Nsala Liberation

My playtime: 12:12:02 (last save, game completed, not 100%)

Intro
Nsala Liberation is a puzzle adventure game where you have to solve puzzles and avoid your enemies. The game itself doesn't give you a choice to kill your enemies so you have to use whatever you have at your disposal in order to beat the must-be-killed and unique bosses.

Music
The game uses traditional musics. It's quite pleasant to hear and the music doesn't sound weird at all. I especially love the music in Umoja City of Unity.

Graphics
Most of the game graphics are customized. The game uses a lot of african themed images in the game. I'm actually quite surprised on how well it blends with the RPG Maker themed assets, and considering how much time it'll take to put them all together, i could say that it's a great work.

Unlike other RPG Maker games, this game doesn't only display top down view. In some places, you'll see the camera being shot from different angle.



Story
Although the game is african themed, the game isn't about african history at all. Some places and culture might be inspired from real life, but the story itself is a fiction where a magician and zebra that can fly exist. Stories aside, the story is flowing smoothly although i find that the ending (after beating the last boss) is paced quite fast. There are even some optional cutscenes in the game that give extra info about the characters and there is also one part of the story where you have to choose, which will affect the story a little. I wonder what will happen you didn't save Ulia in the rest of the story though, since the ending shows that both she and Rawjal fly with zebragon together. Lastly, i noticed some typos, especially near the end of the game.

The game
The game has two difficulty level: normal and advanced. Some of the puzzles will be more difficult if you play in advanced mode (and will be given a warning before you do the puzzle). You also can switch between modes. I choose to play in normal mode.

You'll start with no spell in the game. As you learn more spells, you'll be able to access to more places. However, the spells are quite limited. You can only use it in a specific condition unless if you're in forbidden mode and you have to time your magic properly. There is also a specific type of spell that you can use everywhere, healing spell. However, casting spells cost MP, which can only be recovered when you're sleeping, using item, or ducking. You can't sleep all the time and i don't really like to use items, so i usually duck. The thing is, recovering MP by ducking takes a long time to do and the game always slows down whenever your HP or MP changes per tick, which is always be the case when you're ducking.

The game also have some african history lesson in it. If you notice an elephant like statue, you can interact with it to get some history lesson and some money. There are also other statues that will show the developer thoughts of the game.



There are a lot of puzzles in the game. Some are easy to do, but some (especially boss fights) are quite hard to figure out. Sometimes, you might need to redo the puzzle several times because you can die as you try to solve it. However, there are some puzzles that requires a precise timing and i don't find it to be fun to do.

There is also an in game walkthrough that you can see in case you're stuck. This doesn't apply for the last boss though, since there's no in game walkthrough for it. I myself have a hard time to figure out how to beat the last boss since i keep on dying from its attacks.

The game has a very big map. You might get lost if you don't have a map and sure enough, the game provides some in game map for you to use. However, the main character moves slowly despite of the very big map, and you can't sprint. The only thing that you can do to walk faster is by buying a mount. However, there are some places where you can't use a mount.

There are also a lot of mini games spread in several places in the game. However, most of them seem impossible and very hard to beat and i ended up skipping it. The ones that i have the most trouble is the fishing (which is very hard to do with keyboard) and curing people (which is very hard to beat at later levels because you can't heal, extreme lag (because of the moving HP and MP bar), and the very little room of error) mini game.

The game also offers some collectables that you can collect. This includes the "history lesson statue" that i mentioned before. If you collect all of the collectables, you can access a special place later in the game. You can also keep track of what you miss and where you get them in one of the city. However, you might need to spend some time to figure out the exact location of the item, especially with the game having a very big map in it.

Pros:
- 2 difficulty levels
- History lesson
- Tons of puzzles
- In game walkthrough
- Unique bosses
- Mini games
- Collectables

Cons:
- Recovering MP takes too much time
- The game always slows down whenever your HP or MP changes per tick.
- Some puzzle needs precise timing to beat
- Very big map
- Some mini games are impossible and hard to complete.

Conclusion
This is an enjoyable game where you have to solve puzzles. There is also an in game walkthrough when you stuck. However, the game slows down whenever your HP or MP changes per tick, which might be quite annoying.

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Bugs:
- You can't control your fire to the left if you're ducking; you have to release w (duck) in order to do it.
- In Sky Ruins of the Great Zimbab, after you unlock an area with red key and collect some souls, if you decided to not give the mashetani the souls, you "can't" talk with the mashetani anymore. The dialogue will appear when you press menu (or by talking to Clua).
- There's an error when you press F12


Suggestions:
- Change fishing button on keyboard from mashing all buttons to left and right.
- At Ancient Temple, i was stuck and the only instruction i got is "If you get stuck you could always teleport." I honestly thought that there is a teleport skill before i go to the game page and notice that you have to use Tele Kalimba to teleport. Perhaps you need to change it to "If you get stuck you can always use Tele Kalimba to teleport." or something.

I'm not sure where should i put this, but sometimes the game behaves weirdly on ice tiles. Sometimes i can slide in the ice, sometimes i con't. This becomes fatal in the cave before Sky Ruins of the Great Zimbab (in the left wing, in a room with 2 boxes and 2 goats). I was trying to access the portal and i couldn't seem to reach it because i kept on sliding pass through it. However, after a few alt tabbing or something, i ended up able to walk on the ice (no sliding) and accessed the portal by walking to the portal tile. I ended up knowing that i have to use Furaha Dance in order to access the portal and you aren't supposed to access it by walking.