Game name: Relic
Engine: RPG Maker VX
Status at review: Demo/in progress


Background:
In the spirit of the latest iteration of the one-to-many review challenge, I was looking for a game to review. I haven't done a proper review in some time, so I wanted to see how reading other reviews have had any effect on my own method of reviewing. Outside of this, the creator did mention wanting one...

This review is based on a demo, or incomplete version of the game. As such, expect some of what I say to be not in the slightest bit permanent to the game experience. Also, it is not my policy to rate incomplete games. However, that does not mean that this review will not have anything to say.

Because of a weird bug (that I PMed the creator about), I could not advance beyond a certain point. Thus, I could not get to see everything the game had to offer.


Graphics:
The first draw of a game is graphics. It's what you see of a game before making a
purchase/download/whatever. If there was anything, graphically, that caught my interest, it was the style in which the characters were drawn for their portraits and full-page concept art (if that's the correct term for it).

In-game, I see some RTP, or graphics made to look in the style of the RTP. Some people don't like VX's RTP, but I don't mind it as much. As for the more obvious custom stuff, I'd have to say that they strike me quite well most of the time. There's a few MS Paint-looking creations I saw as monsters that don't work well with everything else, but that's a minor inconsistency in my book.


Audio:
I can't rightly say if I've heard any of these pieces of music before. However, from what I've heard, they're pretty decent. My favorite tune has to be the one played at Scotto's house. It's quite calming, certainly capturing the home-y feel.

There's some Earthbound sound effects on picking up items on the field. Personally, I don't care much to hear sounds effects on obtaining items this way, but maybe others would think it's cute. Particularly since the text written with such events is similar to how Earthbound would do it.

Evidently, there are voice-overs for this game, served as an alternate download option. However, as I never downloaded that option, I cannot comment on how well that part of the game performs.


Story:
Evidently, the creator felt fit to have a catastrophe at sea relayed to us via white text on black background at the beginning of the game. The speaker is relaying his inner thoughts about his girlfriend on a lifeboat, and his friend trapped under a mast. Personally, I think it would have a larger impact if players could see this event play out, as it seems an important event for the speaker's character development. However, that's just me.

The game tries it's hand on humor. That I recognize it as "an attempt" says that it mostly missed for me. That is not to say that it cannot add to the experience at all, but I can only speak of my own experience.


Gameplay:
Well, let's see. There's a mini-game that involves running after potatoes (best not to ask). Outside of this, I didn't see anything spectacular. Well, there's the odd script or two, but the more obvious ones seem linked to the combat engine rather than add to the variety of gameplay. As for the combat engine, it is essentially the default VX engine with scripts added for flavor purposes (most notably the heads-up display and after-battle quotes). Not that these are a bad things to have. Flavor like this allows the game to stand on it own.

To say that the central conflict of the game seems to revolve around finding the {Dewprism} titular "Relic", I was half-expecting a treasure-hunting sub-theme ("Treasure! Fortune! Here I come!"). Maybe I was searching the wrong places, but maybe the sub-theme just wasn't there to begin with?


Overall entertainment:
Of the things that annoys me the is this sound effect that is used after each letter is "typed". Technically, I can still cause the textbox to fill by pressing Enter/Space bar, but hearing this sound made me think that I had to read things at the game's pace. Sometimes, I cannot advance the text (coded pauses), enforcing the idea of reading at the game's pace. Then again, after a while of not noticing it, then noticing that it wasn't there anymore, then noticing that it was back, I honestly don't know how to call this anymore.

About four minutes into the game before I gained control of the character's actions. Watching four minutes of essentially textboxes, particularly the initial off-the-camera background story, didn't engage me all that much. However, having a background is certainly a step in the right direction.

As far as combat is concerned, the first damage-based skill I saw has properties that make no sense to me. The "magician" has only healing abilities. Perhaps she gets some offensive spells later, but I was basically mashing the "Attack" button for what combat I engaged in. Seeing as the greatest experience award I was getting for a non-boss fight was 6 or so, it took more battles than I care to calculate to level up to 3, much less higher than that. Maybe the creator thought that mashing "Attack" as fast as possible is awesome, and it sometimes is, but I would prefer a better sense that the party was improving with these fights.

I'm glad to have on-screen encounters as anyone, but I would prefer the encounters to be more avoidable. As the game stands, they seem to zoom at the character at inordinate speeds if the character is anywhere within four titles of the critter sprite. Couple that with a closed area, like a cavern, and you have a basically unavoidable encounter (which happened on a few occasions).


Summary:
The game, from what little as I saw it, while it has it's annoyances and bugs, has the makings of a good, even great game. I'd recommend watching this title as it develops.

BOTTOM LINE: N/A