Sacred Reviews: Shape Conquest (Demo)

Introduction

I'll be upfront in admitting that I find the demo for Shape Conquest to be among the worst demos I've ever looked at. A feat that isn't that hard to achieve considering I tend to avoid demos like the plague, but even then this demo stands out as being especially awful. Though, I suppose I should dive into my thoughts on the story then waste my time make generally disparaging comments about the demo as a whole.

Story

Oddly enough the demo almost entirely ignores this aspect of the game. A fact that I find rather odd considering the nature of the gameplay. Maybe, I've just been spoiled by games like Hero's Saga Laevatein Tactics or Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice, but one of the most important aspects of any tactical role-playing video game in my opinion is the story. So, to see a game like this only pay a little lip service to their being a plot when you face-off against a named enemy unit hiding in the back of the only playable stage is extremely off-putting for me.

Gameplay

On the gameplay front the game fares a bit better, but I largely attribute that to the fact that I'm a sucker for turn-based strategy games. I even get enjoyment from titles like Bleach: The 3rd Phantom and Tactics Blade: Episode 2 despite both games suffering from major balance issues. Which is something that seems to plague the demo seeing as how Ty can effectively curb stomp all of the enemies single-handedly. I suppose this is largely due to the fact that triangles beat circles in the game of rock-paper-scissors at the heart of this game, but the lack of multiple types of enemies in the demo does make Staurt and Calvin seem rather useless. Which is something the demo really shouldn't suggest in my opinion, but hopefully the actual game will fare better.

Though the developer might want to include a short tutorial explaining the controls next time they make a game like this since I got stuck at one point when I choice to attack with Ty while there weren't any enemy units nearby. In fact, I tried almost every key on the keyboard in order to cancel out my selection and none of them seemed to work. Though, I'll be nice and assume that my inability to deselect the attack command was because of my lack of awareness of the standard controls for games like this in unity and not because the developer forgot to include such an option.

Graphics

On the visual side of things the game is rather simple, but that is probably to be expected when your game is called Shape Conquest. About the only real complaint I have about this aspect of the game is that it's a bit off putting that the battle backgrounds and stage maps include three dimensional objects while the characters appear to only exist in two dimensions.

Sound

I suppose it is a bit odd that I didn't tackle this aspect of the game first considering how much it stands out, but it doesn't stand out because of how good it is but because of its absence. Seriously, this game is entirely silent. There isn't a single background song or sound effect in this entire game so far. Which in my opinion is extremely off-putting, and this is coming from someone that considers this aspect of game design to be among the least important.

Conclusion

Shape Conquest is a demo that suffers from a lot of issues, and may push a lot of players away from it. But what really kills it in my opinion is the lack of any sort of hook to keep the player's interest. As such, I'd recommend staying away from the demo while crossing your fingers for a much better finished product.

Posts

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Thanks for the review, and sorry about the bad demo. I was way too impulsive when it came to releasing something playable to the public, and it made a bad first impression. I'll be sure to shape up and release a proper demo next time.
I'll look forward to it. One of my favorite of all time comes from this genre after all.
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