NTC3'S PROFILE

I agree, nice review. Since there isn't much to talk about the game, I wonder if more can be said about the phenomenon. Speaking from experience as a heavy Metacritic user, I often find what I call "the rule of 68", where games that are scored that at or around that number end up with cult followings and often greater long-term popularity than many green-rated games.

Alpha Protocol, Binary Domain and Nier are probably the best examples here; try to start a discussion about either of them online and you'll likely only hear about how underrated they were. Even weaker fare in that range, like Of Orcs and Men, Remember Me or The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (OK, maybe not XCOM, but that had a HUGE in-built bias against itself from its announcement) are still remembered fondly by the limited audience who played them. It's strange, but I suppose that's part of the market dynamics, and other creative industries aren't exactly immune from it.

^ pro tip: "Hardcore" is when you're challenged not to make mistakes when playing, and are punished harshly when you do. The Player needs to be given a right And a wrong option in order for it to work.

Forcing the player to grind a lot in order to buy anything is not hardcore, because there's no room for error; a more hardcore approach would be providing a slew of reasonably priced items, none of which are obviously more powerful than the other and forcing to make a subtler choice.

Same with bosses; if you look at Dark Souls games few bosses there have attacks that will instantly deal extreme damage and are impossible to avoid. Instead, they generally have a selection of moderately damaging attacks that all require different moves to avoid. Think about it in these terms to create games people might actually enjoy playing.

I haven't played it yet, and I think I'll probably hold out until the upgraded version, if that's okay with you. I have to say that it all sounds good, but the part that really got me interested is the "armour affecting appearance" one. As someone who places immersion first and foremost, it's been one of my biggest gripes with JRPGs and RPGMaker games in general, and I'm glad that you're planning to avoid that pitfall.

Fair and concise review. I have just a couple of questions left. First, what, if anything, is supposed to happen when "Love" and "Dignity" runs out? Also, who is he trying to kill in that "Make it look like an accident" screenshot? I can't see anyone else in the picture.

People don't think of casual when they see words "normal", and that's a fact. This battle would really be more suited for easy difficulty, especially since I fail to see why a lazy player wouldn't just stay at mid-range. shooting plasma balls and healing when they reach 1 bar, up until your "boss" keels over.

Also, story-wise, the way it's built doesn't really have much drama; sure, the slow background is part of the reason. Even if you disregard that, there's simply no feeling that the boss is making much effort or that there's a lot at stake.