Sword of Light Mini-RPG

Intro

"Sword of Light Mini-RPG" is a turn-based RPG developed by Gamer91112 using RPG Maker VX, and this game does live up to it's claim of being a mini RPG since it can be beaten in around 25 to 35 minutes. At least that's my estimation based on it taking me around 27 minutes to beat this game.

Story

You play as Thydor an old man hoping to climb an ancient tower in order to claim the legendary Sword of Light that can vanquish all evil. Though it appears Thydor desires this sword for less noble reasons than your average hero. It appears he just wants to be remember for centuries as the prophesied hero that would claim the sword and defeat all evil.

Unfortunately Thydor is a rather silent protagonist so we really don't get that much dialogue to help flesh him out or make him seem like a real character over the course of the game. Though, it probably would have been hard to incorporate dialogue into this game considering Thydor travels with just his weapons and other supplies at the ready. As a result Thydor comes across as rather uninteresting, but this does mean the ability to change Thydor's name at the start of the game allows for some juvenile fun since you can become the legendary hero Fumoffu if you want, but I think most of the fun with naming characters yourself comes from giving your rival an inappropriate name. At least that's my opinion based on naming my rival in Pokemon after swear words and whatnot as a kid.

Outside of naming your character and learning he wants to be famous you spend the bulk of your time in this game either climbing the tower while leaving the beaten path every now and again for a treasure chest that is set just slightly off to the side or devote yourself to dealing with various monster encounters that are tied to specific tiles on the map. Unfortunately it's impossible to dodge these encounters since the the hallways are just barely wide enough for Thydor to cross on his own in a lot of cases, but you probably wouldn't want to avoid those encounters anyway if you want to beat this game.

Gameplay

"Sword of Light Mini-RPG" is an almost bare bones turn-based RPG where your biggest issue will be getting through the first couple fights since the miss rate early on is pretty large with your basic attack. At least it comes across that way since I missed five times the first time I had to deal with a group of three Flame Wisps, but that issue seems almost minor in comparison to how boring later battles feel since you'll be forced to spam group spells like Holy Storm and Heaven's Wrath if you want to survive. This is because the enemies you'll be dealing with will attack you in such large groups that if you don't outpace the enemies in terms of damage you'll be put in a position where winning is impossible.



Though I suppose this game does try to change things a little by allowing additional monsters to pop up during fights, but this features tends to be mostly frustrating in my opinion. This is because when new enemies pop up they can hurt you as soon as they arrive and they will most likely show up after you've already performed your own attack that turn. So they basically get to ambush you in the middle of a fight. To make matters worse enemies popping up in the middle of a fight can easily take out player in some instances if you weren't prepared for taking all of the additional damage they can inflict.

Mapping

The mapping in the game is passable in my opinion considering the apparent level experience the developer had at the time when coupled with how much time was spent on this game for the most part, but one of the maps in particular makes me raise an eyebrow or two.



For starters you can walk on the far wall on this floor. To be fair this is a pretty common error to find, but the real eye brow raiser for me is the placement of the statues on this floor since they appear to be in places you'd expect the ceiling to be. At least if we weren't able to peer into the room like an all seeing god.

Graphics & Sound

On the graphics and sound side of things the game stuck to the standard assets that come with RPG Maker VX. As a result the game really doesn't stand out in terms of visuals or music, but there isn't anything really to complain about here either.

Conclusion

"Sword of Light Mini-RPG" is a pretty standard first time project in terms of quality. So those that tend to play those kinds of games will know what they are in for. For those that haven't played those kinds of games you can probably tell from my review that this game isn't going to blow your socks off like some of the games that have been featured on this site like "Luxarren Allure" or able to compete with some of the old classics like "Devil Hunter: Seeker of Power". If your looking for a really memorable experience that you can really dig into I'd suggest taking a look at those. If your merely looking to burn thirty minutes and want to smite some giant fish with lightning and whatnot then this will probably be enough to satisfy that itch.