Ever Blue

Intro

"Ever Blue" is a space shooter developed by Ocean using RPG Maker 2003 that was created for a code-off competition held over on Gaming World. Though considering how this game operates it might be more accurate to call this game an action game than a space shooter considering the game doesn't feature an auto-scroll system. In fact, combat in this game is comparable to that found in stuff like "~ABS" and "ABS Project" by AznChipmunk. Which is kind of disappointing in my opinion since both of those games feature pretty awful combat systems in my opinion.

Story

We play as Ocean Blue, a fighter pilot, that flies a flying saucer on various missions from helping a teenage girl named Sabrina deal with her evil professor "in" an island to helping a dragon general protect a legendary crystal.



Though as the game itself notes there really isn't much of a cohesive narrative here beyond here's a quest a NPC needs doing. So please take care of it. Thankfully this isn't a particularly long game since I don't think this format would hold up very well in the long run. After all, if you've got put yourself through several dozen quests there better be some sort of overarching story to justify it as far as I'm concerned, but in the case of this game we only have three missions that take under ten minutes to complete once you understand how to abuse the game's combat system.

Gameplay

On the gameplay side of things the game features your standard active battle system for RPG Maker 2003 which is to say combat in this game tends to feel like rock'em sock'em robots if you play fair. Thankfully this game gives the player a really cheap out on this front. And in order to activate this out you need to do two things. The first thing you need to do is fully upgrade your gun so you can shoot backwards. You then run to the boss fight in a given area and either get around your enemies and put yourself up against the far wall or in a spot that makes it impossible for them to shoot you.



And in the case of the game's final battle where an infinite number of red saucers spam in. You also take advantage of the fact that your backup in this game has infinite lives and allow it to shoot the final boss to death as you hang out in a safe spot on the map. And while this game does manage to avoid the worst aspect of active battle systems that have been created with RPG Maker 2003 over the years. It only does so by allowing the player to cheese enemies so hard they might as well not exist.

All of that being said I still have a gripe about the combat system in this game. As far as I can tell your shots in this game actually go further than visually indicated. A factoid which really annoys me at points since it entices the player to get far closer to enemies than they need to do so. Another issue is that enemies in this game can quickly shred the player's life bar in a matter of seconds. As a result it's like the game is trying to push players into my cheese strategy of shooting enemies in the back. A strategy that reminds me of an exchange between Odo and Garak on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine".

"You'd shoot a man in the back?" "Well, it's the safest way, isn't it?"

- Odo and Garak (Call to Arms)

Graphics

Graphically the game is a colorful mess at times. So much so that one site member had this to say about one of the images for this game.

Despite
seriously, what the fuck am I looking at?

And while I'm of the opinion the objects in this game are distinct enough that this question is a bit over the top. I'm also of the opinion that this game is a bit visually messy at times. Though I'll admit the stages bug me a lot less than the portrait for Ocean Blue.



Albeit I'm not entirely sure why this portrait bugs me so much. My best educated guess is that the character's various body parts are out of proportion with each other in certain places which makes her creepy to look at. Sort of like those monsters in the Doctor Who episode "Wild Blue Yonder".

Sound

As usual I don't have that much to say about this aspect of the game. After all, you usually have to have an amazing song or use a background track really poorly to get my attention here. Though as far as I can tell this game does use music that doesn't come from the RTP for RPG Maker 2003. And I'm also pretty sure the music is the main reason this game is over 16 MBs in size since most of the songs in this game are in the MP3 format instead of midis.

Conclusion

I'm a bit mixed on this one since if you play this game bravely like you should than combat is absolutely brutal and tends to suck really hard, but if you cheese the game it becomes boringly easy since enemies will only be able to hurt and kill you if they manage to box you in as you attempt to get past them. As a result combat difficulty in this game tends to swing towards both extremes instead of falling somewhere in the middle. Add in some colorful but messy maps with forgettable background tracks and a story that barely exists and your left with a rather underwhelming game overall. Though considering this game was created for an event while Ocean was recovering from a car accident I'll hold off on leaving an official review score, but if I were to give one I'd say it's around a 2.25 out of 5.