• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS

Even the game hates itself!


Savior is a game created by mtarzaim for RPG Maker VX Ace. Savior is a puzzle game in where you need to discover all the possible solutions to the puzzle. There is a total of 25 "Puzzles" to solve.


Story:

You and two other beings are stuck in a world with an endless loop. As the hero you are trying to figure out a way to break the endless cycle. The other characters you will interact with include the elder and the dark god.

The story is plain and simple, not a lot gets explained to you. The characters often ask why they are there and why they exist. You never feel attached to the story or the characters in the game. The game sort of goes out of its way to make you not like anything about it. The characters complain about the game and even insult the player for playing it.


Graphics:

The mapping is actually decent, even for having only two maps. The two maps are well used. The village and the ruins are well laid out and the puzzles work well within the area you are given to play them. The animations for things a well used (such as the elder healing you, the use of the torch to burn things, etc...)

I can't find much to complain about with the graphics the game has in it.


Sound:

There are enough sounds to get the job done in this game. Everything that should have a sound effect has the appropriate sound effect. But don't expect anything spectacular about the choices of sounds here. It's simple and bare minimum at best.


Gameplay:

There are 25 "Puzzles" to solve in this game. Some of the puzzles require a bit of thinking and you do need to interact with different objects in the world. I was particularly impressed by the "Windows Bug Event" and almost thought something had gone wrong with the game (That was impressive.)

But not all the "puzzles" or "cycles" feel particularly challenging. Some will occur by simply interacting with the characters and don't require any thought at all. I felt that some more challenging puzzles could have been added to the mix, instead of having things that just happened.

That being said, some of the puzzles are rather difficult. The reason for this is that nothing is really explained. How do you know that you can jump over the fence, or jump down the bride, or move that rock to get to the airship. I don't think the game provides enough clues or context for some of the more difficult things to find. The developer even realized this and included a walkthrough attached to the game file. A better solution would be to tell the character in the game what he might be capable of doing.

The basic problem though is that you have some puzzles that are too easy and some that are too difficult. The ones that are just right don't seem to be enough to give you the full enjoyment of this experience.


Overall:

Savior is a short game and won't take much of your time to play. That being said it has moments of frustration where you might not even care if you finish it. There is little motivation in the story to want to complete the game. The only thing that might convince you to finish it is the easy to access walkthrough, but even then its not really worth your time or effort. And that's why I'm giving the game a 1.5 / 5.

Posts

Pages: 1
mtarzaim
Criticizing more, making less...
1761
Yayyyy! A review!!!!

Many thanks.
I bet you put more time in writing this review than finishing the game, given its shortness.

Now, time for the... counter-review!!!!

Interesting you call the cycles "Puzzles", when I just see them as all the ways the NPC can think of, about how to get out of their unfinished universe.

In some of those cycles, the NPC themselves take action, affirming their autonomous self against the control of the player.

author=OP
The story is plain and simple, not a lot gets explained to you

Because there's nothing to explain more than "you're the hero, go save the world".
Even the NPC cannot help at first, since they solely exist for nothing more than filling their respective (and short-sighted) role.

author=OP
You never feel attached to the story or the characters in the game

For what it worth, I found funny that the evil guy ends up being the less evil of the two. While the elder quickly looks for something to blame, Dark God takes some time to reflect on himself and his world.

The hero is quite tragic in himself. Since he cannot talk by design (the mute hero principle), he ends up being the abused, despite trying his best to save the world.

author=OP
The characters complain about the game and even insult the player for playing it.

Indeed.
That's the whole point: to make the characters alive and self-conscious, so the player feels being adressed not as an avatar in a game, but as a person witnessing their predicament.

Think of this moment in Ghost Trick, if you ever played this gem of a game.

author=OP
The mapping is actually decent, even for having only two maps

Nope, it's shit. Total and uter shitty mapping.
The kind of mapping you get with a total noob with RPG Maker, going full speed in its first RPG Maker game, and ditching it a few days later. Then the game stays forever in the hard drive, with its characters enacting again and again the sorry excuse of a story that their impatient creator has put them into, for the rest of their numeric existence.

author=OP
How do you know that you can jump over the fence, or jump down the bride, or move that rock to get to the airship?

By the well-known trick of any point'n click: click on everything until it moves.

author=OP
That being said it has moments of frustration where you might not even care if you finish it.

I might even dare to say nobody can "finish it" in the usual meaning of the verb.
More in the other Mortal-Kombatesque meaning.
Pages: 1