Shadowsong

Shadowsong is a video game that was just released in "Beta Form," on the date 07/07/2012. I hope this review will provide decent criticism to the creator.
Please be warned that this may have spoilers to the main story.


♫Story & Writing-
This story takes place in the Realm of Shadowsong, and follows a man named Shill. He is a talented swordsman who inherits the powers to be a Savior of the First Age. With this, Shill goes on a quest to gather 4 crystals to create a weapon to defeat Dilblia- the Devil Watcher (God) who has influence over our hero’s kingdom of Stonehelm.

Now as the title says, I do not take well to throw away plots. And this one, quite frankly, is my prime example. Other than the interesting concept of the Realm itself, I found that everything did not surprise me or kept my interest.
From the “gather 4 crystals,” to a plot point centered on an “Elder Sword,” everything just screams been there, done that.
Now there’s a chance that I might be wrong. I couldn’t really gather a strong taste of the story, because of bugs. So for all I know, there’s something in this game that would make me go WOW. But for now, I can’t say I like this plot.
-overall, 1.5. I would go lower, if this score was centered around myself. Trust me >.>

♫Characters-
This is a bit hard to judge. Like I said in the Story and Writing, the plot is almost nonexistent. So with that, most characters feel flat. I can only assume Shill Is the JRPG hero we all know about. Along with that, every NPC I ran across either had nothing to say, or told me flat exposition- with only one NPC having some form of Personality.
The only character I liked was the King named King…? And that’s only because I thought the concept of him fighting with me was awesome.
-overall, 1.5.

♫Aesthetics-
From the pictures on the main page alone- one must guess that the creator is new to the RPG making scene. Okay, cool. I don’t mind this at all, and will happily turn my head to the very boring, undetailed, and uninspired map design.
But one thing I just don’t understand is the use of the default RPG Maker XP main character. I mean god! Is it that hard to find another RTP sprite and battler for your main character?
I ask this because this sprite is boring, overused, and kinda sucks for a character that supposed to be a “man.”
But for now, I can only recommend the creator to study on RPG Maker XP mapping tutorials. There are many good ones, and there is a link in my let’s try video- to a mapper that I personally learned how to map from.
She made my XP maps 80% better. I’m not joking.
-overall, 2.0.


♫Music & Sound-
It’s all RTP, and fits the scene fairly well. I have no problems with it, nor do I care about it.
-overall, 2.5.


♫Gameplay-
Welcome to the juicy part, viewers. Now like I said in the beginning sentence, this is a beta build. One must assume there would be many bugs. Maybe a few game breakers here and there- but nothing that would completely stop the progression through the main storyline. Right?
No.
The first area in the game is broken, or not explained correctly. I go out to find some hunters- only to find out that they were attacked.
Can I then go and save them? No.
Can I head back to my starting campsite? No.
Can I kill this ignoring NPC for telling me to save the other hunters, after I already told him I would? No.
The game completely breaks itself before I even get 5 minutes into it. I don’t think labeling something “Beta” can save glitches like that. No, this is inexcusable, and you should learn to test your game properly, hire QA testers before release, or stop using alien methods to progress the storyline.
But thankfully this game comes nicely packed with an end game save file. So that means this review can exist!
The only real thing I can say wasn’t bad was the semifinal boss. This fight requires a bit of strategy, and while I frown at the fact that everyone uses RTP already-made-for-you skills, I have to say that fight was fun.
Too bad the final boss sucks because I can only use Shill for no real good reason, and Dilblia hits like a girl after turn three.
-overall, 1.0.


♫Overall-
I really think Shadowsong needs to be revamped. As of right now, I could not recommend this game to anyone. I was thinking about not giving this a score, but at this point, I don’t think it really matters. I mean, the game says it's complete. Right?

1.5

You can watch my Let's Try video here. It will explain some of my points a bit better.

( Feel free to leave comments on how I should improve my reviews.I was thinking about making video reviews too. But we'll wait on that :P )