Canvas

Hello!
What's Canvas? This is a fantasy adventure puzzle gamemade with RPGmaker VX Ace by sbethune81. I've already played another older game made by this author two years ago, and it was a fantasy adventure called Manifest (HERE you can find my review of that game) that shares many aspects in common with Canvas, like the lockpick system and the good use of the classic VX Ace assets.
But do not let the generic appearance mislead you, despite you may mistake this game from the classic generic rpgmaker jrpgs, this is not the case. At all!

Anyway, let's start from the story: the adventure begins as a fantasy tale told by a woman to her daughter... this sort of narrative frame reminds to me of the 1987 movie "The Princess Bride", because that movie was a the fantasy adventure sometimes interrupted by scenes of a sick boy and his grandfather that was reading him a novel. Here we have in fact some exchanges between the mother and her daughter that comments the story, but who are the heroes?
They're not one, but two thieves: Arrym, a Wraith that means a veteran elite thief and Branak, a young apprentice rogue that still has to prove himself, and they are on a mission for the guild (that involves retrieving a precious artifact), but some knights are following them. The first dungeon is a tutorial, and I admit that it's not exactly easy, for this part in fact I had to look a bit at the guide, not because there is no tutorial but because in many parts you have to figure out by yourself how to solve some problems! Anyway there's a handy guide included to the game if you're stuck, so do not worry too much(even if I don't remember finding indications about how to defeat the bosses).


What's going on? It's a mystery right now, but it's sure that the destiny of the world is at stake!

Anyway the adventure of our thieves is just a little part of a world that a particularly gifted painter (here's why the title "canvas") was illustrating, when suddenly some paint falls on her painting. And on our thieves, that lose consciousness and are rescued by a mysterious hooded person... what's going on?

Canvas, despite letting us control a party of characters, is not a classic fantasy jrpg like Manifest: battles are all in real time, we've a key used to switch characters, items and spells, and special abilities. Complex? Maybe, but it's pretty fun.
Let's start from battles: characters can strafe keeping Shift pressed, strike with their weapon with Z and use elemental spells with D, spells that they will learn during the game and that are also useful during puzzles to burn obstacles or push them away, for example, even if like in other games spells require spending mana points, here called Flux.
Striking with a weapon is simple, but some enemies require a precise strategy: knights are armored and can be defeated only with a sneak attack from behind (if they spot you just exit and re-enter the room!), giant flies and bats run towards their prey and can be dodged as they fly, robots and harpies can confuse their victim (that means that the controls for movements are inverted! Luckily there is a magic item that prevents that), and so on. Anyway since we play as thieves, the best option is always to strike the enemy from behind, and the game shows the area of vision of the unsuspecting enemies.


These robots can cause confusion, and Branak is hiding before ambushing them, striking from behind!

The game also includes some battles with bosses and here you've often to find the strategy to win: there is an enemy that shoots and has two shields on the sides, meaning you can hit him only from the front or from behind, the giant slime can be harmed only with fire spells (luckily it spawns little slimes that can be killed normally and are a source of Flux), so it's not always easy.

Killing enemies may sometimes award loot but always award points that may be spent to improve characters: yes, there are no experience levels, you simply spend points to improve attack, resistance, defense, hit points, mana points or also learn new powers like the healing spell, the revive spell, and so on. Oh but remember that the experience pool is separated (but since some enemies respawn, the answer is YES, you may grind if you want!), so be sure to switch the characters using the Q key to alternate them during battles, but you will also have to do that outside of combat. Each character has in fact a special skill (activated pressing the S key) that can be used only by him, Arrym has a controllable pet frog that becomes useful for example to enter narrow passage, and Branak as an infinite quantity of explosive that will be useful in several occasions. And mind that they can be used also to activate levers, like the arrows!


The adventure is a story told by a woman to her daughter that apparently prefers adventure tales to love stories!

Ok, so we have battles, but the game also includes stealth sections (even if technically combat and stealth goes hand to hand, not always you have to defeat everyone) and exploration in which we have to jump around using the A key. There are dark areas in which we will have to use the special goggles of the thieves (those also used to see the field of vision of the opponents), and many puzzles. Really a lot of different puzzles.
For example there is the lockpicking system that is basically the Mastermind boardgame with numbers instead of colors. The system is the same, break the code... or break the lockpick (luckily you can buy them from a vendor)!
There is the debate system in which you have to fend off the doubts, rapresented by skeletons and ghosts, for as much time you can, throwing some spheres that rapresent the arguments. Then there are some locks that require solving minigames like that one where you have to connect couples of squares of different colors without intersecating the lines. Then we have a digging minigame, and also that game (often called "car park puzzle" but here we have the fantasy version) in which you have series of tiles of different length, some that can be moved only horizontally and others vertically, and you have a tile of a different color in the middle that you have to extract. The game also includes crafting and, since we play as thieves, pickpocketing people!


As our heroes progress they visit new places, faces new challenges but also find new useful items, like the bow!

But besides these and many others minigames and tasks, there are still some old classics like the boulder pushing puzzles, but some will require the use of spells, and this means that revisiting old zones you previously explored at a later time may unlock new paths. Well this is not mandatory, except if you are looking to complete some optional quests, the game has in fact a main quest and the world map (that isn't explorable but just lists the locations where you can "fast travel") always shows where you've to go next. Really handy, together with all the instructions, glossary, bestiary and other useful instruments available to the player.
Oh and what about saving? Well there are some statues that provide restoration AND saving, luckily they're well distributed and it's unlikey that you will cross more than five areas without encountering at least one.

I said "areas" because each dungeon is divided into rooms with various exits, some lead to other rooms and others to the world map. There is a map that's pretty handy because it indicate our location and the rooms visited, since some are optional or may be unlocked only once we have a particular item or we solve a determined puzzle. The save-point statues are also used as entries when we revisit a dungeon.
Concering the maps, these are pretty well done, considering that they're often funtional to the puzzles, stealth sections and tasks we have to complete in order to advance with the story. Exploration is rewarded since there are chests of loot and other searchable spots where you have sometimes to solve a lockpicking or digging minigame.
For the rest there is not much to say: assets and music are pretty much defauls, so I did not recognize anything really new or original but it's ok, they're not bad and the real qualities of this game are in all the other aspects (I didn't for example liked the difference of styles between the facesets of the two protagonist, but it's not a big issue, I guess).


Zeph is a cool guy with a lyre that can use his (awful?) music to scare monsters! A welcomed addition to the team!

The Final Verdict
Canvas is a brilliant game: not only starts with a good variety of challenges and tasks, mandatory and optional, but they also find new items, learn new spells that will be necessary to complete the next tasks. And sometimes you will have to combine them: place a bomb, then use the air spell to send it forward, light a fire, then shoot an arrow to light a torch you cannot reach. Likewise some particular monsters can be exploited to press some buttons or their projectiles can activate some switches. Pretty cool, the only aspects I did not like is that there is the possibility to get stuck in some parts (but you can always reload, so save often), and then there are the boss battles. These are well designed action puzzles where you have to figure out the right way to damage the opponent without getting destroyed, and I found these parts pretty difficult, also because the hit detectios isn't perfect, but this is probably a problem of the engine (not really ideal for the real time action sections and battles).

Anyway, despite the few flaws I found, this is a great game, solid, polished and also original. It wasn't easy but thisgame surprised me with its variety and quantity of content, I believe that it's a perfect game for those players who like puzzles and adventures, but even those who like other genres should try it, since it may be a really pleasant surprise.