience. The game is so bug-ridden, or otherwise unplayable, that what entertainment can be found in the game has a hard time coming to the surface.

2/5 -> Bad but playable. I had a poor experience with the game. When played by a player the game actually caters to, it would serve it's purpose.

3/5 -> Average. A solid experience, but snags somewhere along the line cause it to be held back from being "good".

4/5 -> Good. I enjoyed the experience, and have no qualms supporting it if was considered for a featured game (if it wasn't featured already).

5/5 -> Excellent. Among the paragons of gaming experiences, and instant feature material in my humble opinion (if it wasn't featured already).

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Dudesoft
always a dudesoft, never a soft dude.
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I like that people keep picking one of my fastest made games to review.
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