Sarab: Duji Tower is an RPG Maker game filled with a simple yet nice story, okay characters, killer ambiance, and the usual turn-based combat system. However, it also has poor writing as well as moments that I found unnecessary. And unfortunately, the amount of errors in the text became too much for me to handle.
Let's start off with the cons, shall we?
First things first, writing wise it has an alright beginning with minor mistakes here and there, but the further you go along there will be a lot more. And it doesn't end at words spelled wrong but the misuse of question marks, exclamation marks, commas, ellipses, you name it. There are also too many sentences where I couldn't even edit it on the fly because it made so little sense. As it stands, the writing needs to be revamped, and then I'll consider finishing the game. As is? There's no way.
Second, there are a lot of scenes or moments that I can't understand why they're there. Examples:
1. The text boxes below the notes you find. Now, if they were written in another language or scribble goop that nobody would understand, I get having the text box for English. But when you can read the words already, there's no need for that box. It's just in the way. And don't try to give me the, “It might be hard to read.” Because it isn't.
2. The change in perspectives. I'm not talking about the change in perspectives with other characters since that's cool, but rather the showing of what the bad guys are up to. This is something I've never really understood because it's not engaging to see what the villains are doing unless it helps to move the story along or is interesting. And in these instances, neither happened. It was just bad guys being, well, bad. Or as I'd like to call it, “The main antagonist having anger management problems while the rest keep being terrible at their jobs."
3. Forcefully spoon-feeding the player. This is a thing that you want to avoid at all cost, especially in story-telling. As an author once said, resist the urge to explain. Show, don't tell. In the beginning, we're shown what's happening with the protagonist through different scenes and dialogue, which is nice. That's what we call the good stuff. However, it's not long before you're given exposition and the pain starts. Sometimes, that can be nice. Just not in large quantities and certainly don't tell the player the same or similar stuff again. To me, that reads that you think the person is too stupid to not get it the first time around. And I have only one thing to say about that: don't assume. You're not giving the player enough credit. Let them make guesses or play until events reveal the story little by little.
4. The poems. At the start of every chapter, there's a poem attached that I don't understand why they're there. Now, if they had been foreshadowing of what the chapter was about, that would've been awesome. But no, it's unnecessary cryptic text that we get exposition for anyway or have already figured out thanks to the opening, which means that it doesn't matter.
5. The dialogue. Most of the time, I love this part in any text but for this a lot of the time it fell flat. Even when you should get some knowledge of who the characters are, you quickly realise that they're kind of milk-toast. And these are the ones we're supposed to be rooting for?
Third, this'll focus more on what it lacked. Say, the portraits. I say that if you're going to have that for the characters, then why not go all out? You have no idea how hard it is to take a grave moment in a game seriously when the main character is smiling like nothing is wrong. If it was meant to be comical, then that's nailed. But if not, that completely sucks away any seriousness in both the story and events that transpire. What I'm trying to say is: give them more expressions if you're already going to show their portraits whenever it's their turn to speak. Or better yet, have their portrait be neutral.
Fourth, names needs some work. I'm not talking about the good guys' names, they're fine as far as I'm concerned. But the bad guys? Goblet of Death and the Five Devils sounds more like a horrible band name than some evil dudes to be feared. And while we're on the Goblet of Death, that alone sounds a lot like a name he came up with when he was fourteen in his edgy phase and never changed it—the hilarious thing about this is these are not my words but my sister's. And let's not forget about the weapons. The first one, I can accept. It sounds cool enough to be considered something great. The second and third? Nah. The second sounds like no thought was put into it and the third—even if you were making a reference to Cupid—still sounds terrible.
Last thing, what is AED? You pick it up in places but you never get an explanation of what it is. There's not even any sign in your inventory or anything that you got it. For all my complaints about explanation, it's the one time it would've been useful.
Now onto the pros!
First, despite everything that I've said above concerning story-telling and whatnot, I did enjoy it. Yes, it's simple and cliché but it wasn't too bad. It made me keep playing even after I realised how bad the writing was after an hour. Which means that either it has something to give or I'm a masochist. Hmm, I'm gonna go with both.
Second, the imagery doesn't end at character portraits. This was one of the things that I really liked about it. Even the most trivial items have a drawing, so we can actually see what we picked up instead of the usual text box version. Of course, this doesn't fall in the same category as health, armour, or those types of things where we get the usual RPG Maker images. But it's still nice. There's also some attention to detail in battle. In the beginning, you use a normal sword to attack enemies but some time later that's exchanged for the next weapon.
Third, the ambiance is actually amazing. This game is absent of music, relying only on the atmosphere. Even when fighting there's none for battle, which threw me off for a moment but like anything, I got used to it. And in the end, I came to love it more.
In conclusion: If the writing is fixed, it can go from an alright game to a good and even a great one.
