REIVES'S PROFILE

Thanks for the review Sgt., I appreciate it.

If I may have a word on the topic of the all-over-the-place scores for this game:
Personally, I certainly don't believe it's a 5/5 game, or a 1/5 game for that matter. However, cal just gave realization to a good point: The extremely high-end reviews of Quintessence are often irrational. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, and I think there's a rational explanation for it.

Many games offer a variety sources of satisfaction, from a sense of accomplishment of puzzle games to sense of adventure in games with exploration elements. Most games have a mix of many of these. However, as a weirdo that coughs up balls of cutscenes and character dialogues non-stop from a movie-director-wannabe, Quintessence essentially completely depends on one single thing -- to create an emotional attachment.

Everything it focuses on, from details like lighting-overlays to aid the atmosphere to the OST, is aimed at that one single goal. It still certainly doesn't work with everybody, especially since being attached to a story or character or just the particular way a story is told really varies from person to person. But for those who *do* end up being emotionally attached, everything else is suddenly passively forgiven. Emotional attachment makes a person irrational and vulnerable.

It's kinda like when I watched Elfen Lied. There were oh-so-many crap aspects in that show, from the excess gore-for-the-sake-of-gore/shock to the various juvenile aspects of certain parts of its story, but in the end, because a part of its story or just the way it was told struck a particular chord and made me attached, I suddenly didn't care about any of its shortcomings and automatically gave it an irrationally high score in my head. To some who didn't end up with the same level of emotional attachment, though, it seemed rather silly and gimmicky.

I think when it comes down to it, it's sort of a form of mental exploitation. But I think I'm just going to go with the artsy-fartsy excuse and say that as long as it's enjoyed in one way or another, cheers. The only negative is the fear of hype backlash, but it's too late for that anyways. From my personal perspective as its author, I think of Quintessence as my "Eragon in its less-than-flattering light"; it was my first project, started a long time ago, and if anything, there were many, many lessons learned from its making indeed. . . but hopefully, it had many other aspects to keep as well.

Thanks a lot for the review Gib! Great points there, I've read it through multiple times and taken note.

By the way, if battles occurred more frequently and had a notable role in the game (with equipment integration and the like), which type of battle system would you suggest for it?

Ah, thanks for the link! I can definitely hear it. Fortunately, it seems to be just the 2 seconds of the parts from 0:21-0:22 and their equivalent occurrences, though, so hopefully it won't be much of a conflict. What do you think about it?

Oh, here's the battle theme - if anyone could link me the song from Golden Song, that'd appreciated. Thanks in advance!:
http://freebirdgames.com/BT-Q-tbv-JQZ-Cut.mp3

Hm, I suppose one alternative would be to choose thumb up/iron fist/thumb down for each of the categories , accompanied by a brief summary. But that would probably be a hassle, and fists may end up being overused.

P.S. @Brick: Despite what stat said, I really wouldn't recommend going any further. The bottle neck at Chap 2 alone would probably put you into a state of mild hibernation.