IDDALAI'S PROFILE

I think I know how you feel, I started countless RPG Maker projects... but only managed to complete a couple of very small projects.

Still struggling to finish some of the larger ones.

But yeah, you should feel accomplished for writing all those reviews, that's a major feat! Keep on having fun!

Holy crap! A review by the legendary reviewer TheRpgmakerAddict! What a treat. Thanks a lot! :D

I've been away from RMN due to some crappy real life reasons, so I only noticed this now. Sorry about that!

I feel that your review manages to encapsulate all the main features of ALONE.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I certainly wasn't expecting any new reviews, that's for sure! I guess this is the closest I'll ever be to make an "RPG Maker Classic".

I'm pretty satisfied by how the atmosphere, names of abilities/equipments and special effects turned out! It does give the game a unique feel.

I still have no idea how I managed to make the original concept and event game in only 8 hours... that always blows my mind, specially considering how slow I am at finishing any other RPG Maker projects. I was on a roll back then, I guess.

That time limit was probably what spurred me forward, the game was born out of desperation.

People back then had very diverging opinions about the game and it's gameplay, which is only natural since it plays around with classic RPG concepts and turns them upside down.
Looking back now, it's kind of amusing since the drama that ensued is exactly the kind of stuff ALONE is meant to represent.

It was a joy reading your review, TheRpgmakerAddict! I don't disagree with any of your points, so there isn't much to discuss there. You do seem to have completely grasped what the game was trying to achieve and accepted it as such.

Oh yeah, there's a hidden "alternative quest", if you have a save right after you defeat the last boss, you should be able to find it.

Thanks again for the review and the kind words!

Cool review! I agree with the sentiment.

Dunno if Cernus is still around, which is a shame since he was a pretty cool guy.

It's a pretty good game given the time frame. Some nifty gameplay systems, even if a little unbalanced. The story is where it really shines though!

author=LordBlueRouge
For anyone interested, here's the original completed game thread on gamingw.
And here it is on saltw.

Thanks for those links! It's rather interesting to read that. And you can even find links to information about the other games in the series, too!

Some of the people were unnecessarily harsh about the games though, that's was disheartening to read. Just skipped all maps, totally missing the point.

But fortunately, those who "understood" the series really had fun playing the games.

First of all, great review. It mirrors my feelings quite closely!
Although I probably still prefer the first one, just for being the first one. But ALEX III is definitely the better game!

I said this before, but I really appreciate that you bring some attention to these old games.

I just finished ALEX III yesterday and wanted to share some thoughts since you should still have the game experience fresh on your mind (and no one else I know played the game recently :P ).

Now that I think about it, they probably called it ALEX “III” because unlike the first entry in the series, this one was a three day collaboration! And that probably sparked the joke about the non-existing ALEX II.

I felt that this one had a lot of atmosphere and was much darker in tone. Maybe that style was getting popular at the time.

At first I had no idea the game would be different if you picked a different character, so I was pretty surprised to find there were different maps for each!

It was pretty cool seeing familiar names from RMN and other places (Strangeluv, TFT, Nessiah, Kazesui, Halibabica, PepsiOtaku, DE, Ocean, Mateui, Kaempfer, Magi and Ciel) and checking out what they were up to back then.
I immediately recognized Ocean's and DE's maps due to the graphical style.

Kazesui usually makes some pretty darn technically impressive stuff with the program. But SCREW his unreasonably difficult/long maps!
I'm talking about the map where you control both Alex and Carol (incidently I forgot you could skip levels and eventually beat it through frustrating sheer luck) and the overly long action boss battle against Death.
He must be some kind of RPG Maker action twitch god to be able to beat his maps.

Looking at the game files, I suspect TFT was gonna make a playable section, but probably ran out of time. So all we got was that cutscene with the tall tower and Carol looking at it. Would've liked to have played it since the files show some pretty rad maps.

I loved the mapping for the blue mine, but wished there was something to do there other than walking.

The Casino was great! As expected from PepsiOtaku. But you needed to win a lot of money to beat it legit.

I loved the teleport labyrinth, it was a joy to beat! It also reminds me of something similar I did in one of my games (that I never released here).

The Dark Tower with the Dark Lord cult was awesome and really well drawn. Then again, DE creates some really cool graphics.

I really liked Ocean's action battle school. The system still needed some tweaks, but for 3 days it's very fun.

Carol's intro is also well thought out. Drugs, man! :P

That one where you follow the mouse... wow. I did not expect that.

I think one of my favourites is the Clicheville. It's really well mapped, makes great use of an overlay and has a very interesting concept. I only wished it had *some* music. The rain sound is nice but overstays it's welcome. Also the bugs.
I realized you cannot complete all missions in one go. You need to pick which ones to complete. But there's a lot to do there!

There's that action puzzle where you have to cross to the other side of the room without touching things on the ground. I liked the tone and gameplay for that one. It was simple and to the point. When you lost you got right back to the start of that same puzzle where you lost, which made it quite painless. Devs today need to learn from that.

Man, the forest with the red trees! It looked so cool and moody!

I think it's funny that despite Magi stating he wasn't feeling particularly inspired when making his map with Alexis, it actually inspired the third game in the series and this game's ending! I also quite liked that map, cool mapping and concept.

I could not find a way to beat the castle stealth mission, I got almost to the end but then I would always get caught and had no way to avoid the enemies! Have no idea.

I was blown away by the spaceship shooter.

The war-zone with the dead soldiers was impressive. So much graphical diversity with only 2 chipsets.

I wonder what happened with Bloodbath and Nessiah. I couldn't tell if that was a joke or serious...

RPG did a great job pulling this off and connecting the maps.

50 people worked on this! This is the community game with the most entries I've ever seen.

Anyway, thanks for reviewing this!
You're doing a great job with all these reviews, man. I don't mean just the ALEX series, but all the games you review. I appreciate it, and I'm sure the creators appreciate them as well.

(guess I'll be back again once I play ALEX IS)