Akage

Name: Akage

Developer: Scaptonyx

Story: You play the lingerie clad Akage! Because it might be a little chilly outside, she decided to throw on a cloak...which is really more of a cape. Either way, she's not trying to cover up. She's saved up her money to buy a house which a guy wearing a skull mask commanding some extremely dumb henchmen decided to burn down. I mean, seriously, these guys are so stupid that you could probably ask their favorite color and pass them right up while they A) process the fact that you asked a question, B) figured out the question, and C) answer it, by which time, you would be playing the sequel. You almost feel bad pounding on these guys, who also don't seem to know the pointy end of a sword. Anyway, Akage is out for revenge and must brave a forest full of dangerous animals that are just waiting for a barely dressed shield maiden to fall into their clutches and kick their asses. Then through caves, through swamps, and then a castle in which the henchmen are significantly better fighters. Of course, we still don't know their IQs, but they can't be very high considering they have to wait for you to pick up item containers from previously fallen foes before they can attack. Suffice it to say, you're chasing a dude who thought he was a bad ass, and upon seeing Akage, decided he had other things to do and beat feet.

Graphics: Except for the two main characters, basic RTP. Our heroine and villain are very nicely drawn with full busts. The maps are well rendered, the tilesets very nicely used. There are no battle screens because, as the dev states, combat is Diablo style. The dev has a fine understanding of tilesets go together. Transfers are very stylish. Combat graphics are well done.

Gameplay: Fairly straight forward and basic. Instead of battling on a combat screen, you fight the sprites directly on the map with sword slashes and fireballs. Your fireballs are long range but are limited by mana. Your sword attacks start out fairly weak, but will improve as you level up and acquire new swords. Apparently, upgrading armor and accessories never entered the dev's mind as there doesn't seem to be any to found anywhere. You can actually attach status modifiers to your armor, accessories, and weapons in the form of skill gems, which as far as I tell cannot be reused: apparently, once equipped to an item, they're part of it for good. This game would be challenging if not for the overabundance of healing points. While it's nice to have them, their application is hit and miss. If they weren't there at all, I'd be relying on my items of which in this game, there is a dearth. That said, the heal points are welcome, but their presence is not well balanced. There is no point in the game in which there are too few of them but there are several points in which there are too many of them.

For example, in the cavern, at first, you encounter one in the beginning, advance about two maps, find another, don't find another for about three maps, and then in the next map, there are two in the same passage. I would recommend spacing these out a little more consistently and there should never be more than one to a map. One every three maps was working fine. I'd even recommend setting them at one every four or five maps to dissuade players from constantly running back to them. I would also have at least some enemies respawn to discourage this practice. In this game, enemies do not respawn at all. The way it's set up now, abusing heal points is very easy and tempting. Also, enemies are dropping more gold than any other item, they're not dropping much of it and then when we find a merchant (who I can't imagine could be getting very much business where he is), there's only two items available. It's strange, and yet it works. There's a ton of seed items available, and the dearth of restorative items only occurs at the beginning of the game. Rationing would probably be really hard, but those heal points actually help to promote hording, so that by the time you get to that merchant, you really don't need him. Item balance and combat balance is working very well, but there's a bit too much in the way of restorative items. Again, I feel that reducing access to heal points would go a long way to solving this issue.

Music: Entirely RTP, the dev, for his title, intro, and castle, chose some very appropriate and fitting themes. The music throughout the rest of the game though, the dominant portion if it, it is a bizarre juxtaposition over the game's decidedly action-fantasy elements. For the overall theme, field2 was used from the RTP. Frankly, it doesn't fit. I think he probably chose it for it's fun sound, but it really doesn't work with forests, swamps, and caves full of poisonous creatures.

Conclusion: I can't deny that the game has excellent presentation and he's packaged it well. The flaws are plenty, but they could be easily overlooked by the right kind of player. The game has plenty of charm and I would recommend it. The gameplay is mindless, fun, and easy to get lost in. It's probably not for the more serious player, but that's okay; the game doesn't take itself seriously and it has more win than lose.