UNITY'S PROFILE

TALES (WRITING): The story’s pretty meager in this one: Eric and Brenda are on vacation but things just aren’t going for them. It starts with them on a pirate’s airship and they end up in a dangerous (but beautifully mapped) swamp, where they meet up with Terrence and eventually stumble across the dreaded Evil King who’s plotting something sinister.

While it’s all very bare, story-wise, everything’s played for laughs, and in many parts it pays off. I found a lot of it really funny. This aspect made playing the game quite a treat.

WAR (GAME PLAY): Let’s get to it: Eric’s got TP-costing skills of various potency and a self-healing free move, Brenda’s got a healing spell and two powerful slapping skills, and Terrance can heal, cover, and cast Holy (oddly, Cover and Heal are under “Special” and Holy is under “Magic.” Huh.)

It’s all not complicated but works. Also, there’s no equipment (that I found anyway) and while you get money, you can only use it at the one heal spot before the end of the game. Which, again, works for the small scope of the game, though it would have been nice, in my opinion, to have gotten a shop where I could buy some items, at least.

There are random encounters in the game and they occur VERY often, but the version of the game I played allowed you to literally set the encounter rate to however many steps you want, which was a really neat inclusion. It may seem broken, but if you set the rate too low, you’d be underleveled to fight the boss, so it works.

The problem I found was that the battles other than the last boss weren’t very interesting. The random encounters are all the same throughout the whole game, and they feel like padding. There’s not really any strategy needed. The last boss himself is a little more complicated and was fun to play.

BEAUTY (AESTHETICS): There’s some good points to note here. First off, this game has a really cool custom title screen, showing Eric chilling on vacation. The mapping in the game is also really pretty. There was also custom fonts and bits and bobs that stood out and made the game more fresh. The game gets a big thumbs up in the beauty department.

SENSES (ATMOSPHERE/SOUND): The game does above-average in this area, with ambient sounds, good use of music and sound effects, and overall a well-done atmospheric feel that works well with the tone of the game.

WRAPUP: A fun and funny game that is very enjoyable, though a bit more polish with the combat would be greatly appreciated. Great job, this was a good one.

TALES (WRITING): This is the story of Ulrika, a warrior in her late forties, taking her student Ernest out on one final training session. Ulrika has a strong “do what it takes” attitude and doesn’t care for formalities or being subtle, while Ernest is the exact opposite, always being polite and wanting to do things the right way. This creates a lot of comedy and the characters personalities really drive the game forward.

WAR (GAME PLAY): The gameplay is fascinating. Each character has three different “classes” that alters their gameplay, with magic-based classes for Ernest and attack-based classes for Ulrika. When using a class, you have all that classes’ abilities and passives at your disposal, and by winning battles, you unlock that classes abilities and can use them even when you switch to a new class.

It’s a great system as you start out with a good variety of abilities no matter the class you’re using, but the fun comes from unlocking abilities so you can bring one classes’ strengths to the table while covering its weaknesses using unlocked abilities.

Gaining abilities were also really fun so battles never felt like a chore. The difficulty also felt nicely balanced.

BEAUTY (AESTHETICS): A lot of pretty mapping is on display and it all works well together; I’d call the mapping “Above average” at least. What really puts the game over the top in the “beauty” area is the custom busts for the characters. And, as I mentioned elsewhere, I really love the fact that the developers decided to age-up Ulrika rather than use her as-is, as seeing a character of that age, especially a female, is rare in games, and Ulrika was totally awesome in this game.

SENSES (ATMOSPHERE/SOUND): Everything came together to make a fun, silly, yet engaging game. All the music and sound did its job well :D

WRAPUP: This game was a blast to play and one of my favorites so far. Well done, well done indeed!

TALES (WRITING): Greetings from RMtopia is a comedy game that affectionately makes fun of many of the aspects of making an RPG Maker game. It stars Alex, Aluxes, Ralph, and Eric as they try to build a “dreamboat” airship by collecting Dreamboat parts. I found the writing very laid-back and funny, and there was plenty of poking fun at things we’ve seen in RPG Maker games over and over and experiences in game making in general. If I had any problems with the writing, there were a few typos here and there that could stand to be fixed.

The whole game revolves around aspects of making an RPG, and it goes from the classes (Engineer, Writer, Artist, Musician) to monsters (“n00b,” reviewers, irc lurkers, etc) to skills (Sprites, Cliches, Events, etc) to items to status effects. It’s really really well done.

WAR (GAME PLAY): Each of your characters can be assigned a Class. The classes are similar in that they all learn a set of skills with one more potent than the one before it, and start with a 100 TP skill (Though TP was renamed. To temper, I think? Sorry, I can’t recall). All classes are useful, though I’d recommend you make sure you have a Musician with you at all times as their TP move restores the party completely and is really useful.

On the downside, I found the Artist class slightly less useful than the other classes. The ability to swap out a monster isn’t as great, especially since it doesn’t work on bosses. Another thing which might be an error, the Musician’s TP move (“Celestial Choir,” I think?) seems to remove some of the bonuses that the Engineer’s TP move gives you. I’m not sure if that was intentional.

The battles were fun, though be warned, if you’re not a fan of grinding, you may have some problems with the game. Each “dungeon” is just a straight path to a treasure chest that contains the next plot item you need. Take the chest and you’ll fight a boss afterwards (usually). You’ll need to walk around and get into random battles to be strong enough to take the bosses. Also be warned that some of the boss battles drag on a little long. I still found them fun overall, though.

BEAUTY (AESTHETICS): I’m just going to say it up front: I love this game’s art. It’s all custom and made to look like it was drawn with markers in this simple yet very charming style. The menu system is lined paper, and even the font looks like it was drawn with markers. It’s really cool and I really enjoyed it.

Everything, from the tilesets, faces, backgrounds, characters, item icons, etc are drawn this way. I think the only exceptions are the in-battle animations. The characters themselves are especially nice, as it’s interesting to see the familiar RTP heroes drawn in the fun, vibrant style.

SENSES (ATMOSPHERE/SOUND): The music and sounds all fit the game really well, and I especially liked the last boss battle music. The atmosphere is really solid, as having everything in that art style along with all the RPG Maker humor really gives it a unique feel.

WRAPUP: This one felt very polished in the visuals and made me laugh a few times, and the gameplay wasn’t too bad either. Good job, this was a very well-made entry.

TALES (WRITING): A guard skilled in the manipulation of mana (Helen) teams up with the son of a rich family who’s seeking a treasure that’s part of an inheritance (Alex) while a third party tries to beat them both to the punch.

This story may seem simple, but there's a lot more than it seems thanks to the character interactions. The writing is great, both in serious and silly moments. It all feels very well thought out and I enjoyed it. Nice character interactions, a well-told short story, and clever NPC dialog makes the writing shine.

WAR (GAME PLAY): This game has a really cool battle system, which uses what the game calls Mana Fields to enhance gameplay in a simple but fun way. There are four Mana Fields that can activate at the start of battle (and it seems somewhat dependant on the monsters you are fighting).

The Fire field damages the party every turn, the Water field heals the enemy party every turn, the Thunder field reduces the character’s agility to zero (meaning they act after the enemies) and the Earth field inflicts the party with random status ailments. It adds a neat twist to the battles and I liked all the fields, though I felt the Earth field was a bit unpredictable: the ailments can be simple slaps on the wrist like poison or blind, or you could get hit with confusion and paralysis and have your whole turn null and void.

The characters themselves play differently in battle: Helen has elemental spells of all four types, all of which start at level 1 but can be charged in battle, and can be made even more powerful if you charge the same element as the current mana field. She also has a wide range of other spells like status ailments.

Alex is kind of an MP battery. He loses all MP at the end of each battle, but charges MP each turn, and can give all of his MP to Helen. He can also heal and use physical attacks. Even though both characters start off with a large variety of skills, there were enough battles that I felt like I got good use out of all of them.

BEAUTY (AESTHETICS): This game has some nice RM2000 mapping. From the forest to the cave to the final shrine, everything worked very well for the setting. There were a couple of tiles on the outside of the house where we first meet Helen that you can walk through, though, as well as some stones outside of the final ruins that appear over the hero when you walk through them. All in all, though, I really dug the mapping for the game.

SENSES (ATMOSPHERE/SOUND): This game has an awesome soundtrack. A mix of atmospheric pieces and a laid-back hip-hop soundtrack. I always enjoy when people use different genres of music with RPGs than the standard fantasy fare, so I really enjoyed the soundtrack. The atmosphere itself all fit the game nicely and unified everything.

WRAPUP: This game stood out for me. It’s not perfect but it’s got a lot of great ideas and elements all combined to make something different (and I mean that in a good way ^_^ ). Good job!

TALES (WRITING): Succession is the tale of a kingdom with a dying king, and his eldest son does not feel fit to lead the country as the new king. It’s up to Noah, the king’s close friend and advisor, to pick which one of the king’s three children is most fit to rule the kingdom. To do this, Noah takes them to battle one of the only remaining demons.

During the opening scene and then the fight later on, you get to steer Noah’s opinions on who is most fit to rule. I get the feeling that whoever you pick will turn out to be a good pick for a ruler regardless, and the game seems to have multiple endings to reflect this. I picked Brenda (I went with the only female; I’m so predictable XD) and the game seems to suggest I made a good decision.

While the writing was limited, you still get a decent grasp on who each of the characters are. There were a few misspellings and grammatical errors, mostly in the ability descriptions, but nothing too jarring.

WAR (GAME PLAY): There’s only one battle in this game, the battle with the demon. He does summon allies, but it’s still just one battle. Noah gets to decide at certain points in the battle which of the children is doing best, and picking them seems to give them some sort of boost. The characters’ abilities are decently chosen and work well, but given that we just have the one battle, we don’t have a lot of time to see what works well and what doesn’t.

BEAUTY (AESTHETICS): I’d call the elements in this category “average.” Nothing’s really out of place, but nothing really stands out, either.

SENSES (ATMOSPHERE/SOUND): Nothing in this category jumped out at me. Everything was done competently but it didn’t really leave me with much of an impression either.

WRAPUP: A well-executed game, but one that was very short and simple. The multiple choices were a nice touch. I feel like the only battle here could have been polished a little bit more, but it works for what it is. A job well done.

TALES (WRITING): Swan song is about Zack and Alex teaming up to save a rich fellow’s kidnapped daughter. Zack once saved the world but has been replaced in people’s memories by the newer heroes (all named after the newer RTP characters :D ). Alex is even older than Zack, but still seems to believe he is a hero worth being worshipped and praised.

The game has a very tongue-in-cheek comedy vibe to it, and I very much enjoyed the silly sense of humor. The characters are fun and funny, and the whole experience is very enjoyable. The only real weakness is that due to time restraints, the ending feels rushed. Everything else is golden in the writing department.

WAR (GAME PLAY): This game serves up RPG Maker 2003 battle goodness, with a little bit of a twist. First off, you have to realize that Alex is a complete load of a character, unable to damage enemies at all. That’s not a flaw in the gameplay; that’s an intentional joke that also serves to make him a permanent support character. (He starts the game with only a shield and says he forgot his sword. Though once I found an extra sword, I couldn’t equip him with it. Guess he’s so rusty he forgot how to use ‘em XD)

Anyway, this creates the team dynamic. Zack deals the damage, while Alex heals (or tries to shield bash, which may stun the enemies but will flat-out miss just as often). They’re joined by the mysterious (not really) Falcon later on, a magic-user who rounds out the team a bit.

Gameplay was well put together, and I felt it all worked fine for the most part. There are a few ghost enemies who can’t be hurt at all by physical attacks, which made Zack feel useless when ghosts were the only enemies left, but this is a minor nitpick in my opinion. The last boss also felt slightly easy, but he was powerful enough that if I hadn’t have dealt with him soon he’d probably have overwhelmed me.

BEAUTY (AESTHETICS): The game really shines here, with excellent RM2003 mapping. It’s all really well done, especially the vine-covered ruins that serve as the second and final dungeon. Everything was put together very nicely. There are also secret chests hidden here and there and it was fun to find everything.

SENSES (ATMOSPHERE/SOUND): The soundtrack to this game was fantastic, which makes sense seeing as it’s from Lost Odyssey. Sometimes it felt like the music didn’t fit the silly tone of the game, but most of the time it worked really well.

WRAPUP: Another really fun one. A short, enjoyable adventure that has a bit of fun with the RTP characters. Great job!

Note: I’ve posted a lot of these thoughts on the gamepage for Terence's Tribulations before this part of the event started, so this is going to sound familiar to Deckiller and anyone else who has read my comments there ^_^;;

TALES (WRITING):

Terence's Tribulations is an RPG Maker VX Ace game about Terence, a paladin who has been dishonored after being accused of having an affair with the Queen (even though he pretty plainly doesn’t even swing that way). He must regain his honor by slaying the Demon King, but first he must clear out a town filled with slimes.

I overall found the story simple yet charming. I’ll be completely honest: given that yaoi was mentioned in the gamepage, I first played the game to see how that would be handled in a contest-length game. I was a little disappointed in this regard, though Deckiller himself noted that this was the first time he’s written romance, gay or otherwise.

The character interactions are still very good for a game of this length, and the characters have a nice diverse set of personalities going on. I also like how the game wraps up after everything’s over. Nicely Done.

WAR (GAME PLAY): This game uses Yanfly’s Engine Ace and a balanced and fun set of skills for each character to make battles interesting. Natalie has a neat Blast Point system, where some of her abilities would generate Blast Points, and others would use the points to inflict greater damage. While the idea was really cool, I felt the damage output verses the turns Natalie had to burn to accumulate the blast points a little lacking.

I’d call the battles “somewhat challenging but not frustrating.” The only battle that I had to try more than once was the optional Bonus Boss, though some of the other boss battles were close.

BEAUTY (AESTHETICS): Deckiller shows how RTP mapping is done, making an eye-pleasing and fun set of maps for his game. The maps are all on the small side, but that works perfectly with what he’s going for.

SENSES (ATMOSPHERE/SOUND): The atmosphere of this game is laid back and comical, and all the elements do a good job of reinforcing this tone. The music and sounds didn’t especially stand out to me, but were used well.

WRAPUP: This game had a lot of nice little touches, like the collectable Not-So-Tiny Medals and even plenty of Naia clones (XD). This was a treat to play and I very much enjoyed it. Great job!