Master of the Wind

'Master of the Wind' - It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a 1,000-year-old skeleton!

I have to admit, I never in my wildest dreams expected I would play an RPGMaker game this good. Although far from perfect, this game works its fundamentals an expands on them in a way few other RPGs have, and has a storyline that has touched and resonated with me like few others have.

Artbane and Volrath's Master of the Wind chronicles the super-hero antics of Shroud and Stoic, a wind-mage lancer and a 1,000 year old angry skeleton who don costumes and fight crime by nighttime and sell armor as clerks in the daytime. They face such foes as Andau, a 80 year+ old angst-ridden vampire, The Touten Corps, a group of non-human mercs who steal for fun and profit, and eventually the big-corporation Equipment King, ruled by business mogul Don Kovak, and many other villains and organizations that weave and interact with each other. The superheroes are eventually joined by Finley, an eccentric gun-owner with a love for equipment king who serves as the comic relief, and many other characters who come and go as Shroud and Stoic wage their war on Equipment King.

In truth, that paragraph doesn't do the game justice, as there are many other charming characters who fight alongside and against our heroes. And by any means are any of them throw-away characters. They are as developed and personable as our heroes, bright and enjoyable, and at the same time layered with depth and complexity. In doing so, they feel like real people, who may not be honest, perfect, or good-natured, but they feel like they believe in their goals and objectives and are appropriately motivated. At times, characters may rant, and some characters seem like they have an excuse for everything in their past or are far too eager to reveal it - an element I felt maybe a flashback might have aided in dispersing. However, it never feels like the character is lying. It always feels honest.

The conflict in this story can seem, at first, maybe a little too simple - two working-class heroes dress up as superheroes and go up against a big-corporate king like our real life Wal-Mart? But it works on so many levels, because you can see the conflict and the real-life allusions are accurate and not just stereotyped, but embodied their real-life counterparts; and just like in real life, solving the conflict isn't easy. Shroud and Stoic cannot stop their small-town shop from being closed, the various corruption in their town. Everything that happens has a cause and effect, no matter how big or small, how complex or simple, the world works in a way that mimics our own. In short, the story-line and material feel like they matter.

A story this beautiful is only as good as its presentation, and in all respects, Master of the Wind delivers. Event Scripting is superb in all manners, as every single cut-scene is intense, well-paced, and credible. But the truly impressive feat is how in some of the pivotal story scenes the music is directly correlated with the beat of the music. These dramatic moments directly play on the emotions in such a way that is energizing, intense, and powerful in a way that is spine-tinglingly good. Without revealing too much of the story-line, I can say a reveal of a certain hooded rival-villain is one of these unforgettable moments. Arc V is full of these moments, and is the most enjoyable story-line wise to date in the series. To Artbane and Volrath, I say bravo, gentlemen - I don't remember the last time an RPG has had me this far on the edge of my seat.

In the gameplay department, although it does have your traditional JRPG pacing - "the storyline-dungeon-storyline-dungeon" we've come to know and love and hate, but the game does it in way that works more seamlessly that past games. Often times the puzzles within MOTW's dungeons directly tie-in with the storyline, or at least in a way that we can see them logically hinder our heroes. The environmental hazards of Eagle's Patch and the thuggish underground hideaway/mole infested plaza of the Lamorack Mines serve as fine examples of this, as both of these areas throw puzzles at you appropriately themed.

These puzzles are very thought-provoking, such as the whack-a-mole in the aforementioned Lamorack Mines, the Angled Mirror-Fireball puzzle in Arc III's Ice Temple, or even the awesome Golem remote phase in Arc IV. They range from the spacial puzzles to the timed-button presses to tests on in-game lore. Most of them are hit, although there have been a few misses - one such puzzle in the Lamorack mines involved deducing numbers on the back of thug's heads passed over many a player's, myself included, heads. Likewise, some of the shooting minigames have gathered ire because of their compatibility with a laptop; the reactionary games can also suffer from a bit of lag as well as being a bit on the tightly-wound, one millisecond delay and you're toast deal. It also seems a few of the minigames, mainly Stoic's underwater fight sequence, do not support game controllers, something I found a tad annoying. These are minor, technical complaints on a great design.

And if you want to complain, do so about the combat, because it will frustrate you - not in a bad way, IF you are persistent. Make no mistake, this game requires you to think in battle right from the git go. Although this can seem somewhat tedious early on since you will have to keep an eye on everything and not very many skills are available to you, if you show humility, grind a few levels and stick near the recovery fountain while doing so, you will persevere. From veterans to RPG neophytes, you will have to stay on your toes and use your skills to their utmost potential. Yet victory will seem that much more enjoyable, especially the boss battles, where you will every single hit point, mana point, and other statistics can mean the difference between life and death. It might even be safe to say that, if you do not like turn based battle systems or JRPGs in particular, you may not be able to find this an enjoyable game. And of course, there are a few drawbacks to the battles - some of the skills lack information and status effects can be unclear, something that Artbane has promised will be fixed with the next version of the game.

I can nitpick and detract all I want, but simply put, this is a good game that is well worth your time. It easily ranks up there with great RPGMaker games in the past such as A Blurred Line and is well worth your time.

Loved: Wonderful Story-line, Teeth-Grinding Intense Battles, Terrific Presentation, Fantastic Puzzles
Hated: At times Puzzles and Minigames can be obnoxious, Lack of information in Battles

Gameplay: 4 Stars
Narrative: 5 Stars

Overall: 4 1/2 Stars