Trials and Tribulations was one of the entries for the IGMC (Indie Game Making Contest) for 2014. As one of the judges for the RPG portion of the competition it is my pleasure to share my thoughts on the game. This review will basically just be the notes I took cleaned up. It will be based on the competition version of the game, so certain aspects of the game may have been changed.

Presentation
Graphics were RTP tiles with some original pieces. Mapping was pretty decent and lighting wasn't much of an issue except one area which was supposed to be dark.

Music was RTP with a few original tunes. Sound effects were pretty standard in use. Nothing amazing but nothing terrible. What was used fit well.

Writing had one or two small errors - cut off text and a spelling mistake. It was, for the most part, quite well written, however... there was a lot of exposition/narration used where scenes would have fit better, especially in the midst of actual scenes. Dialogue is your friend, people, and helps build your characters and their relationships much better than just telling your audience how people feel about each other.

Characterisation was good for the main character, once the narration stopped, but sadly his wife didn't get as much as she could have so her plight wasn't really a big deal to the player. If we'd gotten to know her before her illness... even if it was a case of controlling the characters as they make their way back home, talking to the people of the town and letting them know they'd returned.

Huds were okay - typical huds with some minor changes to set-up.

Gameplay
Saves were by crystals. The game gave you second chances before boss battles which is nice.

Items either needed to refill a bit more HP or be more plentiful. At one point I had no items left. There were about 10 total the whole game, if that, and two kinds - one filled 20HP and the other (of which you only get two) refill 50HP.

Battles were okay. Not exactly fun with only four 'skills' but not bad either. It seemed to play out like a case of rock, paper, scissors except it didn't. Heavy attacks did big damage but could miss, normal attacks hit for normal damage but were more likely to connect and Parry gave you a decent chance of dodging an attack and dealing a small percentage back to the enemy. Oh, and item let you use items.

Puzzles were a little more interesting, but pretty basic all up. There was an invisible maze, a 'find the right crack', pushing boulders and swapping statues. Nothing overly complicated.

Fun factor
Narration is a tricky beast. Some people swear by it and for summaries, sure it can do the job, but when you want people to care about the story you're telling actually showing the scenes and interactions between the characters is the best bet.

The writing in the game was good when it wasn't narrative. Narrative is boring and nothing can make you lose interest less than having to read piles of text telling you about all the cool stuff that you don't get to see. Show me that shit please.

Battles were decent. Frankly, I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the promised strategy - certain monsters being weaker to one kind of attack than another, for example, but that wasn't to be. Basically, best bet was usually to just use Heavy Attack and hope it hit or use parry.

Puzzles were decent - not too easy or too hard, though they weren't really memorable.

I gave the game a solid 44 out of 60 in the IGMC. On RMN I'm giving it 3.5 stars. It had a touching story and decent gameplay for the most part. A bit more polish will really help it out.