RODEN'S PROFILE

Seiromem
Once again, yes yes, racism hurts, words hurt, actions hurt, I get that.
Don't let it destroy you.
Pain is temporary.

This isn't easy to say, nor is it or should it be a blanket statement about emotional issues.

Games and other media are designed to get you invested. If you become invested in a piece of fiction and something hurtful happens, regardless of how much you like it before or after that it'll have an effect on you, and that effect isn't always easy to just shrug off. I know because I've been there.

I just wanted to say that. I'm rather tired of "don't let it get to you/learn to take a joke" being spouted in these situations, because it's the wrong way to look at things. Not only does it discredit the work, it discredits the audience. It cheapens everything for the sake of an excuse to not think.

Anyways I didn't play much PRMN cause it bored me rather quickly, but if the things mentioned in this review are indeed in the game then I'm sort of glad I didn't continue, cause I would have been pretty lamed out by it.

It's interesting that you can grab the stones from the top, although since I never ran into the issue of throwing too many stones into the lava I don't really know where that would come in handy.

About teaching the player, I think the only thing I didn't pick up the first time through (aside from grabbing from above) was that you could aim the throw straight up to toss a rock right in front of you. This is mostly just due to a lack of reading the control explanation properly on the first run, though.

Regarding the platforming, I think that ultimately, given the restrictions, you made the right choice. Mostly it was just something I had noticed about the game, not really a problem that needed fixing or anything like that. You're right about pixel perfect jumps, too. There's really no need to get into anything like that.

This may help clear up a few things for you: http://rpgmaker.net/games/7691/ploxexplane/

This clearly shows a difference of opinion between us, as I don't believe that any atmospheric piece or art game should need a manual that explains what it is. That's for the game to do, and, as the entire point of the genre, what its success should be measured on.

Also, cancelling choices is a Thing. That you can do. Yeah. In this game there is only one choice that does nothing (the very first). All others matter and have alternatives. Every last one of them.

This is something that I wouldn't have banked on or made so important myself, since cancelling choices isn't something that a player really does all too much. Thinking about it, I honestly can't remember the last time I intentionally cancelled a choice dialogue with the intent or idea that it would progress the game somehow, especially not an important story choice. It seems like a sort of backwards game design idea.

Again, there's also the issue of the first choice presented to the player not making a difference. This is a crucial moment of the teaching process- if the first choice means nothing, it will colour the opinions of the player and make them think that the other choices following it mean nothing, or mean less.

It's about fighting against the temptation that whispers "You'd be better dead. Your family would be happier. People's lives would be better. What do you bring to people's lives? Nothing. You should jump." (We both know that voice quite well, I'm sure, and like Era, have fought against it on more than one occassion.) Only once is Era suicidal - and you more than likely didn't see that ending because it was hidden in a cancel choice. The jump? Murder, pure and simple.

Again, this goes back to my point about not liking to force the player into making negative choices by tricking them. It confuses the message of your game- if the game is about rejecting suicide and conquering it, then why does the game so strongly push the player towards it? Why is the good ending hidden behind strange, illogical mechanics like cancelling choice boxes? Why does the game only continue on the non-jumping scene after such a long and drawn out wait?

I can see where you might be coming from with making the player wait for 2 or 3 minutes without jumping, but in the end it isn't a very fun sequence and hurts the final product. There are probably more subtle and fulfilling ways to get the player to reject suicide, and ones that would better communicate your message at that.

Oh, I certainly didn't mean to sound like you tacked on the endings for no reason! I have enough confidence in your team from the rest of the game to know that you wouldn't have done multiple endings unless you had a good reason for it. I can definitely see what you're saying about letting the player make the ending for themselves, especially in relation to Celesta's character.

Like I said, it's just a matter of strange personal taste. I don't really think there's a way you could have made it "better", and I definitely don't think it hurt the game at all, it's just something I'm kind of inherently disagreeable about. I'm just too much of a fan of classic RPG endings with character parades and touchy feely music and shit, hahaha.

Thanks for the review.

I would definitely agree, Carpan isn't a game in the traditional sense of the word, and because of this it falls short. Being that it was my first game in several years, I'm not surprised that the story came off weak and confusing, and looking back I wish I did more with it.

Make no mistake, at some point me and matrixmancs are going to revisit this game. We've already begun structuring a concept for a remake, but it won't be in the works for quite some time.