Labyronia Elements

As a completionist, I love to get every item and find every skill. Never before has a game punished me so much for this as Labyronia Elements. I have played one of the four playable worlds, and find myself lacking any reason to continue. The concept is intriguing. The world has been divided into segments based on element, and you are tasked to reunite them. You play a lone shadow who, thank goodness, can drain health, or you would die very quickly. You must explore the few areas you have access to and beat three bosses, who let you pick one of the elemental worlds to enter. Travel to that world and your shadow gains a human host body, becoming a new character. And this is where this game lost me. You see, only a few of your base powers transfer to the new world. No equipment comes with you, making your work in one world have no effect on the next, and vice versa. A large portion of the challenge in the gameplay is to defeat enemies and bosses with a low-damage skill that allows you to absorb their powers. However, none of these skills transfer in either direction. Thus the 15 hours I played in the Fire world have absolutely no bearing on what I do for the rest of the game, and the long vast expanses of empty space I explore in the base world serve only to delay my returning to the next world. I find there is little point in seeking out secrets and strengthening characters who I don't get to keep. So I am abandoning this game. Maybe a different type of player would have more fun, but I just can't keep myself interested.

Неожиданно интересная и приятная JRPGшка, где нам выпадет нелегкая задача соединить 5 разных миров и вернуть покой в земли Лабуронии. Знающие ребята подсказали мне, что я начал играть сразу с 4 части серии, коей является Labyronia Elements, она самая большая и насыщенная среди своих предшественников. Мы будем играть за безликую тень в капюшоне, к которой обращается Всевышняя Волшебница. Она просит нас выполнить нелегкую задача по слиянию пяти различных миров, чтобы возродить единое королевство Лабуронии. По сути каждый мир это отдельная игра, куда частично переносится прогресс из других миров. Они все представляют собой определенный элемент, а наша задача убить местного босса, чтобы научиться его магии. Например в одном из миров мы будем заниматься травничеством и пробираться через могучие джунгли, а в другом мы побываем в шкуре известного вора, который днем является местным героем и помогает жителям, а по ночам обносит их дома. В каждом мире наша безликая тень будет превращаться в нового персонажа, у которого будут свои определенные задачи. Боевка тут классическая для JRPG, но предполагает активное изучение локаций в поисках магии и снаряжения, чтобы укрепить своего текущего героя и не упасть в грязь лицом. Конечно не обошлось без элемента неожиданности, когда тебе попадется сильный противник, а у тебя нет определенной магии элемента к которой он уязвим, поэтому придется набивать себе шишки и активно пылесосить миры. Также можно запариться и поизучать перки усиливающие броню и сопротивление эффектам, но это уже для совсем безнадежных ситуаций. Лабурония мне очень понравилась и я с удовольствием в ней позалипал. Некоторые битвы заставили попотеть, но в конечном счете я был доволен что спас очередной игровой мир и теперь стал там местной легендой. Годная JRPGшка, на которую не жалко потраченного времени.

无趣的RPG Maker产物，和同类游戏基本看不出有啥差别 都是不停刷刷刷升级，重复着类似的操作

[h1]In Short: A fun, interesting game with a great magic and skill learning system that is bogged down by some questionable game design choices[/h1] https://youtu.be/bNU98IYSfFY https://youtu.be/mi863buEna8 Ya know...I knew what I was getting into when I fired up this game. The title is Labyronia Elements. The dev is Labyrinthine. It’s part of a bundle on Steam called ‘The World of Labyrinths.’ So yeah...I knew what I was getting into. I just didn’t imagine it would be so...[i]prevalent[/i]. That’s not a knock on the game, but more of a neutral observation. It claims to have 50 to 90 hours of gameplay time, but I feel that is probably due to the mazes padding gameplay considerably. And honestly it wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t a good 90% of the maps. If it were limited to the dungeons, then I’d be all for it. But it’s world maps, too. It gets grating, and slightly frustrating, when you have to traverse a map several times due to back tracking. I can’t really get [i]too[/i] upset, though, because that’s kind of the game’s (and the dev’s) hook: mazes. It was pretty obvious they were going to be a major part of the game, so I can look past that. What I cannot look past are the other far more questionable design choices that bring down what I feel could otherwise be an amazing game. Take the magic and skill systems: they are AMAZING. To learn new abilities, you have to steal them from your enemies by using a certain skill as a deathblow. Every character can do this, and there’s no limit to what you can learn. The downside? The deathblow attack that you use to learn an enemy ability only does a static 50 damage. There is, as far as I can tell (I haven’t finished the game), no way to increase this amount. In that same vein, more skills and passive abilities are learned by wearing gear, but if you don't wear the gear until you fully learn the ability it won't become permanent, and sometimes you'll find weaker gear that will enable you to learn a buff that is just too good to pass up. You end up spending a decent chunk of time underpowered for the sake of learning a better skill [spoiler]Another major downside is that you only experience each boss ability once, and only one person can learn it. IF you can manage to kill them with the deathblow. One boss had a 320 HP regen ability you can’t dispel, so it was fun to try and steal their ability, lemme tell ya. That’s not the downside. The downside? You start as the Dark One on the Spirit world, and when you go to a new world you adopt a form that the inhabitants won’t question or be afraid of...and your skills and abilities don’t transfer between worlds. So if you learn that ultimate boss ability on your disguised Dark One? Kiss it goodbye forever after that world is through. It’s punishing, and I call ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on it. Granted, other party members all join you later on in the game on different worlds, but your Dark One will never have those abilities you teach him, other than the ones learned on his home world. It makes playing as him pointless, and was a real gut punch when I learned this.[/spoiler] Honestly, what is keeping me playing is the story. It’s well crafted, intriguing, and well worth the frustration (in my eyes) of dealing with all the game’s shortcomings. By the end of the fire world the characters had devolved into bickering children...but it was hilarious! I’m a sucker for a good tale, and this game has one. I just wish that the backtracking, and skill learning weren’t so stunted, to make it more enjoyable, instead of a frustrating chore half the time. AND DON’T GET ME STARTED ON INFINITELY LOOPING MAPS WITH NO REAL SENSE OF DIRECTION. Ugh. +Excellent story that is full of mystery, intrigue, and even some high school drama moments, that are surprisingly entertaining for how cringy they could potentially be +Lots of custom, non-standard art, battlers, and tiles, so the game itself looks unique and stands apart from other RPG Maker titles +Clever puzzles that require a bit of thinking or in-game research to overcome +Excellent skill and magic learning system with a big BUT =Mazes. So many ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mazes. Mazes ON TOP OF MAZES. Still, it’s a game about labyrinths, so what are ya gonna do? =The BUT of the skill and magic system: you may be forced to run around undergeared for a while, and the deathblow can be tricky, if not impossible, to pull off with certain high health bosses or enemies -Some large maps with infinite looping. I was literally running around for thirty minutes looking for something in a certain map on the spirit world. I only found it by chance, and then couldn’t find the exit -See the spoiler above. [b]Major Flaw[/b] IMO -The mazes feel less like a design choice and more to pad out the game time. Too much backtracking between different areas and the player being (mostly) forced to travel through mazes makes it a slog instead of fun -Not much direction of where to go to advance the plot of the story. Backtracking, inspecting things multiple times, etc...all feel more like padding the playtime instead of intuitive exploration and advancement My verdict? Excellent story, puzzles, and gameplay...questionable and even punishing game design choices. When the game does something good, it excels in it; when it does something bad? It really does it bad. I am going to recommend this game, but it’s on the cusp; There is a lot of good in this game...I mean...you fight a freaking SUN. [i]YOU LITERALLY ATTACK THE SUN.[/i] Not gonna lie: that’s what made me recommend this. But the lows...you will get frustrated. You will get angry. And you will call ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. But there’s a decent game here, waiting to be played. [i][b]If you can find your way through the maze of bad design.[/b][/i]

While we usually give indie games and indie developers the benefit of the doubt, we couldn't in this instance. We critiqued this game back in September of 2018. It had its own host of flaws, like most games we critique: characterization, story hooks, and plot convolution. However, this can be fixed, and we posted our critique in good faith, even going so far as to playing the game longer on Teal's account to see if we still felt that way after several more hours. Unfortunately, the developer chose to dissect and argue their points every step of the way instead of learning from people's feedback, or just moving onto something else. Eventually, we walked away from the thread and wished the developer the best. The reason we're posting a negative review after all this time is to remind people that critical feedback and constructive criticism are vital to the success of any developer and any project. Learn to swallow your pride and just listen to what the person who took time to play your game has to say. In the end, the best way to learn is to learn from your failures. Our critique on YouTube: https://youtu.be/J3bakJ-KkBI The discussion thread referenced: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/how-should-i-advertise-my-game.99585/page-6

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Just finished this last night. Bloody amazing game. This is a hidden gem. As one of the reviewers said, get the bundle. Zero regrets. Beginning can be tough, but once you get through that it's not bad. Likes: - Killing Crodin - You aren't coddled, you get a brief tutorial and off you go - Each felt long enough to be its own game really - Element drain system once you realize using bleed/poison/venom makes it easier - Being right about stuff based on the previous 2 games - Killing Crodin - Optional Bosses Dislike: - That stupid tree chasing you. Don't know why it took me so many tries but up yours buddy - Element drain system before you realize using bleed/poison/venom makes it easier - Rudel - Some areas may be frustrating. The first spore area in Nuterra and Belets Tower puzzles were mine. Seriously this game is amazing. Keep up the good work Dev!

As someone who mostly really enjoyed Labyronia RPG 1 and 2, I imagined the flaws of the previosus games would be fixed in this newer game as I felt Labyronia RPG 2 was mostly a step up in every way. Very frustratingly, this game is absolute hell if you are not using a guide. The maps are well designed but the eventing is completely horrible in the places where you get stuck. This game is 80% hell and 20% heaven. It makes me want to kill the developer or myself trying to go through all of these dumb trap situations that should not exist. This game really needs some patching to make it not rely on guides. Have you ever played a classic RPG like Ocarina of Time (I guess it's not really an RPG), Final Fantasy VII or Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door? If you are anything like me, you encountered situations where it felt impossible to progress and you could feel a deep hatred for a game that should have been excellent. Ocarina of Time was the worst for this. The main reason this kind of thing happens is because there are many NPCs, but none who give you the slightest hint about what you are supposed to do next. It could be that the map paths were designed very badly so you can't see a small entry point. It could be that the answer to the situation is so suddenly needed and so far off that you wouldn't expect to check there. Or it could be that you can just barely figure out how it was supposed to happen and even after passing this horrible situation, you still might not figure out how to do it on the next playthrough. Well Labyronia Elements is the most concentrated form of this phenomenon. You will always go half an hour or an hour of fun and clean gameplay only to arrive at a situation where it seems that progressing is impossible. This is especially evil when it comes to the Nuterra world where you are supposed to be given hints on where to progress but you really aren't told more than you would be in other worlds. Nuterra is possibly the hardest world to get through and I somehow managed to get through it as my first world. By the end of it, I felt like I was finally figuring out how Labyrinthine's dumb mapping/eventing decisions were made. But there is ALWAYS something bad to encounter in this game. You are ALWAYS going to get stuck on something that would be really simple in real life. Nobody ever guides you in this game, even when they need you to do something. And the world is designed in a way that going the most logical route for the story is to go through the most obtuse trickery you ever experienced. It's completely wrong and the developer should not have left the game in this state no matter what. Additionally, there are also those road blocks in action games where nothing physically tells you how to get through the game or the challenge is so difficult and yet mandatory that you never want to play the game again. This game, despite being on the terrible framework for action sequences that is RPG Maker, has those! If you have a handicap or just hate fast paced, optimization-necessary gameplay, you aren't escaping it here! Aquilus has the most illogical, hatred-inducing sequence ever!!!!!!!!!!! Why!!!!!!!!!!! Why is there a boulder that chases you around the tightest right angles possible?????????? This is absolute evil in its truest form, especially since its design betrays reality as it lies just outside of a residential area that does trading. Complete garbage game design!!!!!!!!!!! Additionally, there is a timed puzzle at the start of that world (thankfully not mandatory) that seems truly impossible as there seems to be no solutions and you can't possibly perform what you need to in time anyway, and there isn't even a clear indication of exactly how you need to do it. If I were to review the game based on gameplay, music, story, creativity, et cetera, this game would get very high praises. But because of very hell on Earth game design, none of this matters for most people who would play this without a guide. This is a serious nightmare for me and the fact that it shows glimpses of what would otherwise be an amazing game makes the nightmare much worse. With the game in its current state, I could never recommend this game to anyone knowing what I know about it now. At first I was sad to see such a promising game with so little attention on Steam, but I feel like it currently deserves to be where it is.

This game is good but. It has 3 areas I need cheat engine to get through in order to slow down the pace. Without cheat engine I would have never beaten the game. One area in which you must out run a giant snowball is mandatory to proceed. I would have never beaten it without cheat engine. If you get this game you may need cheat engine.

This is the fourth game in the Labyronia series. Apparently things have not gone so well since the end of the 2nd RPG (the third game was a prequel to the 1st). The world has been sundered into five different worlds, one for each of the elements of Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and Spirit. (Combine these five to create Captain Planet?) Anyway, you, the Dark One (from the Spirit world) have been tasked to bring together the five shards of the Pendant (that apparently controls the world of Labyronia) and reform the Light. The game is engaging, and the plot seems refreshing. And for the price it is a steal. Mind you, I do wonder if your boss isn't planning something... unwise.