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Yes, it's that bad

  • El_WaKa
  • 01/26/2019 05:49 AM
  • 1447 views


Double Trouble is a very unusual game, because not only is one of the only two games made in RPG Maker 95 uploaded to RPGMaker.net, (the other one being Dragon Kingdoms III, but that one seems like it has a convoluted way to make the game run) but on top of that it's a very ambitious game for its time. It is probably as long as your usual retro RPG, which is interesting as it is the first game ever made by his developer.



First, let’s take a look at RPG Maker 95. Is impossible to talk about one without talking about the other, and I’m sure few people are familiar with this weird and forgotten version of RPG Maker. Let me start by saying that the engine has aged a lot far worse than RM 2000 or 2003. Running the games can be a hard task for most modern computers, and using the engine is even worse. The very limited graphical options, the lack of a robust events system (there are only 256 switches available, and there are no variables) the very simple battle system ( You can only do physical attacks or magic, and spells can only deal damage, heal or set a status effect, with very limited options for the amount of damage you can do) There are even many users are reporting random crashes while editing the database or adding events to a map. And the worst of all, the games are slow, and I mean, very slow. We’re talking Dragon Quest I levels of slow, with some of the most clunky menus that can crash your game in any second. All of this is probably the reason why people abandoned this version while RM 2000 and 2003 are still being used today.




But what about Double Trouble? First of all, yes, it is a reference to Team Rocket, the recurring enemies of the Pokemon anime series. Thankfully, aside from the name, a few references here and there, and the overuse of their motto every time a plot battle appears, they are mostly their own characters with a very different story. So if you live under a rock, you could probably play this game without knowing what Pokemon is. Anyway, the story is a mostly generic plot about a group of friends fighting against the evil empire after they attacked their village, something we have seen a hundred times before. There are a few pieces of originality sprinkled through the game though, like one character using a bomb so powerful that it destroyed a little town and a castle, or the mirage tower, which is invisible but only from the inside.



But as I’ve said before, the biggest problem with the game is probably how slow and clunky it is. The movements, the battles, the menus, that little second that the game takes when loading a new map, it all adds up. Making something that should only take 5 minutes to take 15 minutes, making the game feel longer than it really is. This is mostly the fault of the engine, but really, it makes the game almost unplayable and is not like I have a short attention span. I’ve finished the firsts Dragon Quest and Phantasy Star and yet this game is really testing my patience. One thing that really helped me is having Cheat Engine and activating the speed hack to make the game run at double the speed all the time, and you know what? It still feels slow and clunky.



Another problem is the battles, and how it feels like you don’t have a good idea of what are you doing a there are no descriptions for any of the items or skills. For the items, this is a big problem when buying in town. there are so many items and you never have a clear idea of what they do, you just pick whatever increases your stats the most and tend to ignore the items used in battle. For spells, you just go with the classics, Firaga? Quake? Megaflare? Those are familiar to any RPG player, but Shakira? (yes, Shakira, and it's, in fact, a second level earth spell, the next level of “Shake”) Aura? (Is actually the group healing spell, but is confusing because after casting it, it says that team recovered MP)



But honestly, none of that matters, as 80% of the battles can be beaten with just activating "Auto Battle." The game isn't too easy, it actually has some kind of uneven difficulty, in some parts, your team will just destroy anything in the way, but for others, you are gonna need to grind a few levels (thank god leveling up is relatively quick.). There are also some very long sections with no rests in between, one special case is when escaping prison and you have to save your companion of being executed. There are around five battles with regular enemy formations, and two boss battles, every battle one after the other, and that’s without counting the random battles on your way there, and after all of that, you will be left with only one character, not healed or anything, and you have to walk all your way alone to a town in the middle of the desert just so you can finally use the inn again, Jesus Christ.



…I’m not proud of admitting that I never beat this game, I think I dropped it around a little farther than the mid-game, but I had enough, it was really starting to suck away my energy, can you imagine that? A game so bad that instead of being fun, it actually worsens your mood? I’m never touching this thing again. I think I've gotten far enough that no matter what plot twist or new mechanic appears in the game, it wouldn’t change my feelings towards it. Stay far away from this game as you can, because yes, it's that bad.

Posts

Pages: 1
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Nothing you said is wrong. I uploaded this game mostly for the sake of having one of only two RPG Maker 95 games on the website, rather than because I actually thought it was any good. Frankly my only real surprise is that you didn't complain about 16-year-old LockeZ's terrible writing.
Cap_H
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
6625
This can't be this bad. I think I'll have to give it a run for its money.
Pages: 1