"Cross of Auria" is one of hundreds of low effort retro-pixel RPG Maker asset/construction kit flips spamming the Steam catalog, made with the RPG Maker video game construction kit... in their own words, "Our easy to use tools are simple enough for a child." Like all RPG Maker "games", this is essentially a bunch of low quality/canned assets from RPG Maker coupled with a cringeworthy high school anime club fan fiction.
As with all RPG Maker games, the poor quality engine displays badly in fullscreen and doesn't have full HD support or any graphics tweaking options, making this unacceptable for any dedicated modern PC gamer. The point can be made that the intention of RPG Maker is to make demos and small games to pass around friends, and shouldn't be used for "professional" game development.
Like most RPG Maker shovelware and asset flips, the game features extremely low quality copy + pasted 2D retro pixel art, looks awful, and has even worse gameplay. RPG Maker is an absolutely terrible construction kit, and never results in games of any reasonable quality or value to gamers.
This features really godawful, lazy pixelcrap "art" instead of real graphics. It's hard to say if this was because the developer didn't have the skill to do the job of creating 3D visuals, or couldn't afford to hire someone who does, but it also doesn't matter. What matters is that this looks bad because of that decision, and that's a major deterrent to gamers. Games like Terraria and Stardew Valley succeeded [i]despite[/i] the bad graphics, not because of them.
It's partially free... now, but it wasn't before. The developer was charging $1 USD for this. Price barriers, especially on low quality products, can be a direct cause of failure. It's a nice gesture for the game to be given away for free, but it also tells us that the game wasn't good enough to succeed as a paid product.
I mentioned this is only partially free.. the developer has their hand out for $4 USD worth of empty DLC, basically digital panhandling like the homeless guys that splash dirty water on your windscreen at the traffic lights.
Even though this is "free", it failed to appeal to the 120 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at only 3 concurrent players... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away.
Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it?
Nope. This isn't worth downloading. While this didn't cost me any money up front, I still feel ripped off.
[quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Response![/url][/quote]The developer has weighed in to inform everyone they didn't read the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Usage Rules[/url] for Steam "partners", or they deliberately ignored the part where Valve says:
[quote]Though it may be tempting, not every review needs to be responded to. A developer response will frequently draw more attention than the original statement, potentially turning a small issue into a much larger community discussion. It's also not a good idea to use this feature to refute customer opinions. Your direct attention can be seen as validation or a defensive attempt to silence your customers.[/quote]
The developer admits they didn't hire a team of talented staff to produce the game and tried to do the whole thing on their own, instead. This is a lot like boarding an airplane, and halfway through the flight, having the pilot come out and serve peanuts. It's going to end in disaster. It requires a team of competent people to do a complex job properly, and that's not what has happened here... another explanation for the poor quality of this game.
But wait... there's more. The developer "boasts" he spent over 3,000 hours making one single RPG Maker asset flip. Over 3,000 hours. Russian asset flippers produce RPG Maker asset flips in the space of just 1-2 days (take a look at anything from Aldorlea for example). The funny part is, [i]those asset flips are more popular and have higher review scores than this incompetent garbage![/i]
If I had spent 3,000 doing anything and the result was failed garbage like Cross of Auria, I would crawl into a hole and never darken the gaming industry with my presence again. This is not the flex the developer thinks it is.
And it doesn't matter if GTA:V was made by one guy in a shed in 3 hours, or if Depression Quest took 15 years and 400 people to make... what matters is the resultant quality of the product and the value it has for gamers. This RPG Maker asset flip has zero of either. But the developer clearly has put his own ego before gamers... in fact, zero consideration was made here about what gamers actually want (hint: Not RPG Maker asset flips).
In an attempt to discredit the facts and validity of my review the developer seems to think that the game must be played for several hours before determining any objective facts about it. Apparently, before deciding a carton of rancid milk has gone sour, the developer thinks we must drink the whole carton before we're allowed to tell anyone the milk has gone off. What rubbish. [b]Playing a bad game for longer will not make the graphics better, cause the code to change, controls to become better, or fix any bugs or other defects in it.[/b] So why insist the game needs to be played longer? This is simply psychological denial on the part of the developer. If they can attack the review, they can pretend their game doesn't suffer from the defects this review highlights. This is outright delusion, unfortunately. [b]It does not take very long for the defects in this game to become apparent. Playing the game for longer will not change them.[/b]
You might need to sit down for this one. Because the developer used RPG Maker to make this garbage asset flip, [b]he DEMANDS reviews must not discuss the shortcomings of RPG Maker or the garbage it produces.[/b] Nobody FORCED the developer of this garbage to use RPG Maker... he *chose* to do so despite knowing it's complete garbage. And he wants to force reviews to avoid discussing something that's vital for gamers to know... why is the developer so desperate to hide the fact this is an RPG Maker asset flip?
Why is the developer so desperate to prevent people being informed about the truth of this failed game?
This is simply pure delusion, a desperate attempt to avoid having to face his failure.
It's important to recognise that, despite the main character breaching Valve guidelines to blame me for his failure, my review simply reflects the unspoken consensus amongst gamers... and this is something that is objectively measured and supported by evidence. SteamDB does not lie. This utter failure only attracted a peak of 3 players. It doesn't matter how many keys the developer spat out, facts show that nobody used them. The developers weird posturing here once more seeks to push a false and easily disproven position to mislead gamers away from the harsh facts about his failure.
The developer, in a chilling move, DEMANDS that I, as a reviewer, am no longer permitted to write reviews for RPG Maker asset flips. This seems incredibly unrealistic and irrational to attempt to control reviews, in fact, recent FTC rulings indicate these kinds of attempts to stifle or prevent valid reviews are a breach of US federal law.
Nothing in the developers pointless breach of Valve guidelines changes any of the objective facts of my review. My review stands unaltered. I cannot recommend this failed RPG Maker asset flip to anyone.
