Lantern of Worlds

I like the idea and atmosphere about the game, but there are too much beautiful flirty women here, just give some nice flirty men also! Till the 3rd chapter (which is not finished) it took me around 2 hours of gameplay. Its quite short, but I generally I like it and would recommend it, considering the small price.

Ugghhh, this is one of those times when I really wish there was a different rating system here on steam besides just yes or no to recommendations. I think this game has potential so I don't want to say 100% that I don't recommend it BUT... i do have a lot of issues with it. So I guess I'll just delve right it. When you start the game I like that it gives you the option to choose between playing a male character or a female character and it offers you some choices as to your avatar. However, I don't like that the sprite that represents your character does not match that. I picked a somewhat Asian looking woman covered in black as my avatar but the sprite is a White woman with blonde hair. These are problematic to me because 1 it doesn't match at all what I've chosen and 2 this doesn't feel like it really matches with the way the game is marketed. The game is marketed as "a game of storytelling and adventure based on Arabian mythology and the tales of 1001 Nights." Yet we start (if you start with the Tournament) in a Medieval European setting (complete with Druids and everything that does not scream 1001 Nights). I thought "Well, maybe you play a European type character that travels to a Middle Eastern type land, OK" but then when we get to the desert island it doesn't get much better. Arab type characters are presented as very stereotypical the whole game so far feels very orientalist. The next issue I have with the characters is that the story seems heavily written for men (or maybe gay women?) because so many of the story elements have flirtatious conversation or observations from beautiful NPCs. They are described as a man would look at them not in a gender neutral way. Some of the dialogue even specifically addresses the player as a male. If a game offers the choice to play as male or female I just think it needs to stay neutral when it comes to gender pronouns and how story is told. It's fine if the only option that is available is to play as a male but it's annoying and a little frustrating when you have the option to play as a woman. So my next big issue with the game is the interface. It's a little confusing and a little difficult to use. You have to perform a lot of selections just to get to the option you want. So for example to make camp I have to push "esc" then down to "skills" then to "overland" then to "make camp" then select my character (there might have even been another click in there somewhere I can't exactly remember). It's a lot of unnecessary clicks to select menus then sub menus and then actions then specifics then the character. So this really frustrates me. Story-wise I've not found much to draw me in. It's fairly ... meh. I'm not feeling a lot of the Arabian elements or 1001 nights stories that I was really looking forward to. The story elements feel like random encounters rather than a cohesive story. That's especially disappointing since I was expecting more of a story like what you would get from Quest for Glory which the game was supposedly inspired by. The fight mechanics could use some work, they are not the greatest. I still don't understand how exactly to really choose the "counter attack" or "second wind" options that appear. They either disappear before I can select one and I get nothing or I somehow manage to select one but can't seem to consistently figure out how to select one. If there were shortcut keys for the abilities and items I didn't figure them out. Next up in the problem areas is the leveling/skills portion. I love leveling characters and building skills but a major problem with this game is that when you want to increase your skill (using your hero points) you can't see what level your skills are already. So I can increase strength but I can't see a number that lets me know how much I've increased it. I can't tell where those points have been spent. It seems like something that you should be able to see how many points you've invested in each skill or what level that skill is at but you can't You can only see how many unspent points you have and the option to increase the skill. The game is disappointing in length as well. I believe I've gone through almost all of the available content and it's just not very much. I can't seem to progress any further due to what I think are bugs in the game. When I enter the ship wreck (near where you start) all I get is a beach scene. There's no way to exit the scene, no dialogue happens, I can't do anything with the tools I'm supposed to give to the Sailor ghost so I can't progress whatever that story line might open. There's also a place that needs an item to unlock it but I can't seem to get it. I'm pretty sure it's something from the silver snake encounter that I experienced in a different playthrough but that encounter isn't available at all. I'm able to go to the other islands and have explored the entire available space in day and night and no matter what I can't find any new encounters so I don't think I can do anything else except leave to a mountain pass exit that tells me to buy the next part of the game/expansion. So while I appreciate some elements of the game I don't feel like I can recommend this game but I wish I could give it a more neutral rating.