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Sacred Reviews: Lost in the Woods
thesacredlobo- 02/24/2024 04:52 AM
- 47 views
Intro
"Lost in the Woods" is a short game that features turn-based combat that was developed by snakins using RPG Maker VX Ace that was created for All Hallows' Event 2013. An event that was held back in 2013 in order to celebrate the spookiest time of the year. And while normally I'd cut a game like this some slack and grade it on a much boarder curve in terms of quality. It's a lot harder to be nice to this game since the event gave developer's a month to put a game together. And I know a lot can be done by determined developer in that sort of time period thanks to the Indie Game Making Contests that were held over the years. Sadly this game really doesn't feel like the result of 30 days of effort. Instead it feels like something snakins slapped together at the very last minute in order to meet the deadline for the event. As a result this five minute game feels devoid of the polish you'd expect for a game with such a long development history.
Story
Summary
We play as a quartet of campers who've been enjoying their time at a rainy campground. Unfortunately it's about time for them to start packing their bags in order to go back to their daily lives, but before they can worry about packing their tent and sleeping bags it appears a giant eight legged freak has shown up to ruin our day. To make matters worse he decided to bring along his friends as well. So if we want to live we'll need to fight our way back to the car and take out every eight-legged freak that gets in our way.
Greatest Strength/Weakness
Sadly I really can't think of any narrative strengths this project has beyond being super short. A strength that simply means the game isn't long enough for you to get bored enough to quit before you've finished it. On the other hand the four playable characters are all extremely bland and one-dimensional. As a result the only way to really tell them apart is by looking at their specified classes which isn't that helpful considering none of the characters have useable spells or abilities.
Gameplay
On the gameplay front the game simply has the player run down a lengthy corridor while dealing with random encounters. Encounters that are super easy since the only option the game gives you for dealing with the eight-legged fools is your basic attack. A choice that renders combat down to spam the button in order to get it over with as quickly as possible. And to make things harder snakins took away the flee option from battle. So your forced to partake in the boring battles against groups of one or two giant spiders.
Another oddity with this game is if you pull up the menu that half of the options are invisible, but despite being invisible they still function like normal. So it's possible to save in this game despite the developer wanting to take this ability away from the player in order to make the game harder.
Graphics
Graphically the game relies on the RTP which makes sense considering this was one of snakins's early projects. So there is anything of note going on with this game graphically beyond the maps being extremely boring since your literally trapped in a hallway like "Final Fantasy XIII".
The only other thing of note is the few lines of dialogue we do get in this game don't make use of the default facesets for the characters. Instead the developer decided to use their walking sprite instead for this task. A decision that just makes the few lines of dialogue in this game look weird.
Sound
On the sound side of things the game also relies on the RTP. As such I don't have a lot to say about the game's music since you'll be hearing the usual staple of sound effects and background tracks. About the only thing of note in this game as far as sound is concerned is the lack of background music when your outside of combat.
Conclusion
"Lost in the Woods" is short event game that features boring combat, bland maps, blander characters, and a menu system that looks like it was attacked by the glitch gremlin. As such I don't recommend playing this game unless your looking for something short to play and review. After all, the only reason to play a game this bad is if you can at least get some makerscore out of it.
"Lost in the Woods" is a short game that features turn-based combat that was developed by snakins using RPG Maker VX Ace that was created for All Hallows' Event 2013. An event that was held back in 2013 in order to celebrate the spookiest time of the year. And while normally I'd cut a game like this some slack and grade it on a much boarder curve in terms of quality. It's a lot harder to be nice to this game since the event gave developer's a month to put a game together. And I know a lot can be done by determined developer in that sort of time period thanks to the Indie Game Making Contests that were held over the years. Sadly this game really doesn't feel like the result of 30 days of effort. Instead it feels like something snakins slapped together at the very last minute in order to meet the deadline for the event. As a result this five minute game feels devoid of the polish you'd expect for a game with such a long development history.
Story
Summary
We play as a quartet of campers who've been enjoying their time at a rainy campground. Unfortunately it's about time for them to start packing their bags in order to go back to their daily lives, but before they can worry about packing their tent and sleeping bags it appears a giant eight legged freak has shown up to ruin our day. To make matters worse he decided to bring along his friends as well. So if we want to live we'll need to fight our way back to the car and take out every eight-legged freak that gets in our way.
Greatest Strength/Weakness
Sadly I really can't think of any narrative strengths this project has beyond being super short. A strength that simply means the game isn't long enough for you to get bored enough to quit before you've finished it. On the other hand the four playable characters are all extremely bland and one-dimensional. As a result the only way to really tell them apart is by looking at their specified classes which isn't that helpful considering none of the characters have useable spells or abilities.
Gameplay
On the gameplay front the game simply has the player run down a lengthy corridor while dealing with random encounters. Encounters that are super easy since the only option the game gives you for dealing with the eight-legged fools is your basic attack. A choice that renders combat down to spam the button in order to get it over with as quickly as possible. And to make things harder snakins took away the flee option from battle. So your forced to partake in the boring battles against groups of one or two giant spiders.
Another oddity with this game is if you pull up the menu that half of the options are invisible, but despite being invisible they still function like normal. So it's possible to save in this game despite the developer wanting to take this ability away from the player in order to make the game harder.
Graphics
Graphically the game relies on the RTP which makes sense considering this was one of snakins's early projects. So there is anything of note going on with this game graphically beyond the maps being extremely boring since your literally trapped in a hallway like "Final Fantasy XIII".
The only other thing of note is the few lines of dialogue we do get in this game don't make use of the default facesets for the characters. Instead the developer decided to use their walking sprite instead for this task. A decision that just makes the few lines of dialogue in this game look weird.
Sound
On the sound side of things the game also relies on the RTP. As such I don't have a lot to say about the game's music since you'll be hearing the usual staple of sound effects and background tracks. About the only thing of note in this game as far as sound is concerned is the lack of background music when your outside of combat.
Conclusion
"Lost in the Woods" is short event game that features boring combat, bland maps, blander characters, and a menu system that looks like it was attacked by the glitch gremlin. As such I don't recommend playing this game unless your looking for something short to play and review. After all, the only reason to play a game this bad is if you can at least get some makerscore out of it.
