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Now on display: The Power of Teamwork

  • Marrend
  • 07/04/2014 11:33 PM
  • 1746 views
Game Title: Remnants of Isolation
Engine: RPG Maker VX Ace
Status at review: Complete

Background:
Made during the Indie Game Maker Contest, though there are plans to expand the game later on. However, this review is written for the event-based version.
What brought my attention to this game in the first place? I've seen Luxaren Allure and Soul Sunder in action, and openly considered what a game would look like if Red_Nova and unity joined forces. Not only did they team up, but bribed recruited Sooz into the project. How did it turn out? As the saying goes, there's only one way to find out.


Audio/Visual:
The game uses a fair share of VX Ace RTP, and uses Sooz's character portraits and sprites (if I read the credits right). When a conversation between the two characters pops up, both their portraits show up. Melchior's face is on the left, and speaks as much about his character than what he's saying. The girl's portrait is on the right, and she does not speak a single word throughout the entire game. When Melchior's blat end, her faceset may change, but, the player's attention moves naturally to the right side of the screen. Or, it could just be a personal anomaly.
I really like the mapping of this game. The place just screams "extra-dimensional jail ruins". Yeah, you read that part right. It's part of the game's background, and the maps totally support it.
Moving on to music, the wandering-around music is somber in tone. It plays on the game's theme of isolation, and adds to the atmosphere. Then, there's the combat music. They might not share the same themes, but they are catchy as hell.


Story:
The game begins in a cage, with a woman playing a melody on her piano. One that she summons and disperses at will, no less. She hears a noise, and her cage door is mysteriously opened. She sets out, and explores the immediate vicinity. She comes across a man by the name of Melchior with Balthazar and Gaspar not far behind. The pair join forces, with their objective being to escape the place.
I think it's important to note that the people thrown into this particular prison are guilty of the crime of being able to use magic. From the notes lying about in the castle, there is a vague sense that using magic upsets the balance of life and death (or something like that). Whither this is actually the case, or just really good propaganda on the part of whoever is perpetuating it, well, that's not important to this game.


Playing the game:
The object of this game is to leave the jail, but, in order to do so, you have to find, and defeat, four different bosses. Obviously, the way out does not actually open unless you defeat all these bosses, and there is another boss before you attempt to leave. The game is sequential with it's areas and bosses. That is, you can't get to Area B until you find, and defeat, the boss of Area A, and so on. I'm not sure if there is a story-reason for this, but, I'm pretty certain the gameplay reasoning included game balance. Not that I take issue with such a descion in this game, but it could feasibly be off-putting to others.
With combat, the point of interest is skill fusion. The concept is similar to multiple-character techniques in Chorno Trigger, in that characters use separate skills to combine into a different skill. While the battle command changes in respect to Chrono Trigger, this game sees the player having one character perform an initial "Innate" skill, which will affect the next character's "Magic" skill. With only two characters available to the player at any given time, and the ability to control who gets what action first, this isn't really an issue. Though, it would be pretty cool if the character using the "Magic" skill automatically updated the listing in response to the "Innate" skill used.
Below are a notes/thoughts that I made while playing the game. They are rather stream-of-consciousness in nature, and involve potential spoilers.

To be fair, I'm not entirely convinced that our nameless woman wants to escape. My impression was that she's been here her entire life, if not the vast majority of it. This is the only "home" she knows of. I dunno. I could be over-thinking this, but, I would feel a lot better about this if the act of leaving her cell was met with some amount of trepidation.
Also, realistically speaking, how much would she really trust Melchior? As she even seen another person in her life? How is she fed, anyway? Am... I worrying too much? Yeah. I probably am.
Now, we shall give her a name! We shall call her Sting Celesta!
Darigaaz, this game did not just make the reference to Balthazar. Which means Gaspar might not be far behind? That would be hilarious!
I'm staring at Boss #2, and I'm thinking to myself, "Why not just alternate between Arcane Force+Fire/Ice/Blot one turn, and Arcane Pulse+Heal the next?" Let's try it out!
Yeah, that was pretty damn effective.
Boss #3 down. If I'm reading it right, two more to go?
It's Celesta! She's the Heart! Well, that's my going theory at this point.
Oh. Uh, okay! It was pretty cool to be able to guess that so accurately.
Fighting as Celesta alone was strangely awkward. I'm so used to double-teaming it up with Melchior! Arcane Pulse saved by butt, though.
I wasn't sure what was going to happen if I returned to Celesta's cell. I half-figured she'd resign herself to merely exist there, and Keep the Balance (or whatever). Then, I started to think that Melchior's placement there would mean that the barrier to her cell would be placed back up, as he was placed there as bait. No, apparently, he wasn't places there as bait, and we can leave this castle. Huh. I don't like it. Not. One. Bit.
I don't expect Melchior to be agile (no running across gaps), but, his combat prowess remains as good as before. Though, it seems he starts combat with 2 MP? Might be on purpose.
Yeah, I figured Big Bad would be at the Crystal Chamber.
That sequence with Celesta booting Melchior out of the castle was pretty sad. Minor point: a few of Melchior's lines after he's saved fails to have capitalization.
Ending #2 acquired. Let's try something else. Oh. Yeah, I guess I do have to fight that thing again (twice), and see the credits.
Oh. Melchior's Max MP is only 5. That might explain a few things!
Ending #1 acquired. Also, AWWWWW! Ain't that the sweetest thing you ever did see?
I was looking at the game in the editor (It's a bad habit of mine.), puzzling a bit on how to get Ending #3. Then, it dawned on me. If players didn't double-back to save Melchior...
Missing in Action: Gaspar. Oh well. Can't win 'em all.



Summary:
The game lacks that certain "oomph" that pushes it into the category of "Gaming Paragon". However, it does do a lot of things right with a minimal amount of wrong turns. As such, I would have very few qualms giving this game a recommendation. Oh, wait. I did!


BOTTOM LINE: 4/5


Side note on ratings (since there is/was/will be somewhat of a spate on what rating means what between each user):
1/5 -> Terrible. Forget about hitting an audience. The game is so bug-ridden, or otherwise unplayable, that what entertainment can be found in the game has a hard time coming to the surface.

2/5 -> Bad but playable. I had a poor experience with the game. When played by a player the game actually caters to, it would serve it's purpose.

3/5 -> Average. A solid experience, but snags somewhere along the line cause it to be held back from being "good".

4/5 -> Good. I enjoyed the experience, and have no qualms supporting it if was considered for a featured game (if it wasn't featured already).

5/5 -> Excellent. Among the paragons of gaming experiences, and instant feature material in my humble opinion (if it wasn't featured already).

Posts

Pages: 1
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Thank you so much, Marrend! :D I am so glad you enjoyed the game and I'm really flattered to get such an awesome review! ^_^
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Thanks for the review Marrend! Unity took the words right out of my mouth.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
You're both quite welcome. You know, taking a few steps back, I can kinda see the the Luxaren Allure influence with the mapping, and the way MP functions felt like a definite a nod to Soul Sunder's stamina system. I have to respect that.

*Edit: For full disclosure, there was a small temptation to do some manner of DBZ reference in regards to Spell Fusion, possibly doing a double-reference to me having oh-so-close to having over 10K MS (which I may very well have after the Review Jam is done).
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