DEEP 8

DEEP 8 is a really good sci-fi rpg maker game that makes me think back to my younger days. Although the game is obviously meant to appeal more to the adult audience due to the themes it addresses. Throughout much of the game there is a good sense of progression in both character development and story. The end, however, is a little abrupt. I like both the combat and the ability system very much, which overall almost always leads to exciting fights. The allusions to other games also put a smile on my face from time to time. To my taste, there could have been a little more late-game content, but all in all, it's a really good game that I would recommend without further ado.

= Preliminary Review = Deep 8 is a JRPG that sets itself apart from other RPGMaker games. It has non-standard sprites, lots of puzzles, three main characters (that I know of so far) all with refreshing personalities, a somewhat unique combat system and skill system with lots of depth, and its world is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy. Most of these things are positive and negative, in my opinion at least. For example, the non-standard sprites are a breath of fresh air and clearly made with love, but some things like walking animations look stiff and off-putting to me. The combat system is super interesting, but the fact that you have so many options right at the start but also don't get a lot of skills due to how the skill progression system works makes it hard to get into at first and then also stale for a while. There are also a number of small issues with text being doubled and somehow switching back to German for some dialogue, but nothing worth mentioning and also no game-breaking bugs. One annoying thing is that saying the game resets the level you're in to default, so you can't save in the middle of a puzzle or you'll have to do it all over again. The part that annoyed me the most so far but that I also have the highest hopes for is the characters and their development. To put it shortly, the main guy is a horny wimp, the main girl is a prude manhater, and the second main girl is a sexually liberal person. We get direct access to the characters' thoughts even during dialogue, which sounds great but is really annoying when the main guy constantly comments on how sexy he thinks the women he encounters are or when the main girl comments on how ♥♥♥♥♥♥ and wimpy the main guy is and how sl***y the second main girl is. Because there seems to be a theme of sexuality underlying all this, I hope the developer put more thought into this and this stuff gets resolved at some point in the story. I'll play through this game at some point and will update the review then.

Feels like I played a long lost Sega CD RPG from the panty punishment timeline. Highly recommended!

me gusta

Full disclosure: I was given a copy of this game and asked to leave a review. That said, I intend to be honest in my takes on this game regardless of that fact. I'm also only a few hours in at the time of writing this, so keep that in mind, but I'll update it as I play further into it. Pros: - Story had my interest right from the start. It's quite mature and dark. - Music and atmospherics fit quite well. - Lots of neat little side-quests/mini-objectives and such. - Good worldbuilding. You can pick up little tidbits of game lore if you want to take your time and examine everything. - Scifi rpg! They seem pretty rare. - Both Ramirez and Meiling are very flawed, and Meiling in particular seems to hate Ramirez (and everything else), and yet this dynamic makes for much more interesting storytelling than just "yay we're all bffs, lets save the crystals!" - Random encounters appear as visible dots on the map that (sort of) chase you, but are surprisingly easy to avoid. Neutral: (these may be pros or cons depending on how you roll) - It utilizes keys like shift and such, and while most of it can be played with a controller, you might need your keyboard close by for some parts. (Unless I'm missing something) - The weirdly-rendered character portraits clash horribly with the rest of the game's pixel style. Cons: - Combat starts out harsh and unforgiving rather than the game easing you into the mechanics. My first battle on the world map was a rather painful wipe. - Some combat elements have QTEs, which I absolutely despise. Really wish there was some way to opt out of them, but at least they're only stuck on certain abilities.

I was given a copy of this game to Let's Play and was pretty blown away by how impressive it is. It uses a pretty old version of RPGMaker but still manages to pulls off some incredible visual effects and gameplay mechanics I've never seen before, even in newer versions of the software. My favorite thing about this game is its battle system. Instead of equipment, you unlock these "mods" on this big skill tree that you can mix and match mid-battle for all kinds of special effects. Enemies and bosses are infinitely creative as well. One word of warning I would give is that this game covers some extremely dark subject matter. The dev was nice enough to list some of the topics featured at the beginning but even that didn't 100% prepare me for how dark it was willing to go. I actually wasn't able to complete this game for this reason. There was one segment that was a little too much for me and I had to put it down, unfortunately. Although in spite of this I still very much enjoyed the time I did play. If dark subject matter and a complex battle system doesn't scare you at all then I would definitely consider checking this out.

Bei mir hängt sich das Spiel immer auf, nachdem ich das 1. Mal den König mit dem Raumschiff besuche (Game-Breaking-Bug). :-(