Full Review: Weapon Shop de Omasse (3DS)

So I finished Weapon Shop de Omasse the other night, and then I finished it an additional four times the next day, but I will get to that later on.  This game was created by developer Level 5 (Professor Layton series, Starship Damrey) and conceptualized by Japanese comedian Yoshiyuki Hirai and that comedic sense and timing comes across frequently during the game, referencing both video game culture and TV culture; "I stick them with the. . .which end was it?" said one generic NPC during a battle.

Gameplay

As stated a few weeks back, Weapon Shop de Omasse is a comedic blacksmithing parody simulation of traditional JRPGs.  The game is spent between a number of mini-game-esque type tasks. 

1) Smithing: You are able to create various types of weapons (Sword, Dagger, Spear, Axe, Dao, Club, et cetera).  You strike the chunk of heated metal to a musical theme that is associated with a Hero character.  It basically acts like a rhythm matching/mimicking game, but you have to strike the metal in different areas and "carve" away the unwanted material in order to get the shape of the specific weapon you are creating.  While smithing, you also have to keep an eye on the temperature of the metal because if it cools down too much, the metal will not be as malleable and you will fail in your smithing task.

Chaining hammer falls will increase the bonus to whichever attribute
the game currently wants to assign your bonus to.

Smithing is actually where I had the biggest issue.  As you complete a musical phrase, you add a certain attribute (slash, pierce or bludgeon) bonus to that weapon although I was never able to figure out how the game decided to choose which attribute was going to be assigned.  For example, I would be smithing an axe that would need to have a high slashing attribute and the first two "chains" on a musical phrase would add points to slash, but then for the rest of the song, points would go to pierce and bludgeon.  Upon finishing, each weapon is rated (Lame, Not Bad, Good, Great) and if the weapon's primary attribute was rated as "Lame," your weapon would often be classified as "Dull," which is not something you want an axe you crafted for your Grandmother who is questing to find her husband to be swinging around.  I am positive I must have missed something early on in the game when this was explained, so that is my own loss.

2) Polishing: Once a weapon is created or returned, you have to polish it back to its presentable beauty.  Polishing also buffs a weapon's attributes (slash, pierce, bludgeon) by about 10 points in each category., you Weapons of various types and strengths are unlocked as the owner of the shop buys additional materials which allow you to create new weapons as well as your customers who return their rented weapons along with some items used to modify the weapons you make.

The rest of the game is spent keeping track of which weapons you have in stock, which weapons you need to make for heroes who have put in orders to be picked up later, and what materials you currently have in stock to create the aforementioned weapons.

Story

The story in Omasse, is a very stereotypical one for people who have played a JRPG or twelve: Small village near "Starting City" where you play as Yhan, an apprentice to the local master blacksmith, Oyaji where customers come in and rent weapons to complete quests in anticipation of the returning Dark Lord and his minions.  Yuhan and Oyaji have a subtle comedic relationship, but the majority of the laughs come from Oyaji's blunt reaction to characters who enter the shop.

There are a number of hero characters who have their own individual stories, which are fairly amusing and at times I often felt like a bartender, hearing them talk about some aspect of their lives and the particular quest they were going on.  And while you do deal with the hero characters, the other half of the time you deal with generic NPCs (which I found odd that they were all male where as there is one transgender and four female hero characters) who acknowledge the fact that they are not heros by saying things like, "Wouldn't you rather rent this out to a real character?" and "I like repeating the same actions!"

The Grindcast, which you can select a single person to read their feed.
Some characters will also use hashtags like #weaponreviews.

Half of the story is told by the face-t0-face interactions in the store while the other half is through a game mechanic called the "Grindcast."  Grind referring to the JRPG aspect of games grinding for levels between story points and Cast from, I am assuming, podcasts.  The characters are told that there is a device on each weapon that allows the people in the shop to keep track of them on their quest and the weapons.  The Grindcast plays in the background too while you perform various tasks around the shop (smithing, polishing, inventory management) and it can be kind of hard to keep track of what the heros are up to while also paying attention to smithing that wavy-bladed flamberge.  There will also be times when unlabeled and unknown characters' quest updates will appear on the Grindcast, but these are not explained and they come across as just general chatter.

[no_spoilers]There were two separate and unrelated story elements that I was surprised that the game took.  The first I saw coming but was still surprised that it happened, knowing that the "traditional American producer" would say that the audience would not want to see that happen to a character.  The second event I did not see coming at all and felt it was rather abrupt.  Upon later reflection, it made a little bit of sense, but it felt a little out of place.  That is all I will say[/no_spoilers].

Master Blacksmith Oyaji.
Proper protection is necessary around the forge.

Graphics

With the exception of some of the design for one of the hero characters, I was overall very happy with the overall look of the game.  Being on the 3DS, I was not going in expecting modded Skyrim level of graphics, but you could say that based on the title screen, I was expecting something more akin to Akira Toriyama with a little bit less in the spikey hair department.  There was one character who did look like they could have come from a Dragon Warrior game as the best friend or part time sidekick of Loto/Erdrick.

3D Effectiveness

The 3D effect worked very well for the majority of the game.  Most of the time I had the slider at about 50-75%.  My favorite part was looking over the various weapons I had created with the slider on, but seeing as how NPCs or heroes would frequently walk into the shop or I had weapons to forge or polish, there did not leave a whole lot of time (when I thought about it) to admire my handiwork.

Music & Sound

Since at least half of the smithing aspect of the game involved hammering out weapons to music, the music would have to be catchy enough not to become annoying; pretty much what every overworld and battle music in every RPG ever has to strive to achieve.  Each style of weapon would have a specific song associated with it and while the songs became repetitive pretty early on, the rhythm that you had to hammer out changed depending on the level of the weapon; higher level weapons mean a more complicated rhythm.

Some of the songs associated with the characters are rather silly and probably should not be taken too seriously, but if you are already in the mindset that this is a comedic game, then you will be right at home with the tunes.

Something else I found to be interesting was that there was no vocal localization for English speaking countries (not that everything has to be English-centric).  All of the spoken dialogue in the game, which came from Oyaji, is all spoken in Japanese.  I know can make the general sounds associated with "Lame, Not Bad" and "Great."  There are other praises/scolds you are given upon completing each weapon and you can tell by the inflection in Oyaji's voice if he is pleased or not.  You can also assume that a dull weapon should not be part of the store's inventory.  I was and am very glad that the games spoken dialogue was not localized, but then again I tend to favor original language and subtitles over dubbed versions of anything anyhow.

Final Thoughts

So the game took about 15 hours to complete and as far as I can tell, that will be about the average amount it takes in order to beat the game every time as the events are scripted and even if you make weapons faster than I did, it will not mean that they will be rented out and returned any faster.  Some people, who are better blacksmiths than I and better judges of character when choosing which weapon to rent out may not take as long as hero quests are repeated until they succeed and advance their story.

An additional 11 hours have not changed my high recommendation for Weapon Shop de Omasse one bit as I still would recommend it to anyone with a 3DS.  While the game became tedious at points and frustrating trying to figure out why my weapons were coming out dull or when my money became so low that I couldn't afford to but the highest level materials to make the strongest weapons for the higher level quests heros and NPCs needed to accomplish in order to help make the weapon shop money so they could afford to by better materials to make better weapons. . .and so on and so forth.  

But what is a fun and memorable game without a little bit of work and frustration?  Not worth playing in my opinion.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Fighting for Survival

First Impressions (Of Sorts): Weapon Shop de Omasse (3DS)

"In the world of RPGs, many heroes arise, but someone's got to make their weapons."  That's the tagline and hook for the 3DS eShop game, Weapon Shop de Omasse from developers, Level-5 (Professor Layton series).  The premise is a pretty simple one and is stated in the tagline: you are a blacksmith (actually the apprentice to the blacksmith) and are making weapons in a village during a typical JRPG setting: in that the Dark Lord has returned after being defeated 50 years prior.  It's your job to create the weapons (which vary among daggers, swords, spears, axes, katanas and the like).

I credit in large part my history with "traditional" JRPGs such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior/Quest and Paladin's Quest for easily falling into this game, similar to how I was able to buy into the gameplay and aesthetic of Witch and Hero. If you aren't immediately okay with the idea that there is an absolute evil and that there are people out questing AND that the game makes light of this common convention, then this probably won't be the game for you.

Gameplay is a mix between overly simplified blacksmith simulation crossbred with a rhythm game with a bit of multitasking (keeping the temperature of the metal between the correct temperature) thrown in for good measure.  You also have to keep track of your blacksmithing materials, which weapons you have already created and who has which weapon out on a quest.

There are also some rather divergent elements to this game that are not a part of most RPGs.You are in charge of selecting the proper weapon for your customers which means looking at the weakness of the monster they are going after along with their personal preference for a certain type of weapon.  You are also in charge of polishing the weapons after they are made and when they return in order, I think, to help level up the weapons.  The most "different" thing is that weapons are rented as opposed to sold.  It sounds very odd, and even the characters in-game comment on how odd this is for a village blacksmith in an RPG game to be doing, but that's one of the game mechanics and it works pretty well.

There have been times between customers coming into the store that I wish I had time to craft some of the newly available weapons (due to new materials coming into the shop), but the store is just too busy.  Then there's downtime, which is something that exists in nearly every job.  I have created all the weapons that I needed to, all the weapons have been polished, the store is stocked with enough materials for additional smithing if need be. . . there's just nothing to do.  So your character just hangs around the store while you, the player, reads from the Grindcast (a twitterfeed-type device that lets you read about what the heros/NPCs are doing while they're out with one of the weapons they've rented from your store.

Presently, I've put almost four hours into this game and while entertained, there hadn't been that moment that often happens in games where you just sit back and are like, "Wow. . . huh."  That happened last night for me.  I had finished crafting a handful of new weapons, some of which came out dull (and I'm still trying to figure out why) and I knew that my (in-game) Grandma was coming by to pick up a weapon for a specific type of enemy.  Well, she showed up a lot sooner than I had thought, but I had just crafted a new type of axe that would give her a 60% chance of success so I rented it to her.  It wasn't until after she left that I went back to polishing some weapons when I realized that I had rented my Grandmother an unpolished weapon.  I felt shame.  That I had let my Grandmother leave a store that her grandchild worked at with an axe that I had failed to make as presentable as possible (I am just a little bit afraid that she's going to bring this fact up when she returns the weapon).  That was when I knew for sure that this game had it's proverbial hooks in me.

There is still a lot that I have not covered (artwork, music, spoken dialogue, written script, more in depth of the Grindcast, et cetera) and that will have to wait for the Full Review to come whenever I finish the game, which will definitely happen.  The game, unfortunately, is no longer on sale through the eShop, but I would have been happy if I had paid full price, even though the fact that it was on sale is what made me purchase the game, but if you're still on the fence, the demo is available and gives a great example of what the rest of the game would play like.  I highly recommend it.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

One Song We Share

Webcomic Post: Homestuck

I tried to post about Homestuck over a year ago, but I couldn't narrow down my thoughts.  This bulleted list helps. 

Oh, it starts innocently enough...

Things you should know about Homestuck:

• Homestuck is not a video game, it is a webcomic, but it will be a video game soon!  
• Homestuck is hilarious and features a great number of jokes about data structures in the first Act
• It also makes lots of jokes about video games.
• The story is very long and vast and absurdly complex.  More so than any rpg I've played except maybe Xenogears
• Homestuck has really great cinema scenes
• It also has a really good soundtrack
• Homestuck is free to read and all the music is free to listen to.  
• Homestuck is mega-popular with the next generation* 
• Homestuck has a devoted and loyal fanbase and huge catalog of fan art. 
• Homestuck might just be the Ulysses of the Internet
• My favorite characters are Jade, Dave and Karkat and Terezi
• I took my font choice from Homestuck
• Prior to Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures produced Problem Sleuth, which is also hilarious, imaginative and epic.  But less overblown and more lighthearted. (and not nearly as long) 
• Homestuck has recently begun updating again after a year-long pause.  It should be finished by the end of next year.  

Basically, Homestuck is everything the best jRPGs are, but it's not actually a video game.  I recommend it to everyone who likes jRPGs and has a few dozen hours to waste reading it.  Once you get in, it's really tough to put down, even though it will make you sick sometimes when it meanders around for aeons.  Have fun!

-D

*there are some who would call them... Tim?  or 'millenials,' --actually, I prefer Tim, I'm going to call that generation Tim from now on

Merry Monthly Update: December 2014

Falalalalalalalalala,

I think things of note in the past month are all the many fun links I discovered by using google + and joining all these indie game, game map and game design groups.   I will be assembling a collection of said links in a post coming soon to an internet near you.

Another thing is that I started playing Chrono Trigger again.  Been a long time for that one.  So far, so good, it's a nice way to get my 16bit jRPG fix.  I think I might actually like the game more this time around than I did when I first played it.  I think it's a lack of competition - back then I was always playing like three jRPGs.

A third thing is I read a Michael Moorecock book: The Sword of the Dawn.  Very interesting, vaguely familiar and completely pulpy fantasy novel from the 60s.  It’s a far-future dystopia situation, following a sword-fighting German hero named Hawkmoon.  It takes place on earth, but bears little resemblance to our world.  There’s magic, and technology, and the names of current countries are vaguely based on present-day countries.  It’s fun sometimes to figure out what they are.  Amerikh – America.  Granbreten – Great Britain.  Asiacommunista – china.  It was a fun book, light reading with plenty of swashbuckling and a dash of gruesomeness.

In December, if everything goes according to plan,  I’m going to stop by the comic shop and buy another book in the series.   I'm also going to play Chrono Trigger and Magic the Gathering - queue of unplayed Steam games be damned!  And I guess I’ll see my family or something.  

-D

P.S.  I also picked up the novel Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut.  So far, it's very Kurt Vonnegut, which is a good thing.  

Emulator Hour: Dragon Warrior 2

Honestly, I think the Box Art says it all. This cover art represents everything I thought totally awesome when I was ten.  Look at the heroes' sweet horns!  You know those capes are imbued with properties of magical awesomeness causing them to always look cool and never get in the way.  Let's go fight some monsters in an exciting and triumphant fashion like it's what we were born to do!

As I previously said: As a sequel, Dragon Warrior 2 delivered .  Not only is it a true sequel, continuing the story of the previous game, but it has an expanded world and game mechanics.  This is the kind of growth I had always wished for in games and DW2 heavily informed my expectations.  The age at which I played Dragon Warrior 2 does a lot to color my memories.  The game was so BIG.  I remember dedicating hours and hours on weekend rentals getting my first party member, the prince of Middenhal.  That obnoxious prince of Middenhal who always seemed close to death. I remember upgrading my weapon to the iron sickle, feeling pretty badass.  I also remember having some coaching during this game as my other family members were still participating in video game time.  

It's not that I needed the coaching (my pride would not allow it) but it is always nice to have someone along with you for the adventure.  I think it qualifies as a Family Fun Time game, because I remember EMZ helping with and also commenting on the different creature designs.  Gotta love the smiles on the slimes and on the drakees.  There's something funny about that goofy smile on a creature whose only desire is to kill you.

I only ever rented Dragon Warrior 2.  I didn't beat it then, though I tried and tried.  I loved having a party to build, I loved raising levels and I loved that each character was different.  I could usually pick up the sorceress by the end of one rental (at Placer TV Video).   But then I'd have to return it, hoping and praying the save file would still be there next weekend when I aimed to rent it again.

In this way, Dragon Warrior 2 has always been a special title for me.  I owned and beat the first game more than once, but the second was elusive and expanded.  I never knew what the limits of that game were, and it leaves a nice feeling of possibility.

-D

P.S.

Here's the wikipedia article for some background.

Also, a gamasutra article about the history of dragon quest.  For further reading.

As previously mentioned, I will be calling this game and series 'Dragon Warrior' rather than 'dragon quest' to keep with my own experience.  It wasn't until many years later that I learned of the name difference, and that the US games began being called dragon quest.  For me it was always dragon warrior.

Emulator Hour: Xenogears (PS1)

Seems like a sufficiently villainous goal

You know, in my endless pursuit of nostalgia, I've come to the conclusion that the Playstation 1 actually had a lot of really great games.  Back in the great CD Burn-off of '01, I acquired quite a few excellent RPGs from Square.  In fact, I think the rate of US release for Square really increased around that time.  'Only in Japan' was no longer a phrase to frustrate the RPGphile.

Xenogears - it's been twelve years since I played through the first disc, but I still remember it like yesterday.  Would I do it again?  Maybe.  I think I'll just read a plot summary instead.   This is a very good plot summary, full of love and criticism.   You know, I played this game yesterday for barely an hour, and I've had its image in the back of my mind all day today.  I think this may be due to the sheer number of hours I put into it twelve years ago.  This  game is long-  50 hours on one disc!  (of two)

Playing Xenogears is like watching 300 episodes of some Shonen Anime.  You know - the kind whose story just keeps getting bigger and bigger, new twists, bigger bad guys, greater powers.  Xenogears is epic, sweeping, daring and strange.  The music is good, the environments have character, the battle system is fun.  All in all, a great jRPG from 1998.  

 But, there's no getting around it:   Xenogears starts to drag after while.  Then it proceeds to drag on for a very long time.  After a point, it's hard to say what is dragging the most, the story or the gameplay.  You start to notice the encounter rate is maybe a bit too high.  Or that the story simply takes too long to reveal things that it has been hinting at for a long time.  On the one hand, I like that the game takes its time with the story.  On the other hand, when two things are dragging at once, it really takes its toll.  This game is in dire need of an editor.

And yet... I would still consider playing it through again.  Or at least trying.  Boy it would be nice if I shorten some of the gameplay though.  It feels weird to say so, like some kind of betrayal of my young self, who loved long games.  But it's true, and I don't think it's just me being old. I think that Zeboyd games were onto something when they made monster encounters manual.  Or Chrono Trigger with the encounters being featured on the screen, sometimes avoidable, sometimes predictable, but not hyper-persistent and random.   There are so many times when I'd like to explore a little-- hell, even hear some more of the music play out, but I know I'm going to hit a random encounter every five seconds.  In an already long game, this is just too much. 

So, ultimately I'd say Xenogears:  play at your own risk.  If you like jRPGs, particularly 90s era RPGs, Xenogears is a great game.  Compelling, unique and mysterious.  But it takes like 50 hours to get through the first disc, and it can really drag.

It's really tough to encapsulate Xenogears in just a pic or two.  But here's a cast shot.

 
P.S.  I decided to read through the Let's Play Xenogears article rather than play through the second disc.  It was enjoyable and entertaining, with music links for each scene, and a pretty funny sense of humor.  I can only recommend it as a cop-out for those of us unwilling to dump another 20 hours into this game.  

P.P.S.  Xenogears gets a lot of criticism - the same criticism I also levied against it.  So here's an article from Joystiq coming to its defense.  It really is a great game!   Mostly.

It's Been A Hell Of A Week

Apologies for how I've been posting for the last week.  Last Friday I was unable to post because I didn't plan ahead, went to work on Thursday night, got home Friday morning, went to sleep, woke up at 2pm, packed for a trip down to California, sat in traffic for an hour when the commute usually takes 18-25 minutes, boarded a plane eventually arriving at my parents' house 8:45pm thoroughly exhausted.

Wednesdays MIDI-Week Single ended up not happening partly because of forgetting the aforementioned computer cable at the aforevisited parents' house and only receiving it on Wednesday afternoon shortly before going to sleep so that I would be awake enough to go to work Wednesday night, which is what I did again last night (Thursday-Friday).

And now I sit here at 7:30am wondering how to salvage what it is that I'm meandering on about so that I can go to sleep and wake up around 1pm to start my day.  So on that note, I'll see you on the other side, hopefully refreshed and full of zazz.

Not that you can tell, but it's now 2:35pm and I have semi-groggily awoken from my slumber where myself and another person were in combat with some sort of ice dragon that was reminiscent of dragging a butter knife along a wall of rocks.  It was not super effective.

But we're here to talk about gaming and I will do just that, but in more of an update form.  Again.

In the last week, I started playing Dota 2, all thanks to Chreekat and Vorlynx.  I'm presently still going through the tutorial, specifically the one where you play through the center lane 10 separate times with one of 20 characters.  I've gone through this one tutorial four times already and while it has become a little repetitive, the variation in the character design and their abilities is what's keeping the game interesting.  I have a feeling that this is a key feature of a MOBA.  I will be going back soon.

The Bioshock 2 DLC, Minerva's Den is also progressing nicely, although I have since forgotten how/why another early Big Daddy has come to life amidst the ruin of Rapture.  I think that was covered in the intro/beginning of the game, but it didn't seem all too important.  Also, why is it that only your character is able to use the Vita-Chamber?  And thanks to that article, it makes sense why every single enemy doesn't use the modern wonders of Vita-Chamber, from Ryan Industries.  I guess I must have glossed over that somewhat important plot point.

I also started Dragon Quest VI after deciding that I needed to step away from Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D on the 3DS.  I had reached a point with the game that it was not fun anymore and that I was only playing because I felt obligated to finish the game.  As I told Dr. Potts this weekend, the game play reminded me a bit like Super Meat Boy except with a limited number of lives. The charm to Super Meat Boy is that you have infinite lives and being able to pass a level is determined by the players stamina whereas in DKCR3D, you are reminded frequently of your dwindling life counter and dying is just as easy.  Dragon Quest VI  I feel is a much needed old school JRPG, of which I realized I hadn't played in, at least I think, a very long time.  Maybe not since I finished Dragon Quest V back in June 2012.

I'm going to call it a day and I will see y'all next week for a more concise and less free flowing post/article.  I just needed to get back on the wagon after missing last Friday and Wednesday.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
I Just Can't Figure It Out

Full Review: Witch and Hero (3DS)

First off, apologies that this article is coming out a few days late.  Things happened in the later half of the week that I hadn't anticipated (nothing bad) and I wasn't able to complete this article on time, or even in a form that I could post on Saturday, which is something that I've done in the past.  So now, here is Friday's post today, on Monday.

Witch and Hero is a game that I first saw back in January when the demo became available in Nintendo's eShop, despite the game having been released since April 2013.  The demo was pretty short, coming in at only 19 minutes, but it did everything a demo is supposed to do.  I was introduced to the concepts of the game and played through the first couple of levels.  I was immediately taken with the "retro" visual and musical style, enough so that a week or two later, I bought the game via Nintendo's eShop.  FK Digital, the company behind Witch and Hero have made a game that's charming, fun and can be played in short bursts when you know you'll only have a few minutes while the Top Ramen noodles boil to perfection.

STORY
You probably shouldn't be expecting much in the way of story from this game, as it is attempting to emulate the JRPGs of the late 1980s (Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, Ultima: Exodus).  The story is something that you find out before the gameplay begins and it's about as bare bones as an RPG story can be, but it's all done with a sense of humor.  You're told in the intro that the Witch and the Hero go off to kill Medusa, but the witch is turned to stone and the Hero is beaten to a pulp.  The Hero manages to escape with the Witch, but he seeks revenge and must kill Medusa to release the curse on the Witch.  How much more of a story do you need?

GAMEPLAY
The game is pretty basic.  You move the Hero with the joystick.  Your mission/goal is to kill of the hordes of enemies that come at you from all over the screen.  You are to protect the Witch who is sitting stationary in the middle of the screen.  You both have your own health meters and while you regenerate health after you reach 0 HP by lying prone, if the Witch loses all her HP, she crumbles.  You attack enemies by running into them and you damage to each other.  If you attack from behind, you are awarded with a different attack sound, you do more and take less damage than from frontal assaults.

Later in the game when you are able to temporarily bring the Witch back to life (with the blood of your enemies), you can change between two spells she continuously casts with "X" and have her face whichever direction you want her to cast her spells in with the "L & R" shoulder buttons.  Even later, after you find the Holy Sword (of course there has to be a holy sword), you can become super charged and do a lot of damage by charging up a meter that fills as you kill enemies in the stage.

As you go through the stages, you earn both experience points and money.  The experience points raise your level (this is an RPG after all), while the money you use to upgrade your Sword, Shield, Boots (speed) or the Witches Fireball or Storm spell.  I do not know if there is a level cap for experience (I reached level 48), but the equipment and spells max out at level 20.

A lot of the reviews online bring up the repetitive gameplay that makes up the majority of Witch and Hero and I cannot argue at all with this observation.  The game is exceedingly repetitive.  You will often find yourself grinding at the last stage you were able to complete so that you can purchase enough upgrades to get you through the next stage.  If you never played any of the late 80s / early 90s RPGs and were used to grinding levels, then this game probably will become very boring to you very quickly.  What I liked was that I could pick the game up, go through a stage which would take no more than two minutes, maybe raise a level and make enough gold to buy an upgrade or two then put the game back down.

VISUALS

As you can tell, the art style is very similar to something that you would find in the early Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy games.  This is something that really drew me into the game.  Just looking at the world map, I knew what it was that F K Digital was trying to get across to the player.  While there is no exploration of the world and each stage is only a single screen with a graphical style that represents the geographical region/area that you are in, I feel that anything more would have felt out of place.

Even the monsters look like they could be found in Dragon Warrior, although as the game progresses, they look more like early SNES era monsters.  And yes, in classic RPG style, a lot of the monster sprites are reused but given a different pallet, meaning they are stronger.  Little touches like this that harken back to established rules for RPGs are very welcome.


SOUND & MUSIC
I was very pleased with the sound effects in the game.  There was a different tone when you struck an enemy and when you hit them from behind.  It's like the difference between a high five, and one that connects with a satisfying SMACK!  When the Hero gets knocked unconscious, there's a very stereotypical "Wee-wee-wee-woo-woo" sound as you spin away from your last hit and then fall to the ground.  There's even a separate heart crushing sound when the Witch takes too much damage and she crumbles into pieces.  It's a simple sound bite that would be missed if it had not been included.

The music in the game continues to fit with the style set forth by visuals.  During the credits, Sound is credited to PANICPUMPKIN while "Background Chip" is credited to REFMAP.  After some preliminary searching, it appears that PANICPUMPKIN might very well be the composer, but whomever it is that composed the music did a fantastic job.  The overworld and shop themes all sound appropriate for what they are while the battle music is very catchy in the same way that the battle music from Final Fantasy I & II is memorable.  I only wish that I would be able to purchase/acquire the soundtrack.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Witch and Hero is not going to be a game for every person out there.  It is a short game, taking me 5 hours 24 minutes to complete; I reached level 43 and maxed out everything except the Fireball spell.  On one side, I would say that the game is marketed towards those who grew up playing NES era RPGs, but on the other side, it could be aimed at people who are looking for a pick up and play RPG-type game that doesoften  require you to grind for a while just through the next stage.

The only thing that I felt the game lacked was any 3Dness, despite being sold/marketed for the 3DS market.  While any 3D effects would have potentially conflicted with the visual theme, I feel that I would have been a simple endeavor and would have only added to the "charm" factor.  That being said, not have any 3D effects did not in any way detract from the game or my overall feelings towards my enjoyment.

Normally retailing at $3.99, Witch and Hero is currently on sale via the Nintendo eShop for only $2.79 until May 1st (2014).  I find the price to be about right for what the game is, which a single screen combat game stylized after NES era RPGs, and if that's your thing, you will have fun.


~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
With Action Overcomes Death

Full Review: Evoland

Evoland began life as a flash game,  and winner of the Ludum Dare 24.  The theme of the contest was evolution, and I can see why this game won, it is very clever and well executed, especially for being created in a mere 40 hours!   The flash game is now called Evoland Classic, and the downloadable PC/Steam game has taken the title Evoland.  I strongly recommend playing the original (free) flash game before playing the downloadable.  It takes about five to ten minutes to play through, and is a charming bit of fun. 

• Play Evoland Classic

The current Evoland takes the original game and expands it.  The graphical development moves into full 3d, with turn based battles and other RPG tropes.  The result is about 2 hours of light-hearted fun and nostalgia, with a few different gameplay and graphical modes.  The concept is strikingly similar to one of my own ideas, but there are differences, which I will get into at another time.  

Evoland *itself* has evolved.  Whoa. Meta. 

I was initially expecting a more robust gaming experience, and I reacted poorly after playing about 45 minutes.  But having beaten the game once, and adjusted my expectations accordingly, I think that Evoland is a decent game.  Even though the nostalgia is directed at older players who played games in the late 90s, I think of it as a great game for children. 

This game lends itself to being played over and over again, and the action is simple enough that it might be easily understood by one not used to this style of game.  In addition, the bright colors and superdeformed character design may appeal to children.  Not to mention, the various references to jRPG and Action/Adventure game tropes may lay a nice foundation for the real deal.  

As a fan of retro games, I wish the designers had spent more time in the 8-bit and 16-bit, two dimensional realm.  The bulk of the gameplay takes place after the transition to 3d, and it also seems to drag a bit at that part.  Particularly when the random encounter rate seems to be just too high, and the experienced gained in those battles, rather pointless.  

Evoland is a game that bit off more than it could chew. While it has many different gameplay modes, it doesn't do any of them particularly well. On my initial play, I expected to see mechanical changes progressing with the graphics, but it didn't work that way.  There is very little mechanical depth.  This works for the game in the sense that it keeps it very light.  On the other hand, I had higher expectations.  

Ultimately, this game plays like a demo for a much better game, or perhaps an Animal Crossing mini-game. If you want to play an indie Zelda clone, I recommend Anodyne.  And if you want to play a jRPG parody, I recommend Breath of Death 7 or Cthulu Saves the World.  I can't recommend purchasing Evoland for anything more than $5.  But really, with price tags that low, why not buy all of them?  


-D


Evoland Summary

The Good:
Fun, light-hearted atmosphere.  Funny.  Fantastic graphics, excellent monster design.  Really clever concept.  Multiple Gameplay Modes, emulating The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy VI/VII and Diablo/Gauntlet Legends.  

The Bad:
Lack of Gameplay depth.  'Evolution' Theme is flimsy - graphics upgrade in a linear way, but gameplay mechanics seem random.  Frustrating difficulty at times, especially in the Diablo Section.  Different gameplay modes don't affect one another much.  The overworld encounter rate is way too high.  No camera control.  

Mid-month update without purpose or direction. Hi!

Right now, it's pouring the-fuck down rain in Austin.  Which has provided me an excellent setting to do some writing.

Another thing about Austin:  Mosquitos.  At least the part I'm in.  There are a lot of f-ing mosquitos.  Like an increase of a factor of 10 over where I'm used to living.  So many that I don't like to be outside.  Like, five minutes is too many.  Which really sucks when I want to sit on the porch for a few minutes, because it's stuffy in the house, or perhaps to make a phone call.

That actually reminds me of a game idea: Mosquitos.  That is to say, if you are traveling in a region that is ripe with them, then maybe you receive 1 damage every few seconds, like a really mild poison.  I don't know why, but I'm frequently thinking in terms of weak status ailments in a mid 90s JRPG game.  Probably because my teenage years were the peak years of gaming for me.  Now that I'm twice as old, I guess I'm just living in the past.

Another thing to mention is that I'm listening to the experience points podcast, which I've mentioned before.  I really like this podcast.  The hosts are articulate and critical, and they're pretty good speakers.  Not a lot of 'ums' and 'uhhhhs' in the podcast.  I just listened to their review of 'the last of us' which is a majorly hyped game, and I really like how they break it down.  I get a sick joy from hearing that it's not 'the greatest game ever' and more of just a great game that does some things really well and other things really mediocre.

I'd also like to mention that out of nowhere, I had a stage theme form TMNT for the nes stuck in my head.  If you'd like to listen, it's the first portion of the stage theme link I've provided, and it goes on for 30 minutes, in case you just can't get enough! hah.  Also, this reminded me that the mini boss theme really is rad.

Also, here's an idea for gaming difficulty:  Start a game on nightmare difficulty - no choice, there is only one setting.  After the first 5-10 deaths, you unlock 'very hard.'  And then after another 10-20 deaths, you unlock 'hard mode'  and so on until you unlock easy mode.  I think that might be a fun way to balance difficulty in a game.  The first difficulty setting change would have to come early, so the player wouldn't just give up.  I'd like to see how this would work with test audiences.

-D

P.S.  Check out this short episode of RadioLab about Quicksand.  I'll give you a teaser:  Apparantly kids aren't really afraid of quicksand anymore.  wha?

Emulator Hour: Real Ultima NES challenge!

After bouncing around between some 8-bit RPGs, I've settled on Ultima: Exodus (III).  This game has its hooks in me, and I find myself thinking about it when I'm not playing.  At any given time, when I've been gaming, I have these sort of nebulous game ideas floating around the borders of my consciousness.  These are usually influenced by what I've been playing lately, and there is definitely a distinctly Exodus flavor these days.  I probably spend more time daydreaming about this game than I do playing it. 

But I am determined to play it and to make substantial progress in this very difficult NES game.  After playing through a bunch of Final Fantasy, Ultima:Exodus is refreshing in its non-linearity, party customization and challenge.  And boy, is it challenging.  It really takes time to get some momentum in this game, and it makes Final Fantasy games appear to be positively coddling to the player.  For example: Inns.  There is one Inn in Exodus, and it serves only to save the game.  No free life points.  For that you have to shell out 200 gold to a doctor who will, in exchange, heal *one* of your party members.  This is a stiff contrast to Final Fantasy where Inns are in every town and cost pocket change to heal your entire party.  Oh, and did I mention nearly every treasure chest is booby trapped?  So even if the enemies are easy, you can be killed claiming your reward.   

Much of the early part of Exodus I have spent slogging around the overworld map, grinding, exploring and trying not to die. I routinely check each town to see if there's something I missed, some useful piece of the puzzle.  But as far as I can tell, my only mission at present is to rack up gold and xp and buy armor, so that I will be ready for the new slew of super-tough enemies when I level up. 

In this game the only way to level up is by cashing-in experience points with Lord British. 

At which point, I will need to find a new lead on gold, because killing enemies just doesn't do it.  I think what I need to do is hit the dungeons which are scattered around the map, and see if there isn't some loot in there.  Of course,  when I've paid these dungeons a visit, I haven't made it out alive.  I'm hoping that the boost to HP I will get when I raise my levels up will give me what I need to survive. 

I realize that I am accustomed to a JRPG pace, which is extremely steady.  Go out, grind a while, come back stay at the inn. Grind some more, buy weapons and armor, when your strong enough, move to the next area.  Repeat.  That is the basic JRPG progression, and as far as I can tell, it's been universal since the original Final Fantasy.  (I would say Dragon Warrior, but there was actually a bit less linearity to that game).  Ultima is much different.  The game guides you very little, and much of it is discovered through exploration.  And patience.  oh, so much patience.  

But I am resolute.  The very challenge of the game is what keeps me slowly moving forward.  I don't know how long I can last, but there are milestones that I'd like to achieve.  I'd like to get in and out of a dungeon and live.  I'm thrilled to say I just reached Ambrosia.  Next I need to collect some flowers and raise some of my stats.  Then start collecting marks, which means deeper dungeon success.  After that, I'm not sure what I need, but I'll most likely be consulting strategy guides along the way.  One step at a time, there's no getting ahead of yourself in this game.  If you get ahead of yourself, you will die.  Simple as that.  

Maybe I will play it until the end.  Maybe I won't.  But for the time being, this is the game that has occupied my attention.  I don't know what I'll be playing next, but I'm thinking about Planescape: Torment,  another Western RPG that gets lots of love. 

-D

Protips:  

• Cyclo DS Evolution is a great NES Emulator system for the Nintendo DS.  It's how I play all my old favorites.
• Use the 'Open' spell to avoid traps from treasure chests.  
• Also, press 'select' when the menu is open to see a different set of options, including ones that let you share food and gold.  
• And for God's sake, read the instructions!