HASVERS'S PROFILE

This review raises some valid points in a fairly uncivil way.

It is not unfair to score a game as a function of its aspirations, but then I think you should append a reference point to that score. Giving this game's plot+setting 2.5 out of 5 Asimovs or GregEgans seems defensible, while it clearly deserves 4.5 out of 5 VideogameSciFi.

Also, you kind of mix the game falling short of its potential and it saying something you don't like, which are both reasons for not enjoying it, but which should not be presented as arguments for each other.

Now I did not update my own review after playing the whole game, but I have to admit plot development overall was a bit more formulaic and less exciting than the rather radical setting - for me, the best part was all the flavor stuff, as is often the case in (the better end of) vidyagame writing. I won't lie, I had hoped for more, but still, "no substance"...


As for the gameplay, I think it just goes to show that balancing a RPG is hell; I remember when the game was *really* challenging. I'd just like to disagree with this:

That right there is your skill menu -- your only skill menu. Notice something? There are only attack skills (and a passive stat boost). Yes, really: instead of the rich diversity of character skills seen in most RPGs, your options are only ever damage, more damage, or damage of a different type. There aren’t even any AoE attacks, everything’s single-target. This is easily the worst design decision in the entire game; it pretty much vaporizes any possibility of tactical depth.

This might or might not be the case here (I don't think it is, personally), but it's a fairly bad argument in general, like saying Go has no tactics because you have no supporting characters. Everything is always convertible to DPS/DPturn in RPG battle systems. Making this more transparent and then adding more temporal/spatial management tends to help have *real* tactics rather than just "find the gamebreaking combination of skills and equipment that the dev couldn't balance out".
If anything, I still think it was not transparent enough, with too many details to memorize before you could make significant decisions.
I raise that point in case Deltree (or anyone else) considers those arguments when making another game.

Edited to put the more personal note below as a comment rather than in the review:

On a side note, I also have to commend the author, who I think has come a long way since Demonic Tutor (which I tried just before this, for one hour). Perhaps the switch to a lighter tone, and away from overdone RPG mechanics and tropes was for the best, but there is also a constant stream of ingenious little touches here that redeem a lot of the game's faults, and that was lacking in previous works.

And to conclude, really if you'd take a little time to reread and correct what you write, and worked a bit more on everything, you'd make something really cool ;)

author=AsgarZigel
As far as I know it has been disqualified not because of the RM2k3 (they probably have a legal version), but because the RTP-RT.exe was modified to make the various special featues possible, which is against the EULA.

Too bad, really :/

Even without the added slight of modifying the exe, 1) they didn't own a legal copy, and 2) this debate doesn't belong here, but one should know Enterbrain has been trying to do everything to erase RMs before XP from the surface of the Earth, and I highly doubt they would have accepted even an entry made on the legal Japanese version (it's pretty much forbidden to discuss these engines on the official boards) so Oneshot had no chance to begin with, really.

A sad affair anyway.

A piece of IF with a positive review and an author looking like perplexed Antimony are good ways to grab my attention. This was cute and funny, although perhaps less unconventional for me as I've played my share of IFs (mostly the esoteric ones with parsers). I've always loved how IF is basically decades ahead of all other video games in terms of trying unique point of views, unreliable narrators, complex mental or emotional situations and utterly weird logic.
But it has its clichés, like, say, starting in your room looking at you desk, or removing things stuck with gum :P I was kind of expecting you to pull a 9:05, not just some incongruous turn of event. Still, gotta love dem mouse and cat descriptions.

That is pretty much what I would have said in a review, so thanks for voicing my thoughts!

DrunkenElfMage > Clearly, the ending suffered a little bit from the time limit, and apparently a lot of other things too judging from what you are saying - but that's to be expected in any contest (or with any deadline, really). I just hope that what wasn't used will get recycled into the webcomic and/or a future game! (when you become famous, you can do like Penny Arcade and pay people to make the game for you)