Beyond Reality (IGMC 2014 Edition)

Beyond Reality is an hour-long very polished RPG made for the Indie Game Maker Contest this year.
In the flood of contest games, this is actually the most polished game I've played so far.

You play the director and mistress of Alpha Omega Company (my, what a precise name that is indeed) La'lele. Pollution is emminent in the technology-driven world and this company is researching ways to better human life, whatever that may cost.


They discovered our weakness..

Your crew is held together by orders rather than believes, which puts you in a vulnerable position. While you are in thoughts as to how you should procceed, you are forcefully brought back in time by a previous frozen woman who was freed by one of your researcher. A time where magic instead of technology existed, keeping the world pollution-free. And you've got to help her out if you ever want to get back.

Now, the core idea of the story is very solid. It is the driving core of this game.
The themes apparant are as well - the game deals with control-obsession, the value of dreams and responsibilities. It conveys a very positve, encouraging, heartfelt message.
However, the development of these ideas would certainly require some time to come to their full potential. While the ideas are very good, the impact is very shallow, as they could only be briefly mentioned and were not developed as well as they needed to be.

You are supposed to doubt your comrades, but you are feeling none - there is just one dialogue indicating an actual issue (seemingly harmless, too), and the environment does not give any real evidence, either.
While pollution is an huge issue in your time, there is no proper introduction to it. It's just there without any further explanation, without any pictures across the land or silimiar. What does your cooperation research? What might make the research controversial? You have no idea.
Dreams and responsibilites are a theme, but the actual motive of your characters is not explained at all. That's also on of the reason that at the turning point the impact of your change is meager, because .. well .. there wasn't any real, detailed substance that needed to be broken.

The ending is sweet, but quite unrealistic. Some more expansion as to what changes were made afterwards would help. What did the characters do in the meantime?
There were just too many different themes to cover. As a result, they ended up being barely linked.
All in all, not too bad, but not elaborated enough.

In all other aspects, though, the game is very polished.
The story is very, very well paced - the characters likeable. Especially our flawed heroine. You grow as a team as well as a character.
They could use some more time to expand upon as well, though. There is little banter between the characters that gives us some insight into their belief system.
While your trusted team grows, the villains are rather lacking. They are clichéd and act without real reasoning.

The battles are rather simplistic, fast-paced and certainly not the focus of the game. As there were only visible encounters, this aspect was considered.
There were some very short puzzles inbetween, but for no other reason than to give a little bit gameplay variation while you follow the story.

The game is really beautiful - the battle sprites are quite nice, but especially the character images are simply stunning. It conveys the sci-fi part very subtly, too (on the shoulder pad above, for example). Mapping has been equally enjoyable. Not customized, but put together well.

It's solid musically as well. The tunes may not be as memorable, but suitable and they give a little bit more energy to the game.

While it lacked the emotional impact, every other aspect has been quite polished and made the game very enjoyable to play.
I'm looking forward to the extension of the game and hope it will improve the general impact of it.