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Surprisingly Solid

  • Frogge
  • 06/05/2017 10:06 AM
  • 1374 views

Joseph's Farm by clovejar
Length: ~1 hour



Off to a great start...


Going into Joseph's Farm, I did not expect much. It looked like a generic, poorly made rpg horror to a certain degree. Sure, the colorful screenshot did intrigue me, but otherwise I figured it wouldn't be very good. Luckily, I was wronged, and it actually turned out to be pretty great!
The graphics in Joseph's Farm are mostly RTP, but the developer uses the RTP quite well and each location feels distinct and unique, like Ib, which the developer admits is the main inspiration for the game. I wasn't expecting good art mainly because of the ms paint-y looking title screen, but the two CGs in the game were actually quite nicely drawn, and so were the faces of the characters! Despite the maps being quite empty and using some tiles incorrectly, I didn't really mind. In fact, I thought poor mapping actually sort of fit the game quite well.


That's ironic considering how empty the maps are.


The story isn't particularly ground breaking, but I enjoyed it none the less. The plot twist was predictable to me, though that was mainly because I never trust ANYONE in rpg horror games, especially in ib inspired ones. Thanks Mary, for ruining all my trust.
Ahem, the story was nice, but what I enjoyed the most were the puzzles (and the gameplay in general). The game had a lot of interesting ideas in it, like using the paintings to cross spikes or ruining a room and then having to clean it up. Oh, uhh, speaking of said room, listen to the developer's advice and save in multiple files in that room (and at the end after the ''plot twist'', if you want to get both endings) because if you don't you may actually get stuck in a gameover situation (if you smash the pie). Maybe saving becomes disabled afterwards, but I didn't try.
While the puzzles were cool, I thought that sometimes the game could get a little confusing, and the walkthrough provided is absolutely no help. For example, near the end it says ''after you've solved the binary puzzle...'' and it actually doesn't tell you the answer. I mean, dude, I know I have to solve the puzzle, I just don't know how, and I wouldn't be looking at your useless walkthrough if I did. The walkthrough isn't a part of the game though, so no points lost because of that. Something IN the game that was really annoying, however, was the shift button. You need to use shift both for running but it also skips dialogue. I don't think skipping dialogue should be removed from the game since it's quite handy, especially near the end since if you get a gameover you have to repeat a long cutscene, but I think it should be assigned to a different button.
I recommend giving this game a try if you enjoy games like The Witch's House or Ib where the location focuses more on being surreal than realistic.


Fuch you


I give this game four MS Paint trees out of five.

Posts

Pages: 1
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
Cool review Mr Frucche!
Frogge
I wanna marry ALL the boys!! And Donna is a meanc
18536
author=CashmereCat
Cool review Mr Frucche!


Thank you! I am quite pleased with how it turned out, just like how I was pleased with the game ^^
Pages: 1