Fantasy Gold

If this game was a Simpsons character, it would be Ralph Wiggum.


Fantasy Gold--which would more accurately be titled as 'Fantasy Suspicious Brownish Color'--is an effective object lesson in why you do not upload your very first ever project for public consumption. I've said for years that you've got five to ten crap games to poop out before you are capable of producing anything worth anyone's time playing.

I mentioned in my last couple reviews (Iniquity & Vindication and Chase for Divinity if you're keeping track, two pretty good comedy games) that comedy is a crap shoot, in part because if you fail to tell a serious story, you might at least come off as accidentally funny. If you fail at comedy, that just comes off as annoying.



Fantasy "Gold"'s failed comedy comes off as annoying. It's the same 'my very first RPG MAKAR GAM' pseudo-gags that have literally been tired probably even before I joined the scene 14 years ago. The sense of humor is childish and not in a good way. Things like a Hero named Hero with a class of Newbie and an NPC named Sir Noob and areas named Noob Cave and Noob Cliff and Noob Village and we get it you are TOTALLY OVERWHELMED WITH THE HILARIOUSNESS OF THE WORD NOOB but not me.

The graphics music and sound are I believe entirely RTP and for the most part used correctly. One area the game displayed competence was in using different atmospheric BGMs for different zones that fit the zones, so good job there. Mapping was not...as bad as it might have been...but with that said this is an actual in game screenshot of one area.



I did not engage much with battles, which seemed mostly to be standard default RTP VX Ace with some ??? unknown degree of plug and play script use. My gut feeling on them is that they are of the "too easy" variety based on the very first few I saw and the wide variety of skills easily available. I liked the idea of picking up new skills from completing quests but soon a skill shop was available with many skills available dirt cheap.

The game offers you some menu customization options at the outset, but gives you no ability to customize your character, or choose a race, class, or appearance which is lame.

ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THE ABOVE is a deal breaker for me. I might have kept playing. What was a deal breaker, however, is this: Fantasy Gold calls itself a game with no real plot.

author=Christamoose
Fantasy Gold is a game like any other RPG game. But there's a difference. There is no "real" goal or plot.

Well, there is not so much no "REAL" goal or plot as there is NO PLOT, GOAL, OR POINT WHATSOEVER. No plot is not a problem. There are lots of great games without a plot. But Fantasy Gold has no HOOK which is a huge problem. There's no motivation for the player to do anything. There's no central mission or quest. There's no real setting or characters to care about or interact with. There is no central mystery to unravel. There isn't even an aesthetically interesting or atmospheric environment to explore, since the entire game takes place in a Really Tacky Place.



There is no reason to play this game at all because the game does not give you any reason to play it. So when I realized that, I stopped playing.

Good Faith N.B.: To the creator of this game, please don't feel discouraged or give up. You're probably very young, you're certainly just starting out, I promise you that you will make good games one day. Just keep practicing. Consider this your first important lesson learned: you have to give the player a reason to care enough to explore the world.