The first part of Demon Legacy's sequel has arrived, but is it an improvement?
NicoB- 06/23/2011 09:30 PM
- 9232 views
Warning: This review contains some spoilers.
Anyone who is a true RPG Maker fan has heard of Demon Legacy. Although graphically it wasn't anything special, its engaging storyline, likeable characters, and balanced battles made for an extremely enjoyable gaming experience. Also, it introduced Shadar, the quintessential bad ass villain of the RPG Maker community. Needless to say, Demon Legacy set the bar pretty high for its sequel; but does Phantom Legacy surpass its predecessor?
Graphics
Right from the opening scenes, players will see a big improvement from Demon Legacy in terms of graphical quality. I was really impressed with how Nightblade framed Slade riding his horse through the rain to face Shadar at Ragan Castle. The sprites consist mostly of Romancing Saga edits and the maps use chipsets from Chrono Trigger. The two styles mixed quite nicely together, and I never really found a time where they clashed. There are also some lovely custom animations with character abilities, such as Lilith's Earth Render move and Slade's own token attacks.
I did, however, come across a few problems. First off, there are still a number of passability errors, especially in the desert town you come across later in the game (a number of which I pointed out in my beta notes). Also, the interiors for some areas feel huge and lifeless. In the town, for example, aside from the large number of worthless NPCs and two shops, there is absolutely no exploration whatsoever. 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?
8.0/10.0
Gameplay
Gameplay is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, each character has a unique skill set in battle, which gives each member a certain role to fulfill. This is nice and makes for an interesting departure from the regular "level-up, learn skill" of most RPG Maker games. However, there is no real explanation for a lot of these skills. I understand leaving some things for the player to figure out themselves, but I feel some elucidation on the basics of the mechanics you've set up is necessary.
For example, Nero cannot use items in battle, instead using his own skillset to heal and replenish MP. This is pretty straightforward and easy to understand. However, the way he learns new abilities is not. Apparently, certain attacks from enemies cause Nero to learn new skills. But which attacks exactly should I look out for? Am I supposed to just stand there and wait for an enemy to attack me to see if I absorb it? What makes this even more frustrating is that the player is never told beforehand that this is how Nero learns his skills. Instead, it just happens randomly in battle. When I beta tested this, I didn't even notice he had learned a new technique until I looked at his skill set later on. Even then though, I had just assumed he received it after reach a certain level. Similarly, I have no idea how Lilith is supposed to learn new moves; in fact, she didn't learn a single one throughout the entirety of my playthrough, which I found very strange as she was one of the first party members I encountered and already had a very limited skillset. Alistar's skillset was unique in that he had to "Setup" his traps before he could use them. However, I was aggravated to see Nightblade using the buggy "Link to Event" battle command being used. 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. I would also recommend an explanation in-game on which enemies respawn and which don't, as it seems completely arbitrary as it is now.
As for the battles themselves, difficulty was fairly balanced, at least for the random battles. I never really felt like I was grinding at all, and actually enjoyed some of the random strong monsters that guarded special treasures, even if battles did eventually boil down to randomly figuring out which attacks monsters are weak/strong to. My biggest problem was the boss battles, which are extremely difficult and drag on for far too long. I literally would spend most of my time healing, only risking to attack when both my party member's were at maximum health. It would be one thing if the bosses were fast, but their attacks didn't do intense damage; it would be another to have bosses who were slow, but had extremely powerful attacks. But to have them be both fast and strong is just too much. I died to the second boss in the game six times before finally beating him. I probably would have excused this if it wasn't one of the early bosses. It doesn't help that Nero has no way to revive any of his party members, meaning when Lilith dies, it's essentially game over. Also, the final boss battle in the game literally took me over 20 minutes to beat (again, spending most of my time healing).
Dungeon puzzles are pretty standard fare, usually revolving around you collecting one or two keys/shards that can be used to open the main door in the center of the building. There was a point later on where you use some switches to direct where a number of teleporters send you, which I found to be extremely random and confusing. I ended up accidentally solving it without any understanding as to why. Overall, the puzzles aren't bad, but they weren't particularly engrossing either.
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.
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 sat through the cutscene only to have him kill me again. After four tries, I finally figured it out. Apparently, the player is expected to sit there like a dope and do nothing as the enemy blasts the living hell out of him. After a certain number of turns, the battle ends. Basically, since the player isn't given any clue beforehand of what to do, he's forced to re-watch the same cutscene and replay the same battle until he guesses at what the game wants him to do. I'd seriously like to see anyone get this one the first try.
6.5/10.0
Story
This was the easily Phantom Legacy's biggest disappointment. After playing through Demon Legacy multiple times in order to better understand and unravel the many twists and turns of the story, I expected the sequel to have an equally engaging narrative. However, after completing the three hour long first part, I was left with a very sour taste in my mouth.
The intro this time around has been revamped from the previous version to something that I find much less engaging. The old intro had a very dark, sinister looking castle with Slade's behavior appearing cold and disconnected. He came across as someone who was so dead-set on killing Shadar that he had begun to lose touch with reality---maybe even his own humanity. It was apparent that he was, over time, becoming more and more like the man he had vowed to kill. This time around, however, Slade barely mutters two words before reaching Shadar; when Slade finally fights Shadar, the outcome is much more anticlimatic, with Slade going out with a whimper as opposed to his previous bad ass, heroic end. This ends up making the prologue seem more like a chore this time around than an engaging backstory to the narrative. Also, seeing as it is a "prologue" to the main story, I'd give the player the option to skip it, as all of the items, puzzles, and monsters you encounter really don't have any impact on you later on.
The narrative itself was still relatively enjoyable, if not eerily similar to it's predecessor in many ways. I'm sure this is intentional, but it does leave the player feeling they've already "been there, done that," at times. I won't point out specifically where this happens as I'd rather not spoil the narrative too much, but people who've played Demon Legacy will likely know what I'm talking about.
One issue I had with the story was that it seemed to jump around a lot. At one point, you start off in a grassy household only to inexplicably end up on a desert continent. At this point, you have to find a way off the continent by doing a job for Alistar. However, before you can do that job, you have to do another job to prove that you're up to the task of the main job. Wait, seriously? After awhile, this method of piling objectives onto each other becomes so convoluting that you forget exactly what you were trying to accomplish to begin with.
My biggest problem with the story, however, has got to be the characters themselves. Nero is incredibly annoying with his sarcastic, dickish attitude and constantly jumping back and forth between being brave and being a wimp. Lilith and Alistar, on the other hand, have almost no personalities at all. I literally can't characterize any of them because there is hardly any real exposition regarding their personalities. Jericho/Thanatos, the armless heretic with two personalities is easily the most engaging character thus far. Shadar is the same bad ass villain he's always been, which is always a pleasure to see. I found myself wishing at times that he was the main character instead of these other bland bozos.
This may seem rather harsh to some of you as Part One only consists of about three hours of gameplay. However, according to Nightblade, Part One represents half of the full game, meaning there isn't much room left to expand on some of the backstory of Nero's party members. My favorite thing about Demon Legacy was watching the characters interact with each other in interesting in humorous ways. So far, Phantom Legacy's characters pale in comparison.
I would also like to note that it's pretty aggravating to see that many of the typos I painstakingly pointed out to Nightblade in my beta report have remained unchanged; by which I mean grammar and spelling, not changes to the story itself.
6.0/10.0
Music/Sound
I thoroughly enjoyed the tunes Nightblade picked out for Phantom Legacy. Using music from Shadow Hearts, Rogue Galaxy, Legaia 2: Duel Saga, and others, he really succeeded in creating the appropriate atmosphere for each scene. I also thought the CT sound effects perfectly matched his graphical style. I would've liked for the music to have looped better instead of fading out at the end of each song, but this is a pretty minor critique.
9.0/10.0
Overall
Demon Legacy is my favorite RPG Maker game, bar none; which is why I'm so very disappointed with Phantom Legacy so far. I know 3 stars may seem kind of low if you average together the scores, but I honestly don't find graphics and sound to be nearly as important as story and gameplay.
I want to love Phantom Legacy, but it's hard to overlook some of its glaring problems. It isn't a complete disaster, but this sequel definitely feels like a step backward for the series.
6.5/10.0
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