Impression

Excellent cinematography.

You want to know how I feel about this game? Look at that screenshot. Just effing look at it. When you're done looking at it, go and make a sandwich, and then come back and look at it some more. That screenshot really sums up pretty much how I feel about this game, and what merits I think this game has. It's epic on a small scale, it's dramatic, it's absolutely GORGEOUS, and it has Chrono Trigger character sets, which makes absolutely no sense to me and makes me want to strangle the author alive.

This game is a force that I respect, but at times I was really frustrated. It kept me going through the whole way, and I only wanted to quite on perhaps one or two or three occasions (which is something I have to deal with in RM games, since sometimes they get really unprofessional). Most notably, those moments were during the bat catch and the spotlight search, which were minigames that were absolutely way too difficult. And they were difficult for the wrong reasons, being frustrating and impossible, rather than challenging. The spotlight bit was really stylish, though, so I have no hard feelings about it; the problem is, I don't have any particularly soft feelings for it either. It was a moment of the game that ended up balancing itself out entirely.

I also have a serious bit of contention with the non-original resources. Particularly, the Chrono Trigger tilesets and the sound effects. The Chrono tilesets smacked me in the face and said, "Lamer newbie crap," while the rest of what I was looking at said, "Holy! Look at those layers of graphics and the enormous talent this man has!" It was a weird dichotomy and makes me wonder if the author simply really sucks at sprite editing. This may be true, considering how awkward the main character's animation was.

Note the astonishingly beautiful graphics paired with Chrono Trigger character sets. Why?!

The sound effects were horrible. They were either those poorly sampled RTP ones that were played at times that weren't really appropriate (since when does stabbing a dog with your sword make a magic WOOOOSH sound?) or were original recordings full of static. They would sometimes really ruin the mood of the game established by it's amazing use of color and light (look to the screenshot on your left). It's not very atmospheric when every cricket chirp, frog croak, and bird tweet is accompanied with a healthy dose of thick static. I don't know whether he recorded them himself or downloaded them somewhere, but either way, they were unacceptable. Didn't do much for the game at all.

If I was on a trip, I'd defiitely mention mention the plot of this game in a letter home (get it? That's a joke). It's a short story, but a beautifully well-written one, with just the right amount of pacing, just the right number of characters, and just the right amount of political intrigue. There's a lot going on, but not too much, and you learn about all of it at a rate that it never gets stale but there's never so much that you lose track of it. This is the way that a story should be written. The game is short, perhaps maybe 4 hours or so of total gameplay on way through, but that's just fine. Most indie games rarely make it past the demo stage with half an hour or less of gameplay, so the length is definitely not a concern.

It is worth mentioning that this game has absolutely no combat. Well, it has one "battle," which is a duel with another character, but this isn't a game where you solve problems through violence. And I like that. I love RPG combat as much as anyone else, but this is definitely a breath of fresh air.

There are Easter Eggs, too. The game starts over when you beat it, and you can play again. I don't want to spoil any surprises, but there is one very obvious secret that isn't hard to find at all, but it's definitely way cool. Aside from that, there are regularly a bunch of different dialogue choices for various scenes, which would warrant an additional play-through (which I may or may not give some time in the near future). What you say affects the way the scene plays out, so it's certainly worthwhile to see what happens if you decide not to attack the guard but run away, or if you decide to be violent with the theif-girl or persuasive. I know for a fact that the events play out differently, due to a couple of fatal bugs that forced me to play through portions of the game again.

And there is the problem. The tilesets are forgivable, since the style is consistent and they are used tastefully. The sound effects are forgiveable, since they serve a definite purpose and DO establish some sort of mood, even though they're really crappy. There is one problem with this game, and that is the amount of bugs. I think I ran into about four or five serious bugs on my way through, and actually hit one fatal error, which occured when I approached a plot-intensive item from the wrong direction. Fatal errors are unforgiveable, especially when they happen in areas you need to go to. That's okay, though. Just look at this screenshot, and forget about the bugs. That's what I did when I was playing.

Yes, the lighting effects are on a separate, psuedo-opaque sprite layer.

Technical

Graphics

This part of the game is really sad.

Not only are the graphics beautiful, but they boast some impressive coding. You see how there are crossbeams above the map? Yes, you can walk under those. And you see how there are shadows in the screenshots? They layer over the sprites and affect the way they look. There is actually a feature in the game you can unlock where the way the graphics were made is explained to the player, and they show a clear dedication and love for the art of drawing, as well as an example of how effect minimalism can be.

Unfortunately, as gorgeous and scripted as the maps are, there is very little animation, and what animation there is looks pretty uncomfortable. Teo is clearly an artist, and not an animator. And he's not much of a sprite artist, considering the use of Chrono tilesets and a not-perfectly-blended-in main character. Overall, though, I have nothing really bad to say about the way the game looks.

Code

Well, there's a custom menu system. Other than that, and the aforementioned graphical layering, the programming is not at all impressive. Not only that, but there's very little TO the custom menu (maybe five or so items you pick up during the course of the game) and the ability to turn "markers" on and off (VERY helpful; they indicate FF7-style exits from the current map, since it's sometimes hard to see where you are going with graphics of this style). There are a ton of minigames, but they really suck and don't really have any special programming.

CMS so that the people at GW will play it.

Sound

The sound programming is average, and the quality of the samples used is very low. This is a game that does not sound very good (even though the music is fantastic). The game (appropriately) played selections from Vivaldi's Four Seasons the whole way throughout. And while I personally have reservations against that particular period of Classical music (Mozart, Vilvaldi, et cetera are totally inferior to Romantic and Modern artists), the music appropriately established a mood for the setting. I tried not to let my very strong opinions on Classical music ruin my view of the game.

Artistry

I do not jest when I say this scene occurs after a bad drinking accident.

Well, for one, there's that screenshot. You may notice a stark contrast from the earlier screenshots in terms of depth of color and overall feel of the way the game looks, and those ideas are very important to this game. Depending on which area of the game you area in, the same locals on the same maps look entirely different. In this case, the map looks desolate, wet, and very, very sad; where, earlier on, the graphics are a great deal more bright and colorful. As the game progresses, it's becomes increasingly dark and moody. This creates for a really powerful effect, since the way you see the game matches exactly the way the story plays out. This game is a complete package as far as artistry is concerned.

Play or Not?

Not playing this game should be a criminal offense.

Reviewer's Notes

Love the reshack
Classical music is good
graphical style is 1337!!!
love the message box
the menu is styling
Chrono Trigger charsets can suck my cock!
Fishmonger joke - funny
Marker system is helpful
sprite animation is awkward
Like the layers of gfx in the bar
HATE the sfx
BUG! If you don't toss toadkeeper coin, msg window stays
Like how the overlay changes during different seasons
Rat minigame is kind of lame
BUG! Main char sprite turns into pool of blood during Tolch scene
BUG! Priest walks over PC at start of Autumn
Game gets very depressing during autumn
Spotlight . . . cool!
Search minigame is cool, but annoying at end.
BUG! The searchlight disturbs the birds
FATAL BUG! Search fruit stand from north end and you can't move.
Multiple dialogue boxes -- good
Dog underneat floorboards -- good cinematography
Why real profanity sometimes, and fake profanity other times?
Croshair on bat minigame makes it too hard
Grammatical error during post-bat-catching reflection