First Thoughts
Wow! Just... Wow! Karma Flow is very very different than most RPG Maker 2003 games I've played recently. If Assassin's Creed was an 8-bit RPG, set in the future, with an added element of "instant karma" (where if you kill someone directly, you die!) then you would have the game Karma Flow - The Prototype.

I had seen Karma Flow on the front page of RMN many times, and I even had it in my play list for "Games that I MUST play!", but somehow never got around to it until this review drive event. I was not disappointed! That being said, here's the review:

Karma Flow - The Prototype


The Story:
In the country of Hardnam, crime is the only way to make a living. Meat Hunters (Assassins) are in high demand, at least they used to be. The only problem is that now, an unexplained phenomenon is dealing out retribution the moment a crime is committed. Shoot someone, get shot. Stab someone, you will die via stabbing. This "Karma" happens instantly, as long as it can identify who the perpetrator is.

This presents a loophole that many others, including protagonist Florien Kealborn (aka Flo), plan to exploit in order to continue earning a living. It appears that the Karma can be tricked. As long as a person is murdered INDIRECTLY, via explosion, gun ricochet, car accident, etc, then no action is taken.

Flo is a well known Meat Hunter from the Kealborn family. If you are on her hit list, you are "Dead Meat" and it is only a matter of time before she gets to you. With Karma in play, her job is much harder, but not impossible. Some of her targets are well worth the risk.

Unfortunately for Flo and her crew, the appearance of the "Karma Patrol" is putting a damper on their business. These mask-wearing maniacs are somehow able to kill out in the open, directly, and without consequence. How is this possible? That's what Flo intends to find out.



The story is dark, mysterious, fatalistic, and at times humorous. Unfolding one revelation at a time over the course of five episodes, you'll experience the motivations behind Florien, Chris, Marty, Old Major, and even begin to understand what drives the antagonists as well. You actually might even feel a little sorry for those killed.

Game Play:
Karma Flow has "Missions" in between long interactive cutscenes. Upon your first playthrough, you are not able to skip these scenes, but they are essential to understanding the story. Upon repeating these missions, you are able to skip many of these scenes.

Your mission in each episode is to assassinate a specific target. How you do that is up to you. The map is large and you can take many possible routes to get to where you need to go. Your targets, however, aren't going to just sit and wait for you to come kill them. They move from place to place on the map at certain times of the day. You will have to study them, buy information, consult your map, and most importantly, kill your target without alerting Karma.



As Flo, you move about with the arrow keys, attack with the Z key, and use an item with the X key. You can also interact with doors, jump spots, and talk to people with the Z key.

In Episode 1, Flo begins the game with just a Knife and a set of binoculars. Since this episode is set in the past, Karma is not in play, so you can dispatch any of those Torments (purple hooded ghost looking things) without retribution. If they see you, an alert is sounded and enemies will come running towards you from all directions. You can run and hide until the alert is over if you want.

Starting with Episode 2, you also get a pistol (7 rounds), a sniper rifle (4 shots), and land mines, so you have lots of ways to kill henchmen and eventually your target altogether.

At the end of each episode, you are graded based on how stealthy you were, and if you killed your target indirectly or not.



If you complete all subquests, not get spotted once, and not lose karma points, you can obtain an S rank. (I was on Hard difficulty).

There are also challenging boss battles in this game that work differently than the actual missions. They not too tough to figure out, but you will die many times before you do! That being said... it is very satisfying defeating the bosses!

Graphics and Music:
Karma Flow graphics are impressive! Everything from the tilesets to the hand drawn pictures to the sprite animations screams "professional level" to me. There's nothing RTP in this game that I could see.

What I appreciated most, was the painstaking attention to the little details. The hotel is meant to look sleazy with neon signs in the front. Marty's Machine Gun Kingdom commercials have the girls in the background wagging their fingers saying "no no no!". Flo's actions when lighting cigarettes, using her knife, and pulling back her hoodie to show her face, are all brilliantly animated. Heck, she even has a death animation when you mess up (get used to seeing it!).



The character pictures often change facial expressions, and even show blood when they are hurt.

These graphics combined with the story and a jazzy soundtrack, all tie together to make one amazingly crafted game. It's not without flaws...(some glitches, overly long dialogue) but most of them can be overlooked as you get swept away once the action starts.

Overall:
Anyone who has made games in RPG MAKER 2003 knows that it's not always the easiest tool to work with. What OldPat did here with Karma Flow is an incredible display of what this engine is capable of with practice, experimentation, and determination.

Two things to take note of. Unlike other games on RMN, Karma Flow has some kind of integration with GameJolt.com, which allows you to get Trophies like Xbox or PS2/3/4. This makes the game setup take a few extra steps (creating an account, getting your secret token), but overall it wasn't difficult to do.

This game also AutoSaves.. which I'd never seen before from an RPG Maker 2003 game before. It has my head scratching..."How did they do that?"

Other Thoughts: