Delusions of Duty

Intro

"Delusions of Duty" was developed by Aegix_Drakan in RPG Maker VX Ace and was his entry in the Fundamental RPGology Conest. A contest focused on developing a combat system within the confines of a few rules. As such this game places a very heavy emphasis on it's combat mechanics. So much so that the story elements tend to feel like they were just slapped on at the last minute in order to give the game slightly more appeal to the masses. After all, a battle without some sort of narrative appeal is pretty boring in the grand scheme of things.

Story

You play as Samael, the bodyguard of the late and apparently nameless princess, of a nameless kingdom. Truly this is a game that loves not giving people or places names. In a way it reminds me of that old video by Ask a Ninja about why three is the magic number. Only instead of everything being ancient we have everything going without a name. Though, I suppose I'm getting a bit off track and should focus on how the story begins.

The story begins on a somewhat mysterious note with Samael being chased down on a nameless beach by a guy named Lyle Chase for murdering his former charge. At this point a battle is all but inevitable. Of course, the two combatants fill the need to exchange a few lines of dialogue before dueling to death where we learn that Samael and Lyle studied under the same master which will be more important when we get to the Gameplay section, but it does lead to some accusations about whose the bigger disgrace between them in the eyes of their master. The man who cut down a woman he once took an arrow for or the guy that ran away in order to become a sellsword.

Admittedly them both being disgraces to their teacher at this point is kind of interesting, but it probably would have been more useful as a dramatic tool if Samael was being pursued by a fellow student who truly cared about honoring their master's teachings. As it stands, it feels like the conversation about their former master is just idle chit chat. I suppose one could argue Lyle is trying to simply buy some more time for his friends/underlings to catch up, but the game heavily implies that Lyle came to the beach with the foreknowledge that Samael would be there. After all, his other options were either traveling through areas crawling with guards or traversing through an area filled to the brim with wyverns. A rather foolish choice for a person sporting a serious injury. As such, the only reason Lyle could possibly be confronting Samael by himself is because he wants all of the glory for capturing/killing Samael for himself.

As a result it really doesn't make sense for Lyle to waste idle chatter on what their master would think of Samael. At least in my opinion. Though I suppose human discourse isn't always rational.

Of course my biggest gripe about the mysterious setup to the fight is that it heavily implies that Samael is a villain and I really don't like playing as villainous characters. Thankfully the game does provide some more backstory to what lead to the fight with Lyle on the beach if you manage to beat him. A task that is both difficult and a tad tedious in my opinion.

Gameplay

I suppose I'll start on a positive note and say the combat in "Delusions of Duty" is rather deep and described by Aegix_Drakan as a "skill unlock system". This means you seal away skills as you use them but unlocking other skills in exchange which can be used to help you setup counters and powerful attacks to use at the right moment. As a result you really need to try and read the flow of battle and anticipate what Lyle will do in order to take him down.

Admittedly this task is made somewhat easier by Lyle switching between various stances depending on how the battle is going. As a result he can be either highly aggressive or highly defensive depending on the overall state of the duel.

On the downside Lyle has a ton of HP. At least in comparison to the amount of damage your attacks do in this game. As a result it takes about 15 minutes to cut Lyle down on normally difficulty. Admittedly, I really didn't spend a lot of time considering what Lyle's stances meant while fighting him. A mistake that came back to bite me a bit near the end of the duel, but I still managed to eek out a solid win thanks to utilizing skills like gut punch to inflict damage dealing status effects on Lyle. Though, I'll admit my lack of focus on Lyle's stance would have definitely cost me the duel if I had been playing the game on hard mode.

Graphics and Sound

There might be a few custom assets here and there in this project, but the bulk of it looks like it was made with freely available resources or those found in the RTP for RPG Maker VX Ace. On one hand this means this game doesn't have the unique visual flare you find in some free games on this site like "The Mysterious Wonderland of Alicia-chan". On the other hand these commonly used resources are used so often that it means the game's visuals and musical presentation is simply average. So there isn't anything to really complain about either.

Conclusion

"Delusions of Duty" is a game whose biggest drawback is it's narrative. On one hand the narrative does contain a few interesting ideas that could have been expanded upon in some truly gripping ways. Unfortunately the game is held back by how the story is presented. In fact, I think the biggest issue with the narrative is that it's presented out of order. And by the time we learn about why Samael cut down the princess most people will probably no longer care since by that point the game is already over.

On the other hand this game is easily worth taking a look at for the combat system alone. In fact, I think this system would definitely work in a somewhat longer project if either the player and enemies had less health or the damage dealt by the various skills was higher. After all, a game where every battle takes around 15 minutes to complete would get really tedious, but for a game with a single boss battle it's a little more acceptable.