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Well-desgined, but rather Bland
Slashandz- 05/30/2010 10:25 PM
- 1798 views
Darksteel is a traditional RPG by narcodis. It tells the story of Ezra, a mercenary who works for the Church of Carta.
He is sent by the Church to explore a mysterious mineshaft, not realizing that many secrets lie waiting within.
Is this truly Darksteel, or is it mere Darkfluff?
The Good:
Mapping:
The mapping in this game is all RTP, but it's done quite well. Most rooms are covered with details; you won't find a big empty map in sight.
Right at the beginning of the demo, you'll find yourself in a massive mercenary headquarters. It features a sparring room, cafeteria,
bathroom, classroom, and much more. Exploring such a well desgined area is quite fun. I found myself eagerly talking to every NPC
and examining each room. The level of detail put into the maps carries over throughout the rest of the game, making exploration enjoyable.
An example. Granted, you can't interact with anything in this room... But it's still detailed!
Extra Touches:
Darksteel features several nice details for the observant. For example, Ezra's eyes move to glance at people in various cutscenes.
Also, when he's climbing up and down ladders, his sprite changes so that his hands are holding the rope.
The touches aren't all graphical either, a great deal of attention has been put into sound effects. There's sound effects for everything from
NPC's running up stairs to Ezra hopping out of bed. These touches are hardly necessary, but they're still a nice addition to the game.
Dungeons:
This game really shines in it's dungeons. The dungeons feature a wide variety of puzzles. The first dungeon alone had a water puzzle,
jumping puzzle, stone pushing puzzle, and more. My main concern is that at this rate narcodis will run out of ideas!
Furthermore, the monsters in the dungeons are all collision-triggered. Though the enemies chase you early on (making evasion near impossible),
they begin following movement patterns as you progress through the game. You can either challenge them or try to learn and avoid the patterns.
The dungeons are easily the highlight of this game. I even found myself quite excited after solving a few of the trickier puzzles.
Though some puzzles aren't perfect. I got stuck here and had to restart.
And the Bad:
Ezra:
One of the biggest problems with Darksteel has to be the the protagonist. Ezra is a battle-hardened expert who is always down to business.
He has no real flaws to overcome or any real need for maturing; he's already as serious as they come. Furthermore Ezra doesn't express any emotions.
We never see him joyful or scared. He's almost inhuman.
To be blunt, Ezra just isn't interesting enough to be the protagonist of the RPG. I personally felt zero attachment or concern for him,
and he's supposed to be the one representing me in this world! Also, his rule-following, no-messing-around nature makes him
rather boring and directly opposes the "unauthorized exploration" theme of the game.
*sigh* How did I know he'd say that?
Battle System:
When the Battle System is presented to you, all sorts of complex mechanics are explained. There's three weapon types,
each with their own uses, and the ability to switch weapons on the fly. I was anxious to try out this new system.
However, I just couldn't figure out how to do it. When I would choose to draw a weapon, Ezra would always sheathe his sword
and draw his club. I couldn't figure out how to draw my pike...
However, this proved to be no problem whatsoever! I suppose the extra battle features are just there for the heck of it,
because I easily dispatched all common enemies with the Attack and Force commands. The boss was trickier,
but still beaten on my first attempt. It seems strange the game would explain such a complex, but useless feature.
Other than this currently pointless system, the game uses a default RPGVX battle system with default monsters.
There's nothing special here, and leveling up requires a rather large amount of exp.
Lack of Save Points:
You can only save at specific points in this game. Unfortunately, these save points are pretty randomly scattered.
Rather than having a save point before my bed in the HQ (which triggered story progression), it was located in the training room.
Furthermore, these save points are quite rare. Make sure you actually dedicate a block of time to playing this demo,
because a save point shows up roughly every twenty minutes. If you constantly need to leave to do things (like me),
you'll need to leave the computer on. And sometimes you won't be able to save until completing a task!
I can't leave... or save my progress... until I complete this puzzle.
Final Thoughts/Suggestions for Improvement:
Darksteel is obviously the result of a lot of time and ideas. Some of the puzzles are really clever, and the mapping is well done.
Some additional time was put into extra touches, such as additional sprite-work, which shows attention to detail.
Unfortunately, the whole story revolves around the uninteresting protagonist Ezra. I had a great deal of difficulty getting into the game
because Ezra's seriousness and lack of genuine interest rubbed off on me. The confusing and seemingly useless battle system
and massive lack of save points were somewhat frustrating as well.
My advice to you, narcodis, which you may use or completely disregard, is to rewrite Ezra's character. The focus of the game thus far
is to explore the unknown, despite being told not to. Furthmore, being a RPG, the game focuses on character growth and development.
Why not make the protagonist reflect this? Give him a lust for exploring the unknown and some flaws to overcome. Make him genuinely interesting,
a character people would want to learn more about.
Your protagonist should move the plot forward, not hinder it.
Final Score: 2.5/5
He is sent by the Church to explore a mysterious mineshaft, not realizing that many secrets lie waiting within.
Is this truly Darksteel, or is it mere Darkfluff?
The Good:
Mapping:
The mapping in this game is all RTP, but it's done quite well. Most rooms are covered with details; you won't find a big empty map in sight.
Right at the beginning of the demo, you'll find yourself in a massive mercenary headquarters. It features a sparring room, cafeteria,
bathroom, classroom, and much more. Exploring such a well desgined area is quite fun. I found myself eagerly talking to every NPC
and examining each room. The level of detail put into the maps carries over throughout the rest of the game, making exploration enjoyable.
An example. Granted, you can't interact with anything in this room... But it's still detailed!
Extra Touches:
Darksteel features several nice details for the observant. For example, Ezra's eyes move to glance at people in various cutscenes.
Also, when he's climbing up and down ladders, his sprite changes so that his hands are holding the rope.
The touches aren't all graphical either, a great deal of attention has been put into sound effects. There's sound effects for everything from
NPC's running up stairs to Ezra hopping out of bed. These touches are hardly necessary, but they're still a nice addition to the game.
Dungeons:
This game really shines in it's dungeons. The dungeons feature a wide variety of puzzles. The first dungeon alone had a water puzzle,
jumping puzzle, stone pushing puzzle, and more. My main concern is that at this rate narcodis will run out of ideas!
Furthermore, the monsters in the dungeons are all collision-triggered. Though the enemies chase you early on (making evasion near impossible),
they begin following movement patterns as you progress through the game. You can either challenge them or try to learn and avoid the patterns.
The dungeons are easily the highlight of this game. I even found myself quite excited after solving a few of the trickier puzzles.
Though some puzzles aren't perfect. I got stuck here and had to restart.
And the Bad:
Ezra:
One of the biggest problems with Darksteel has to be the the protagonist. Ezra is a battle-hardened expert who is always down to business.
He has no real flaws to overcome or any real need for maturing; he's already as serious as they come. Furthermore Ezra doesn't express any emotions.
We never see him joyful or scared. He's almost inhuman.
To be blunt, Ezra just isn't interesting enough to be the protagonist of the RPG. I personally felt zero attachment or concern for him,
and he's supposed to be the one representing me in this world! Also, his rule-following, no-messing-around nature makes him
rather boring and directly opposes the "unauthorized exploration" theme of the game.
*sigh* How did I know he'd say that?
Battle System:
When the Battle System is presented to you, all sorts of complex mechanics are explained. There's three weapon types,
each with their own uses, and the ability to switch weapons on the fly. I was anxious to try out this new system.
However, I just couldn't figure out how to do it. When I would choose to draw a weapon, Ezra would always sheathe his sword
and draw his club. I couldn't figure out how to draw my pike...
However, this proved to be no problem whatsoever! I suppose the extra battle features are just there for the heck of it,
because I easily dispatched all common enemies with the Attack and Force commands. The boss was trickier,
but still beaten on my first attempt. It seems strange the game would explain such a complex, but useless feature.
Other than this currently pointless system, the game uses a default RPGVX battle system with default monsters.
There's nothing special here, and leveling up requires a rather large amount of exp.
Lack of Save Points:
You can only save at specific points in this game. Unfortunately, these save points are pretty randomly scattered.
Rather than having a save point before my bed in the HQ (which triggered story progression), it was located in the training room.
Furthermore, these save points are quite rare. Make sure you actually dedicate a block of time to playing this demo,
because a save point shows up roughly every twenty minutes. If you constantly need to leave to do things (like me),
you'll need to leave the computer on. And sometimes you won't be able to save until completing a task!
I can't leave... or save my progress... until I complete this puzzle.
Final Thoughts/Suggestions for Improvement:
Darksteel is obviously the result of a lot of time and ideas. Some of the puzzles are really clever, and the mapping is well done.
Some additional time was put into extra touches, such as additional sprite-work, which shows attention to detail.
Unfortunately, the whole story revolves around the uninteresting protagonist Ezra. I had a great deal of difficulty getting into the game
because Ezra's seriousness and lack of genuine interest rubbed off on me. The confusing and seemingly useless battle system
and massive lack of save points were somewhat frustrating as well.
My advice to you, narcodis, which you may use or completely disregard, is to rewrite Ezra's character. The focus of the game thus far
is to explore the unknown, despite being told not to. Furthmore, being a RPG, the game focuses on character growth and development.
Why not make the protagonist reflect this? Give him a lust for exploring the unknown and some flaws to overcome. Make him genuinely interesting,
a character people would want to learn more about.
Your protagonist should move the plot forward, not hinder it.
Final Score: 2.5/5
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CloseWord! Thanks for the review! I definitely agree with you on most every point you made.
I don't know if this game is going to be picked up again. To be honest, this game started out with me just designing silly dungeons and puzzles to get through, so the fact that you enjoyed those things made me happy.
I don't know if this game is going to be picked up again. To be honest, this game started out with me just designing silly dungeons and puzzles to get through, so the fact that you enjoyed those things made me happy.
Slashandz
740
comment=32558
Word! Thanks for the review! I definitely agree with you on most every point you made.
I don't know if this game is going to be picked up again. To be honest, this game started out with me just designing silly dungeons and puzzles to get through, so the fact that you enjoyed those things made me happy.
No problem, narcodis!
Darksteel definitely isn't unsalvageable, but if you think you can do better, go for it!
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