DragonVale

My first review since coming back!

Pre Summary
Touting directly from it's project page that it was a 20 minute game set my expectations pretty low to begin with, but I was going to give it a fair chance anyways. The story seems pretty generic fair, evil guys doing bad stuff, dragons somehow being involved and some random guy has to save everyone.

Story
Here is my major gripe with the entire game, you instantly begin with NO introduction to the story, no cutscene, no setup whatsoever. You are at the castle gate (who knows what castle btw) and you have to tell the king you spotted a dragon attacking! The guard almost literally says "Ok that seems legit, go ahead." In the first 5 lines of dialogue I was already groaning from the bad grammar and complete lack of setup.

Instantaneously you switch to the main character who is screaming for his mother in a town "attacked by dragons". When I say screaming I mean ALL CAPS OMG LOTS OF !!!! AAAAHHH!!!!!!.

Once this scene is complete you are told to pick a class out of like paladin, and a few other things, of which there is NO explanation given, and your choice is final.

Transition to some town where your uncle lives and enjoy a 2 minute pause before the next big story arc where a dragon appears in the middle of the town to tell you you are chosen. So instead of taking you with him when he leaves; you are supposed to travel to his temple. Along the way to his temple you meet some random girl who joins you simply because she says you should trust her.

At this point in the game I just zoned out and kinda zombied my way through the rest. The story wasn't structured at all and it seemed like the world was completely lifeless. "Big story events" had no emotional bearing on me because they were plucked out of the blue and had no lead up.

One of the worst gutwrenching awful moments in the story telling is when the "king" suddenly decides you are his new captain the instant he meets you simply because you told him a 3 line story about how you are a "chosen one"

Graphics
Actually the mapping wasn't a complete washout, a bit bland in some areas but decently built in others. The mapping was inconsistent though and could have used just a touch more tlc. The dragon temple should have been much more ornate than it was, however the throne room of the king was very pleasing to look at. The author needs to remember the rule of 3 (any pattern lasting longer than 3 tiles looks unnatural) and he will do fine from now on.

Sound
The music was pleasing but rarely fit the situation it was put into. In fact I didn't notice it much at all, which some people claim is a good thing but personally I prefer my soundtracks to be memorable.

However the reason the author loses in this category is due to laziness. The ocean can still be heard inside houses, and sound effects are way too overpowering in certain areas. With minimal tweaking this could have been a much more pleasant experience.

Play-ability
There were some irritating bugs, one in particular is about halfway through he uses an even to slow down a cut scene walk speed, then completely forgets to return it to normal speed so you are stuck moving at this EXCRUCIATINGLY slow pace for the last quarter of the game.

Final Thoughts
This game was painful to play and 99% of that is due to the lack of effort in story progression. I actually believe he has an interesting idea that was rushed in order to "release a game". If some more time was spent to actually develop the characters and story this would actually seem to be a decent game, but with its current lack of effort from the author I can only give it two stars.