Aveyond 3-1: Lord of Twilight

[b]AVEYOND 3-1: Lord of Twilight {A:LoT}[/b] is an interesting and enjoyable RPG, that I also consider to be a Visual Novel. Combat is turn-based. [b]I [u]highly Recommend[/u] playing through all four episodes[/b] … They all are excellent games that combine to make a memorable tale. [b]A:LoT[/b] is Chapter 1 in a four-part Aveyond series! Follow/guide the adventures of [b]Mel[/b], a journeyman Thief {it's just Mel, thank you}. Unbeknownst to her, Mel is heir of Mordred Darkthrop, a Sorceror from hundreds of years ago with a distinctly evil fame. Mordred attempted to fulfill a dark prophecy that would see him rule the world. He died before his goal was realized, but the prophecy lingers on due to the existence {?} of certain [b]ORBs[/b]. Travel across a huge world of many lands on a quest to thwart a power-crazed Vampiric lunatic who wants to enslave humanity {their “cattle”}! This “Lord of Twilight” plans to use [u]YOU[/u] to invoke the Darkthrop Prophesy and achieve his goal. Are you brave (or foolish) enough to stop this maniac? You will have allies who may be added to your Battle Team. These include a mage healer, a prince/sword wielder, a vampire/archer and her erstwhile husband/former paladin. [u]Features[/u]: [list] [*] HUMOROUS Dialogue throughout; as the Dev put it; [b]“You WILL laugh ... [u]or else[/u]!”[/b] [list] [*] You really have to go into EVERY building, TALK to any/all NPCs, SEARCH all area corners, & INTERACT with every indicated object to gain full appreciation of this game [/list] [*] Huge world-space with MANY, varied environments [list] [*] Visit wildly different Kingdoms with unique creatures [/list] [*] Many Dungeons, forests, mazes to solve & clear [*] Optional Difficulties; Easy, Normal, Expert [*] LOTS of [b]monsters[/b], evil doers, LOOT, & strange natives ![list] [*] Most monsters respawn on EXPERT Difficulty ==> [*] May build up Experience & Wealth by going back through a cleared area [/list] [*] Numerous QUESTS drive game's course; easily tracked with [b]Journal[/b] [*] Acquire a Ship to travel to strange distant lands [*] Travel with a party of friends [list] [*] Up to 4 “Battlers” plus additional non-fighting supernumeraries [*] Choose the leader {who will be seen on the map} and which 4 will Battle [/list] [*] Mel must seek out special academies in each town where she can learn special skills {like ice skating} so that is able to explore new areas [/list] [*] SAVE game any time … there is an AUTO-Save [list] [*] Save OFTEN to enable recovery from surprise defeats by Monsters [*] Game reverts to last save when Mel is defeated <you sorry excuse for an adventurer !> [/list] [*] Play with mouse or keyboard; I found Keyboard to be preferable [*] Help Edward {the prince} find a wife or face the Queen's wrath [*] Donate gold to {or steal from} Statues of the goddess [*] Continually upgade the Team's weapons and equipment as you progress [list] [*] Only carry limit is 99-count for each item [/list] [*] Awesome music brought to you by an award-winning musician who has the entire Final Fantasy music library memorized. [*] There are {Optional} GOODY CAVES containing OP stuff that detract from the feeling of the game, but may just be carried without using them [/list] [u]Cons[/u]: [list] [*] [u]Limited #[/u] of saves => Must manage which to keep [*] As is typical in RPGs, sell-back of equipment is at ½ of purchase price [list] [*] Solved this problem by simply keeping all equipment [*] May need anyway to outfit new Party members :D [/list] [*] Mazes can be complicated – for ME {I'm terrible with mazes :steamfacepalm:} [*] No Steam Achievements [*] Developer has withdrawn from Steam due to policy disputes [list] [*] May be reachable at her gaming web site ?… Not sure of current address; AMARANTHIA.com & KOMODO.com, given by Steam for support, are no longer valid [/list][/list]

I played the whole Aveyond 3 and 4. If you like these kind of games you will love it. Wish they Aveyond 1 and 2 were available on Steam

This game was a staple of my early childhood. I think it was on WildTangent or something and I must've played all the free trials I could. Felt amazing to find this again and buy it as an adult. The vibes are so good.

A blast from the past. It's been a long while since I've played this game series and picking it up once more, years later -> It's still really fun and I look forward to enjoying the rest of the series. So glad it's on Steam. ^^

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(This review is from someone who played the Aveyond series years ago and was hit by a wave of nostalgia, reminding them of the countless hours spent immersed in pixelated adventures during their childhood.) "Aveyond: The Lord of Twilight" takes you on a fun trip down memory lane for anyone who's into old-school RPGs. I remember the time where there was a pre-alloted trial time to play the game and I'd find ways to play the series. The game begins with a charmingly familiar setup: you play as a young heroine who unexpectedly finds herself caught up in a grand adventure to save the world from impending darkness. Simple right? It's a classic setup, but it always grabs your attention, especially when executed as well as it is here. Naturally, this is the first installment in the series; an RPG wouldn't be complete without a gripping narrative. As the story progresses, you'll notice surprising turns and turns that will keep you interested. In conclusion, I'd recommend this game to those who are a fan of old-school RPGs. It's a game that will keep you occupied for hours on end with its endearing graphics, captivating narrative, and nostalgic appeal. So grab your dagger, and prepare for an epic adventure unlike any other. 　(\        ⑅     (\⠀　　　　　　　　 　 　　　　　　　　　　　　 ꒰〃´ ˆ `〃꒱⠀　　　　　　　　　 　　　　　　　 ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ૮‌     　‌‌ ꔫ　‌‌ っ♡ bunni loves the game ‹꒱

Only the first part of the game, so if you want to finish the story, you have to buy the overpriced sequels.

played as a child and refound the game missed it and love it!

I gave this one a try, but there really isn't anything here of substance. There are other games in this series, but Aveyond 3 comprises of 4 separate titles here on Steam. So if you want the complete narrative, you will need to play all 4 parts of Aveyond 3. First, its an rpg maker game for whatever that's worth to you. As I'm writing this review, this game is over 11 years old and made by a handful of people. That being said, I wasn't expecting much when the game began, but what I got was still a let down. I think the biggest issue for me is that it feels like someone's first attempt at a game while they were in high school. For what it is, the characters actually have some level of growth. Sadly, they aren't particularly interesting and that growth doesn't really mean much when I can't find myself caring about the characters in the first place. The plot has an interesting concept. Our lead is the descendant of a great wizard who wanted to rule the world and created 2 orbs, one light and one dark. Evil wants the dark one, as the wizard's descendant, only we can activate it, so the antagonists want to kidnap us while we search for the light one to fight back. Sadly, the concept isn't fun to experience because the dialogue is very poorly written. The writing really isn't very mature or very fun. That continues onto the layout of the game. Cities are needlessly large, poorly laid out (requiring a map as much as any dungeon), and have very questionable design choices. There is a city of witches that talk like caricatures of witches that have pumpkins all over the place like its Halloween all year round. The fast travel system requires you to hit a physical button to unlock, but you can also lock it again for some reason. You also need to talk to one object to pay for fast travel and the talk to another object to actually travel. Items won in battle drop on the ground, requiring you to interact with each drop separately, taking far more time than if we just got the items after battle. There is also far too much backtracking. I had to walk to a party, walk around in circles talking to people for a bit, find what I was supposed to do, then walk all the way back to the person who told me to do it and I had to make multiple trips to my house during this time as well. This could have been a couple minutes of cut scene, but instead it took over 15 minutes because of all the pointless backtracking. I could list more examples, but you get the idea. The combat is normal attack or attempt to delay an enemy's turn or heal. That's it all game long. I suspect we will get more options later in the series, but I'm not sure yet. Combat just feels really boring. It does have a good amount of challenge, but not in an interesting way. Your healer wont be able to fully heal the party without needing to have her MP restored with items. In many parts of the game, you will fight enemy groups that deal enough damage to make you go through multiple healing items and then drop less money than you will need to replace those items. Everything is subjective obviously, but the music is just bad. I actually got a headache from playing this game the first play session. I was actually happy when a number of areas didn't have music, though they did have nature sounds that would repeat extremely often, to the point that it made my headache worse. Of the 13 or so hours I spent in this game, I had to mute the sound for about half of it. I heard all the songs, but I just couldn't keep hearing them on loop forever. Lastly, this one broke things for me. I take it this is a know issue with some rpg maker games, but when I was about 90% through the game, I encountered a game breaking bug. All of a sudden, the game read that my arrow keys up and left were being held down permanently and I lost mouse control as well. My character just walked into the wall. In the menu or in the shop or when making a decision or in combat, I cannot press the down key but the mouse cursor comes back. It's only in the field where the arrow keys do not work correctly. The only way that I was able to finish the game was to hold down all 4 arrow keys on my keyboard and this brought the mouse cursor back. However, it feels wrong to play a jrpg with a mouse. I used JoyToKey with a controller for the first 90% of the game and had no issues, but then it suddenly broke and I had to use the above method to finish the game. It's not very fun to play this way. I downloaded part 2 and I have the same issue in that game on first launch, so I think I might just bail on the series at this point. TL;DR Read the previous paragraph if you are having arrow key and/or mouse bugs/issues. This isn't a very fun game to play. The music is quite bad and hard to listen to. The combat is boring and the layout of cities is needlessly over engineered. The story has the crumbs of an interesting idea, but the writing and the dialogue don't give me any reason to delve deeper. This is also only part 1 of 4 of this story, so you wont get a satisfying conclusion to the story in this game.

No reason to play this game.