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Who You Calling A Fool
Addit- 04/12/2015 07:09 AM
- 4822 views
A Game Made By: Racheal & MakioKuta
Created Using: Renpy
It's A: VISUAL NOVEL Game
That Roughly Takes Around: 20 Minutes To Complete
And It's A... COMPLETED GAME!!!
I’m not sure if any of you guys know about this or not, but reading isn’t really one of my strong suites. Sure, you may look at how many “Writing, I Choose You!” achievements that I have and how many reviews that I’ve written so far on this site and probably go like, “Pfft, yeah right, Addit; go home, your drunk” – but it’s the truth!
You see, as a kid, I never really enjoyed reading any books or any novels of any sort. Even when I had to read one for a upcoming class assignment, I really didn’t look too forward to doing it. I don’t know what it is was, but I just didn’t enjoy reading that much unlike some other people that I know…
(I know, as a writer myself, that’s probably a terrible sin to admit.)
But one form of storytelling that I did find somewhat reasonable to sit down and relax to was the ones that had those little pictures in-between the lines and all those interesting visuals on the page to keep my attention span set to medium with caution. Yes, I’m talking about those things, like magazines, newspapers, or even visual novels to some extent. I don’t know, I just have a better time understanding what the hell is going on if I have some pretty visual artistry to guide me along the way. I guess I’m one of those types of people.
And once again through my mindless mini-rambling that’s related somewhat slightly to the subject is the next game that I’m about to review – and what a coincidence, as the title of it perfectly fits for this time of month and when I actually reviewed it on the correct month this time: “April Was A Fool,” a visual novel made in Renpy by Racheal (boo!!!) and MakioKuta.
Wait a minute…I remember playing something from these two screwballs before… *tries to remember* Hmmmm…what was it again…???
Oh yeah, right, it was that stupid Halloween game, Halloween Flop, that I ended up playing and reviewing it back in 2013! I remember it now!
But…looking at this compared to that, it doesn’t even look like it was made by the same people… If so, wow, their artistic integrity certainly has improved.
So how the hell did I find out about this game or was even interested in it in the first place? I mean, you’d think this would probably one of the last games that I clamp myself on to first chance that I see, being the savvy sports guy, and stuff. Well, actually, it was back during “Release Something Day XIII” (an event that I actually entered this time around) that I first saw glimpses of it and was mightily impressed…more so with the artwork, but I was still mightily impressed! I knew that this was something I should definitely keep on my eye on, and, you know, from past experiences – I’m a complete sucker with it comes to interesting looking things, since god knows that I can’t do it.
I just couldn’t believe that these guys would actually finish and release this game on time… I mean, I was expecting a little bit of a letdown in terms of the release date and stuff prior to past experiences regarding somebody in the moderator department in particular *wink, wink*, but, no, these guys did the impossible and released it exactly on the 1st of April… I’m not sure if that decision was a brilliant one or just a timely move on their part, but kudos to them!
Anyways, enough jabbering! Let’s board this custerf*ck of a love train and take the next car to sex station 29!!!
- And I also get to play and pretend that I’m a chick in this game!
(I don’t know whether to be excited or petrified about that.)
The Story
Wait, that chick is actually a dude!?!?!?
Our story begins with a brief introduction of passing events exactly two years ago when a group of six different individuals, heroes you might call them, in different types of classes and different pairs of underwear set forth on an adventure – an grand adventure – where they set out to destroy the very evilest of evil villains itself…”evil”...
However, despite their awe and somewhat miraculous miracle of taking this supreme menace down, they were unfortunate enough to lose one of their beloved party members along the way…April. And just like with Aeris’ death before her - there was no way to bring this girl back from the dead without the use of a gameshark (…or you could probably just rename the protagonist in this game April and just do that, sort of). Either way, it was a pretty hefty loss…
Two years later and now evil has returned from beyond the grave and is looking for a little…”revenge”… (Hey, wait a minute, I already used that joke in the last review! God damn it!!!)
But with now no April to fill in the void, the five remaining heroes don’t want to just go in there and speak with the king while missing a key, critical party member – oh noes! That would cause such a confusion of the sort…and rioting! (Yes, the king and his people would be most likely be rioting. April was like the Steve McQueen of the team, from the sound of it.)
And just like what most RPG protagonists seem to do when they don’t have a clue what to do next – they go to the bar and
And that’s when they run into May, you, the local barmaid!
Apparently May looks and resembles the spitting image of the late April herself! Even the party’s leader and preverbal prowler, Erwin Gates, is rummaging through your purse even as we speak. Apparently, not only him, but the rest of the party has taken quite a shining to you! And, through the thought process of elimination, have found their perfect patsy.
May is a bit hesitant leaving the safe comforts of her home and her job to go along with these wack-jobs at first, but then they promise to help her out and pay her more than she could make with her own salary and tips through this one, seemingly simple adventure. They even promise that she doesn’t have to do anything other than just stand there like an orange pylon while they do most of the fighting! (Aren’t these guys great???)
May decides to tag along, if only for the money, and fill in as April’s replacement for the time being. She even manages to get a kiss from the king!
...Ewwww…
And with that sudden, awkward kiss begins the start of a brand new adventure, filled with laughter, sudden romance - and dragons! (Did I mention Dragons?)
Can May and her newfound bunch of friends find and defeat evil once and for all? Only you can
Now being a visual novel game, the story and the characters are definitely where the game can either rocket to the moon or fall flat on its face. Because unlike other types of game genres - there ain’t no way anything else is gonna save this if that fails.
But, if you can already tell from the overall score above or below, I found the whole story and the whole cast of lovable characters to be absolutely engaging and cleverly well-written. This is simply a narrative that I got around to enjoy and everything just works quite well. It isn’t boggled down too much with details that will bore you to sleep and it has just enough of the right mix of comedy, action and suspense. This game even has, depending on how well or not so well you do, some of the most depressingest endings that you’ll ever see around here. I mean, my god, some of these bad endings can get quite dark at times. But that’s one of this game’s strong points as getting a bad ending only makes you want to go back and get a much better ending! In fact, after you do that, you’ll probably want to check and collect not just all the 11 endings that this game has to offer but unlocking all the custom artwork as well! Its plot and character development is that good. Probably my two favorite characters in this entire game are Gunn and May herself. Gunn may look like a creeper at first, but he’s really just a big, loveable softie at heart. And some of the things that he says really crack me up! And even though May doesn’t talk that much in this game, being mainly a silent protagonist and all, all the shots with her in it and that petrified, puzzled look that she has on her face definitely tells me that she’s only doing this for the money and that’s all. It’s a great, all-around story with no typos and grammar mistakes that I’ve seen while playing, and I guarantee that you’ll definitely enjoy it.
The Gameplay
Teammates that you can always trust.
Being a visual novel and such, the gameplay is pretty limited here, but that’s usually how these types of things usually roll. There are no dungeons to explore, no enemies to hack and slash and beat the crap out of and take their stuff… No sir, it’s just good ol’ fashion reading, reading…and reading out some more!
(Aww…but I really wanted to beat the crap out of somebody…!!!)
Luckily though, this game does provide you with a series of choices through many different conversations that not only effect what type of path that the party is ultimately going to take but it also effects what type of ending that you’re going to get, and maybe who you’ll be bunking in with tonight at the motel if you’re lucky, you sly, sleazy untrusting devil you.
Despite the limited options to some, this game definitely has more to offer than some of the other Renpy games that I’ve played do. There are a total of five different paths that you could take with a different story intact and a good ending and a bad ending to go along with it, and various different scenarios at the hotel depending on your selected choices before that. You’ll definitely have to play this game more than once if you want to see it all, which definitely ups the replay value. There’s even a “Skip Option” in the upper corner of the text box to zoom pass all the text with lightning, quick speeds if you just want to skip a bunch of text or just skip a scene that you’ve already seen before, which is great!
The only thing that I found that was somewhat of a missed opportunity here that could have been further explored upon would have been the additional of some RPG elements to make it feel like it was more of an RPG. You see, when you bring up the Main Menu you can see that each character, including May herself, have stats like HP, MP and even an attraction meter. This game could have been so much more epic if it was like an RPG where you could level-up, buy equipment and items, go to various towns and dungeons on your own whim, and even have some more interactions with your teammates similar to the skit system from the Tales Of games and the Private Action system from the Star Ocean series. The battles wouldn’t have to be super complex, as you could probably do something like select from a series of different choices against an enemy and the battle would just be determined by a series of events, kind of like in Radical Dreamers. Man, something like that would have been epic! But I understand that adding mechanics like that would definitely take a lot more work and time and I’m not sure if such a thing would even be possible in Renpy. I’ve never used the engine before, so I’m not entirely sure about that. Still, it would have been epic. But still, these guys put in a lot of work in regardless of that, so I think I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here.
The Soundtrack
It’s just like a regular ol’ hootenanny!
The soundtrack is surprisingly pretty good here! All the songs used here work very well and they definitely fit the tone and the theme of what this game is trying to go for and represent. The title theme / sad theme used in some of the particular scenes sounds something like a depressing music box that is a fantastic opening track to start the game off of, and I really like how they used it for more than one setting. The bar theme sounds something like from Final Fantasy VII when you’re in the slums in that one particular part with Aeris and Tifa – and I really like that quiet, town music that plays along in some of the routes, like in Gabby’s. My favorite is definitely that one battle theme that plays when Evil is fusing with May, as it sounds like something Yoko Shimomura would have composed. I’m not quite sure where all the music comes from, or whether it’s original or not, but it definitely works for this game and it definitely works quite well.
I know that originally that Rachael and MakioKuta wanted to have some voice acting in this game - which would have been REALLY interesting to hear – but I think it was probably a much safer route going without it, as the whole personally of the characters might come off a lot more different than they actually look and talk. Either way, it will be sadly missed.
Sound effects are pretty much only used for foley effects and are pretty much very minimal. Nothing that’s too distracting, no weird bleep-bleep noises for when the text is scrolling across the screen, like some other visual novels do – everything is just right here. You don’t want to have too much going on while you’re concentrating on reading and looking at the lovely artwork. I just really couldn’t ask for anything better here.
(Although the terribad voice acting COULD have been a lot more interesting.)
The Aesthetics
I-I-I need an adult…?
Graphically speaking, this was definitely the major sticking point that made me get interested in this game originally – and it doesn’t disappoint. Everything just looks so vibrant and everything just pops out on screen! You can definitely tell that a lot of work went into making the visuals, because not only are there a ton of cutscenes sprinkles all throughout the game but there are also a ton of different poses and animations for each character as well. I just love the look, and I really love all the wacky, facial expressions too in each of the shots, especially for May. I mean, just look at the screenshot above with her and Gabby getting a little bit too close there. I mean, the captions just write themselves, sometimes.
The backdrops don’t quite have the same level of detail compared to the character portraits, but it doesn’t seem to be too much of a problem, as it makes the portraits stand out a lot more in my opinion. Still, they probably could have had a bit more of an improvement on them, but it’s all good.
The End Result
D’aw…
April was a Fool is a fantastic, well-written game that I can definitely recommend that you all should get off your butt right now - get off all your Call Of Duties - and play it at least for one, single night. Even if you’re not a fan of visual novel games, you’ll at least find something out of this game that you will enjoy. With its lovely, eye-popping artwork (ouch), interesting but lovable characters, and a ton of different paths and endings to find, this game will more than enough keep you satisfied for at least a little while.
So what are you waiting for – go and play it! You’d be a fool not to.
- Eh? Eh…???
(*sigh* …Whatever. Just go play the f**king game already.)
OVERALL GRADE:
4.5 / 5 - B+ ~ Oustanding. Truly Outstanding.
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MakioKuta
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CloseThank you for the review!
As you said, with VNs it's the writing and the characters that can make or break it above all else. (well, there's some VNs with horrible RNG that make them almost unplayable without save scumming, but that's not applicable here) Because of that, I'll admit I was very nervous putting this game out - It's a heavy concentrated dose of me. Racheal performs fine assists towards plot and characters, but that's largely my department. It's my sense of humour and my love for dramatic cruelty and to hear this be well received by others (especially someone who is well outside what would be considered the target audience for this style game!) makes me sigh heavy with relief and then have a party in my head. Everyone is invited to this party if you can find a way in my head.
I'm especially happy to hear you enjoyed May as a character! I've never written a silent protagonist before, especially not one who is supposed to be a bit of a blank-slate so they are relatable to a wide variety of people. That made May the single most difficult character to write. (but I think "What is wrong with you people?" is a pretty good reaction that anyone could have if they met these people because, seriously guys, what is wrong with all of you?)
The music is not custom, but we frustratingly spent a lot of time trying to find things that we thought fit the mood and style of the game. I'm glad that that paid off! (The music when you face the Dragon is my favourite; it never fails to get me jamming along with it.)
Thank you for praising the art so much! I had a lot of fun bringing the characters of this project to life. Their emotions are all very exaggerated! Thanks for enjoying them :> The backgrounds were a sad product of running out of time. I tried to make sure the sketeches looked convincing enough on the first go since I had a feeling they wouldn't be done in time for release. Eventually I hope to polish them up to the same level as the backgrounds in the CGs
Thank you again for taking the time to both play the game and write up this review!
As you said, with VNs it's the writing and the characters that can make or break it above all else. (well, there's some VNs with horrible RNG that make them almost unplayable without save scumming, but that's not applicable here) Because of that, I'll admit I was very nervous putting this game out - It's a heavy concentrated dose of me. Racheal performs fine assists towards plot and characters, but that's largely my department. It's my sense of humour and my love for dramatic cruelty and to hear this be well received by others (especially someone who is well outside what would be considered the target audience for this style game!) makes me sigh heavy with relief and then have a party in my head. Everyone is invited to this party if you can find a way in my head.
I'm especially happy to hear you enjoyed May as a character! I've never written a silent protagonist before, especially not one who is supposed to be a bit of a blank-slate so they are relatable to a wide variety of people. That made May the single most difficult character to write. (but I think "What is wrong with you people?" is a pretty good reaction that anyone could have if they met these people because, seriously guys, what is wrong with all of you?)
The music is not custom, but we frustratingly spent a lot of time trying to find things that we thought fit the mood and style of the game. I'm glad that that paid off! (The music when you face the Dragon is my favourite; it never fails to get me jamming along with it.)
Thank you for praising the art so much! I had a lot of fun bringing the characters of this project to life. Their emotions are all very exaggerated! Thanks for enjoying them :> The backgrounds were a sad product of running out of time. I tried to make sure the sketeches looked convincing enough on the first go since I had a feeling they wouldn't be done in time for release. Eventually I hope to polish them up to the same level as the backgrounds in the CGs
Thank you again for taking the time to both play the game and write up this review!
agh i acreencapped the same scene with gabby to talk about in my review. addit pls
you're right that gunn and may are the best characters though. damn right.
you're right that gunn and may are the best characters though. damn right.
Racheal
7238
Couple minor of corrections in the story section:
-The Demon Overlord they defeated two years ago and the current Evil they face are not one and the same. We've never really discussed the Overlord in much detail, but you can pretty much picture your typical egomaniac ham-tastic evil emperor. We might get to make a few more passing details about him if we go forward with the expanded version that would include an April flashback scenario :)
-Speaking of April, she was not killed on the journey to defeat the Overlord. It was well over a year later that she met her end to everyone's favorite dragon.
Oh, and I made extra care to ensure you cannot set 'April' as May's name. (Not to say we didn't make that mistake a lot during development.)
Certainly the idea of an RPG spinoff using this set of character has passed my mind. It would be designed as an RPG from the start though, and not little extras added to an existing story. I have a feeling balancing this party would be impossible though. There are some verrrry useless characters and there are some OP gods.
Thanks for the review.
the beauty of a static party (no mid-battle swaps like ffx) is that it doesn't NEED to be balanced. having an exp system would also let you do some gameplay-story integration with blake and may becoming stronger. if blake is a tank, early-game he could focus on his defensive abilites to stay alive for XP!
or have the story be told by erwin or something, so in his mind they're all starting off at L1 on a new quest or whatever and erwin is totally battle-capable outside of just yelling.
or have the story be told by erwin or something, so in his mind they're all starting off at L1 on a new quest or whatever and erwin is totally battle-capable outside of just yelling.
Addit
6394
author=Craze
agh i acreencapped the same scene with gabby to talk about in my review. addit pls.
Ha-ha! For once coming in second has its qualities. :D
author=RachealI'm never living down that mistake, am I?
Nope.
(...Nah, just kidding, I forgive you now.)
author=MakioKuta
makes me sigh heavy with relief and then have a party in my head. Everyone is invited to this party if you can find a way in my head.
author=MakioKuta
I'm especially happy to hear you enjoyed May as a character! I've never written a silent protagonist before, especially not one who is supposed to be a bit of a blank-slate so they are relatable to a wide variety of people. That made May the single most difficult character to write. (but I think "What is wrong with you people?" is a pretty good reaction that anyone could have if they met these people because, seriously guys, what is wrong with all of you?)
Definitely a good call on your part, as all those scenes with her looking as petrified and as confused as anyone else definitely helped define her character even more, especially during all those rather “uncomfortable” moments, like when the king kissed her on the forehead and such (lol, who even does that?). I think I was mostly laughing throughout whenever I saw any of those scenes to the point that I really sympathised with her that she’s just doing this so that she could get paid.
Although I also found it quite funny that she goes on a journey with these idiots for like two full days and ends up falling in love with one of them at the end almost just like that. (You barely even know these people, you idiot!)
author=Racheal
Certainly the idea of an RPG spinoff using this set of character has passed my mind. It would be designed as an RPG from the start though, and not little extras added to an existing story. I have a feeling balancing this party would be impossible though. There are some verrrry useless characters and there are some OP gods.
Hopefully you guys end up maybe making a prequel to the original story that sets up the events for this game, or something similar along the lines like that. I would definitely love to see even more of these characters in even more zanier situations. The game doesn’t have to be uber long or have any real complex systems to it, or anything like that; it’s just need to be a fun, pretty straightforward RPG and I could definitely get down for that.
Balancing wouldn’t be too bad, I guess. Although I guess I could see Kent being pretty OP with the right set of equipment and such, but I guess you could do something like whenever he changes into berserker mode that he loses the ability to use any items or cool down until either the battle is over, he gets KOed, or if he doesn’t get attacked for a little while and then he starts to calm down. Without berserker mode, Kent is rather harmless.
I mean, Gabby and Gunn would be pretty self-explanatory, since they’re both mages. And Erwin’s main purpose is basically his quick agility, the ability to steal from enemies, and he could probably raise the characters stats by shouting and cheering for them on the sidelines (although that could probably go to April, if she’s playable.) Also, Erwin needs to act like Edward from Final Fantasy IV just for hilarity sake and just hide from the battle if the enemy is too strong or his HP's are too low. As he levels up and gets more experience, he becomes a lot more braver and won't hide from the fight.
And yeah, Blake would probably be the tank of the group, high HP and defence, but bad speed and luck stats. Also, his attacks should have a high chance of them not fully working until he gets some more experience trying to use those said attacks.
Either way, I’m pretty sure you guys can think of something.
- And you’re welcome about the review! I really enjoyed this game. I definitely would love to see even more of these characters in action if you end up deciding to do a follow-up to this in the future.
So far this is my #1 pick for the Misaos this year (assuming anything else doesn’t come along and blow me away…)
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