Skill Hunter

Introduction

Skill Hunter is a turn-based RPG with random encounters created using RPG Maker VX Ace. The main stated goal of the game is to give players the ability to build characters to suit their own style of play and to suit their needs based on their current situation. Sadly, I think the game only lives up to half of that intended goal, but the game has definitely made some improvements in the right direction since the demo.

Story

To be brutally honest this game doesn't really feel like it has a story. While you do have an obvious goal which is to collect all of the skills in the game by defeating bosses and solving puzzles. The game never offers up any clear justification for why you are doing this in the first place. While I wouldn't say the lack of a story completely cripples this game. It does mean its a lot harder for me to get emotionally invested in this game and care about it beyond stroking my ego for having put another notch into my list of games that I've actually finished.

Gameplay

Before I dig into this section. I'd like to admit that the game balance has noticeably improved over the demo. On the other hand the game still suffers from a lot of minor problems that I think could be fixed with a few tweaks. For starters the game emphasizes that you should change up your stats and skills to suit your needs. So having one boss that is resistant to magic and another that is resistant to physical attacks would go a long way to ensuring that their is a legitimate reason for changing up your stats and skills. It would also require the player to make use of more then two skills. Since as it stands I can easily get through this game only relying on the healing and combo skills.

Another issue to consider is that there is no variety when it comes to the random encounters in this game. Every time you get into combat in any specific area in this game you'll be facing off against the same enemies. By adding in more variety to the encounters it will force the player to be more strategic or at least more well-rounded in their stat placement and put more of an emphasis on making good use of the various skills in the game. As it stands, I usually just power through with pure offense in conjunction with the combo skill. Which means in my mind that I'm not putting forth any real effort into my combat strategies since I can consistently rely on the same strategy over and over again to get me by with little effort.

And one final combat issue to consider is that the final boss feels lacking in terms of difficulty. To put this in perspective I found the regular enemies before the final boss battle to be more of a challenge then the final boss was.

Another issue in my opinion is that the initial two puzzles are still far too easy. Considering the short playtime of this game it would be preferable in my opinion to have all of the puzzles be around the same difficulty as the third and final puzzle of the game.

Graphics

Visually speaking I'd argue the game is pretty solid. Though I largely chalk this up to me liking the enemy designs. I'd even go so far as to say my favorite aspect of this game is the design of the enemy sprites which is rather depressing when you think about it. Since, I'm basically saying that my favorite aspect of this game is the most shallow thing I could have liked about it.

Sound

On the sound side of things the game is just average in my opinion which probaly isn't much of a surprise since I say that about almost every game that I play. On the plus side the game doesn't rely on the music found in the RTP and instead makes use of songs freely available to those making non-commercial RPG Maker games.

Bugs & Errors

The current build of this game contains several bugs and errors, but I'll only touch on the one that truly matters to me. When you beat the game it simply shows you the game over screen which feels like the developer is flipping you the middle finger. I'm going to assume that this was a mistake since I don't want to believe that it was intentional.

Conclusion

Skill Hunter is a rather mixed game for me. On one hand I like the designs of the enemy sprites. On the other hand I feel like the game promotes itself by suggesting that it will put the player in situations where being able to restat your character and change your skills to fit your needs is important. As it stands this game makes for a decent time killer, but it isn't something I'd recommend if you are looking for a quality RPG Maker title.