DragonVale

I concede that my reason for playing DragonVale was that, while searching for an entirely unrelated RPGMaker game, I was guided to a video in which a different entry in this series was let's played and commentated on by a user who, for comedic value, likes to play games that they deem as bad. I personally am not fond of that style of let's playing, as I hypothesize that it can intimidate those who may have eventually made great games from attempting their first projects and learning the ropes of RPG development. This does not mean that I will not provide a critical review, but it does mean that I will commend the developer for doing what so many of us dream of in youth but give up or not attempt for one reason or another (lack of confidence, selling one's hobbies away to focus on making money, so on and so forth): making RPGs for the sheer fun of it.

Plot/Storyline: Run-on sentences and misuse of apostrophes are abundant. I will keep this review spoiler-free, but the dialog is a bit contrived: plot points are plain-spokenly delivered in casual conversation, and we are also given a Darth Vader style "Noooo!" in response to a dark scene. The game's story, much like the gameplay, enfolds in a strictly linear-style.

Sound/Music: This is DragonVale's strongest point. I have heard almost all of these compositions before (sans one), but they are logical choices that fit the environments, and the sort of emotion you would expect the character to be feeling. I also appreciated the use of village chatter sound effects in the castle town, though I was on a map in which nobody was outside (where did the chatter come from?).

Visuals/Mapping: Standard RTP used in a standard way. No eyesores for sure, but nothing stuck out. A little more variety (adding varied plants/flowers to a grassy map, for example) would have helped. Specifically concerning maps: in the towns, you cannot enter most of the houses. One town surprised me by allowing me to enter a weapon shop and an armor shop (unfortunately, I was not allowed to enter the item shop--I drastically needed an antidote to cure my character's poison, but I would have to wait to find one of those later on.) Additionally, there is a lack of interaction with most NPCs, as well as objects that you may expect to interact with in some other games.

Gameplay: This is where I encountered some bugs. For one, when the player first greets his uncle, there is an error that probably all RPGMaker players and creators have faced time and time again: if you encounter the NPC from an unexpected angle, steps are taken in an unexpected way and the game freezes up as a result. It took me three tries to get past this scene. There were one or two other occasions in which I expected events to be triggered but nothing happened because the game anticipated me to step on a certain tile that I had skipped (this happened to me before entering the castle for the first time--I wandered around the castle wondering what I was supposed to do, but while walking my way out I accidentally activated the event that resulted in me entering the castle.)

Your player character can dash, but the speed of it is lowered during a scene in which your character is supposed to be sneaking around. The speed is seemingly randomly restored later in the game.

Other gameplay elements include an unexplained class selection system, and a few optional side-quests that can be completed with ease within a half a minute.

Final Words: I didn't keep an eye on the clock, but I expect that this game takes approximately a half an hour to complete (though DragonVale is a chapter/episode, rather than a full game.) It is on the easy side--even with the poisoning issue, I did not get a game over at any point--and I could use my hands to count the number of battles I fought.


(Side Note: For some reason, I keep accidentally typing up this game's title as DragonValue, as if it is a supermarket for dragons...)