Clouds of Rain

*Note that the story isn't finished yet. I'm not sure if the continuation will be in another game or not. [b]My playtime:[/b] 06:51:00 (based on in-game clock, Relax difficulty, last save before the final boss) [h1]Intro[/h1] [b]Clouds of Rain[/b] doesn't strike me as an RPG Maker game at the start. It has customized assets and a modified menu - there's barely any trace of RPG Maker left in the game. The premise that lets you experience the story from ~4 different parties also gives a fresh take to the game made in the same engine. However, what I thought was a seemingly good game doesn't seem to be as bright as I expected. More on the review. [b]Pros:[/b] - 3 unique mechanics: turn-based fights, stealth, airship driving minigame - 3 difficulties - Strategy and weapon-switching is important to win the battles [b]Cons:[/b] - Characters feel more like sliding rather than walking - Some battles are difficult, even in the easiest difficulty - Stealth mechanic requires you to pass through places close to people without being seen - The lack of healing items makes it hard to fight freely [h1]Should you buy this game?[/h1] [b]No.[/b] [i]Although the game has interesting mechanics, they tend to be dragged out and boring, with some being overly difficult due to the lack of healing items in the wild.[/i] [hr][/hr] [h1]In-Depth Review[/h1] [h1]Graphics[/h1] The game sure has a unique-looking background with its hand-drawn style. I was captivated by its look at first, especially with its soft touch with the mix of light colors. Some portraits look like a redrawn version of the default RPG Maker portrait although it still fits well with the graphics' style. The map layouts are carefully designed, both indoors and outdoors, to reflect the environment. Each location feels different despite them using the same asset. However, the swamp area doesn't feel like an actual swamp with its forest-like elements. [h1]Story[/h1] Despite the game focusing on four different points of view, there's little to know about the story. The game keeps on cutting off the story from one to another without having a conclusion, leaving me confused as to what is the actual story or how everything is connected. All dialogues are mostly there for the sake of progression without any sort of character development or interest. There might be a slight story branching at some point of the story, but it feels pointless as there's nothing to gain from the story either. Although the game sparked my interest at one point, it happens right before the game cuts off at a cliffhanger with a "To be continued" message in it. I'm not sure whether I would continue playing a game that I had little understanding of when it's available later. [h1]The Game[/h1] [b]Exploration[/b] Plants, items, and chests are abundant and can be found almost everywhere in the game. Some are well-hidden, some are not. Plants and items can help you to restore HP and MP while chests might give you useful gears that you can use in battle. However, the interface to consume plants might be confusing at first because the game requires you to select which party members to consume the plant and which plants to consume at the same time. [b]Combat[/b] The game has a unique combat system where you can move your party members between 3 rows: front line, middle line, and backline. Each row has its advantages and disadvantages which also apply to the enemy. Weapons and armors take a great part to deal more damage as you have to change them to react to different types of enemies. The unique combat mechanic looks interesting at first until your party keeps on dying in battle. Enemies deal roughly the same damage as you, making it hard to last without a proper strategy. You have to utilize your spells and/or skills to gain an advantage in each battle. The thing is, spells use a lot of MP and there's no way to recover MP without using items as skills that can do the trick are either costly or limited. Although I said that plants and items are abundant, they are not enough to recover yourself after every battle if you are overusing your spells, and the same can be said if you don't use spells at all. The solution? Grinding money to buy consumables. Luckily, it's not needed in the easiest difficulty, although you still need to play the game right to survive without running out of items. I found it frustating to not using spells in battle, and using it in every battle won't work due to the low MP pool. You can buy items, both consumables, and gears, from NPCs. Battles will net you some money to buy the essential consumables and possibly some plants for you to recover. However, it is easy to mistook fruits and mushrooms and since they have the same color. [b]Stealth[/b] There is a bit of stealth mechanic when you control a certain party. However, this mechanic becomes annoying later on as people are stationed very close to the place that you're supposed to pass through. The very slow walking speed also contributes greatly since it turns the mechanic into trial and error to make sure that you move from a certain spot at the right timing. [b]Airship Driving[/b] Just like the stealth mechanic, a certain party will let you pilot an airship. Piloting an airship might be annoying at first because of the winds and spins, but it becomes the best mechanics in the game later on due to the problematic mechanics of the other two. You need to watch out for the winds and control your ship based on the wind direction, whether to move backwards to slow the airship speed or continue onward to pass through the course quickly, dodging rocks along the way. It gets boring once you get used to it though since you need to do the same loop of traversing the clouds and landing on an island. [b]Difficulty and Length[/b] The game offers 3 difficulties: tactical, story, and relax. Despite the description saying that "story" is an easy mode and "relax" is a very easy mode, it is meant for normal and easy mode respectively. I initially played in story mode because I wanted to feel how the game works without breezing through the interesting mechanic, but I soon became overwhelmed with the difficulty in the first 2 hours of playing. I ended up restarting the game in relax difficulty and I didn't regret it; the game turns out to be tougher in some part of the game after where I left. I even had to restart the game several times to finish some fights in that difficulty. The game might have stated that I finished the game in ~7 hours, but the actual time might be longer than that. Strangely, the game difficulty varies for each party. There is a party that has a lot of battles with overwhelming numbers (5+) and another party that has easy-to-beat enemies and full HP and MP restore after each fight. Each member in the latter party also has a skill that can recover both HP and MP, which is an issue in most parties without any cost. Although it might seem obvious, all parties don't share the same inventory slots, meaning that your items will change after the party switches. While this works to control the difficulty to some extent, it makes some sections of the game to be harder than it should be. [h1]Specs[/h1] Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Despite the interesting battle mechanic, the repetitiveness, difficult battles, and bland story turn me off from enjoying the game to its fullest. Exploration doesn't seem to be rewarding and there's nothing memorable from the game. The airship driving mechanic might entertain me at some point, but it's mediocre at best. [quote]This game was reviewed with a key provided by the developer for free[/quote] [quote]Visit SaveOrQuit.com for detailed game reviews, posted daily!

A classic RPG with some new gameplay mechanics and a unique graphic style. Are you a fan of JRPGs with turn-based combat? Then you must definitely try Clouds of Rain. If you want to take a look at the first-look video to get a precise idea. https://youtu.be/kcmJDv7ZfTE

[quote] Love RPG? [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/39973073/]Make sure to Follow my Curator Page[/url] for plenty more! [/quote] An excellent small RPG with nice graphics and very hard battles. See my Review for more ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh8yVItS_jI

Pros - Tough but rewarding combat system - Hand drawn art style that suits the tone - Exploration is engaging most of the time Cons - Some characters do not evolve much and the story starts quiet and not a lot happens - Even though most of the story arcs get a resolution the game ends with a cliff-hanger, hinting to a follow up title but leaving some things unanswered Let’s start off with the aesthetic look. I really appreciate the hand-drawn style and the effort of customise every visual aspect even though there are not many dynamic elements, like leaves, wind effect etc. I played for 20 hours in the Story mode and also played every side quest and I’d say that’s similar to the Final Fantasy PS1 Era on a difficulty level. The first thing is that occasionally, the game helps you out particularly at the beginning. It’s not difficult but tricky from time to time, especially on the optional battles. I’ve noticed that is also possible to avoid some enemies so that you don’t need to fight and waste HP, MP and inventory stuff. A really important thing to notice is that the enemy colours are fundamental because they show their natural element, also the look of armours and weapons is important to understand how to fight them and win battles. However, I won’t say more because I think it’s a good part of this game, the fact that you have to think and use logic before taking action. There are three different teams and in my opinion is a great way to keep the attention high on the story and it gives you the possibility to change the point of view. With the Amercia team you’ll experience more battles and exploration. With the Aris team you will have to drive an airship, at first sight, it seems easy and boring but with winds and rocks it changes immediately into something more challenging, but still entertaining. The last team are the children. With them you can absolutely relax down, there’s no worry about dying since they will recover as soon as the battle ends. Generally, I preferred the other combat system because there were more moves and spells variety. Some characters don’t evolve much and the story starts quiet and not a lot happens, except for learning facts about the lore of the world. At some point it gets more engaging, even though the game ends with a cliff-hanger. To me this game is more like an entire introduction to characters and setting rather than a complete story. You can get yourself an idea about what will happen next and the final scene with the ‘To Be Continued’ clearly means that there will be more. In conclusion, if you, like me, appreciate games that require a little bit of logic and that are a mixture of various gameplay styles (exploration, fighting and driving airships in the specific), well, I recommend this game because it has interesting combat mechanics and some battles are really challenging.

В эту игру явно вложили немало сил. Она хоть и использует движок RPG Maker в своей основе, но от привычных нам ресурсов и меню уже мало что осталось. Настолько мало, что ради того, что бы развеять сомнения, пришлось лезть в папку игры и смотреть структуру. По началу, игра приятно удивляет... Правда слишком быстро начинают проявляться проблемы. Проблемы характерные для игр конца 80-тых, которые эта игра пытается имитировать. Хотя скорее их более современные переиздания, потому что графика в те года была гораздо хуже, чем в этой игре. Бои представляют из себя тактические головоломки, подобно старым Final Fantasy или Bright of Fire. У врагов есть слабости по стихиям, у оружия есть типы врагов (по броне), по которым оно наносит больше урона. От расположения персонажей на поле боя у них изменяются эффективность в ближнем бою и в магическом. И, потому как вам придется распоряжаться ресурсами для восстановления жизни и брони, особенно в начале игры, не выйдет просто сражаться с врагами с наскока, к каждому бою придется готовиться... Постоянно кликая в менюшках. Честно говоря, я уже отвык от подобного, это и раньше в играх не часто попадалось, разве что Nioh 2 из недавнего приходит в голову (у которого, в отличии от Dark Souls, куда больший упор на подготовку к бою, чем на скорость реакции) и серия Witcher, кроме третьей части, если играть на высокой сложности. И, честно говоря, это кликанье по менюшкам мне быстро надоело. Тот факт, что халявной травки для восстановления HP и MP вы можете носить ограниченное количество, и весьма маленькое, тратить их совсем уж по минимуму тоже бессмысленно. Ситуации, в которой у вас почти нет одной травки, но другой уже лимит и вы не можете поднять еще одну, при том, что тратить её сейчас будет расточительно, слишком уж часты в этой игре. Хотя позже травка отходит на второй план и вы больше опираетесь на лечение тем, что закупили в магазинах. Локации в игре в плане дизайна в этой игре ранжируются от "хороших" до "весьма посредственных". Самая первая локация, даром что короткая и абсолютно линейная, весьма впечатляет, потому что в другой бы игре это бы было одной из финальных локаций. А потом вас встречает форт со стремной планировкой и почти без дверей. Затем абсолютно ниочемный островок, который на глобалке выглядит гораздо круче, чем на локальной карте, не последний подобный островок, что нам придется посетить. Потом будет довольно красивый городок, напоминающий города из старых частей Legends of Heroes... В общем, качество локаций прыгает всю игру. Ну и немного о сюжете. Лор может и хорош, но подача его такая себе. Диалоги же вообще ад. Первый, что меня заставил ушибить лицо ладонью, это когда протагонист номер два разговаривает с протагонистом номер один. Но когда мы таки переключаемся на протагониста номер два и она выполняет целый квест (хоть и детсадовского уровня), что бы встретиться со своим начальством, потому что ему стало скучно и он решил, что это весело, заставить свою подчиненную решать легкую загадку и бегать по этажам просто потому, что ему захотелось приколоться, поставив на вход в башню стражника, который не пустит её наверх, пока она не принесет ему запрятанный пропуск, несмотря на то, что явно её узнал. И подобных ситуаций, болтовни и беготни чисто ради бессмысленных фигни, когда у персонажей есть дела поважнее, вы увидите гораздо больше, чем хотелось бы, зачастую по локациям, что сделаны чисто ради этого. Автор так игру удлинял, что ли? Сомнительное решение, учитывая, что она заканчивается клиффхангером, и можно было просто сделать больше сюжета. Сюжета, который подается очень обрывочно, с постоянным переключением между персонажами и их группами. В таких условиях, эмоционально привязаться хоть к одному из них, весьма сложно. В целом, мне понравилось летать на дирижабле, я понимаю, что подход к боям в этой игре найдет свою аудиторию, и стелс сделан не раздражающим, но хотя я и могу назвать игру неплохой, она точно далеко не всем сможет понравиться. В общем, если вам нравятся подобные "логические" бои, то игру стоит взять, благо она недорогая, не то, что игры от Kemco, что немногим лучше, а стоят зачастую как AAA продукты. Благо, в отличие от той же Персоны, вы по одному только внешнему виду врага можете прикинуть его слабости. Если же подобное не для вас, то смело проходите мимо. P.S. Сохранки на кострах - зло. Я не очень понимаю, отсылка ли это к Dark Souls-у или к лагерям в старых РПГ, но смысл такого решения мне абсолютно не понятен, тем более, что костров в игре просто нереально много, особенно в начале. Ах да, если хотите видеть больше непроплаченных обзоров преимущественно малоизвестных инди-игр, то подписывайтесь на кураторскую: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37645702-Unknown-indie/ Будете видеть мини-обзоры на продукты, что, надеюсь, помогут вам решить, стоит ли вообще читать страницу в магазине. И полную версию обзора.

I was sent a copy of this game specifically to Let's Play it and I gotta say, I ended up really enjoying it. It's a very challenging game about minmaxxing your equipment and preparing as best you can before each and every battle. Every encounter can feel impossible if you just blindly go into them, but every enemy has a weakness. Every boss has a strategy. It's your job to figure them out. I really like the presentation too. The story has a lot of dark fantasy vibes. It's advertised as a "western RPG"-style game but frankly it kind of felt like a satisfying mix between one of those and a JRPG. I really like it. The art is great too. Backgrounds and assets are hand drawn apparently. And it even has a few cutscenes too that really make important parts of the story feel extra special. I think the one caviat I'd warn people about before going in though is that unless you're really, *really* into difficult RPGs, I wouldn't recommended playing on the Tactical difficulty. I really like tough games like this but a few encounters still got frustratingly hard. There's even a plot-required one extremely late in that felt borderline impossible, even with some personal help from the developers. I was only able to beat it after getting extremely lucky. So yeah, play on the Story difficulty I guess if you want an easier time. But yeah, overall this was pretty fantastic and I'd love to see it become more popular. Here's a link to my playthrough if you want some of my more in-depth opinions on the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RLzIrSsLY8&list=PLNyQTVZExDfugu9AnNPW2JACd7sJzGqne&ab_channel=TheGamedawg

Grafica, dialoghi, gameplay abbastanza scarsi.

Clouds of Rain é um prato cheio para os amantes de RPG, possui um enredo bem trabalhado onde você estará jogando com diversos personagens e conhecendo os dois lados da moeda. Apesar da jogabilidade simples o game exige muita estratégia do jogador. Quem quiser conferir um pouco do game segue o vídeo abaixo: Vídeo: https://youtu.be/qX_WE6Wo80A

.Recomendado.