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A fusion of education and adventure that doesn't quite make it.

Stemming from the overview, and the screenshots given for Lost Identity, I was a bit skeptical about how the game would fair. But, knowing that there are plenty of games with potential that lack adequate mapping and faulty grammar, I saw no reason as to not rate it. Plus, the idea of education being the game's theme is rather intriuging.

I've broken the game up into 6 parts: Storyline, Pacing, Dialogue, Audio, Game Mechanics, Visuals.

The rating scale for each part is from 1 to 5.

Storyline:
The storyline is one of your standards - You are in a foreign world, now you must find a way to get back to your real world. This game lacks any depth to that storyline. Any information on the person's background is given in the first 5 minutes of the game, with a special side conversation that tells you the backstory of the second main character you fight with, Erelyna. There is no reason as to why Cleve is sucked into a random black hole, and why the black hole was located in his University. There is no explanation as to why the "World of Knowledge" exists, or why it randomly sucks people up. It is never stated why the Father of Time has decided to take people against their will and make them learn, and have them fight to the death with his snake pet. The emphasis of the game is on education, but it feels as if the story-line was structured around the idea of education, and not centered on creating an engaging story-line, whislt incorporating educational elements. The story is not engaging, and I often wondered if there was a story-line. Unfortunately, this aspect does not recieve high marks. 1/5

Pacing:
It is hard to say how the pacing was handled because of how short the game is. I would have to say, for the game's length, that the pacing was done fairly well. Though there wasn't much to offer, it was apparent where the story was going, and in what direction. The only problem was the scope of the worlds - There was only two. As soon as you begin playing, as in exploring each city and talking with instructors, you are suddenly whisked away and engaging in the final boss. I will applaud it though - I have played many games who completely rush and muddy the beginning. Though this game wasn't exactly spectacular, it did try to stay solid in its pacing, even though it quickly made a mad dash to the end a bit too soon.
2/5

Dialouge:
Based on the grammar and sentence structure seen in the game, it is safe to say that the developer's native language is not English. Even with that notion known, it still does little for the strained dialogue present throughout Lost Identity. The character's are rather static, including the main characters. There is little to no personality present. No characteristics or qualities to take note of. It is simply words on a screen with pictures beside it with no emotion behind it. 1/5

Audio:
Aside from the title screen and a very short cutscene, the music is standard RTP. The music does it's purpose - to fill each map with an array of harmonized sounds opposed to silence and the occasional sound effect. It doesn't evoke anything outside of that. No special attention was put into the battle themes either - The battle music is the same entirely throughout, with little deviation. There are no special sound effects - those are also the standard RTP. Not much to say otherwise. It was pretty mediocre.
2/5


Game Mechanics:
The game consisted of two ... game play interfaces, for lack of a better phrase:

Front View Battle System
I have no qualms against the Front View Battle System. The battles in this game were practically fillers - It gave the player the opportunity to fight. Otherwise, the game would simply consist of the player walking around, talking, and taking exams. What irritated me the most was the fact that the player could be attack while walking around the city. So not only do you have to search for the "teachers" or "professors", you had to fend yourself from a bunch of hornets and spiders. The final boss is against a Lamia who, unless you remember to stock up on potions which you won't because many of the city's monsters can be killed in one hit, will defeat you the first time you fight her because she takes off over 400 hp with each attack. The Lamia is the only battle that requires a sense of strategy, and even then, not so much. After grinding in the "Training Land" (which consists of only two monsters that give 75-99 exp, and 175-200 gp per kill) I stocked up on potions once level 10, and was able to beat the Lamia with potions and HP to spare. So aside from the final boss battle, the rest of the random encounters served little to no purpose, and hardly prepare you for the final battle.

Exam System
The Exam System consists of the player talking to NPC's, and reading a wall of text on high level sciences like Chemistry, and Thermatology. After spending 10 minutes analyzing the text (or speed reading and memorizing everything you possibly could), you must take a 10 question exam. If you fail, the process must be repeated. This game was meant to be submitted to an educational competition hosted by a Japanese company. Though the game does contain educational elements, much of the information in here was hard to comprehend and memorize, and I'm a senior in college! Much of the education is thrown in your face, giving you little time to attempt to understand it, and little enjoyment in learning because you are doing exactly what you do in school everyday - Reading a wall of text. Though heading in the right direction, the Exam System doesn't exactly bring forth a tall order of fun to the game.

The Game Mechanics have a lot that need be improved. 1/5

Visuals
There were a few touches that Qillerz made that added a small tinge of originality to the game. One being the customized menu and the changed dialogue box skin. They didn't really tie into any concurrent theme (though the theme wasn't exactly evident) in the game, but it was still nice to see a change from the usually light blue message box. The title screen was changed also - It was a picture of a house on a hill, overlooking a valley riddled with small houses and a church. Very pretty, to be honest. The game consisted of RTP game characters, and customized characters with facesets made using the Fox Richards faceset from deviantart. The mapping, consisting primarily of RPT tiles, seemed to gradually improve with each map, though the maps were still lacking visually. The main character's home was entirely too big for the 3 person family that inhabited it. The school was exceptionally large as well, with little detail to show for it. Majority of the maps were void of character. You knew what the general outlook of the town was, but nothing stood out or caught your attention. It was actually quite bland at times. Though the maps improved over time, they did not posses a great deal of detail. I put part of the blame on the RTP. 2/5

Median Score: 1.5

Posts

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Aaah, the exams... I don't know for you, but they gave me quite the headache.
Nicely done review, we share pretty much the same points.
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