Ill-thought-out

Konstandin review
as @ 18/04/2014

Although you probably already knew that.

What Is It, Though?

Team Galanx's Konstandin is a horror game demo that teases themes of violence, insanity, and a character portrait of a man who is losing his edge mentally. But that is all it does - teases us with a few details, and no idea of the big picture. The demo is short (~15 minutes), and features a string of events that I cannot make sense of. The string of events and horrors that the protagonist faces are like puzzle pieces that I can't fit together yet, but unlike an unfinished jigsaw puzzle, I suspect that these pieces won't fit together well in the final puzzle anyway. What I see currently is attempts at metaphorical imagery and spooky surroundings, that convert into a thoroughly disjointed experience with minor puzzles that are the only interesting diversions.



Story

Waking up in his house in the middle of the night, 26 year old Rinor Avdiu can't find his wife Aulona. After following a dark appirition into the night, he confronts a series of trippy mental challenges in order to solve the mystery of his wife's disappearance.

Even at the end of the demo, I have no idea what the story is. I have no reason to care for the main character, because I have no idea about his past or his characteristics, despite the minimal dialogue. Attempts to convey the storyline or characters via metaphorical imagery, such as climbing on a person's giant face, or receiving a dagger to the back, fall short to explain any sort of personality to the main character. After a while, these scenarios begin to feel like cheap tricks, scares built just to raise my adrenaline, rather than serve the story and the atmosphere.

What I would call Konstandin, as at this demo, is a collection of tricks and twists designed to make you think that there is a set of complex mysteries behind it all, where the answers to these questions are either too simple, or non-existent. Even if the developer has planned the whole story, right now it doesn't seem like it.

To elaborate, the game is based on a legend of a cursed knight named Konstandin. It is the exploration of the mind of Rinor and his growing mental insanity. On the gamepage, it has a bio outlining the character of Rinor. Apparently he earns his living through art commissions and design, and is a typical gamer who enjoys playing online games. This seems like a really interesting character, but none of this deep personality is revealed in the game. There is no exploration of his loving, kind or caring traits which are described in the bio. Character development will help the player confide in the main character, but in this game, it is non-existent. There are no introductory scenes to help us establish rapport with the character. There is no reason to care at all.



Graphics & Presentation

The major strength of Konstandin is its polished graphics and beautiful world. There is immense attention to detail in animations, art and overall polish of what has been planned. The title screen has a scroll beautifully dripping of blood. The environment consists of lush nature and rolling fog, with a lot of custom material. The character portraits on the gamepage are incredible, with beautiful detail and an impressive style. I suspect a large portion of the gam'es development time has gone into making this game as beautiful as it can possibly be. But this game sadly proves to be one of the many examples of RPG Maker games that are beautiful in screenshots but mask very shallow gameplay.

I will say that there are a great very many beautiful assets to this game. A lush background of trees, with custom drawn sprites and a very hand-drawn feel. The maps are immaculately constructed, albeit with very simple paths to walk through. The sense of atmosphere is strengthened by the creepy nature of certain visuals, but I was still left looking for at least a glimpse the visceral creepy feeling of titles such as Miserere or Gingiva to dirty things up. The art style seems too cute and friendly sometimes to elicit a frightened response from me. The only parts where I jumped were moments when objects came at me at a frightening pace, or a large scream was heard (or both). There was one moment where a silhouette knocked on a window that was slightly creepy, but that effect was executed more effectively in Ib's intro.

Still, the world is very attractive to look at, and features a great many custom resources and particle effects that make Konstandin pleasing to the eye.



Gameplay

Konstandin features an impressive facade of graphics that mask major design flaws. It feels like very little of the game is planned, and it is all completed as the developer goes. The gratuitous jump scares feel cheap, and instadeaths abound in plenty. There is a puzzle involving a key and a tree that provides some relief, but as I mosey my way through a haunted house of fears and scares, there is neither anything that surprises me, nor makes me feel anything. I feel that Konstandin's developer must rethink the various gameplay mechanics of the game to help knit a cohesive plot.

The tree puzzle features a selection of various items to see which one will be able to snatch a key from a giant tree's grasp. Each item selected has a custom ending that adapts to your choices. However, I got the feeling whilst playing the game that these decisions were kind of arbitrary, and I had no way of telling which decision was the right one until it was made. This decision was perpetuated throughout the game by providing many dead ends with instant deaths at the end of them, with no apparent reason as of the culmination of this demo. A haunted hallway provides a neat diversion of "guess-the-synonym" puzzles that prove to be somewhat head-scratching, yet made total sense. This was a small highlight in the game, but did not comprise much of the game's gameplay. If there were a lot more interesting diversions and factors at play in Konstandin's fabric of events, then I would be interested. But as of now, the events are too disjointed to make sense of.



Conclusion
The ideas that modern horror films, literature and games perpetuate over and over again are merely mimicked in Konstandin's current demo, with no innovations. Unless events get a lot more interesting really soon, this game will remain a style over substance affair. A little re-evaluation of design decisions and how to construct a coherent story will prove immensely profitable in the long run.

Thanks for reading.

Posts

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Thank you very much for taking the time to review the game. Just one correction, it's not Nouin's. It's from team Galanx.

Regards,
Nouin

CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
Fixed. If you release a new demo, tell me so I can update this review with new observations.
author=CashmereCat
Fixed. If you release a new demo, tell me so I can update this review with new observations.


A series of demos would remove the need for the full game, so I doubt there will be another demo.

I also wanted to add that your review is somewhat premature and lacks detail. It looks rushed and hasn't pointed out many major things. You should have focused on the demo more instead of fortune telling if the developer has the solution for the mysteries. However, we totally respect your opinion. Thanks again.

Regards,
Nouin
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
Ahem. Well, I guess this review is a bit premature, but you requested a review in my thread so I gave you one. That's why I gave it N/A score, because I intend to re-evaluate it when the game is completed. I think I will go and add more detail then, as you requested. But I still think that the disjointed storyline is a valid concern. I think that your team would do good to make the story more clear to the player, is all. I will edit this review with more details

Thanks,
Cash

Edit: Also, it's not like I'm going to pretend I enjoyed the game when I didn't. In fact, this review points out some reasons why some players may not enjoy your game, that you should consider. I hope this review helps your game the best possible game it can be.
author=CashmereCat
Ahem. Well, I guess this review is a bit premature, but you requested a review in my thread so I gave you one. That's why I gave it N/A score, because I intend to re-evaluate it when the game is completed. I think I will go and add more detail then, as you requested. But I still think that the disjointed storyline is a valid concern. I think that your team would do good to make the story more clear to the player, is all. I will edit this review with more details

Thanks,
Cash

Edit: Also, it's not like I'm going to pretend I enjoyed the game when I didn't. In fact, this review points out some reasons why some players may not enjoy your game, that you should consider. I hope this review helps your game the best possible game it can be.


It's alright, you shouldn't feel attacked. I requested a review, but I did not rush you. This review gives a feeling that you didn't play the demo at all. As I said, a premature review.

I'd also like to point out (and you might already know this), that a demo does not start at the beginning, nor ends at the end of the game. And your review, even though so short, it moves on reviewing the full game instead of just the demo, while fortune telling if there will be a solution, which is really out of place. But thank you very much for taking your time, it is a review in your name which we respect. You do not have to add more detail, we got your point.

Regards,
Nouin
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
Oh, you mean premature as in I didn't play it before I wrote this review? But the game was so short. The game is supposed to end when you see Shadow, right? Because that's when it ended for me. And the entire demo took me 10-15 minutes to complete. If you want proof that I completed it, read the box below (beware: spoilers for those who haven't played).

I walked out into the back yard and saw the bloody "12", walked to the blood river on the right and got a dagger chucked at me, walked to the south and walked on a face and died. Walked to the left and saw the blood trail. Walked more to the left and went up and saw the tree who squashes you. Went back down and chose a tool. It didn't work. Chose another tool and went down to grab the gasoline. Burnt the tree. Gave the key that it was guarding to the face monster. It let me inside the house. Got scared by a friggin' random ghoul. Some dude knocked on the window. Went back down and found myself in a hallway where I had to solve a few riddles. Find synonyms for words. This part was actually an OK puzzle but I still couldn't make sense of the story. Met Shadow playing a piano ditty. Laughs. End of demo.


It wasn't that long, and by the end of it I still had no clue what was happening, nor did I feel any attachment to any of the characters. In essence, it was a haunted house of cheap scares, where random things happen to you. Sorry if this hurts, but I think you should work to convey the story better. That's the purpose of this review. Cheap scares won't entertain the player for the entire game, nor will it give Konstandin lasting appeal.

For example, the part where the monster jumps out from under the bed. It was scary. But what was the point? What was that monster? I doubt that I will ever encounter that monster again, and why was it even there? My point is, I think it was inserted just to scare the player rather than actually contribute anything worthwhile. And that's cheap horror/thrills. I've had enough of that in media and I want meaning behind my scares, gg.


In essence I thought it was a game with pretty visuals but quite meaningless and disjointed. I know you didn't ask for more details, but I thought I'd give it since you didn't believe that I played the demo. I just don't think that a 10-15 minute demo requires me to write a review that takes longer to write than it did for me to play the demo.

Oh, and most RPG Maker developers release a series of several demos, editing it based on critiques. I was assuming that's why people ask for a review in the first place.

Edit: Yeah, mostly I'm offended that you called my review premature, because 1. I downloaded and played your game to the end, and 2. I critiqued it to the point where I felt that elaborating further would not be necessary. Since it was so short, I didn't think it needed a 2000-word essay.
Neither you nor me should be offended. By requesting a review, I didn't hope for you to pretend to like my game, I just thought you would actually review it instead of just rushing. Again you start fortune telling "I doubt I will see this again". I mean, you should review the demo, not the full game. Your review is really too abstract and focuses more on what will happen in the future, which is really for the player to discover and not to be included in a single demo. I don't mean to sound harsh, you are absolutely not obliged to review the game at all, but you did and thank you for that. You even admitted yourself that it was a premature review, here is the quote:

Ahem. Well, I guess this review is a bit premature, but you requested a review in my thread so I gave you one.


By admitting it yourself, you shouldn't be offended at all, because it proved that you were in a rush and just threw a bunch of abstract words.

Oh, and most RPG Maker developers release a series of several demos, editing it based on critiques. I was assuming that's why people ask for a review in the first place.


If the critique is valid and not rushed. If you critique the story based on a demo, that wouldn't be valid since demos aren't there to tell you the whole story but to prepare you in terms of gameplay.

In essence I thought it was a game with pretty visuals but quite meaningless and disjointed. I know you didn't ask for more details, but I thought I'd give it since you didn't believe that I played the demo. I just don't think that a 10-15 minute demo requires me to write a review that takes longer to write than it did for me to play the demo.


The demo is not 10 to 15 minutes long, this is also incorrect information.

And the entire demo took me 10-15 minutes to complete.


I was hoping for you to be honest. You should check some playthrough in youtube to find out how long it really takes for an average player to complete the demo. You reported deaths while solving puzzles which would at least take 25-30 min.

I know everything I wrote in here sounds so harsh since we can not mimic what we say, but I would again remind you that I don't want you to feel attacked, nor to think that I felt attacked by your review. All I am saying is that a game should be reviewed correctly in respect with the effort that was given. And if you don't like it that would be ok, but at least try to stay within the demo boundaries instead of jumping and reviewing the full game.

Regards,
Nouin
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
When you said premature, I thought that was in the context of providing a review when a demo did not require one. I didn't think you mean premature as in I wrote the review before I played the game.

You keep calling my review rushed but it wasn't rushed, I've seen reviews that are far less informative for much bigger games, 50+ hours. This game took me 10-15 minutes (I'm being honest here, I can even provide the save file, I'm quite a fast player), and when you asked for more information to be given, then I obliged, but then you said "we got the point". I don't want you to call the review rushed and then say you don't want me to edit it.

I'm going to edit the review anyway with more details just because you thought the review wasn't reviewed "correctly". Because it was.

I'm not even reviewing the whole game here, I'm just reviewing the demo and the impressions I get of the full game from the demo. That being said, that me who has played up to this point is not impressed with what I have seen so far, and unless things improve, then it will not be a good game from my point of view. So isn't that what a review is?

That's why I said to hit me up with a PM when this game is done so I can review the complete game when it comes out. Honestly, I think you should be more considering of a person who has taken their time out to download your game, play it, and give you valid criticism. You do believe my points are valid, correct? Because I think they are. Even if it's a completely bad review, you can still say, "I see what you say and it is a valid opinion and we will take it into consideration" even if you don't agree. The worst thing to do is to say that the reviewer's opinion is null and void because they didn't provide enough details.

This review wasn't rushed. People write reviews with far less detail than this, even IGN does. But I'll still rewrite the review just for you. Because I care about this game and I want it to improve. That's all.

Cash
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
author=Nouin
Neither you nor me should be offended.

You sound quite offended.

author=Nouin
By admitting it yourself, you shouldn't be offended at all, because it proved that you were in a rush and just threw a bunch of abstract words.

More "I am very offended" language.

author=Nouin
I was hoping for you to be honest. You should check some playthrough in youtube to find out how long it really takes for an average player to complete the demo. You reported deaths while solving puzzles which would at least take 25-30 min.

The point of a review is to report on what the reviewer experienced, not what players on YouTube did. And by saying "I was hoping for you to be honest," you really sound like you're accusing him of just doing the review to spite you. You need to learn to take criticism. Not everyone's going to like your games. I know its hard, but this is not a mature way to respond.

Ultimately, RMN accepted this review. That means it meets the site's minimum requirements. Your responses make me not want to play your game, personally, because it sounds like you're going to dismiss any criticisms rather than use the feedback to make a better game.
I gotta say I agree with Cashmere here. I don't see anything in the review that would indicate that it's some sort of "rush-job". It addresses all the points I believe should be in a review: What gameplay is like, how it looks and sounds, general story and the reviewers thoughts on these.

Now I can't really tell how much the review has been edited before, but I honestly doubt these areas were left out before, looking at other reviews by Cashmere. What it looks like to me that you are doing is basically nitpicking and finding faults with the review because you didn't like that CashmereCat didn't praise the game enough.

I personally believe that if you only plan on releasing one demo, you should really polish this demo, not just graphically but in all areas. Making the player interested in the story, characters and gameplay also plays a big part. I think that's what you should take from the review, not that it was "rushed". I would call those problems pointing out major things, which is what you asked for.
Look guys, don't want to start a comment war here. It looks like cashmere took my words personally and called support. If you don't like my game it's ok, you might not be the right audience, though I expected cashmere to be honest that's all. Because as a maker of the game I happen to know how long the demo is, and it certainly isn't 10-15 min long. By feeding the people false info, they can prejudice. And also as a reviewer, he should have reviewed the demo only, because that's what we released. Not the full game, and how the mysteries will be solved, because that would be on us developers. Besides, cashmere admitted it himself that this review was premature. I respect his opinion, but I do not agree with a premature review. You can kill it with bad critique and that would be ok if only it was a correct review. People put a lot of effort in their games, and they expect them to be played correctly and reviewed correctly. If you review how the mysteries will be later solved or if they will exist, that's not your area, that's our area. That was the main point I wanted to make clear...unless you have fortune telling powers (it's a nice skill to have).

However, let's rest it here please, since arrogance started getting on the way. Again cashmere, you do not need to call friends to comment here, we totally respect your review, we got disappointed that you rushed it a bit, but still we're ok don't take anything personally and thank you for the time you spent reviewing it. And to those who do not want to play it, then don't. It's not like it's doing us any harm. We totally understand that the audience we targeted is a different audience so we don't expect more.

Have a nice day! ^^

Regards,
Nouin
Y'know just to see myself, I played the demo, and after doing so I agree even more with the review. The game just doesn't do it for me, looks aside. First of all, you lay the horror aspects on way to thick straight away with no buildup whatsoever, leaving me with the opposite effect, laughing at how there are buckets of blood and body parts everywhere. This effect is further progressed by how little I know about any of the characters, and how generic their personalities seem to be.

Talking about generic, horror really thrives on you feeling that you don't know what's going to happen next. This isn't the case. I felt like I knew exactly what was waiting around the next corner: More buckets of blood, and maybe some shadowperson killing me for no reason. There are plenty of deaths and alot of them seems to be there for no reason at all, or just to force me to replay the game for the tenth time (making me even less scared since I totally lose any immersion I had replaying the same part again).

Also you should work on sound more, there are bascially no sounds at all except for when you are doing something. You should think about addoing some ambient noises, this really enchances the game, especially horror games.

I'm not saying this to defend CashmereCat or anything of the sorts, even though I think you are being harsh on him just because you didn't like his review not praising the game. I'm saying this because I honestly think so myself. You need to rethink the horror aspects and characterization. The demo doesn't do anything to make me care about the wife missing or the shadowdude laughing at me just to show how evil he is.

I think the game suffers from the same illness that Pocket Mirror has: Pretty visuals, an interesting setup but basically nothing to do than to click on random stuff. This game has more puzzles that are a bit more challenging, but it still seems like a pretty looking bonbon that tastes like air.

The setup, as I stated, is nice, but what forms the characters? Why does the protagonist care so much for his wife? Why does the tree randomly smash him to bits? Why would Shadow basically kill himself with a knife, only to speak vague things if you do the correct things instead? There seems to be nothing that ties everything together, which results in a bunch of randomness. I think that's sad since I really want to fully enjoy the game. And I don't think that I'm alone with that wish.
author=Schwer-von-Begriff
I think the game suffers from the same illness that Pocket Mirror has: Pretty visuals, an interesting setup but basically nothing to do than to click on random stuff. This game has more puzzles that are a bit more challenging, but it still seems like a pretty looking bonbon that tastes like air.

The setup, as I stated, is nice, but what forms the characters? Why does the protagonist care so much for his wife? Why does the tree randomly smash him to bits? Why would Shadow basically kill himself with a knife, only to speak vague things if you do the correct things instead? There seems to be nothing that ties everything together, which results in a bunch of randomness. I think that's sad since I really want to fully enjoy the game. And I don't think that I'm alone with that wish.


That's why the full game release would be there I guess?
author=SnowOwl
Y'know just to see myself, I played the demo, and after doing so I agree even more with the review. The game just doesn't do it for me, looks aside. First of all, you lay the horror aspects on way to thick straight away with no buildup whatsoever, leaving me with the opposite effect, laughing at how there are buckets of blood and body parts everywhere. This effect is further progressed by how little I know about any of the characters, and how generic their personalities seem to be.

Talking about generic, horror really thrives on you feeling that you don't know what's going to happen next. This isn't the case. I felt like I knew exactly what was waiting around the next corner: More buckets of blood, and maybe some shadowperson killing me for no reason. There are plenty of deaths and alot of them seems to be there for no reason at all, or just to force me to replay the game for the tenth time (making me even less scared since I totally lose any immersion I had replaying the same part again).

Also you should work on sound more, there are bascially no sounds at all except for when you are doing something. You should think about addoing some ambient noises, this really enchances the game, especially horror games.

I'm not saying this to defend CashmereCat or anything of the sorts, even though I think you are being harsh on him just because you didn't like his review not praising the game. I'm saying this because I honestly think so myself. You need to rethink the horror aspects and characterization. The demo doesn't do anything to make me care about the wife missing or the shadowdude laughing at me just to show how evil he is.



Thanks for your wonderful critique, we'll keep that in mind.
I don't mean that in a mean way. The game sure has it's moments and a whole lot of potential. But I, personally, think that a demo should set up the story at least a bit, so that the player already feels connected with the characters. But maybe that's just me - I always rate the story higher than visuals and a bit higher than gameplay, after all.
Corfaisus
"It's frustrating because - as much as Corf is otherwise an irredeemable person - his 2k/3 mapping is on point." ~ psy_wombats
7874
author=Nouin
author=SnowOwl
Y'know just to see myself, I played the demo, and after doing so I agree even more with the review. The game just doesn't do it for me, looks aside. First of all, you lay the horror aspects on way to thick straight away with no buildup whatsoever, leaving me with the opposite effect, laughing at how there are buckets of blood and body parts everywhere. This effect is further progressed by how little I know about any of the characters, and how generic their personalities seem to be.

Talking about generic, horror really thrives on you feeling that you don't know what's going to happen next. This isn't the case. I felt like I knew exactly what was waiting around the next corner: More buckets of blood, and maybe some shadowperson killing me for no reason. There are plenty of deaths and alot of them seems to be there for no reason at all, or just to force me to replay the game for the tenth time (making me even less scared since I totally lose any immersion I had replaying the same part again).

Also you should work on sound more, there are bascially no sounds at all except for when you are doing something. You should think about addoing some ambient noises, this really enchances the game, especially horror games.

I'm not saying this to defend CashmereCat or anything of the sorts, even though I think you are being harsh on him just because you didn't like his review not praising the game. I'm saying this because I honestly think so myself. You need to rethink the horror aspects and characterization. The demo doesn't do anything to make me care about the wife missing or the shadowdude laughing at me just to show how evil he is.

Thanks for your wonderful critique, we'll keep that in mind. *wink*

I believe you forgot your <sarcasm> tag. But, you know what? Screw this, I'm jumping in. You can expect to have my true, non-premature, honest review on your desk in the next few days whenever it gets accepted.
Nice sarcasm there, buddy. Let me respond: You react wonderfully to criticism.
Nice sarcasm there, buddy. Let me respond: You react wonderfully to criticism.


Excuse me sir, how would you like me to respond? I mean why did you take it as sarcasm in the first place...Was your critique really that bad? At least I never said that it was sarcasm, thanks again for your contribution man.
Oh, this has my interest. I'm going to have to LT it. I've actually been looking for something to put me back in the LT department, so a nice short horror game is just what the doctor ordered. Onward ho~

EDIT: So, I did the video. I can see where there's a lot that needs doing to make this demo shine. It's the not a bad demo, per se, but it does need something more substantial to make it a great demo. I'll add the (50 minute) LT (most of it is me gabbering) to the media page when I've uploaded it. I hope I put enough info in there to help this project shine a bit more.
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