The Way EP 1

Introduction:

The Way is the most important RPG Maker game of all time. That’s not to say that it is the best. There are games with better gameplay, and games with more coherent plots. The story is slow-paced and occasionally inscrutable, and takes time to warm up. In addition, some mysteries are never solved. The final episode (which through a variety of convoluted circumstances I have yet to finish, though I aim to do so this time around) is supposedly a clusterfuck of Evangelion proportions. But when it comes down to it, if I was a gaming journalist (from, say, Rock Paper Shotgun) looking for an RPG Maker game to break down for analysis, this would be the game I’d choose. It’s not perfect, but it runs deep. To people who have yet to try this game, who are reading this review because they aren’t sure whether or not to play it—-play it. You might not enjoy it, but if you like Japanese-style RPGs then this is something that you need to do before you die. You also need to play Dhux’s Scar, but that’s neither here nor there.

But this isn’t a review of all six episodes, but of the first. Is it a surprise that the first episode of the most important RPG Maker game of all time is plotless and occasionally uninspired? Not really. But before we’re drowned out by the people in the back of the audience arguing to this day over whether The Way is unrepentant genius or overrated shit, let’s get down to business and take a look at the game that started it all.

The Journey:

Make no mistake: The Way is all about story. Plot, characters and setting are always emphasized at the expense of gameplay. That’s not to say that the gameplay is simple, because even the first episode of The Way pushes the RPG Maker 2000 engine to its limits. Mini-games abound, and a rock-paper-scissors dueling system called The Plunge pops up a couple times. Even the regular battle system is customized via coding to become surprisingly strategic. Of course, the mini-games are occasionally irritating, The Plunge is practically invalidated by the fact that the main character is doomed to lose every Plunge in Episode 1 and the battle system is occasionally slow and repetitive. But at any save point, the player is free to turn battles off, cancel mini-games, automatically win at plunges (except for the ones where you are supposed to lose) and even cheat out of puzzles. You don’t have to do any of this if you want, but the option remains—if you ever become tired of the actual gameplay and just want to see what happens next in the story, The Way lets you do that.

With this in mind, it probably isn’t accurate to label The Way strictly as a JRPG; it’s more of an adventure game/RPG hybrid than anything else. Besides the prevalence of mini-games and puzzles, maps are dotted with more secret items than you can shake a stick at. Some of these (such as those in the cave) are cruelly hidden behind secret passages in walls, but others can be found by simply keeping an eye out on your surroundings. Sparkly objects or suspicious passageways could easily net your character extra stat points. This is compounded by the fact that The Way is, like the world in which it takes place, for all intents and purposes a straight line. There is no backtracking. Any item that you miss (and you will miss stuff on the first time through) will be gone forever, and so it pays to play this game more than once. Playing this game more than once is also essential in order to understand the convoluted plot, but again that is something you will have to discover in your trip through the game.

The Scenery:

At the time of its creation, The Way had some of the best graphics of any RPG Maker game ever made. Using parallax backgrounds as terrain, the Way is composed of vast, rolling 3D hills occasionally mixed with judiciously used RTP. Now, with the inception of RPG Maker XP and VX, it no longer looks as revolutionary as it once did, but if you compare it to other RPG Maker 2000 games it still looks pretty great. It isn’t as good looking as Dhux’s Scar, but on the other hand almost no other RPG Maker 2000 game is as good looking as Dhux’s Scar. One place in which the two games compare relatively favorably, though, is in the range of character expression. Although the characters in The Way aren’t all custom, many of them animate in interesting ways, especially in combat. Spurts of blood burst from open wounds, heads fly as they are sliced from small pixilated bodies and the main character, Rhue, remains remarkably expressive throughout. Assisting this immersion is the sheer number of face graphics. Pretty much every major character has an expression for every situation, and the result is pretty damn impressive.

As for music, The Way mixes original tracks with some very good songs taken from other sources. Those who have played many Castlevania games will probably be disgruntled by the battle theme, but they will probably be appeased by the original tracks, which are occasionally gorgeous. Since playing The Way I’ve occasionally tapped out the ending song on the piano, and while it is a simple piece it evokes feeling even today.

Obstacles:

But none of the above really describes what The Way is about. This thing is, the first episode of The Way doesn’t do a very good job of explaining what, exactly, The Way is about. It presents you with Rhue—a man looking for his lost love—and then sends him off across one of the most interesting settings in any RPG Maker game ever made on a series of misadventures. Characters are introduced, Rhue finds himself at the end of someone’s sword many times and tantalizing mysteries hang just under the surface. It’s an intriguing beginning, but it is also a glacially-paced one, slow to reveal its secrets and remarkably bereft of major conflict save for Rhue’s remarkably bad luck. It’s almost enough to make the player wonder, knowing the blood and tears that would come later, whether or not the creator entirely knew what he was doing when he began work on the game. At any rate, of all the episodes, the first is probably the weakest.

On the other hand, the first has the advantage that few of the better, later episodes had, which is that it is occasionally funny as hell. From Rhue’s drink with the judge of the swiftfoot race to Lyrra’s story-telling session at the end, there are genuine moments of humor to even out the occasional act of blood-curdling violence. Those who remember The Way only for Episode 5 might scoff at the fact that The Way was ever funny, but surprise! It can be hilarious.

The Destination:

Episode 1 of The Way is the weakest part of the series. On the other hand, it is also essential to understanding the rest. Since it lays essential groundwork for the following episodes, it’s difficult to really condemn it as anything other than the creator finding his feet. Lun Calsari knocked it out of the park with Episode 2, but for those who have yet to experience The Way, it’s absolutely worth giving the first episode a shot. Even on its worst day, there is absolutely nothing else like it.

PROS: The beginning of the most important RPG Maker game ever made; impressive graphics and memorable music; seeds of what will become an incredible setting and one of the best casts of characters of any RPG Maker game are planted; frequent mini-games and interesting battle systems

CONS: The weakest episode of the series; slow-paced to a fault; players might be turned off early; the Plunge is rigged against the player through the entire first episode

CORROLARIES: Remove a star and a half or so if you are turned off by excessive linearity. In total, I’d personally rate the series as a whole as five stars (even if the last episode turns out to be terrible, I'd say that's a valid score), but since The Way is one of the most controversial series in recent memory your rating might be half that.