Invitation to a dream

Introduction

Invitation to a Dream is an entry in the 2015 Indie Game Maker Contest and was created by Sundaysky using RPG Maker VX Ace. As far as games go this title is rather mixed in my opinion. The game has some aspects that I like, but includes a laundry list of issues that range from minor annoyances to examples of sloppy game design. As such it's hard for me to truly recommend this title to anyone else.

Story

On the story side of things Invitation to a Dream is an adaption of an old romantic ballad from the Scottish Borders. Though, I'll be upfront in admitting that I'm not familiar with this ballad in the slightest. An issue that is only compounded by the fact that there are multiple variants to this ballad and the differences between the various versions can be considerable from what I've read online. As such I can't comment on how accurate a retelling this game is.

I will however argue that the story feels poorly told. For one thing I don't understand Eve's motivation for rescuing Tam Lin. While she cites later on in the game that it's the right thing to do. The game never establishes why she believes his claims about being a Fae or in need of rescuing. It also doesn't help that their first meeting basically boils down to an argument while their second meeting comes about because of Tam Lin breaking into her house in order to ask for help. It just strikes me as strange that Eve would risk her life for a man she knows next to nothing about.

Gameplay

I will give this game some credit in that it tries to keep things fresh by providing the player with various challenges to tackle, but none of them feel well executed in my opinion. Though, I suppose I should tackle them in the order they appear.



The first aspect of this game that you'll run into that attempts to challenge the player is a rock pushing puzzle. Though, I'm not exactly sure why the developer included these in the game. Mostly because both of the puzzles presented to the player are so easy that they feel like the equivalent of a gaming pop quiz.



The next gameplay element you'll encounter is the combat system which has one major positive going for it in that it isn't the standard turn-based combat system found in so many freely available RPG Maker games. On the downside the combat system in Invitation to a Dream favors turtling and tends to punish the player if they use aggressive tactics. This in turn makes the battles feel a lot longer then they are.



And finally the game includes several riddles that you'll need to solve in order to advance which just feels like a bad idea all around in my opinion because of how the game went about implementing this idea. Instead of presenting the player with a few text options to choose from the game instead requires the player to manually enter the answer to the riddles. This was a bad idea since it can really screw up the developer's suggested time to beat this game if the player is to stubborn to simply look up the answers to the various riddles found throughout this game. Another issue with this system is that even if you enter the correct answer the game will still punish you if the first letter of the answer isn't capitalized. In fact, I actually received an instant game over because of that issue.

Graphics



On the graphical side of things the game is also a rather mixed bag of ups and downs. On the plus side the game does utilize some decent drawings for a few brief cut scenes near the beginning and ending of the game.


Why is the Rose as big as the main character? And where does she hide it after she picks it?

On the downside the bulk of the game looks a lot more like the image above with tiny characters in environments that appear to be much bigger then them if your utilizing the various objects appearing on screen to gauge size. This can be rather off-putting and make the presentation of the game feel rather sloppy. And, the vast swathes of black squares that appear on several of the maps are also off putting since it makes the areas feel bigger then they are and makes them feel rather empty as well.

Sound

Strangely enough this might be the one area that the game excels at. Or at the very least this is the only area of the game that I don't have anything to complain about.

Conclusion

Invitation to a Dream has to many problem spots for me to really recommend it. And as stated previously these issues can vary from a rather weak overall graphical presentation due to the awkward aesthetics present in the mapping or the lackluster combat which favors highly defensive tactics over the usual advice of being on the offensive and only presents the player with a single attack option in the form of a horizontal slice. Though what really kills this game is how you go about solving the riddles. Most of the riddles in this game I've never heard of before which meant that I had no idea what the answer was which made the system that was utilized in answering them feel so sloppy. I'd imagine someone more familiar with them would disagree, but the only viable solution I had for solving the riddles was to literally break away from the game and go searching for the answer online which completely defeats the point of including them in the game.