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Day of Contention 2014

tldr, for those that care just about as much as I do:

1) We've started a bunch of projects, most of which remain unfinished.

2) Vacant Sky episode 3 is now a movie, featuring more: enslaved angels, rapists, sudden personality shifts and pointless characters.

3) We're remaking the original series in 3D, because I didn't hate the cast enough the first time around.

4) Ugly 3D render. Also, what the hell is with her pants?

DEViL::ender Review

I haven't played this game so I don't know if the game sucks or not, but what I really don't understand is why this exists as a review and not a post on the game page. I will now provide you a crappy review of your crappy review to help you understand what I mean. How meta.

Your review doesn't work as a critical analysis because you're wishy-washy on a lot of points and it's hard to tell what you really think about any given aspect of the game because you say stuff like 'it's not good or bad' until the summary at the end where you give it a 3/5 and say you didn't enjoy it all. Uh, what? If I was your teacher in an English crit lit class I'd give this an F.

Additionally, as a reader of this review, I can say I learned almost nothing about the game from it - the only things I really know are that the main character is Aluxes, status effects are important, it has RNG like most RPGs and that the last boss is hard and takes 10 minutes to kill, which is... pretty short for the final dude? So it also makes for a pretty poor book report.

So if it's 1) not a useful reference point for deciding whether or not I should play it, and 2) it doesn't offer actual insight into why the game does or doesn't work, why does it exist? 1.5/5.

Future of Fable of Heroes

Good luck out there!

Pom Gets Wi-Fi Review

I haven't even played this game and I could write a whole essay on what's wrong with this review, but I'll just sum it up with two words: extremely irresponsible.

Why first grade to 12th is completely useless, including parts of college ..

Intentionally provocative thread title made to incite a response, followed by needless bickering and political platitudes that are now threatening to make this topic go off the rails. Brilliant.

Regardless of how well a school is run or not, one must not forget that schools exist for social engineering as well as education. Whether that's a good thing or not is up to the individual to decide, but to say they are 'useless' or solely made to raise cotton farming peasants or something is a hilarious oversimplification.

Rainfall: The Sojourn Kickstarter ad !

While it doesn't surprise me in the slightest this project failed, I do feel sorry for everyone involved, Ghost included.

Shit happens sometimes. Live and learn.

Game Chill 2013

Well, the game Craze and I are making is cheerful anyway.

Also contains cake. And lesbians.

(Assuming we actually finish it, of course)

Syria

This thread just might be a contender for the most flagrantly awful RMN thread ever created. We are already well beyond the event horizon and are diving straight into the singularity. A singularity full of conspiracy theorists and dumb people.

(FYI, invading/bombing/nuking xyz country for the sake of political expediency is a shortsighted strategy.)

Visions & Voices Review

Thanks for the review, and sorry for the belated response. I'm the writer/scenario design/lore guy for this project, and wrote almost all of the dialogue, except for some of Alphonse's lines in the tavern and a few random small out of the way bonus events. Craze is the guy that worked on the battle system and who did most of the mapping. He probably put way more effort into this than I did, but I'm happy you liked the writing, for what it's worth. =)

To clarify something about the graphics: none of them were by us. They were all a part of a monster set made by a Japanese artist. I'd give a link but I'm not sure the site exists anymore. The thought of making custom art for this game did cross my mind at the time but we only had about three weeks to make this project initially so that idea never came to anything, and by the time we started working out the bugs for the project a few months later we had forgotten. :P

Anyway, glad you enjoyed this old project of ours in spite of its flaws!

Vacant Sky Vol. 1: Contention Review

Maybe it is just me, but perhaps those who are impatiently waiting for Act III+ (which I doubt will be out before sometime next year) might wanna give the 'non-plus' edition a whirl. Acts I-III of the 'old' edition before the 'Complete' edition enhancements. Go play those 3 and then do a review.


I have been told that the previous version's later acts have just as many or more problems. I also think reviewing something that is actually being worked on is more helpful.

The core reason for wanting to play this game should be for the story. As it is, the story is 'incomplete' unless you go and play the original Acts I-III. Many things are better explained in the originals, and my (unofficial) mod of the game may look to reintegrate some of those 'obsolete' or deleted scenes in flashbacks or dream sequences in order to flesh out the story, characters, and world a bit better. I'll also be adding a good 'Chrono' style campfire sequence where the characters can just chit-chat a bit before a big important event the next day.


People play games for any number of reasons. You can say I should play it for the story, but that does not mean I should ignore the rest of it, since clearly effort WAS put into other areas. Honestly, I'd find completely ignoring the other aspects of a game in favor of one thing more offensive in a review than anything.

As for your mod of the game, I have no opinion on something that I have never heard of, seen or gotten a chance to play.

The stats and battle system could use some work, yes. This was in fact PBC's first real attempt at an RPG back in their high school days, and it does show in some ways more than others. You can only patch old code so many times before you might as well throw in the towel and wait for the funding to remake it. The battle system is greatly improved in later installments, and in the 'Complete' edition some of those changes are then backported to the earlier Acts.


Yes, but he advertised this as a the 'remade' version of the game. He had an opportunity to make the battles fun. They aren't, to me anyway.

A opening bit was done purposefully to establish the tone and style of the rest of the game (excessive gore, brutal and ruthless enemy, no holds barred 'this ain't no nintendo game' aesthetic). Also the whole 'start with some fun action' to get attention before getting into the more 'mundane' things. The original versions actually started with Auria in East Naven rather than starting off in Banivia, then went from there. Though that story is 'retconned' now in the Complete Edition, some aspects of it still impress me. PBC took the advice of close friends and testers in order to make changes to the story and pacing to appeal to more people who didn't want to deal with tons of exposition all at once.


You can argue tone and style, I'll argue flawed plot direction. I am fine with this.

I will also point out that I've played a portion of the first act of the original version. I also had issues with it - but I also was not reviewing the original version when I wrote this.

One of the most important parts of game design is 'you can't please everyone'. Different people have varied tastes.


This is a given. You are stating the obvious.

There are other reviews that give this game a higher score. You can choose to believe their opinion is correct and mine is wrong if you like.

I'm curious why anyone still believes that Auria is 'a whiny angsty teen' since..you know, SHE DIED. Shot and murdered and left for dead, then brought back to life by some guy she barely knew. Knowing all that and dealing with that would mess up nearly anyone, teen or not.


She IS a whiny, angsty teen. Auria might have her reasons, but it still doesn't make her any more likable. She's bratty, selfish, passive aggressive, prone to incoherent jealousy, rarely shows sympathy, is even more rarely sympathetic and we never get to see her act like a human being(something which the rest of the cast fails to do on a regular basis to be fair to her) unless she's with Mia. The small amounts of camaraderie that are built among her and her allies is completely thrown out the window when the ending of act 2 hits.

Anyway, thanks for commenting. But we'll have to agree to disagree.