Very Nice Demo with a lot of promise! -Jtrev23 Review

  • jtrev23
  • 01/20/2016 01:39 AM
  • 1128 views


I was recommended to review this game by my friend Kyuukon and I have to say that I’m glad I got the chance to play it. This game was created by by VVBlastFuryVV on RMN and stands as a demo for a series of games that the the developer plans on making. Although it is a short demo, Graceless Reminisce brings together a deep story with an open playstyle that allows players to utilize different strategies in order to progress through the game (more detail on that in the ENGAGEMENT/GAMEPLAY section). For the record I played through this game twice and proceeded to the ending around a half an hour each time.

-BACKGROUND/STORY-

Graceless Reminisce is a story driven RPG that is focused around 3 soldiers in the middle of a war. As they journey onward to take the city back from the evil empress the scars of the war start to affect the group both mentally emotionally. You must guide these soldiers to their destiny and watch what fate has in store for them.

-INITIAL THOUGHTS-

While this game is labeled as a Visual Novel game I would simply label it as an RPG. The game is story driven but the game also incorporates an engaging battle system, standard RPG leveling system, and even some stealth aspects. Having these qualities in the game is what keeps it from being a “pure” Visual Novel game for me. As for the story, while I enjoyed the overall experience, I fear that not everyone would be able to sympathize with the story or its interpreted message. Which the message of course will be different for everyone who plays it. However I do like how the storytelling is layered between cut-scenes and player interactions so that players who want to explore more can obtain more details about the story while more battle-oriented players can focus on progressing through the game and still manage to obtain a good amount of relevant knowledge.

-PRESENTATION-

I have to say that presentation of Graceless Reminisce is outstanding! The atmosphere of the game captures the player right from the beginning. The game overall emits a dark and gloomy tone that resonates very well with the story. I believe this is highly amplified by the music. While I’m not sure about the legal usage of certain songs, each song was chosen very well and helps to create that dark and gloomy tone within the game. The story itself starts to get more and more “dark” as the player progresses through the game. The storytelling in this game neatly spread out and covers a nice amount of information for the player to access in a short amount of time. I am a bit confused on the initial prologue but considering that this is just a demo for a series of games yet to come, I will assume that the prologue will make more sense as the rest of the story unfolds. The only real issue I saw with the presentation was that some of the dialogue gets cut off by the text box in the “locations” tab within the menu. Other than that I had no other problems with Graceless Reminisce’s presentation.

-ENGAGEMENT/GAMEPLAY-

With most story-driven RPG games I usually would state that the story itself is the prime source of engagement for the player, but for Graceless Reminisce that is not the case. The prime source of engagement will vary for this game depending on the person playing. For some, the main reason they’ll continue playing will be the progression of the story. For others though, the stealth qualities of the game or the strategic battles will be the primary source of engagement. This helps lead me into gameplay. Essentially the player can play the game in one of two ways. As all the enemies are clearly seen and avoidable, the first strategy would be to play the game like a stealth game and sneak past enemies to avoid any battle possible. The second would be to play the game like an RPG and fight every enemy possible in order to raise your level and boost your stats. Either choice will allow the player to finish the game in a timely manner. For the most part I pretty much loved the battles. Nearly every battle is engaging and requires the player to think about the most effective way to defeat the enemy while retaining their health and mana (which is re-named as RP). I do want to add though that will I liked the available skills, I believe their range could be altered if more skills are not to be added in the beginning. One character in particular doesn’t have any moves that target one specific enemy except the basic attack. Not to mention the one super effective move I found only targeted random enemies so I couldn’t target the person I wanted to hit with the attack. Other than that I didn’t really have any other issues with the gameplay.

-OVERALL-

Overall this game serves as a great base demo for what I hope to be a great series of games in the future. Being a demo, it is quite short in comparison to other games but I’d say check it out when you get the chance. Definitely play it if you like RPG games, Stealth games, or Visual Novel games. If you like those, I believe you would enjoy playing Graceless Reminisce.

As it was a demo at the time of this review I chose not to add a rating to it.

http://rpgmaker.net/games/5492/

Posts

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Thanks for the review, jtrev. I'll pick out some points you've made and address them.

While this game is labeled as a Visual Novel game I would simply label it as an RPG.

I'm not all that sure as to what to label my game, as it has heavy implements of both RPG and Visual Novel, but I like to lean more towards the Visual Novel side, as I'm more into writing than developing games, but I absolutely love doing both of these things and wish to take it professionally someday.

As for the story, while I enjoyed the overall experience, I fear that not everyone would be able to sympathize with the story or its interpreted message.

Yeah, that's the thing about story writing. Not everyone will be able to sympathize with the moral of the story/prologue, often coming to think it's too much like anime or manga, or that the characters are horrible because they speak far too much for the player to understand, or unable to advance into it due to certain aspects of the story.

While I’m not sure about the legal usage of certain songs, each song was chosen very well and helps to create that dark and gloomy tone within the game.

Yeah, I'm hoping to change some of the OST, though they are high quality I don't believe I won't get in any trouble as I'm not selling it for any profit whatsoever and it's free to play. Otherwise, I'd get sued big time.

Nearly every battle is engaging and requires the player to think about the most effective way to defeat the enemy while retaining their health and mana (which is re-named as RP)

Well, I'd say mana and RP are different in terms of concept, though I'll let the story speak for itself. Anyway, as you may know, RP stands for Reicreia Points. A little difficult to pronounce by the way (it's Rai-Cray-Ah) so I'm definitely thinking of switching up the name itself and giving it an actual meaning, though it has its own which I've come up with.

I am a bit confused on the initial prologue but considering that this is just a demo for a series of games yet to come, I will assume that the prologue will make more sense as the rest of the story unfolds. The only real issue I saw with the presentation was that some of the dialogue gets cut off by the text box in the “locations” tab within the menu. Other than that I had no other problems with Graceless Reminisce’s presentation.

Yeah, this is a pinpoint or bump that most people encounter when they play the game, and I believe Red_Nova picked this up, as well, and I have to heavily agree. It's confusing because;
1.) Who are these people? Besides the war and their changing, who are they, really? What were they like outside of the war?
2.) Why are they fighting, to begin with? Why are they even there? It just felt like grim determination and nothing else.

But, I will be remaking the Prologue with MV and have been revising my own writing, so I've been able to touch up on these characters, along with those who weren't as involved in the story as they should be, so story and understanding wise, things will be much more open and more prone to liking and less prone to confusion. Either way, things will be making much more sense.

One character in particular doesn’t have any moves that target one specific enemy except the basic attack. Not to mention the one super effective move I found only targeted random enemies so I couldn’t target the person I wanted to hit with the attack. Other than that I didn’t really have any other issues with the gameplay.

I agree with this point! Usually, I'm more fond of having the character randomly attack an enemy, as it gives off more of the element of surprise, but it's more convenient and simple if I have the more significant skills target an enemy, and then have the random element for skills that don't cost much, or rather, aren't as important.

Anyway, thank you for the review regardless! I enjoyed it.
I' glad you enjoyed the review, when I was talking about the initial opening I was referring specifically to the swans that swam together until one left. After that scene it just jumps to the war and that was the confusing part to me.
Ahh, yeah. That one will be cleared up, eventually.
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