• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS

I Ain’t Afraid Of No Ghost

  • Addit
  • 05/23/2015 09:59 AM
  • 978 views


A Game Made By: goldenroy
Created Using: RPG Maker 2003
It's A: ADVENTURE Game
That Roughly Takes Around: 30 Minutes To Complete
And It's A... COMPLETED GAME!!!
(...Sort of)


It’s hard to believe that the day has finally come at last for us 2k3 users and 2k3 enthusiasts at heart. In fact – I still can’t believe that it’s finally happened, even right now, and it’s almost been like two whole months now since the original announcement was made.

With RPG Maker 2003 FINALLY getting an English release after we’ve been kicking and screaming about it for the last 13 god damn years, everybody who has vastly cherished and used this program throughout the time can finally have a new reason to celebrate and smile again, thanks in large part to Cherry and Archeia_Nessiah for finally making it happen. And to celebrate this wonderus occasion, RMN decided to recently host an event called “A Golden Week Of RPG Maker 2003” where the contestants had around a week…ish, or so, to design and create a short game using the basic RTP resources that came along with RPG Maker 2003 to showcase their amazing skills and hidden talents using the default resources that were available to them. The catch was that they couldn’t use any custom resources or altering the RTP in any way shape or form. Either way, it was a fun event and there was a lot of turnout for this. Even I almost joined in - me! But…my original idea revolved around altering the RTP in some way, so I couldn’t officially join in... Oh well. But I can always review a game instead! And review a game I shall.

So I decided to review this game today for the event, simply entitled “Ghost Visit,” created by goldenroy...who, by the looks of it on here, is his very first game submitted to the site… Cool!

So what exactly attracted me to this one? Was it the brilliantly designed, colorful gamepage that first caught my eye? Was it the amazingly, well detailed characters and their tragic backstories told that made want to learn more about them? Or was it the mapping???

Ah, well…I actually just threw a dart at a dartboard and ended up going with this one. Yeaaah…

So enough chit-chat! It’s time to dive in to my very first – official – RPG Maker 2003 game, and my very, very first RTP only game that I have ever played and reviewed on this site thus far. And it only took to review 42 to finally make it happen, lol.

The Story


Aw…great. He’s a spineless coward, too.


It’s a dark and rather stormy night, as four, mysterious heroes are just about to set off after putting out their campfire to continue their adventure northwards to an unknown destination, where the scene ultimately then cuts to black. Everything is shown rather quick and simple at this point, and it looks like we’re about to embark on an epic journey full of many twists and turns…

…Just kidding! You end up not playing as those four badass heroes that you just saw earlier in the introduction but instead take control of an ordinary, clumsy, yet shy, awkward teenager simply named as “Arthur”.

(You can already just feel the disappointment in the air.)

Arthur apparently works alongside his dad as a carpenter, helping him design various furniture pieces, and what not. After a visit from one of his neighbours in town to pickup something for delivery, Arthur then straps on his delivery shoes and then goes over to deliver a massive wooden table. And not only does he deliver this said table by using his thick skull as a balancing board, but he also manages to bring it in like a boss. (Seriously, that scene with him delivering that table was just pure awesome and worth the price of download alone.)

After a day’s hard work, Arthur returns home to his room, where he apparently finds an unwelcoming visitor in the form of a mysterious, purple haired entity simply known as Zack. He then warns Arthur that he will be visited throughout the night by three spir…er, I mean…he then warns Arthur about the certain destruction from the evil demon lord who is looking to reign havoc upon this world and he needs his help.

Of course, Arthur questions why him, Zack does a thing, and then they eventually team up together to go save the world from total destruction.

- Sounds like a good, ol’ typical day in the neighbourhood for me!

And everything is presented in such a light hearted manner that you immediately think that this is going to be some fun romp throughout the countryside, fighting monsters, overcoming fears and various trails as Zack slowly toughens up our hero up from chumpette to just plain ol’ chump.

Well…when you get to the end of the game (if you can even call it that) the game then throws you quite a shocking plot revelation that spins everything upside down and really gets you engaged. Like, you really want to see more of this game now after seeing such a plot revelation like that.

And then it ends… Thanks, game…

I mean, yeah, I understand that goldenroy just simply ran out of time and just couldn’t really do a lot extra in the short timeframe that he was given - but everything was just going so well! I loved almost everything about this game up until I saw that abrupt ending. Even the NPC’s had their shining moments in the sun.

The Gameplay


How…is he doing this, exactly?


This game really doesn’t have a whole lot in terms of any actual gameplay to speak of – but it does have some rather neat, interesting mechanics up its sleeve that I found was pretty cool. For starters, once Zack, the ghost man, decides to join you, you can press the SHIFT key to switch between the two heroes, and if you’re playing as Zack you’ll be able to read various people’s thoughts and in some cases even possess them to do things. That’s a really cool idea! I just wish that this game had more time to have this mechanic fleshed out more so you can do even more zanier things with it. Imagine this ability being used for some puzzle solving in a dungeon. I can already see some great potential with this.

This game also has multiple choices answers for some of the dialogue sequences in the game that are a very nice touch. Most of them don’t really change a whole lot depending on what you answer, but it’s still nice to have the option provided and see various different scenes play out.

There’s also a questlog for keeping track of what each character needs to do and it gets updated whenever a new notice, like trying to find something or having to talk to someone in town appears and it’s almost like having a bit of a help guide in case you get stuck…which you really shouldn’t in this game - but it’s still really handy. There’s even a sort of side mission where you have help someone out before you can make any progress.

But that’s pretty much it in terms of the actual gameplay. There really isn’t a lot to do here, as it feels more like playing a tech demo than an actual game. It just makes you wonder what could have been if goldenroy had some more time…

The Soundtrack


:D


Since everybody who was involved in the contest had to use the default resources that came with RPG Maker 2003, that also included using the music and the sound effects for it as well. So you’re not going to hear any luscious, beautiful sounding MP3’s or any custom sound effects for this game, unfortunately, but what was used here I thought fit the bill very, very well. Nothing felt out of place and even the sound effects were used quite well. I really have no complaints. It’s actually kind of neat to hear some of the RTP music again, as I haven’t listened to any of it for years. (It’s actually better than I thought.)

The Aesthetics


The perfect crime.


Now this is definitely one of this game’s strongest suites: the mapping. Holy hell, the mapping in this game is just absolutely amazing! I didn’t even know that RTP maps could look this good. Everything looks so detailed and incredibly well designed that it makes me want to try out even more RTP games like this one. Not too bad for just using only just the default resources. Hell, even the title page looks pretty good.

The End Result


Well, that’s usually always the case!


Ghost Visit was actually a pretty interesting game that left me wanting a lot more towards the end. Everything about it thus far makes me believe that if goldenroy had a bit more time to put into making this that this could have been a really, really good game, probably a great shining example of what you could do with just the RTP. The foundations are there if he ever decides to pick this up again and expand upon it some more. I would really like to see that. But where it stands right now is just more or less an experience or rather a tech demo of something that could have been. It’s definitely something if you’re curious enough that you should go check it out, but it’s definitely going disappoint you towards the end.

But this game has opened my eyes to the possibility of playing and experiencing more games that use just the RTP. I never actually really had a personal problem with games that used mainly the RTP resources, as I guess I just didn’t find them that exciting to go check out compared to games that use more original stuff. Well, now I want to.

- Thanks, Ghost Visit! :D



OVERALL GRADE:
3 / 5 - C ~ Just Makes The Cut.

Posts

Pages: 1
goldenroy
514
05/25/2015 01:09 PM
Wow, thanks a lot for the review. It was a really nice read. :D
I'm really not used to developing in a short timeframe and I wasted a lot of time on small details. I guess that explains the lack of real content and the rushed ending, but oh well, I'm glad you liked it anyway!
Pages: 1