DragonVale

Dragonvale is the second game that I am reviewing, and must say I'm a little less optimistic about this game than I was the previous one.

"Dragonvale" in ten words: Protagonist slays dragon, saving the lives of illiterate, emotionless civilians.

Storytelling and Direction 0.5

Though I'm usually up for casual banter and sarcasm, I'll be the first to throw my hat into the ring by pointing out the constant grammar mistakes and lack of appropriate punctuation throughout the entire short game. I felt that the both the protagonist and the non-player characters were completely emotionless, (or at least the ones that had something to say at all) due to the lack of grammar and punctuation. The true hero of the game in my opinion was your uncle, as when you talk to him he forces you to close the game down. The speed of the game is incredibly fast; moving from saving your mother from ungrowing fire to getting a buggy tour from your uncle in a matter of seconds.

Characters 1.0

Unfortunatly in this game, every character whose personality could begin to build dies off or is removed from the game in some way too quickly. There has to be some form of reality when it comes to characters, though in this game you are presented with a group of guards who would probably break down emotionally if you asked them if their refrigerator was running. I also noticed that although the king of the area has a tall castle, he has chosen to place his throne underground. Who knows, maybe the heating broke and it was just too cold up there. Improvements I would make to this field would be significance of characters and also their dialogue.

Overall Gameplay and Atmosphere 1.0

I'd like to start this field by talking about mapping. The maps, though they are set up well, lack branch maps. Completely. If you try and leave an area, enter a pub, explore around a bit or even talk to the locals, you'll find yourself disappointed.

The battle system is the same as the preset one, which I have no fault with, as I actually quite like the preset battle system, though some games like to go the extra mile and design their own, (hint hint). However, the battles themselves are also incredibly easy and there are only about five battles in the whole game, making them seemingly pointless. It almost makes you want to think this game would be better off as a visual novel rather than an RPG. To stop your audience thinking this, you should make use of the random encounter feature, stop your characters levelling up after everything you kill and also perhaps add a few tactics into your game, which isn't usually an easy feat, so I would suggest playing some of the featured games on this site before progressing here.

The music of the game seemed slightly overpowering and maybe a little inappropriate, though it was still fitting. Maybe you could have added some of your own features, such as a dragons shadow passing over the castle in the intro, or maybe some form of intro at all. Despite the common claim that it's all about things you can't see rather than things you can see, I'd like to be able to see this dragon, or at least it flying away as you enter the village.

I noticed a few bugs; one being that if you walk to your uncle, he will send you running towards some water and then stop you completly, and also the sudden change of the characters speed. Who knows, maybe he hit the gym during the five month interlude. The character himself has the typical boring "There's a problem, I will take it upon myself to save the people" attitude.
Overall, I wouldn't say this game has absolutely no light at the end of the tunnel, but if these things are taken into account before the release of the full version, that light will be much brighter.

-Shill