Super Coolgame! Just Kidding!

When I read the name Awesome Coolgame! Just Kidding! (ACJK from now on), images of a sloppy joke RPG maker game came to mind. But I downloaded it, and was pleasantly surprised to find a lighthearted humorous RPG that kept me laughing(at least on the inside) throughout.

Graphics

ACJK employs custom graphics made to fit the vx ace RTP style. Various modern setting DLCs are used to map the areas in the game. The maps are decent, I don't think they would win any awards, but they don't have errors and they get the job done. On top of that, it is fun to see places like McDonald's and the last area mapped in an RPG. The Best part of the graphics are the custom character portraits and enemy battlers. The portraits are very well done and extremely cute. The battlers are just adorable! They are chibi and the quality is exceptional, they look professionally done and are extremely detailed.

Sound

The music in ACJK is largely ripped from other media, and most of it sound like circus music, but it fits the silly tone of the game very well, and I had one particular song stuck in my head for days (friends are there). One thing I would recommend is having multiple battle themes, to keep it from going stale, as you wind up in battle quite a bit.

Dialog/Story

The story of the game is that there are four high school friends who go on a low stakes adventure in a modern world beset by monsters. Why are there monsters? Where did they come from? Nobody knows and you never really find out. It is brought up in game, but it's treated more as an inconvenience than a bad situation.

I prefer it this way, as any RM game that demands too much exposition and world building at the start gets and instant delete from my hard drive. I would rather learn about the characters and the world as I play the game.
Honestly, that little bit of story isn't really the point. The point of the game is the banter between the four friends. The banter between them is hilarious and extremely well written. Honestly when games go on and on with dialog i usually roll my yes, but in ACJK I just kept clicking on the map because there was a funny conversation where the girls comment about whatever you clicked on.

Each character has their distinct personality, and it shows through in the conversation. I particularly enjoyed all the food related humor in the game (water tastes like tears, lol), and it's fun that the characters joke about things we can relate to in the real world.

Gameplay

ACJK at the end of the day is a dialog heavy dungeon crawler. There is no world map, no towns. The whole time you are playing you are fighting through two small dungeons and one moderate sized one. Overall it
will likely take 3-4 hours to finish the main game. I didn't do all the side content, but I could see it doubling the play time.

The main gripe I have with the game are the battles. The random battles are fairly well spaced out, but given the next objective can be vague, the backtracking will get extremely tedious. I stocked up on the repel item as soon as I had a good cash flow.

The battles themselves are mostly pretty easy. I would just fire off an AOE or two and attack. There are a few tricky battles, but I did not die at all during the adventure. I think the game would benefit from fewer battles (maybe on screen encounters) with each enemy group one or two times, maybe a little stronger, and give out more experience.

The battle system itself is standard RM fare, and most of the skills are not even altered from the default settings. The game would benefit from having more skills match their characters (like CJ's sugar high spell). Even if the skill would do the same thing it does in the default database, calling the spell sugar high instead of attack up does a lot to add character to the game, and make it feel unique.

Map exploration is fairly standard RPG fare. It is dungeon crawly because most areas are monster infested and there are no real towns to speak of, just a few shops and vending machines. There are times I was lost because the objectives are fairly vague, you just have to explore and find the right person to talk to. This didn't bother me too much because of how entertaining it was to talk to people, and it made me have to talk to everyone to find the right way to go.

There are hidden goodies to find in the maps, like collecting 50 jewels. There are also some mini games, like the decently done Pac Man rip off. Even if some of these extras feel ultimately pointless, the fact that they are there is an example of the developer putting a lot of effort into making this a unique game.

Conclusion

In closing, I think the endearing characters, excellent writing, and unique art in the game make it well worth trudging through some repetitive battles to make it through the end.