The Way EP 1

So, my first review and I know I’m really late on this, but I wanted to give this game a review anyway because I feel I cheated it. I refused to play this game for a few years because I was sure I was going to hate it...No, I WANTED to hate it. I’ve played a lot of RM games which have received nothing but praise about their story but when I played them I found the story lacking and the game play down right unplayable. So, when I started this game on a whim one day, I tried to hate it...I really did. Having said that, here’s how I review to give you a good idea of what is important to me:

Reviewing rubric:
Presentation (5): How intuitive the menus are, the look of cut scenes, dialogues etc.
Intro (5):Does it hook me? Is it confusing? Do I know what to do and how to play?
Story (25): The pacing, the setting and the journey.
Characters (20):For me, characters drive any game. This includes NPCs.
Game play (25): From mini-games to battles and anything in between.
Music (10): Sound effects as well as music.
Graphics (10): Anything graphical.

Presentation: A very clean and good looking menu system that can be unresponsive at times. The title screen lends a nice atmosphere and the dialogue is clear with face sets for important characters, although sometimes a name is used and sometimes not, I didn’t really understand why. Still, it didn’t detract from anything and was easy to understand:
4/5


The backgrounds add a nice sense of scale to The Way.

Intro: This will definitely be subjective. If you like tutorials (and you WILL need them) with an npc that breaks the forth wall and talks directly to you then you may have some problems with it. I actually enjoy this approach, it feels less stale to me and this early in the game it doesn’t really break my immersion. So, you can detract points here if you’re vehemently against 4th wall breaking tutorial characters.
As for the hook, it managed to do it. Something about the mix of the epic landscapes, the promise of adventure and the PC's dogged determination leaked through my wall and drew me into the game long enough to hook me. 5/5

Story: People probably won’t believe me when I say I loved the story. I mean, I just said I was trying to hate this game and considering that episode 1 is meant to be the weakest it should have been pretty easy to hate it, right? Well, something about this story really clicked with me. I’m not talking about the lost love, but the feel of it; this game really made me feel like I was out on an adventure unlike any other. Perhaps it was the mix of a few things.
Firstly, the mysterious landscape: a path that is edged by fog at the front and back, eating those who are too slow and stopping those at the front, the so called Forerunners. It really added a sense of progression and lent to all manner of interesting people and groups (though to be fair, most aren’t introduced in the first episode). Still, the mystery of this land and the secrets it promised were undeniably alluring.
Secondly, there was the sense of adventure. You may be searching for someone but in actuality the game is a series of unfortunate events and bad luck scenarios (starting when you lose your pet rabbit). This really made it feel like an adventure to me, like a real fantastical journey as you were thrown into exciting and new complications. I’ve heard some people describe this as a series of random scenarios but to me that’s what a real adventure is and I consider them far from random: some meetings are by chance but they all lead somewhere or are a direct result of the PC’s personality.
So, considering I love a good adventure and the smaller things in life, the story/setting earns:
25/25 (I never felt like quitting or got bored so I can’t justify lowering it at all.)


A sneak peak of the episode 1 credits, it's obvious the designer knew where this game was going from the get go with characters that don't even appear until episode 4.

Characters:
There’s something endearing about the main character, Rhue. He is devoted and purposeful, yet also dark and prideful. He has so many different facets and not all of them good; he is very much in the grey area which really makes him exciting. In Episode 1 he is the only character you really get to know, but suffice it to say that the NPCs all have enough personality that you never feel alone along The Way (I’m sure when this game was created puns were still cool). Then you also have the serial killer that follows you, killing all these endearing NPCs. All in all, it makes you want to interact with everyone and get involved in the game world.
Once again I can’t fault it much (except for Gaius, who is a little dull at this point):
18/20

Game play:
Ah, where to begin. I guess I’ll split this into 5 sections to best explain it.

-Exploration: There are a few cases of exploration in this episode, nothing much but enough to promise you some fun exploration in following chapters.

-Battle: The Way employs a standardish battle system where you gain MP (it’s actually called XL) as you attack or use the draw ability. I prefer this to the MP going down approach and your health is recharged after each battle which is a nice touch, letting you throw everything you can at your opponents. I found it very well balanced and it’s obvious that a lot of thought went into it. Enemies become more powerful as you level and gain new companions and are weakened when companions leave you. Sure, it doesn’t make sense in a setting type of way but it makes the battles a joy since you never feel cheated because your healer left you to die. It should also be noted that the enemies are all seen on the map and don’t respawn so grinding is negligible.

-Levelling up: Here, things get complicated (though the tutorials and pacing in the game explains them beautifully). Basically, you attach notch items to your weapons to gain new stats. Unfortunately there’s never enough in the first episode that you really have to choose which to attach now and which to save for later. Then, you also have auras which are kind of like passive abilities and different weapon types (though it’s all the same sword) to learn new active abilities. In the end, the game explains it better and although I liked the active abilities, the passive abilities got annoying. You see, if you want to start learning a new aura type ( with new passive abilities), you can no longer equip passive abilities from old auras while you learn the new one. The same thing went for active abilities, so you could not switch weapon types in the middle of battle, meaning you were stuck with certain skills, though some weapon types were linked so it wasn't as frustrating. Still, I enjoyed the way your stats were raised and learning new skills was exciting despite the annoyance of being stuck with a particular set.

-Plunge: A duel of sorts that becomes more complicated in later episodes, in the beginning it is a simple game of rock/paper/scissors but with exceptional sprite work that really gets your blood pumping and pulls of the effect of duelling very nicely. Still, in episode one you’re meant to lose the duels which may annoy some people. I liked it though; it really developed Rhue as just starting his journey and left plenty of room for development. Having said that, it felt a bit too much based on luck (though, as you progress through the chapters extra details make it a bit more skilful, but this is only a review of episode 1).

-Mini-games: This is where the game shines. Dialogue and cut scenes are punctuated with mini-games that make you feel involved. Even the simple act of jumping across a stream is turned into a mini-game and offers a nice break from battles and makes you feel like you’re working to progress. The world feels alive instead of just a series of towns and dungeons.

All in all, the game made me excited every time I entered a new map because I didn’t know what was going to be there: great npcs, secrets, notch items, battles, exciting cut scenes, duels or fun mini-games. Still there were a few faults as I mention with the levelling and duels which were almost drowned out by all the goodness, but not quite.
It may also be worth noting that you can turn off battles (still getting the XP) and mini-games (don’t think you gain the bonuses, though.)
22/25

Music: With midis from all over the place I found it hard to even recognise well-known songs until I checked the music folder. There’s also a bunch of original music which I found even better than the well-known stuff (at least I think the main theme and tunes like Aeka were originals). I also never got bored of the battle theme, it pumped me up every time, though I’m not sure if it was original or not. Having said that, even the unoriginal tunes fitted the scenes so I didn’t mind, I don't care if I recognize songs as long as they fit.
The sound effects were also top class and added to the game in every way, especially the duels.
10/10(Take points off if you are good at recognising well-known tunes and hate games that use them)


This boring looking cavern hides an actual fun switch puzzle, oh and the PC knows how to blink!

Graphics: There was definitely a clash here between the pre-rendered backgrounds and tile sets. If you hate clashing you might have problems. Personally, I found the pre-rendered backgrounds fun to explore and a nice change from the norm, though the tiled areas looked pretty plain, nothing particular special. So all in all, it was just above average.
6/10

Conclusion: When it comes down to it, it’s really all about what you want from a game. If you prefer the journey and want a sense of adventure, you’ll love this game. If you prefer an action packed story from the get go, the first episode may not be your cup of tea though the later episodes will leave you weeping like a baby if but one of the characters has captured your interest. I know it’s hard to believe that I wanted to hate this game with the scores I gave, but the characters, setting and the variety of game play endeared it to me without a doubt in my mind.
Total: 90/100

In star speak: