Epic Monster Dungeon Explore! 2

THE PARTY HAS PERISHED (HA HA HA)
A somewhat in depth look at Epic Monster Dungeon Explore 2!
A rogue-like for RMVX? What a great concept! It's never been done before, to my knowledge. And while there are certainly pitfalls- like multiplying everything annoying, cheap, and unfair about roguelikes by a factor of everything obnoxious about the RPG Maker DBS- the appeal is clear. A quick, fun, more-or-less thought free RPG experience that can be quickly completed by the creator and quickly completed by the player, distilling everything fun about RPG gameplay into a 90 minute adventure.

How well does it look in practice? Let's take a look.

Premise/Story/Dialog/Execution: LEON and MARA are paladins or something who must defeat EVIL GOD. That is the story of EMDE2! I am not exaggerating when I say that it is not developed, at all, from there. All of the skill/item names are designed to be short, crunched together, and in all caps to imitate the old school DOS based roguelike feel that it was going for. As a matter of fact THE ENTIRE GAME IS IN ALL CAPS, LIKE THIS. That gets it points, at least, for consistency of vision. Often the game had a way of being outright hillarious, especially in the non-plot-advancing (haha, what plot?) dialogue before bosses and side bosses. Depending on your funny bone sensitivity, you might be in stitches or merely smiling in amusement when you're not clenching your teeth and pounding the table in frustration. One last note:
I did FAR prefer the lampooning of semi-engrish nonsense featured earlier in the game (NOTHING WILL STOP ME FROM STOPPING YOU/I WILL PUNCH YOU INTO OBLIVION) to the bevy of joking references to Craze's own games (VERSUS XERZA and ARCANE MIST) that were featured at the end. Also, I felt like there were several comedic opportunities missed in the final battle with evil god. But basically, if you are prepared to understand going in that this is not a serious story game, and is not meant to have a serious story, you should be able to enjoy it for laughs.

Story Score: 3.5/5 (7/10)

Graphics/Sound:
If I'm not mistaken, EMDE2! is 100% RTP and proud of it in the way that games are proud of being 100% Custom. So, instead of saying something lame like "There's no point in reviewing Epic Monster Dungeon Explore 2's graphics and sounds since you're basically just reviewing the RMVX RTP." (which is true) I WILL ACTUALLY REVIEW THE RMVX RTP.

Charsets: Much too chibi in my opinion. I hate how everyone has such a friendly little face and is super-short. Worse, since historically, almost all graphical resources for charsets are RTP edits, this means all graphics I'll be working with in the future will be in the same style. GRRR! 3/10
Tilesets: I have more issues with the structure of the tilesets than the graphics themselves, which include everything you'd need to create your standard RPG world. A major graphical step down from RPG Maker XP. 5/10
Battle Graphics: The best in the Tsukuru series. 10/10
Facesets: The best in the Tsukuru series, and like every single girl is hawt. 10/10.
Sounds: Have these changed since rm2k? 5/10
Music: Alternates between cheesily good, hillariously bad, and just plain annoying. 5/10. For Craze's sake, I will give +2 because it so fit the mood of the game.

Seriously, as a matter of fact, all the RTP shit perfectly fit the mood of the game.

Presentation Score: 3.5/5 (7/10)

Gameplay
Obviously the focus of this complete game. The battles are balanced, and sometimes fun, and always, always challenging, except when they pass beyond challenging, into outright rape. I hate levelgrinding, and this game forced me to. That's the bad part out of the way.

Craze has a lot of new ideas which are really OLD IDEAS. But there are some things to get used to that are different from the DBS of any RPG Maker.
*Defense is now diamonds. Almost NOTHING gives it, except a few helmets, and some accessories.
*Armor now provides Evasion, a la D&D, decreasing your chance of getting hit but not the damage taken. Hats provide magic defense, a la Final Fantasy Tactics.
*Agility is now Magic Defense; I don't know if Craze hardcoded it to actually WORK this way (the program by default uses Spirit (Magic Atk in this game) as Magic Defense. I do know that Magic Defense works as agility; my high MDef character (Mara) usually went first in combat. Craze, you might want to look into this.

As a whole, the new stats work. In fact, for the most part, I really enjoyed this game.

BUT, here is what I don't like, and why I shaved off some points:

Attack > Everything Attack is the only stat you can increase efficiently, which is okay, because in the end IT IS THE ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS. Attack is also much more efficient than healing; healing is badly nerfed, in my opinion. I was playing as a Blademaster and Healsword duo; with other classes, your milage may very with other classes. But I feel that Needaid should have been more effective.
HOPE YOU DON'T LIKE SKILLS: I felt that this game had too few skills. Most skills were just more powerful versions of other skills, and I was always spamming the same skills. There was never a case of a skill being right for a situation, doing the right type of damage, or inflicting a key status effect. It was just all about dealing damage. Simplicity didn't work with you here. And I felt Blademaster and Healsword's skillsets were too similar. Also, Craze, you missed an opportunity in not calling Blademaster something hillarious, like SWORDBLADE, because HEALSWORD is a pretty funny name.
HOPE YOU LIKE CHEAP DEATH Every enemy hits ridiculously hard. And they hit fairly often, the evasion bonus from armor isn't high enough to counter not getting a defensive bonus. Likewise, I felt like their magic damage was always excessive, no matter how high my MDEF was. And nothing, nothing in an RPG has ever chilled my blood more than the words MOUSIE USES REAP.
HOPE YOU LIKE FLEEING: In the end-game, the castle and final dungeon are the only effective places to level; with frequent trips back to the inn being a necessity in this game, it got really annoying to have to repeatedly flee from the four worthless encounters I had to walk through on the way. A system to bypass underleveled encounters would be much appreciated. Likewise, I ran into the same problem when "fishing" locations for their traveling merchants.

My other suggestions/gripes about the gameplay were not related to battles:
1. I missed the other gameplay aspects of a roguelike besides fighting.
2. I felt like there should have been more encounter types.
3. Ultimately, I felt this game was more like a board game than a rogue like...and I thought that if Craze had realized that, he could have actually MADE it a board game, and done some really awesome things with it. Hmm, maybe I'll make a board game RPG some day...

Gameplay Score: 3/5 (6/10)

But ultimately, this is a fairly-well-balanced, playable, polished, COMPLETE RPG.
We only get five of those a year, max. Why aren't you playing it right now?

Final Score (NOT AN AVERAGE): 4/5 Stars