Showcase of potential

Game Title: Draug's Resurrection
Engine: RPG Toolkit
Status at review: In Production/Demo


Background:
I had no foreknowledge of what this game was, or what it was about. This is partly due to the the nature of the 2011 Secret Santa Review Event (for which this review was made for).

The game came with it's own manual (AKA: a readme file) that contained much useful information. Indeed, I referred to it while writing this review, and certainly had no qualms referring to it while playing the game.


Graphics:
It is not my intention to show disrespect, or to be insulting, but I seriously think these graphics were made in MSPaint, or similar program. Whatever the source, they are as basic and bare-bones as one can get, yet still relay a sense of what they should be. I must note that there are sometimes a few places where the graphics get in the way of things (see "Gameplay" section).


Audio:
With a few exceptions, the game uses audio files that came with RPG Toolkit. After poking through the music directory (I have a nasty habit of doing that), only "Battle2" stood out, and only because it sounded oddly familiar to me.


Story:
The beginning of the game sees the title in literal action: Draug is being resurrected! Of course, the process is not totally successful, as Draug has no memories of anything. It was figured (by what I assumed at the time to be future party members) that by obtaining certain items from Draug's past would not only allow his memories to surface, but he would once again become the powerful warlord that he was once feared as. From this alone, one can conclude that the story is, in essence, a collect-a-thon. Just replace finding the triforce, or crystal shards, or whatever, to finding artifacts that pertain to Draug's previous life, and you're set.

Except that maybe not everything is as is seems. This is just sheer intuition/guesswork on my part, but the people present at Draug's resurrection come across as a bunch of backstabbing, conniving individuals who have plans within plans within plans. There are certainly indications that there could be an internal strife story here (Which would, indeed, make an interesting story!), but I did not play long enough to see if there was any follow-up to the idea.


Gameplay:
I must admit, I'm not too familiar with RPG Toolkit, or it's default control scheme. I was half-expecting to use the IJKL WASD keys for movement. Thankfully, the manual gave me a run-down of what button did what. Some controls are intuitive (Arrow buttons for movement!), while others are there for what I must assume to be beta-testing purposes ("B" to get into a random encounter!).

Noting that I could cause an encounter by pressing the "B" button, what's the first thing I do when I take control of my party? "B" for "battle"! If one has ever played a turn-based strategy game, like something from the Heroes of Might and Magic series, some similarities are certainly apparent. Even if one has not, there's elements of a turn-based strategy here. For one, allies and foes alike have an certain range for "Attack", depending on the type of equipment that is being used. For example, axes and staves have a range of one, where as bows have a range of two. Once an enemy is defeated, it does not disappear from the battle space. Rather, it still takes up a square, and can still be targeted for the purposes of spells and abilities. I suspect that an empty square can also be targeted, but I never made an attempt to do so. In any event, I'm uncertain if this ability to target dead opponents is a bug or no, but using the "Move" option to get into range of still-living ones seems the best course of action.

The manual notes that the intent for the "Skill" option is to display a list of, well, skills that the active character can perform that is not otherwise listed in the main battle command options. It also notes that the "Item" option does nothing in the demo. As far as "Skill" is concerned for this demo, all it does is perform a pre-scripted action, depending on the active character. From my experience, the "Skill" option has a range of two squares (Opponents within a range of one are not target-able), and is generally worthless. If the ability doesn't outright miss, and this seems to happen more oft than it should (Perhaps that's just dumb luck, though), what damage it deals pales in comparison to a normal attack. There might be a few exceptions, but they are few and far between. There is also the oddity of any battle message not clearing until the player presses the Enter key or Space bar. I suspect that this is an oddity inherent to Toolkit. Even so, it could be an annoyance to some. As a side note, resolving a "random" combat only awards gold with this demo. Looking at the status screen, I'm guessing the developer wants some kind of Secret of Mana-like system, where using weapons and/or spells enough will eventually level up that weapon/spell. However, that system didn't appear to be in place for this demo.

Since battles don't give much in rewards at the moment, surely there must be some way to get stronger? Right? Right? Wrong. As far as I can see, there is no way to do make characters stronger. Outside of cheating, of course. You might think I'm joking, but I'm totally not. The manual is quite clear on this point, even going so far as to suggest a certain point in the demo where it would be most beneficial to use the built-in cheat codes. Re-read that last sentence if you must, but it's the unfiltered truth.

Outside of battles, the system that intrigued me most was the morality system. During certain conversations, the player is presented with a choice of responses. Some responses have consequences that lean toward a moral perspective, indicated by an icon. One icon is that of a scale (Order/Lawful?). The other icons are a skull (Evil?), something that looks like an ant's head, though it's probably supposed to be an angel (Good?), and I don't even know what the other one is supposed to be (Chaos?). If one has ever played Planescape - Torment, or even Dungeons and Dragons in general, one can see where this is going. However, I'm uncertain how much implementation this particular system has in the demo, nor does the manual make any mention of it. There could be some potential here, if not merely what happens in the finale, but some NPC conversations suggest that this system will affect how NPCs react to Draug as his alignment changes.

What of the task of finding the triforce Draug's artifacts? There's nine crystal shards artifacts in total to find, and talking to a certain NPC gives you a map that indicates the known locations for his artifacts. My first target was the one just south of the town of Estaria (more or less the first town). After I recruited a monk (Marcia) into my party, I explored the forest area a bit. There were a few forks in the path where Marcia told me were I needed to go. They were helpful, as the passabilities were not always entirely clear. As a quick example, what I first assumed was a solid wall was actually a path that was hidden by a tree's foliage. In stark contrast to that, the very next artifact I went to get was north of an icy tundra. The tundra itself was an open field, with very little variation in the terrain. For another artifact, I went to a castle. It had a tower with an infinitely looping room. Maybe it just seemed that way, as I was seeing the same rooms over and over again. It's possible there could be a "correct path" that I didn't discover, or it really is an infinite loop.


Overall entertainment:
The manual notes that one shouldn't really play the demo as a "game", but as an exploration into the concepts and mechanics that the game will have, once it gets fleshed out more. Despite that "warning", I played a total of two hours of the demo. In that space of time, I managed to get three artifacts, and had a quest that would grant me a fourth one. How entertaining was all that? Most of my enjoyment came from simply checking out what systems were in place. The other part of my enjoyment was, I must admit, the use of the in-game cheats to make Draug way too overpowered for his own good.


Summary:
Amazingly playable, despite being merely a showcase of what it could evolve into. One might do well to keep an eye on it as things develop.


BOTTOM LINE: N/A