Phantom Legacy (Part 1)

A few corrections.

The sprites consist mostly of DQ (I believe)

This game uses Romancing Saga styled sprites.

especially in the desert town you come across later in the game (a number of which I pointed out in my beta notes)

The pass-ability issues mentioned in yours and everyone else' notes were fixed. If you've found anything new, please post them here.

There are no chests, hidden items, or sidequests to speak of anywhere, basically leaving you with no choice but to head straight to your destination; and where's the fun in that?

The above is inherently untrue, and I - oh wait...

I never really felt like I was grinding at all, and actually enjoyed some of the random strong monsters that guarded special treasures

Incidentally, well... not really. But there are two optional encounters in the game. One optional sub boss, and one optional super-boss.

I also added a few extra chests to the "useless town" you were referring to... you know, after the beta.

Also, it took me until Part One's conclusion to realize that Alistar could use those throwing knives as his way of physically attacking enemies.

In the very room you recruit the character, there is a large blue sparkle where you find the daggers. The character who can use them has a quick aside explaining how theyre "crudely made but good in a pinch". Aside from shoving a giant stupid message box in your face saying "ALISTAR CAN USE THESE" right after this really forward reference, I'm not sure how much easier I can make it.

My favorite thing about Demon Legacy was watching the characters interact with each other in interesting in humorous ways.

Yeah I liked those too... ... ... which is exactly why I included scenes like that in this game. You're free to question the execution though.

Battles and puzzles aside, there are a couple of other things I need to point out that really bothered me. First off, there is a point in the game where you are given a choice to either continue the dungeon or leave with a key dropped by one of the antagonists. If you choose to leave, it just sends you back to the title screen. This is a piss-poor way of giving the player "free-choice" in-game. If you're going to allow the player to make a choice that may impact the storyline, don't just have it so that it's essentially a "gameover" if players choose one way instead of the other; it takes away any semblance of choice by basically forcing the player to pick the alternative path.

It's called a bad ending, Demon Legacy had one of those too, actually. Oh sorry, I was supposed to be pointing out contradictions and inaccuracies, but I'll explain for your benefit. The scene you're describing is supposed to show *CHARACTER A's* reluctance to kill you. You, as the player are presented with a choice. Of course you're supposed to ignore the warning, but I find it adds a little flavor to the plot when you do things like this.

Slade going out with a whimper as opposed to his previous bad ass, heroic end.

.... .... Both intros ended in the exact same way - Slade charging one last time. I'm not particularly sure what your problem is with this part of the intro.

My other issue was something that happens near the game's conclusion, where you are forced to fight one-on-one with another character. After dishing out some damage with Nero, the enemy used an attack that hurt me for over 6k damage, killing me instantly. I assumed, at first, that this was intentional and that I was just supposed to lose...until I saw the game over screen. I then worked out that I must have to kill him within a certain amount of time.

I did actually ad a few lines of dialogue to help make this more obvious, as you weren't the only person with this problem... You know, after the beta.

I have no issue with a mediocre or even bad review, but please; it's more helpful to me if you actually have your facts straight.

I missed a few contradictions, but I think you get my point.

Although I don't think it's the best move to pull in a game and I did point out my confusion about this whole section during beta testing - I will give a defense in that frickin' Symphony of the Night did this (you kill Richter, the game ends at less than 50% completion) and that's a timeless classic and an amazing title.

(I haven't played the post-beta test version of this yet so I can't comment on later clarification that might have been added for the public release version)

That doesn't mean it's game-making best-practice to do it.. But if it's good enough for Castlevania then I can let it slide in an amateur game.

Some of this review is great, but there are other aspects that are somewhat confusing. I don't think it's fair to penalize a story that jumps around - sometimes it helps the narrative, as you probably know from your work on Forever's End. Part of me wonders if you set yourself up for disappointment by having high expectations - a common issue with sequels. I'd also try to give the benefit of the doubt when it comes to characterization.

I'll have to finish this demo and post my own review and see how our feedback compares!

Does anyone have an old save file of Phantom Legacy before escaping the dungeon? If so, can you please upload it for me.

I was referring to the desert town, not the entire game (see previous sentence).

...The desert town has a secret boss, and chests, actually. So it's still wholly untrue.

I guess I'm just an idiot then because I still didn't realize it until later. I think it was mainly because I was so focused on understanding his trap commands.

... You hit setup once, the setup command is replaced with the trap command. Can someone explain what is complicated about this?


I have a problem with your review because most of your criticism makes no sense and you contradict yourself inside your own review. Even more astonishing is that this submission was even accepted.

Just a thought of mine...
But isn't it a bit early to be reviewing something? The whole project must be fraught with bugs still, and a number of tweaks must be yet to be made.

No, that's my fault. I should have tested the game thoroughly. If people want to take off points for bugs they're more than welcome to.

I agree with most of the review, I see no part where he's contradicting himself or talking nonsense.

OK, I'm at the boss at the top of the tower and I'm sooo confused about his barrier. Is it he or the barrier who recovers 100 HP every turn? Is the enemy with the Barrier status him or the barrier? Is the barrier invincible? How am I supposed to beat this boss?

Anyhow, going through the review in order:
- sprite graphics are from Romancing Sa-Ga 3, the chapsets are mixed (the opening is from CastleVania SOTN IIRC).
- boss battles are not very good. The bosses mostly just attack and have no real strategies, and you have no way to form your own as you have so few options. The bosses deal too much damage and you have to heal almost after every attack, and since you usually have only two party members it means only one is dealing damage and advancing the fight towards its end. They're also as fast as the party. They have too much HP and the strategy to defeat them is static, so after just a few turns you're going through the motions and not thinking at all, like an automaton. Normal fights suffer from this too (Lilith attacks, Nero attacks with the Flame, heals if necessary, but it's rare; that's it). Characters need more skills with varied effects - Nero has 3 skills that do damage and 1 that heals (at the point of the game I'm at), it's always a no brainer which to use. Lilith is even worse, she basically has a standard attack and a super attack you'll use constantly against bosses. Her third option is useless because the DBS algorithms are broken.
- puzzles were OK. BTW, I didn't even know that the "Exit Key" allowed you to leave the dungeon, as in it was optional. I thought it would be used automatically later on to advance the game.
- the bit about the trick boss fight was spot on. If I hadn't read this review beforehand I wouldn't have known you were supposed to sit there and get pounded. In FF4 it is very, very clear you should not attack your shadow, here it isn't even mentioned (that one line of dialogue is not enough).
- the story was OK, it's only the first part so I bet it'll get better. There was one cutscene I'd cut from the game (pun intended), the one with the queen and some other people who were never introduced - I had no idea who they were, what they were talking about, and overall it was a waste of two minutes of my life.
- I agree about the characterization, I think it is the part of the game that needs more polishing. Everyone is samey, they talk in a similar fashion, they don't talk about themselves only about what is going on around them, they have no quirks, and so on. They have no real personalities.
- music was great. Oh, apart from that RE2 tune, but I've played that game so many times it's like branded onto my grey matter and so felt out of place. But that's just me.
- one more thing - I hated the part where you're sightseeing the town, talking to all the NPCs, and moments later you switch to Lilith and are supposed to talk to everyone AGAIN (and let me tell you, there are a lot of NPCs in there) to find that one person who will advance the plot, and you're given to directions AT ALL, you don't even know who you're looking for. It made me want to strangle you.
- oh, passability issues - in the town you can walk on many indoor doors.
- there are secret bosses in this game? Where? I'm pretty sure the only optional encounter I found was the demon thing sprite in the desert (against two brawlers).

My rating for this game would be 7/10. It has the potential to be 8/10 or 9/10, but it needs lots of work.

^Exactly.
One man is only capable of so much bug testing. When I first release my project it'll be open-beta type with "test at leisure".
But I'm sure you'll get more and better reviews later on anyway.

I am just going to echo the idea that we should just have "3 positive reviews, 1 negative review(s)" or w/e instead of some vague average rating. Seriously something has to be done.

author=DE
Considering there are not that many bugs and most are minor I don't see how fixing them would affect the score - it wouldn't affect the game as a whole at all, the experience would be exactly the same. I don't get this argument.

And while we're on the subject of reviews I find it funny that the other 3 reviews are of the old demo which has absolutely nothing in common with the current one, and yet they *will* affect the mean score. It makes little sense if you ask me, but that's how RMN works.

yeah i retract my statement, nothing makes sense does it. nicob's "score" is vaguely "right" but the review is "wrong." idk, idk

author=Sailerius

author=DE
And while we're on the subject of reviews I find it funny that the other 3 reviews are of the old demo which has absolutely nothing in common with the current one, and yet they *will* affect the mean score. It makes little sense if you ask me, but that's how RMN works.

I agree. There should be a way of purging old reviews when you come out with a major new release.

I brought this up before, but it went nowhere.