This game was created by Luiishu535 and Zero3D on RMN for the “Swap in the Middle with You” event in which a developers worked on a project for 1 week and then the following week the games were given to another developer (randomly) and that developer had a week to finish the game. For the record, I played through this game 4 times with an overall play time of about 45 minutes in which I unlocked both endings multiple ways.

-INITIAL THOUGHTS-

I have to say that I think the game came out well for only been made in a two week time period with the game switching developers halfway through. Not to say that this game gold, but considering the constraints I would say this game came out a success. Not only does it follow a nice simple storyline with multiple endings but also the inclusion of permanent death helps the player to really care about each characters survival, even if the game itself is very short. Unfortunately, having a complete game is the same as having a great game. While this game is complete there are many faults that could be fixed such as the mapping and fixing holes in the story. Regardless, I still think that the game came out well considering everything and I want to congratulate the developers for making a complete game.

-PRESENTATION-




This game uses all RTP, which is to be expected with the time limit, so I won’t comment much on the graphical quality of the game. I will say though that while I liked the included blood splatters (which I’m assuming was made through “parallax” mapping) it kind of ruins the disbelief when the player starts to walk under the blood, or bodies for that matter. This graphical error, along with being able to walk through certain buildings are the matters of mapping of which I felt could have been fixed. The actual maps themselves were actually done fairly well for the time limit and only the interactions on them is what bothered me. Another thing I felt could have been added would have been music. The game uses RTP anyway and including a few songs would have helped the atmosphere of the game. The only music the player ever hears is the battle music, which automatically plays when a player enters a battle. So overall presentation is low for me but for game jams and stuff I usually go for functionality myself, rather than trying to make something look pretty.

-ENGAGEMENT/GAMEPLAY-




The game’s overall length is pretty short so engagement doesn’t really need to be that high to complete this game. I say if you have an interest in playing this at all then I believe you will most likely finish it. As for gameplay, this game functions as an RPG/ Visual Novel hybrid. While you control a party of people with different talents and abilities, all of you fights are going to take less than a minute to beat and all your major decisions come from the story in which you must pick 1 of 2 options which ultimately help in deciding what ending you will get. Other than that, this game functions pretty much like any other RPG maker game you can find.

-OVERALL-

I say check it out for yourself. It’s a fully complete game with 2 endings that the player can get depending on the choices they make. I say definitely give it a shot if you like short RPG games, or even Visual Novel games. If you like those types of games then I think you’ll enjoy playing Quest for the Peace Sword.