Noble Quest

Simply put, the demo of Noble Quest is a charming romp in the same vein as those old Game Boy RPGs. Fans of Final Fantasy Adventure and even Pokemon are certain to find loads of nostalgia in this demo. It's a solid hour-long demo; there were a few bugs that have since been eliminated by Exterminator Liberty ;)

Graphics

Noble Quest's graphics are custom and mostly well done. I had no issues with any of the tilesets; they invoke strong feelings of nostalgia rooted in the old Game Boy RPGs. Everything is in black and white, but this doesn't detract from the game's beauty in any way. The tree and town tiles are particularly enjoyable. Those trees really feel like something out of Link's Awakening or Pokemon - nicely done!

Augmenting the exceptional graphics (and, in many ways, bringing their elegance out) are the maps. This game is professionally mapped across the board. "Shift mapping" is used effectively; this technique allows the water and grass tiles to mesh more naturally with walls, roofs, and other details. The level of detail is never over or underdone, and areas are organically shaped when necessary. There are absolutely no faults with the mapping. Players will really enjoy the eye candy!



The character sprites are cute; I especially love the balding protagonist! As I said, most of the monster sprites are competently designed, though a couple of them look a little awkward, such as the kelp enemy. The fish and slime sprites are probably my favorites. Sadly, there aren't very many monster sprites, much like with the RMN Chain Game. This problem actually affects the gameplay - it makes fights more monotonous because the player has fewer enemies to fight. Little variety means less excitement. Lastly, some of the monster sprites are either too small or too big; I feel the monster sizes could've been more consistent. I also encountered some hardcore screen shaking at a few points; this made me a little woozy becuase it lasted for a long time. Most of these issues are minor, though, and I give the graphics an exceptional 4 out of 5

Story
Noble Quest is fairly unique in that it's an old school RPG with chracterization and some semblance of a deep storyline! The characters are all well written, though I'd like to see some of their personalities emerge a little more as the game carries on. The sample size is indeed small, but so far I have no issues with both the story and the characters. None of the cutscenes run for too long, and the game is adequately paced.

Players assume the role of Adalard (pun intended?), an overweight and balding nobleman who seems like a decent guy. The rest of the characters are equally ragtag; we have a sorceress, a random Red Mage with bad (or good?) luck, and a dwarf who will hopefully get some nice development as the game carries on. It will be interesting to see these characters continue to develop. The sorceress, Quivia, will likely be my favorite character, but I need to see more before I can judge any of the characters. Their banter has been solid so far.



I think the story needs a real hook. To me, the appeal of this game is the graphics and exploration; if the story is to be part of the appeal, it needs to have some sort of hook. It's very competently written and I'm sure it will continue to get more and more interesting, but I'm a sucker for definitive intros. The story does have some memorable moments toward the end of the demo; the last cutscene in particular is executed extremely well, and reminds me a lot of the more iconic moments of the old Final Fantasies.

Based on the small sample size, I give the story a very solid 3.5 out of 5. It tries to do what I was attempting to do in Denadel - take the old RPG story formula and give it some depth. Will it succeed? Time will tell!

Music

Sadly, I'm on my backup laptop - you know, the one with the fried sound card. I couldn't hear the music, but I did have the luxury of playing part of this demo back in the day, and I enjoyed most of the selections.

Gameplay
Noble Quest's gameplay is a mixed bag, but it does have potential. First, the exploration element of the game is reasonably well done. There are plenty of secret passages in the trees, and most of these lead to treasure. Sadly, not all of them do; a few are just loops or dead ends, and some of the treasure is a little underwhelming. I would've liked to have seen a little more treasure in the pots and jars, but I'm a sucker for Hero's Realm so I may be asking for too much! I would also like to see some hidden passages in the dungeons.

The dungeons are solid. Their layouts aren't complicated, but there are plenty of treasure rooms and opportunities to explore and backtrack. Puzzles are minimal as of the first demo's release, but there is this cool feature in the second dungeon where the player has to travel underwater to reach other areas. When underwater, there is a timer; if the characters don't resurface in time, they'll drown! The twist is that there are some dead ends filled with treasure, so players will have to time their "dives" carefully to ensure they get all the treasure.

The battle system is the biggest opportunity. Battles are straightforward and are front-faced like Phantasy Star. Sadly, the game is in 2k3 and inevitably uses the rather slow ATB gauge. I have trouble tolerating it nowadays. Liberty could probably save a lot of trouble by either moving the game to 2k, looking into the 2k3 mods, or making speed relatively static so that the gauges are ensured to be fast. The (rather unavoidable) ATB issue is compounded by the lack of an escape command, thus forcing me to fight all trash mobs I encounter while backtracking. In a game that encourages (and mostly rewards) exploration, this issue could frustrate some players.

The battles themselves are fairly simple, but never cheap or too easy. Still, I feel there's a lot of potential that should be tapped. The game uses an AP system instead of MP; players have a maximum of 10 AP, and spend at least one whenever they act in battle. They can charge their AP for a turn, but I never had to use this feature. Most abilities in this demo use only one or two AP, and AP recharges quickly after battle. In other words, the AP system really never gets used. I never ran out once during the game - if I had to heal outside of battle, I'd use the healing spell a few times, walk a few steps so my AP recharges, and then heal again. I'm sure Liberty will be tapping into the full potential of this system in the full release.



Players learn skills via books/scrolls that are purchased in shops or found in chests. The frequency of skills is moderate - there's magic, physical attacks, enemy skills, the whole nine yards - but the fights don't really require strategic use of them. Hopefully elemental and physical weaknesses come into play later in the game. I hope to see some gimmicky skills in the future - things like steal, buffs, AP manipulation, etc. I hope Liberty goes all out with the skills and AP system!

A couple other minor gripes I had were (1) relatively slow walk speed, and (2) no tutorials. I didn't really need tutorials, but there were some opportunities where I could've been better informed about skill learning and the AP system. I didn't realize AP regenerated at first, and I was worried about teaching skills to my mage in case she learned them after leveling up. The slow walk speed is somewhat unavoidable, because the maps are fairly small and compact, and a fast-running sprite would kill some of the immersion. Meh, it's a 50/50 issue; I can see it both ways. The walk speed didn't detract from the experience too much for me, and the developers have designed the game with the walk speed in mind.

As it stands, I give the gameplay a 2.25 out of 5. This number will likely rise a lot once all the systems are tweaked and fully developed.

Conclusion
Overall, the demo scores a 3.25 out of 5, or 3.5 stars. On my scale, 2.5 is average; this game is merely a demo, and it's already above average. Kaempfer and Liberty got this game off to a decent start; it's easy to see why this game placed second in a contest. There's lots of potential here, and Liberty knows what she's doing so I'm eagerly anticipating the full version.

"Me likey!"