Elegy's Eve

Hello,
today let's review Elegy's Eve a one month project for the 2008 Gaming World Halloween game creation contest. Wait... I know it's not Halloween and this is a Halloween game! But yeah, I wanted to take a break from the recent sci-fi and fantasy adventures to play a sort of horror game that isn't really horror, but just dark... ghosts, zombies, witches and other typical Halloween creatures will all be present, but the real protagonist is a living scarecrow!
Cool, this is an original start, isn't it?

But wait, there is more! Before talking about the scarecrow (Hollows) we will learn about Mia, a young girl that likes writing stories, but her parents don't approve her passion for fantasy tales and stories. Anyway they are going to Uncle Bismar's estate to spend Halloween.
And then there's Kayekitty, a pirate cat working for the Lord Dark Shadow, that will have to perform some task and he's the first playable character, but the stories of these different individuals will interwine during the night of Halloween.


In Elegy's Eve mapping is good, the cutscenes and some locations are really amazing!

Elegy's Eve is a short (about 2 hours) action game composed of several levels where we play as different characters that have to perform various tasks: for example in one part we play as the scarecrow defending his field while trying to recover his head, in another we are the fearsome Kayekitty that has to deliver invites.
The system is simple: reach your goal and/or collect the needed items avoiding the phantoms and ghosts that will try to touch you. Characters have three pumpkins that rapresent life points (and can be recovered collecting some small pumpkins found around the levels), if you are killed you can spend one of the nine life and try to finish the level (note that you can start over a level anytime before you are killed, avoiding wasting lives).
Do you think this is a simple game? Well you are wrong! This game will test your reflex and reasoning capability since many times you are not informed about what you must do to win: an example is the delivery part where you are attacked from a zombie, and the destination is blocked by two blue forcefields. To open them you have to catch two blue sprites that are identical to the evil grey sprites (that are instead harmful), the problem is that no one tells you that!

Anyway despite this the game is challenging but fair, you can also save anytime and anywhere, and this is a useful feature. There are also some bugs but nothing much, I had my character disappear during the first scarecrow level after failing one time, but reloading fixed the problem. So yeah, save and use various saving spots, that's whi these are here!


I love the ferasome Kayekitty, and he's just one of the playable characters during this adventure!

Gameplay is pretty good in my opinion, not bad at all due to the variety of situations that the protagonists have to face, like for example the part with the ghost sentry, where you have to move only when she close her eyes or you will pulled away by her powerful stare! Or a part in which you have to swirch among three characters to complete e puzzle, and yes this is not a boring game but there are many different situations and obstacles that the protagonist (and the player) has to face.

But if the gameplay part is good, the graphics are even better! Mapping is pretty well done, and cutscenes are excellent. Some locations are perfect and despite the use of sprites and resources from different styles the edits and the colors makes them merge effectively. The only thing I did not like very much was the dark frame that makes sometimes hard to read the dark red names, and also restrict the visual of the level, otherwise it's all well done, organized and detailed.
Music and sounds are likewise very appropriate for this setting and adventure.


Kayekitty is a master of manipulation!

Verdict
Elegy's Eve is a short but challenging game, not recommended to those who hate reading and difficult games (I passed most levels with a C or D, but I don't care since I had fun! And I won!). There are also some small bugs here and there, but nothing game breaking. Visually the game is great, there may be no facesets, but charsets, maps and enviroment are really excellent. It's a very atmospheric game with nice maps, and I guess anyone can confirm that just looking at the pics or witnessing the first 15 minutes of the game, the intro!

Ok, now the hard part: due to some little bugs, hard gameplay and some unclear instructions I cannot give a 4/5, but on the other hand i would not give 3/5 due to the varied gamplay and excellent music and graphic style. I also take in account that this was made for a contest, and rm2k3 is not the best engine for puzzle and action games in real time, anyway the final result is pretty good. This gets a 3.5/5!
And if you kile challenging games this is the game for you!