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Sacred Reviews: Sorrow Moor
thesacredlobo- 02/25/2024 01:09 AM
- 57 views
Intro
"Sorrow Moor" is a short turn-based RPG developed by snakins using RPG Maker VX Ace and is snakins's first complete game. And while snakins had left the idea of updating this game in the future on the table.
That update never happened. Which is a tad disappointing in my book since some of the other reviews on this project did offer up suggestions on how to improve this game back when the developer was still active on this site. And I think some of those suggestions wouldn't have taken that long to implement. I suppose on the bright side it does mean every review for this project is based on the same version of this game.
Story
Summary
You play as Pierce, a young boy, who just wants to go home. Sadly it appears he'll need to save the land of Sorrow Moor first. A task that is so easy I question why the wolf and Oracle needed Pierce's help. After all, the wolf is more than capable of walking up ladders.
And considering it can use potions in battle I'm positive it could have easily chucked part of a fallen star at the game's only major boss with his many talents. At any rate after saving Sorrow Moor the game just ends with us forever left wondering if Pierce will ever find his way home.
Strengths
The only bright side the narrative has going for it in my opinion is that it's really short. So its highly unlikely the player will quit before finishing this game. After all, despite snakins's claims of this game taking 60 minutes to beat.
In reality this game takes around 20 minutes or so to beat on your first playthrough. Though, I'm guessing the time estimation is so off because of how inexperienced snakins was when making that estimate.
Weaknesses
Sadly the game's narrative contains a lot of plot holes in my opinion. For starters the game never explains how Pierce got lost in the first place. In fact, some of the dialogue seems to imply Pierce is in a new world which begs the question. Did he get taken out by Truck-kun!?
Or was he summoned by the oracle? Or did he get epically lost like all of those memes about Ryoga Hibiki being able to traverse dimensions with every step he takes. And does the protagonist ever get to go home?
Beyond the game leaving a whole bunch of plot threads hanging there pink and naked. The game really doesn't give the playable character's that much dialogue to begin with. And most of it is so short and to the point that it's hard to say anything meaningful about the character's beyond wolf being a nice canid. And while normally a game weak on story could save itself with good gameplay. Sadly that option really doesn't exist for this game in my opinion.
Gameplay
On the gameplay front "Sorrow Moor" uses the default combat system that comes with RPG Maker VX Ace. As such, I don't have a lot to say about the combat system itself since it's been covered to death over the years. I do have a few issues with the combat in this game though. For starters the battles in this game are super easy and boil down to the player just spamming the basic attack option until they win. In fact, you'll probably have to rely on the standard attack for most of the game since you don't learn any offensive skills until level four. And that skill appears to be partially bugged since it costs 10 MP and 10 TP to use it, but only the TP value of the skill is indicated by the game. To make matters worse the wolf's level eight skill doesn't even show up in the special menu for that character. So it's impossible to cast the wolf's basic fire spell.
Another issue with the combat system is that everyone is a glass cannon which means you'll probably need to heal up after every couple of battles just to stay alive in this game. And needing to regularly go into the menu in order to cast the wolf's basic healing spell is pretty tedious in my opinion, but is a necessity in case you get jumped by a trio of flies and miss a blow or two during the battle. To make matters worse this same design is applied to the bosses as well which is why most bosses in this game go down in one or two hits. As a result the boss battles in this game are extremely boring. After all, it feels like I'm just running up and sucker punching the bosses in the face.
Graphics
On the graphical front the developer was a bit overly ambitious in my opinion. On the plus side this project does feature some original assets as well as edits to the RTP. On the other hand the decision to make everything in this world exist in a black and beige universe is rather weird. After all, the decision to make the world monochromatic was to make the game's world feel more like the illustrations inside of a book, but those are usually in black and white.
At least that's the case with most of the books that I'm familiar with. On a nicer note I suppose the beige look works even if beige is a pretty boring color in the grand scheme of things.
Sound
On the sound side of things the game is a bit weird since the game lacks background music for the game's title screen as well as for when your exploring the world of Sorrow Moor. The only time you'll actually hear sound in this game is when your in battle and the battle theme isn't anything to write home about. Though I suppose that isn't much of a surprise considering it comes from the RTP. The only other time you'll hear sound in this game is when your flipping through menus and subjected to that default blip sound that occurs as you interact with the menu.
Conclusion
"Sorrow Moor" features a lot of the common hallmarks of early projects from boring battles, to questionable decisions such as not including a background track for the game's title screen or having the game end with a game over screen after you beat it. On the plus side the mapping is alright for the most part and does feel unique with its beige monochrome look. Though if that truly captured the look and feel of the illustrations in a story book is debatable in my opinion. All and all this isn't bad for a first game, but I still wouldn't recommend this unless your looking for something quick easy to play and review.
"Sorrow Moor" is a short turn-based RPG developed by snakins using RPG Maker VX Ace and is snakins's first complete game. And while snakins had left the idea of updating this game in the future on the table.
snakins
secondly I wanted something that I could possibly come back to and flesh out in a later episode.
That update never happened. Which is a tad disappointing in my book since some of the other reviews on this project did offer up suggestions on how to improve this game back when the developer was still active on this site. And I think some of those suggestions wouldn't have taken that long to implement. I suppose on the bright side it does mean every review for this project is based on the same version of this game.
Story
Summary
You play as Pierce, a young boy, who just wants to go home. Sadly it appears he'll need to save the land of Sorrow Moor first. A task that is so easy I question why the wolf and Oracle needed Pierce's help. After all, the wolf is more than capable of walking up ladders.
And considering it can use potions in battle I'm positive it could have easily chucked part of a fallen star at the game's only major boss with his many talents. At any rate after saving Sorrow Moor the game just ends with us forever left wondering if Pierce will ever find his way home.
Strengths
The only bright side the narrative has going for it in my opinion is that it's really short. So its highly unlikely the player will quit before finishing this game. After all, despite snakins's claims of this game taking 60 minutes to beat.
snakins
The game is designed to be quite short (about an hour in length).
In reality this game takes around 20 minutes or so to beat on your first playthrough. Though, I'm guessing the time estimation is so off because of how inexperienced snakins was when making that estimate.
Weaknesses
Sadly the game's narrative contains a lot of plot holes in my opinion. For starters the game never explains how Pierce got lost in the first place. In fact, some of the dialogue seems to imply Pierce is in a new world which begs the question. Did he get taken out by Truck-kun!?
Or was he summoned by the oracle? Or did he get epically lost like all of those memes about Ryoga Hibiki being able to traverse dimensions with every step he takes. And does the protagonist ever get to go home?
Beyond the game leaving a whole bunch of plot threads hanging there pink and naked. The game really doesn't give the playable character's that much dialogue to begin with. And most of it is so short and to the point that it's hard to say anything meaningful about the character's beyond wolf being a nice canid. And while normally a game weak on story could save itself with good gameplay. Sadly that option really doesn't exist for this game in my opinion.
Gameplay
On the gameplay front "Sorrow Moor" uses the default combat system that comes with RPG Maker VX Ace. As such, I don't have a lot to say about the combat system itself since it's been covered to death over the years. I do have a few issues with the combat in this game though. For starters the battles in this game are super easy and boil down to the player just spamming the basic attack option until they win. In fact, you'll probably have to rely on the standard attack for most of the game since you don't learn any offensive skills until level four. And that skill appears to be partially bugged since it costs 10 MP and 10 TP to use it, but only the TP value of the skill is indicated by the game. To make matters worse the wolf's level eight skill doesn't even show up in the special menu for that character. So it's impossible to cast the wolf's basic fire spell.
Another issue with the combat system is that everyone is a glass cannon which means you'll probably need to heal up after every couple of battles just to stay alive in this game. And needing to regularly go into the menu in order to cast the wolf's basic healing spell is pretty tedious in my opinion, but is a necessity in case you get jumped by a trio of flies and miss a blow or two during the battle. To make matters worse this same design is applied to the bosses as well which is why most bosses in this game go down in one or two hits. As a result the boss battles in this game are extremely boring. After all, it feels like I'm just running up and sucker punching the bosses in the face.
Graphics
On the graphical front the developer was a bit overly ambitious in my opinion. On the plus side this project does feature some original assets as well as edits to the RTP. On the other hand the decision to make everything in this world exist in a black and beige universe is rather weird. After all, the decision to make the world monochromatic was to make the game's world feel more like the illustrations inside of a book, but those are usually in black and white.
At least that's the case with most of the books that I'm familiar with. On a nicer note I suppose the beige look works even if beige is a pretty boring color in the grand scheme of things.
Sound
On the sound side of things the game is a bit weird since the game lacks background music for the game's title screen as well as for when your exploring the world of Sorrow Moor. The only time you'll actually hear sound in this game is when your in battle and the battle theme isn't anything to write home about. Though I suppose that isn't much of a surprise considering it comes from the RTP. The only other time you'll hear sound in this game is when your flipping through menus and subjected to that default blip sound that occurs as you interact with the menu.
Conclusion
"Sorrow Moor" features a lot of the common hallmarks of early projects from boring battles, to questionable decisions such as not including a background track for the game's title screen or having the game end with a game over screen after you beat it. On the plus side the mapping is alright for the most part and does feel unique with its beige monochrome look. Though if that truly captured the look and feel of the illustrations in a story book is debatable in my opinion. All and all this isn't bad for a first game, but I still wouldn't recommend this unless your looking for something quick easy to play and review.
