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In Search of Perfection

A fair warning: Sunken Spire is part of a series of games taking place in the same world, Chances are high you will not understand a word of this game if you aren't at least familiar with In Search of Immortality and The Grumpy Knight. Additionally, Sunken Spire contains quite some spoilers for those games, so you'll enjoy this experience much more if you play them first. You won't regret it, promised.




Sunken Spire by Indra, Fomar0153, MakioKuta and Rachael is a medium-length RPG created with RPG Maker VX Ace. It was created for the Indie Game Maker Contest 2014, despite openly violating the 1-hour length rule. Set in the collective Arum universe, the game follows two veterans from previous games, Alma and Elsa, on their new quest near the town of Leveida. When the heroines are ordered to inspect and dismantle a secret and potentially dangerous laboratory, it quickly becomes clear there is more to this mission than originally thought. When a gigantic spire suddenly emerges near the art-obsessed town and people start to go missing, the situation is close to getting out of control. It is up to our hard-boiled heroines and their new companions to unravel the mystery of the Spire.



Alma always finds the right words.


The Good (Positive qualities that justify an increase of score):
- Starring everyone's favourite Grumpy Knight Elsa, ice-cold magic engineer Alma as well as a brand-new, lovely little companion, this game is pure goodness for those who've grown to like the quirky character style of "Blue Coral Games". The dialogue in the game is very diverse, usually humourous and endearing, but also quite serious at times. This solid balance in writing and the sometimes not entirely clean but still never tasteless humour makes story parts and interaction with NPCs thoroughly enjoyable all the time. And with a whole town full of funny characters and the reappearance of some other old friends, there is plenty to explore.
- The combat system plays a large role in Sunken Spire and is, once again, extremely imaginative and allows for lots of customization. Alma can go into many different strategic directions with her research and the enhancements she can create. Elsa relies on her rune-based powers, but also collects runes used in battle to gain new abilities and craft items. Ooze, the third character, can transform into many different forms with unique skills and become stronger by eating various weird objects. Also, Alma can construct a very loyal companion who will prove to become increasingly useful. With so many strategies to try out and abilities to unlock, the battle system shows an almost unprecedented level of quality and potential.
- Sunken Spire uses some clever mechanics to make progress and exploration easier without becoming boring. Little arrows indicate points of interest or objects the player can interact with, but they usually only appear if the player has moved close enough to them. It is also possible to quickly teleport to important areas or between different floors of the Spire, which makes travelling and backtracking a lot less frustrating.
- While slightly marred by the presence of random encounters, there are some quite enjoyable puzzles especially in the later parts of the game. Some of them are less challenging than others, but they are a nice diversion from the more battle-intensive floors.
- The great use of graphics adds even more to the atmosphere of the game. Mapping in Sunken Spire is very pretty and appealing, especially in the outdoor areas, which makes exploring the vast setting even more enjoyable. Also, important scenes are often complemented by fully drawn pictures, and important characters also have sets of beautiful portraits that display their personalities well.
- Considering the game was created within a month, it is already astounding how long the main story is. But there is even a whole lot of side-content available as well, such as rescueing the missing townsfolk, exploring optional dungeons and finishing sidequests. This is just utterly impressive.
- The music used in the game is very fitting and atmospheric, and is generally fun to listen to.



Does that sound somewhat familiar?


The Bad (Minor issues and nuisances that usually only decrease the score if they come in large numbers):
- In some areas, the encounter rate is insanely high, which is especially annoying when you have to run around a lot to solve a puzzle. Additionally, trying to escape a battle has a tendency to fail (I would highly suggest implementing an item that guarantees a successful escape, like the smoke bomb from In Search of Immortality). This is not only annoying, it contributes even more to the balancing issues mentioned below, as you quickly become over-leveled if you fight every encounter.
Fortunately, with the way the turn system works right now, it is possible to evade most fights: After an attempt to escape, the turn order is reset depending on the battlers' agility. This means that if one of your characters (Ooze is a good choice for this) is faster than all enemies, you can keep trying to escape until you succeed, with no consequences in case of a failed escape.
- It can be hard to tell who the people are the player managed to rescue, and in order to see their new dialogue and receive possible rewards, it is necessary to find them back in town. Having to inspect the entire town again to do so quickly becomes quite annoying.



Well, isn't that nice...?


The Ugly (Major problems or very frustrating aspects that lead to a decrease of score):
- This game, like others before it, suffers from the typical "Indra&Fomar-issues" - which means typos, many little bugs (some passability errors; quite many skills, status effects and items that don't work properly), as well as severe balancing issues. As you progress for a bit, most enemies will become a breeze since healing is easy (making healing items almost obsolete) and your characters can dish out ridiculous amounts of damage. This also decreases the fun factor of boss battles, because they rarely pose a challenge, and only if they resort to overpowered status effects. Only in the last section of the game (and in the optional dungeons, depending on how overleveled you are), you will suddenly notice an insane difficulty spike that will force you to actually grind for a bit, or bosses are going to utterly annihilate you.
Seeing how the very varied and masterfully designed combat systems are a central aspect in the creators' games, they should care not to overuse it or force it onto the player too much, as that increases the risk of an otherwise fantastic experience to become plain boring.



I only wanted to buy some combat items... And now I'm confused: Is that a typo or an inside joke?


Conclusion:
While the game's ending is a bit too open for my personal tastes (can I expect a sequel?) and despite some irritating issues, I found Sunken Spire to be the probably most appealing of the games made by its creators so far. With some improvements and a lot of rebalancing, this game could not only easily become an absolute must play for those who liked the previous journeys into the Arum universe, but even rightfully be called a masterpiece.

Posts

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author=Neversilent
despite openly violating the 1-hour length rule

We checked we could obliterate it first, it was more of a guideline and judges could stop playing at the 1 hour mark.

Anyway glad you enjoyed the game, it's by far the most ambitious of all our projects to date. I always enjoy having a good level of customisability but it makes balancing the game that much harder especially with time constraints. I am really happy you found the battle systems and character systems to be at such a high standard as that was what I spent most of my month doing.

We are working on a significant update to the game to address balance issues, bugs (like the escape bug - probably will just make it 100%) and the encounter rates. Also like all our previous games we had to cut some content, we had planned to have a quest log including a list of the missing people.

The final section of the game was intended to be bigger. It probably would have worked best if we'd just cut that section for the initial release but I'd finished Ezekiel and pushed to keep his section.

Thanks for the review, it's really informative and I'd like to assure you we'll be looking at the points you've raised. Thanks again!
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
You're welcome. I'm glad you liked the review, and I'm even more glad to hear you plan on updating the game. I will edit the Review accordignly when that happens, because I'd be happy to give Sunken Spire an even higher score. I've been critical about some points, but know that I am actually a big fan of your work and think your games are extraordinary in many ways.
Thanks for replying, and keep up the good work!

P.S.:
Am I correct to think it was no coincidence that the vampire girl was named "Gabriella"?
If you're referring to a vampire in Master of the Wind, I hadn't made the connection until I just racked my brain thinking what you meant. I don't remember who named her to be honest, if you meant something else then I don't know.

As the game stands currently I think it's a very fair review and I'll look forward to your impressions when we've updated the game.
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Yes, that was exactly what I was referring to. So it wasn't intentional after al...

And thanks. I'm looking forward to the improved version of the game as well.
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