NTC3'S PROFILE

Wow, a 4500 word review, well done! Even I rarely write them that long, with the exception of, well, Sore Losers, which received equal score as well. :P It's kind of funny how some of the things you criticise were also present there, like the "Yes option first" choice that really screws you up if you accidentally spacebar-through, or the difficulty dropping off heavily by the end of the game. Not trying to undermine your points or anything, of course: it's a great review, and everything you say is valid.

Out of curiosity, how much would you have given it if magical grenades/healing item system couldn't be broken so easily? Bringing up SL again, I would've had likely scored it half a star, or even a whole star, higher if it ended on the Maglev with the ending choice, and without forced Jade "plot twist".

author=Red_Nova
They do, actually. Attack items follow the same damage formula as basic attacks (a.atk - b.def), just adding a 15 point damage base.

I actually think that might be what breaks them so badly. From my (admittedly limited) JRPG experience, these grenade-like items are best used as a crutch for the player during the early battles/for the battles they can't win otherwise. Having their damage fixed ensures that they become obsolete at a certain point in the game, and forces the player to remain alert and use the other items they might've had saved up by that point, or spend up a lot more resources on crafting their improved versions.

Of course, you can go too far in the other direction too, like Middens did, where by the time of final boss battle I had my inventory absolutely full of couple dozen Vermis types that all did damage roughly equivalent to a level 5 spell from any of player's "karma points" (i.e. companions). Nevertheless, do try experimenting with making their damage fixed or mostly fixed (i.e. 300 + 0.25 AT, if such a thing is possible in VXA).

author=Red_Nova

author=Sated
Surviving actually ends up becoming easier as you make your way towards the end of the game (...)

Hm... Wouldn't this be an inevitable scenario no matter what? For a game about resource management, players will almost always have a surplus of resources near the end, especially if they plan ahead and take the time to actually managed their stock as much as you clearly have. Again though, players weren't meant to have nearly the amount that you collected, so that shifts the context of the statement a little bit. If you had less healing items, would you still say the same thing?

Not necessarily; difficulty can still be balanced upwards so that the game becomes decently challenging with good management and nigh-impossible with bad one, for instance. There are also more creative means for reducing surplus items: I recall Sore Losers poison-gas filled complex, where the player was NOT given any means of being poison-immune. This kept their health at or near 1 for that whole section, instantly making the atypically weak enemies in that section truly deadly.

Also, I do agree that characters should never react with just one emotion type to everything, since that makes them one or two-dimensional at best.

Well, I always support more grey-and-grey morality, and longer demo would mean more material for a future review of mine, so I would say that's a very good idea.

author=SigmaKedavra
I really appreciate your "points". I'll just say that, maybe not in USA, but in France, sexual assault by a total stranger is... common.

This data is 15-years old, but it kind of disagrees, and provides a number similar to the US one. Just trying to provide some context.

author=Nedras
Pentagonbuddy, you basically summed up my thoughts 100%. Rape is portrayed in games too much, and most of the time it's poor.

Is it, though? I've read reviews on thousands of games by now, new and old (to shape my understanding of game design and game industry in general, & often TVTropes pages + other material. Yet, out of commercial games, at least, I can only recall The Witcher series, Dragon Age series, Mars: War Logs and a couple other dark WRPGs, + Hotline Miami 2 and uhm... what else? (besides the dark hentai stuff that has always been there for 0.00001% that consumes it?) I'm probably missing something, but on the whole, I would say our medium is much cleaner in this regard when you compare it to the percentage in rape in books, films, comics and especially TV shows.

Thus, I do think that the problem with finding a good portrayal the topic is more of a by-product of the topic being rare in the first place. The problem is certainly real, though. On RMN, we now have this as a bad example, + Onyx (where it's in the backstory of one of the characters, revealed through a truly horrific exchange.) and Vacant Sky (which supposedly has something called angel rape, though I haven't yet played it to ascertain.)

On the brighter side, there's A Hint of A Tint, whose handling of, essentially, female-on-male-rape is a lot better, though still uneven, and a weaker point of pretty great storyline. On one side, it's acknowledged as wrong and horrific and such, yet never considered to define a person. In fact, I would say it swings a bit too far in the other direction, as lone male character essentially shrugs off being "charmed" magically into sex by one of the antagonists a bit too easily, and the event is never brought up afterwards.

@ NeverSilent: Yeah, I'll just leave you guys to it, I guess. Hope you get it done and it's successful overall.

@ LockeZ: My point was that those three unquestionable successes were back then, at the 3D gaming's inception. When he tried to follow that same approach in modern times, it led to abject failure. He realised that, which is why he stepped away from actually designing games and found unquestionable success in creating VR hardware for games.

author=Luchino
@unity:I don't know if I should request a review for this ( since it's only half an hour long ) but some feedback would be nice. =) And given that the old rating is from the December 2013 demo too.

Well, I once managed to write 1000-word review for 15-min. long In-Between, so that shouldn't be a problem. Usually, my demo reviews are unscored, though I might make an exception if I find the 2013 review in need of counter-balancing.
It'll have to wait till next month though, as I've sworn to temporarily reduce my RMN involvement in order to avoid total meltdown in RL. :(