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A solid demo, a solid ABS

I had the opportunity to play through Rasta's fun little demo Extraneous, and while I am not sure on what direction Rasta is taking the story, or if this is just a showcase of the ABS, I had a great time playing it.

Since this is a demo, I will be brief, and highlight the good points and the points where I see improvement needing to be made. Lastly, I will explain why I am rating this game at 4.0, even though it is a demo and not a full game.

The ABS, which I am lead to believe is coded from the ground up, both from reading Rasta's snippits and communicating with the Designer directly, is simply marvelous. I have played two demos with two separate ABSes and this one outshines them both. The AI for the partner character, especially after applying the 'Smart ' skill, is very useful as a partner, and the realism of getting hit by the partner's attack, or your attack harming the partner, requires a certain strategy that makes just hacking and slashing impossible.

Speaking of hacking and slashing, by making the main character a mage, it is impossible to just run into the battle and swing your weapon wildly. The main character shoots fireballs, and that costs MP (or Mana in this game). This means there is a finite number of attacks that the main character can execute before needing to recharge, and this does not count healing spells. The combination of directing the partner and conserving the main character's MP makes for a game where strategy is the key.

Graphically speaking, the game is very nicely done. I am not familiar enough with VX's graphical abilities, but from what I can see, it's very nicely done. The one map you fight on, the town, is nicely made, and displays the Designer's ability to make maps of a small size efficiently. The effects of the ABS, such as the 'Wait' and 'Follow' are timed well and do not get in the way.

The audio is just fine and gets the player in the mood. I never had a problem with people using the RTP music, so if that is what this game uses, then so be it. It's not a negative in my opinion. The battle music, an ogg file of a very good German song, fits the mood perfectly.

The ABS is explained in detail in a very witty and tongue-in-cheek tutorial. I was impressed.

Now for the parts that I feel need improvement. However, I preface this by saying that since I do not know if this was made simply as a demo or if this is the starting scenes of the actual game.

The dialogue needs work. Simply put, everyone but the main character and partner talk in netspeak or lolspeak, and even though I am a fan of webcomics and the video Pure Pwnage, real people do not speak in netspeak. Ever. And if they do, someone else needs to throttle them. I guess being a fan of more realistic dialogue, that made me cringe. But honestly, that was the only thing.

The introduction was short and I felt thrown into the demo, but again that may very well be the intention, since this was a demo. While a 45 minute introduction is not needed, some background would have been nice.

Lastly, I was totally confused by the presentation of the level. Unless this is a world so heavily jaded that slaughtering kids during Halloween is kosher, someone would have called the Police. But, like I said, this being a demo, there can be a total lack of continuity, and all is forgiven.

So, overall, this demo scores a 4.0. Why? Because the elements that could bring the score down are not relevant to just a demo showcasing an ABS. Why not a 5.0? Because you can tell by the occasional screw up of the partner, or the random herky-jerky of the enemies, at times, making the main character miss with a fireball even when it's perfectly lined up, that this ABS still needs some fine-tuning.

However, in the final analysis, it's obvious that Rasta has a good solid plan, and I cant wait to see what she does iwth it!

Posts

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Oh shnapszz! Your right! I actually never really thought about that...
Hmmm, That'd be pretty interesting now that you mention it.
Yes! I'm going to make the police get involved, the other parts of the story I had planned can come after this, but yes involving the police in this will make the game a lot more interesting. :) There will be mayhem!
First off, I could tell that they were either aliens or something otherworldly. As for the part the needs explaining, let's see. These aliens come down to earth, during Halloween, and start to murder Trick-or-Treaters by the dozens. If that was just for your demo, then that is fine. If that was for your real game, then the parents would be coming out, freaking out, the Police would get called, and it would be general havoc and mayhem.

(Hopefully, this will translate well into your native language. I will admit that while my English is very good, my ability to simplify things is not.)
-Netspeak: Will be removed

-Short introduction / No backround information:
My intention was to make the player confused about where these two characters came from, or even... what they are.
I didn't want to give away my secret, but I guess I will:
It's not clear in the demo, but Ortho and Gonal are aliens and I wanted the player to find this out, not by me explaining it, but by small clues.
So you say some backround would be nice, but I don't know how to give backround without revealing this :I (And this is just a demo, there will be more clues along the way, as will more information be revealed.)

-"Lastly, I was totally confused by the presentation of the level. Unless this is a world so heavily jaded that slaughtering kids during Halloween is kosher, someone would have called the Police."
I'm still learning the English (It's not my first language), so could you explain to me what you mean by this in more... basic terms, hehe.
(Lots of people don't know that I use google translate to communicate with English speakers.)
Haha! Again, Mayor, I'm a guy *ExDee*
I'll read this in detail and comment on the parts you think needed improvement, when I get home from work and I
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