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A Fantastic Tribute

Disclaimer: This is a review of Demo V0.0.10 and may not reflect on future or final versions of the game

I am a fan of RubyQuest. I was one of the lurkers on /tg during the original runthrough of the game. It spawned many imitators, none I think could really capture the same tone, the same feeling of RubyQuest. TGWeaver caught lightning in a bottle and created a fantastic story with memorable characters and horrors of all kinds.

This fangame sought to retell that story, and does so with gusto.

The characters all have fantastic spritework and re-imagined designs. While they didn't entirely match up with my own view of them (Notably, Ruby's shorter ears and Red's older appearance) they still succinctly capture the essence of each character.

I was also not expecting such high quality animated FMVs, nor their liberal use. Clearly this is a labor of love on the behalf of the developers and each one almost perfectly replicates classic moments of the original RubyQuest.

The music also perfectly fits the tone of the story too, notably knowing when an absence of music can sell an environment all that much more.

The game does take liberties, but they all help the flow of the narrative. I doubt there was enough of a story in RubyQuest to carry an entire game like this as it stood. The new characters slot into place like long forgotten puzzle pieces, and give some much needed variety to the foes faced. Old characters are interacted with in a new fashion, with Red being more, shall we say, "collected" than we are used to seeing him. I was also incredibly happy to see Jay getting more screentime than he had previously, despite his section being one of the more frustrating areas of the demo.

Notably, much of the humor found in the original story has been cut, which is an understandable stylistic choice. The original RubyQuest had hundreds of people contributing to the actions of the characters, which lead to some sometimes snarky, sometimes crude jokes that worked in the format of the story. Here, it's plain to see that the majority of the humor was gutted to play up the horror.

There are parts of the demo that are close to perfect, yet require a little more tweaking. A segment where the protagonist has to swim in almost pitch black, inky water while avoiding spectral birds did indeed fill me with dread, but eventually it resulted in me swimming around for half an hour trying to find all of the objects I needed to hit in order to progress (and even then, I'm uncertain as to what exactly I did. I feel like I eventually just stumbled into the right area completely by accident).

A few of the puzzles, in particular the Roman 43 one, could use a little more explanation in order to improve quality of life. I ended up solving that one by just shifting the lever around because I wasn't entirely sure how my moves were being calculated. (From start, or from first move?)

Another problem I faced was a severe lack of inventory when Ruby was alone. Again another stylistic choice and one that remained accurate to the original Quest, but it lead to an awful lot of needless backtracking which soured the experience somewhat. I had been retaining keys long past their point of usefulness until I realized that they didn't disappear once their function had been preformed. It may be an idea to take a leaf from the books of Resident Evil, and have the game give the player the option to toss their keys when they become useless, instead of relying on the player to make that guesswork themselves.

Lastly, there was a small segment of the game that was terribly difficult and not very fun. The fight with Daisy in the Pneumatics room was incredibly difficult, I had no forewarning that I needed to heal (being able to run away from every encounter until that point) and Incredibly Frustratingly despite the door to the room being locked, the Nurse could still barge in and turn an already difficult fight to an impossible 2 vs 1.

The few occasions I had survived the onslaught, I then immediately had to deal with the puzzle straight afterward. This puzzle was timed in accordance to your health, and after being so bloodied by Daisy and the Nurse, I had scant seconds to solve it. The solution, I should point out, is not immediately obvious to anybody who has not already read RubyQuest. I forsee many a frustrated player dying to that puzzle, only to immediately be respawned back to deal with Daisy (And the Nurse, if RNG is cruel)

In review, this game is a true labor of love and a fantastic game in of itself. I am honestly looking forward to each new update and release with anticipation. It has a few minute issues, but those that exist can easily be solved in future patches.

- White

Posts

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Sorry about the Nurse interrupting your fight with Daisy, that was not meant to happen. D: Thank you very much for the review. I'm glad to hear from perspective of a fan of the original since it helps confirm we are doing something right!
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