~Ebon Space~
A Review by Linkforce

I stumbled upon Ebon scape when I was looking through my computers' memory to put some stuff on a flash drive. I remember downloading it a while ago, but obviously had never gotten to playing it. So I thought, what the heck, let me give this game a try. There had to be a reason why I downloaded it in the first place, right? So I booted up the game and began to play. From then on, it became a teeter-totter of feelings. At some points, I felt that the game was great and wanted to continue playing, but at other times, I felt like I was struggling to move forward and was only playing the game just to finish it. I suppose I'll let the review tell how I feel.

STORY: 6.5/10
At first, I felt like the story had a lot of promise, what with Kain trying to escape the Iron Fist and just wanting to live a normal life...I think. A lot of the story is shrouded in mystery and it seems, to me at least, that the characters drive the story forward more so then the world itself. This isn't a bad thing, in fact it's actually a good thing, if done right. One of the problems here is that the story takes too long to just come out and say "hey, this is the plot!" The only reason this is a problem in THIS particular situation is because you allude to a grand plot in almost every cutscene. It's kind of like a really long joke, and you're just waiting for the punchline. (I'm not saying your story is a joke!) I think what you could have done here was either reveal what the main plot is a little earlier on, or maybe change your tactics in telling it. Since your story seems to be character driven, maybe you could take out the main plot completely until we know who these people are. Then once we know the history behind our heroes, the main plot can shine through. It's just a suggestion, but I think you could really increase the value of your storytelling by trying something different.

CHARACTERS: 6/10
One of the problems I faced with your characters was a lack of...shall I say, character? This problem came through your use of dialogue, which at times seemed to be rushed. Often conversations between characters were just quick back and forth statements just to move the game forward. I think what you should do instead is really develop your characters' speech. This will really give them a rich personality as opposed to a line here or there that separates them from everyone else. Dialogue aside, I do find interest in most of your cast, mainly through their actions, background and attitudes, which I discovered through the parts of dialogue that were done better. I think Kain has a lot of potential to become a really likable guy, but you have to make his dialogue better if you want to have any hope of portraying who he really is. You have a good base set up, now you just need to develop, really.

GAMEPLAY: 7.5/10
This section was one of your stronger points. This would have been an 8/10 had the beginning part of the game not been so hard! I got frustrated rather early but opted on grinding rather than quitting. The early bosses were quite tough, and they had a lot of monsters in them. With a little luck and grinding I was able to push onward though. Aside from that, most of the battles were challenging yet fun. I liked that there were multiple battle themes, I thought that was a nice touch. I found myself humming to each new song, it worked really well. I also liked the two-weapon system you had. It was cool being able to choose between ranged and close range weapons. Dusty kicked ass! But it sucked how he only had a long range weapon. (Unless I missed a close range weapon for him). Oh, and please, please, please increase your move speed! It's sooooo frustrating having to walk everywhere. If you're content on the speed, you could add a sprint button so players can choose whether to walk or run.

GRAPHICS: 7/10
While most of your maps were done very well, there was a lack of "life" in most of them. Apart from your exterior towns and bars, most of the inside maps were really bland. Bustling cities had barely any people in them, and houses were mainly empty. There wasn't much going on, but I think you can easily remedy this by just adding a few more NPC's here and there. Also, might I suggest giving them valuable things to say, aside from, "Hey, what's up?" This is obviously just an example. One MAJOR problem I found in this department was your choice of textbox background. Made it near impossible to read text! I highly suggest finding a new one. The one you have now has designs in it that hurt my eyes and really make it difficult to read. Also, I don't know how or why you made the title screen show up so slow, but it's a real pain. Unless it's for a specific reason, I don't think it's necessary. Might I also suggest you do a full sweep of spell check in your game. I found an exorbitant amount of spelling errors, too many to point out specifically. One that I CAN point out though is the Electric Grenade, which you spelled "Granaide". One positive thing I want to point out however, was your great use of backdrops. The train scene sticks out as does the clocktower. Those really stood out among the other maps.

MUSIC: 8/10
Your music selection here was chosen pretty well. I don't think there were any Final Fantasy songs here or any others that were immediately recognizable. That's pretty admirable given the fact that those songs are used in almost every game. As I said above, I liked the songs for the battles and the fact that each one was good gives this section a good rating.

FINAL WORD:
What I'm beginning to realize here is that this is not a bad game. Not a bad game at all. The problem is a lack of polish that makes the game feel clunky and rushed. Unless I was playing an old version of your game, I think you should definitely go back to the very beginning and do a good "spit-shine" on the whole game. It would greatly benefit both you and the player. If this game had been more polished, each section would have received much higher scores and I wouldn't have pointed out all the errors that I did. That being said, I did enjoy what parts were done right and I think if you understand that then you can understand what I mean by polishing your game up. If you can take any of my suggestions and utilize them in any way, I think Ebon Scape can become not just a good game but a great game.