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BugoCity (IGMC version)

  • Liberty
  • 02/22/2016 01:26 PM
  • 1622 views
MonstroCity was one of the entries for the IGMC (Indie Game Making Contest) for 2015. As one of the judges of the competition it is my pleasure to share my thoughts on the game. This review will basically just be the notes I took cleaned up. It will be based on the competition version of the game, so certain aspects of the game may have been changed, and thus I won't be giving an official star score (though I will be including an unofficial score).

Presentation
Graphically the game was a mixed bag. There were cute monsters in the battles and on the maps, but the maps themselves were a bit large and bare when it came to the town. The forest (the only area I could visit) was decent, set up like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon areas. It was a bit bare and bland - almost like it was a randomly generated map using the Ace generator.

Sounds and music was okay, though nothing really stood out at all.

The story was a bit on the basic side - you go visit your great uncle's farm and help the town by taming animals for them to use (and you to collect items to expand). Writing was pretty decent, too.

Gameplay
Gameplay had a bunch of glitches, which is a pity as I was enjoying the start of the game. You're supposed to catch monsters, collect items and build up the town.

Battles are interesting and use critical hits as the main force - giving you buffs when you get a crit and making you almost instantly kill monsters with them. It's an interesting mechanic that would have been great if it weren't quite so random and if they couldn't also one-hit you (thus killing you and removing all your hard-earned items... which became an issue later on).

Unfortunately, my first run-in with the build system left me stuck in the build mode until I could actually build something, which meant going through the forest, phasing through everything. Thankfully that didn't end the game in any way.

Another issue was that a lot of the time the items in the forest never respawned, meaning you couldn't go in over and over and collect stuff like you were supposed to because there was nothing to collect. Add to that that the progression was bugged - when I triggered the scene with the boss monster being peaceful it didn't trigger the next part of the story, meaning that the only quest Gruncle would give was to calm the beast... that was already calmed.

Another issue was the lack of a shop. It was there, sure, but it didn't let you buy anything despite the game telling you that you should.


Engagement
It was rather fun before the bugs conspired to make it almost impossible to get to the end of the dungeon due to the lack of spawning items - the only way to get said items. After that it became frustrating, especially when you add in the one-hit-kill factor when an enemy got lucky.


Overall, the bugs in this game caused what could have been a rather promising entry to dim quite a bit. The battles have an interesting mechanic, but it's too easy to be OHKO'd and thus lose all your items - which wouldn't be an issue except items don't respawn in the forest, meaning you can't get through due to lack of healing items and the like (which should have been buyable... except the shop has nothing to buy). It's a pity.

I gave this a rather low score in the IGMC, and due to the sheer buggyness of this version I'm reviewing, I'm leaving it at an N/A score unofficially as well as officially. I think the game could be great if the creator poured more time into it, though, and look forward to a better version being produced in the future. Good luck!

Posts

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Thanks Liberty!

You're right, it is filled with a whole bunch of bugs I just couldn't figure out how to tackle by the deadline with my current level of Ruby knowledge.

As much as I would like to continue this idea further, revamp the whole system, I'm resolving to learn Ruby first, or maybe JavaScript to recreate it in RPGMaker MV.

It was an extremely ambitious project, and I just couldn't translate how I wanted it in my head into the engine with what I know, and I didn't really know any programmers at the time either ^^;;

Thanks for the review!
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