BEREGON'S PROFILE

Wow, great review, I was also looking for an MV sample game and found this one to be a great inspiration :)

Our opinions regarding the classes are almost identical. :) Though there are three things I want to mention:

Warrior is pretty badly designed and works only despite its flaws. I'd say it only really gets great near the endgame, when you get the good Substitute gear (Friendship Bracelet and such) and that level 10 ability that doubles their max HP. The class has a lot of useless skills, like that one where you use up all your valuable TP to do mediocre damage or that bugged one that is supposed to act like a better Guard, except it doesn't have an Agility bonus, so it mostly activates after every enemy already acted. Still the third best class for the princess though (especially since only she can equip the best sword in the game). A lot of its damage comes from passive counter-attacks.

Regarding Bard, due to their ridiculously high Agility (which gets boosted even more with that special dagger from the bonus dungeon), they are the best at using items like the ressurecting ones and potions. Especially since they have a passive chance to gain additional action, so they can do that and still use their skills. I don't find them bad for healing against bosses, that regeneration song helps and they can heal with Potions. Divine Plea from Paladin is still great though. Also, while Song of Action is a no-brainer that is pretty much mandatory for the bonus bosses, there is another, even better skill in that one song that makes the whole party defend during their round. That is probably the most OP skill in the game, especially once you have multiple actions. In the end, I would use a party of 2 Rogues (or Ranger + Rogue) + Warrior + Bard and switch the Bard out for a Paladin when needed for Divine Plea or something else.

I agree that Warlock is the worst designed class in the game and some of its skills do more damage to your party than the enemy (Mage in comparison is just weak and boring ), however I would still say that Warlock is stronger class than Mage. Warlock has loads of HP (more than Warrior even), so it can survive a lot, while Mage drops pretty much immediately. Meaning, while Mage is pretty much useless, atleast Warlock can do the Potion duty and maybe spam that one ability they have that lowers Attack. I've played as a Mage princess in my first playthrough and had trouble defeating the bonus boss at first since she was pretty much always KO. I think if I made her a Warlock, it would have gone better than with a Mage.

author=kory_toombs
Thanks for this review. I'll keep this in mind if I make another game using this engine. Some of the issues you found might be due to my inexperience using this engine. And originally this game was going to be made with Unity. I'm considering either making a metroidvania or a diablo clone next, but can't really decide. Also, need to find graphical assets. One of my main hurdles with this game was that I was using limited assets.

The spikes above, where the pillars are can be avoided by moving right, without jumping, and dropping down.

To avoid the fireball, when the boss in at the top center, start your character on the edge of the screen, then when the fireball is released, run to the other side, you will avoid all the fireballs.

Hello, honestly, I get this. It seems like it was your first game in this engine and in addition to that, you seem to have switched from Unity? It's a fine first test project and a good base to build from.

Regarding the spikes, while they were annoying, the complaint wasn't really about difficulty as much as the fact that you could have literally kept jumping into them with no problem in most places, then move a few pixels and die instantly. They weren't that bad to avoid.

Also, one time in the last level, I stood on the edge of a platform, then attacked a flying skull without moving. The Reaper's leg shifted a few pixels as part of the attack animation and the character fell into the bottomless pit even though I literally only pressed the attack key. Not sure if this was a feature or not, but it really frustrated me at the time :D

Regarding the art assets, I figured that was the reason for the kitchen sink approach. Though mostly it fit pretty well. I just think that, say, the genie should've been moved to the Temple, since he feels kinda out of place in the Swamps.

And yeah, I see what you mean now. Tbh, when she decided to use those fireballs, I was mostly in the air attacking her and didn't have time to process the situation to get past her without taking damage anyway. Kinda my fault, though the boss really could use another mechanic besides flying along the edges of the screen.

I would definitely like to see either of the two possible directions you might take this in the future. As I said, this feels like a prototype for a much better game :)

author=Avee
"Frogge is sus"

Thank you for the detailed review!

author=Beregon
Just pressing a key to browse between possible characters lagged a lot and could even seemingly freeze the game for a time

You're the first person to mention lag during the character selection screen. I'm afraid that I can't find the cause. It might have to do with some of the constantly running Parallel Process events but there was no lag on my end... That bug will remain a mystery.

author=Beregon
using a wrench or Bodibuldoses's attack with a chance to stun worked really well

Blue attacks may make the target skip a turn, which is indeed a very useful effect. The blue item Bike Helmet is also the most useful defensive item. I do believe that I made blue overpowered.

author=Beregon
the traps seem too weak and with barely any impact on the game.

I wanted traps to also use the color system to deal more damage to certain characters, but I didn't have time to implement it.
Many ideas had to be left out in order to release the game within the deadline.

All that being said, there is definitely room for improvement.

author=Beregon
An expanded version of this game could really be something special that would have the potential to become a classic.

You think so? I'd like to get more feedback from the community about a potential remake.
A few people have said that an improved and expanded version would be worth going commercial but I'm on the fence about that.

I don't know, it just kept lagging massively every time I attempted to change the character and it only kept getting worse the longer I stayed on the screen.

Bodibuldos was indeed very powerful, which might make sense for a "default" character for beginners.

Yeah, I know how that is :)

It definitely could be. With some additions, bug fixes and maybe additional maps/scenarios.

If you wish to work on this further, maybe add some random events and especially expand the involvement of the other characters. Right now, you hardly see them as is and the only thing they do is give you tutorial tips.

Like, dunno, maybe there could be a random event where A.K.A. frames your character and they have to prove their innocence? And if that fails, the other characters turn into powerful enemies.

And maybe A.K.A. could sometimes target other characters and you would have to locate them and save the target.

It might even turn out that there are multiple A.K.A.s and therefore, multiple suspects.

You know, just add some depth to the core concept.

And maybe add a few more characters/colors while you are at it. Maybe Brown vs Black/White?

Just a few suggestions, you probably already had some of these as unimplemented ideas :)

Congratulations, I knew for sure that your game was gonna be in the first place, well deserved! :)

So, I know this is a three years old review of a 13 year old demo, but seeing how much flak the author got for the name of the game in both the comments and this review, I just can't let this go...

Aegis doesn't exactly mean a literal shield in latin. Atleast, it's not a common word for an actual shield someone would carry in battle. That would be something like scutum or clipeus etc. If aegis is used, it's more often in the metaphorical sense, like a "shield of status" or something like that.

Basically, true to the myth from which it originated, aegis has the association that someone is protected from harm by a higher power. The original Aegis also wasn't necessarily a shield, sometimes it was a piece of an animal skin, I think it was the skin of a goat. In some cases, it was also referred to as a breastplate.

Atleast in english, Aegis can also mean protection or patronage etc. and is often used in that context. Sword of Protection sounds perfectly acceptable. Plus, maybe I'm the only one, but Sword of Aegis sounds like a pretty cool title.