In coming to review this game, I am experiencing something that I have not felt with many of the games I have reviewed. I feel as though I am being appreciated for the review that I am writing. Not only that, but I know that my review will ultimately be supporting a developer who I believe has earned such support. I have been fortunate enough to stay in contact with the creator of this game since he send me an unfinished copy of the game some six months ago, asking if I would playtest it. Needless to say, I agreed, and since have been watching it to see what it would eventually become. Not many RPG Maker games actually make it through to see a final cut, but I am glad that this one has. Anyway, let me not carry on about my past experience with this game and it's developer and proceed forward into the review.
In approaching an RPG Maker game to review, I consider two things as top priority, originality and story. Although some would say that combat should be another larger thing to consider, the way I see it, RPG Maker games basically all have the same combat system. The artwork in this game is amazing, and all done by the single developer. Aside from some default tiles and such, the enemies, characters, and so on, were designed by the developer himself. Story wise, it could be said that the story is basically your basic "Good guy goes on adventure to stop bad guy" stories, but to me this is not the case. All great stories generally default back to this theme in reality, it is just the execution that determines how people recieve it. This leads back to originality. The story is set up and executed in such a way that if one were to expand on it, it could become an actual book or light novel. In some ways, I could see the story contained in this game as a book, and it could probably be an even better execution of the story (not containing the limitations that video games have, that is).
The game's "hero" is a boy named Sarab, whose family were slain by evil forces in search of a great item of power. Fun fact, Sarab, or سراب, means mirage in Arabic and is something comparable to a root word for وهمي, or phantom. How and if this applies to the character and story I haven't found out yet. Typically I would give a general rundown of the story in this section of my review, but I feel like the main strength to this game is the story, so I really don't want to give away too much of it. Anyway, let me just proceed to the point by point breakdown of the goods and bads to this game.
+GOODS+
-Story: The story is good and original, it really could make a great light novel if the story were expanded on past the limitations that a video game format provides.
-Art/Visuals: The game features a lot of original content in terms of visuals, which is definitely a sign of a RPG Maker game that someone put a effort into. So many times RPG Maker games will try to pass off default graphics and expect people to feel something new from them. Having custom, personally crafted visuals is something not seen often enough in the RPG Maker genre of games.
-Ambiance: The game focuses on ambiance as it's main audio content. Ambiance is a good thing as long as it doesn't become repeditive, at which point it can really make a game boring. This game, however, has such a mixture of ambiance audio that it rarely becomes repetitive, such that the sounds heard throughout the game world do not become dull.
-Usage Of The System: This game has a place in my top ten list of RPG Maker games in terms of usage of the system. The game focuses a lot on puzzles, and puzzles within the RPG Maker system only work if the world that is being explored are actually worth exploring. That being say, the game world, the visuals combined with the ambiance, create such an experience that it prompts people to keep searching for the solutions to the puzzles. In terms of the usage of the system to tell a story, I would compare this game to "Last Dream", which could easily be considered my favorite RPG Maker game of all time using the RPG Maker VX engine.
<NEUTRALS>
-Music (or the lack thereof): The game doesn't contain any music whatsoever. It contains effect sounds such as those during combat or when interacting with the world, but none of the fanfare commonly associated with games of this type. Some or even most people would consider this a really bad thing for most games, but there is a reason why I place this under neutral. For this game, which relies on world exploration and puzzles as it's main driver, music would actually seem out of place. Most of the story is presented in something like a poetic way, with most of the story being recieved as notes throughout the game world. In a way, the game almost feels like an extended cutscene instead of a game without the presence of music. Music, in this way, actually seperates the player from the events of the world, and that would actually be a negative thing for this game.
-Simplicity: As I say for most RPG Maker based games, the system is simple. Everthing can be done with essentially five different keys or so. There isn't very much different about the menus compared to the default either, so custom menu scripts and such are sometimes a downer for those who want to see something different.
-NEGATIVES-
-Combat: The combat isn't very good, I must sadly say. The combat system uses the Yanfly combat engine, but to what extent I have not been able to tell. Thus far, the only purpose of the Yanfly system in the combat is to use sideview battlers, but nothing else. This is kind of sad since the Yanfly engine can do so much. The combat is just the repetition of the same thing, at first it isn't bad since the enemy sprites are all custom made, but after it becomes more normal it really loses it's appeal. The game's focus is on puzzle solving, and the combat really just introduces roadblocks for the puzzle solving that really doesn't accomplish anything toward a greater purpose. Perhaps if the encounter rate were lowered the combat would not be such a big deal, although it may still become repetitious.
-Grammar: The game's most negative trait is that it is saturated with grammar mistakes. For a game that relies on having a strong story which conveys meaning, having a grammar mistake can really shatter what could perhaps have been a perfect scene/story. I think that the game would benefit from having somebody proofread throughout and give feedback to the developer on what needs to be changed in order for the story to come across correctly. Otherwise, much of the story and feelings that should be conveyed at certain times will be lost.
In conclusion, I am glad that this developer has been able to successfully publish this game, and I hope that it does well. For anyone who is familiar with RPG Maker games, or RPG games in general, I believe that you will find the story contained in this one to be of a high quality. Considering the effort the developer put into it, I think that he has well earned the $1.99 that is being offered for the game. The game itself, if anything else, can be considered both a work of art as well as a light novel and well worth the price. Despite the few flaws involved, I believe the positives easily extend beyond the threshold that make a good RPG Maker game, even so much that I will compare it to my favorite RPG Maker game of all time. Thanks again for allowing me to be a part of this project and look forward to it's success on Steam!
"May your adventures be many and always end in reward"
-Donoknight, Guildmaster of The Tabletop RPG Gamers League
