Sydney's World

cool game

Сказочная JRPG для всей семьи, которая пестрит добротой. Эту игру смело можно назвать отличной , ведь автор вложил в игру свою душу, а это очень важный фактор, который не присущ многим современным играм (даже ААА класса). С первых минут меня заворожил саундтрек , разбудивший во мне ностальгические чувства по восьмибитным играм , что уж говорить о стилистике игры. Если вы любите 8битные рпг, то вы определенно должны поиграть в "Sydney`s world" - одну из самых милых jrpg на свете.

Sydney's World is a family friendly roleplaying game. It is neither hardcore RPG in the roleplaying sense or the JRPG mechanic sense. It is a a wonderful story and trip of father and daughter. A simple game of heart warming story with snazzy music and fun heart. Pros Family Friendly Funny Story and characters with heart and adventure Price Ratio per play through great! 14 hours: (Ignore my time stamp of 1 hour due to playing without internet) Some fun and great voice acting Snazzy tunes. Neutral: Simple combat mechanics can lead to some painful encounters and the classic RPG save resetting, but its not bad like older games of the genre. Some Maze puzzles can be a bit of a trial and error doozy.

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Sydney's World is an amazing JRPG game that reminds me of the imagination with that of a child. You could get attacked by a french chicken with the nationalism of a Quebecian, explore a cave with zombies, all with the medival background to truly fit an imaginary style of it. The game just wants you to have fun and laugh! The story may seem to take strange jumps from time to time, but that fits the wild imagination of Sydney herself! (When she was eight years old though.) This is Sydney's world, and her imagination can run wild and free. That's what makes the story so fun and engaging, as well as the game. I wish there were a few spots that would reccomend saving, as I usually leave long delay between saves, but that's my personal preference.

[h2]Preface[/h2] I have very mixed feeling writing review for Sydney's World. As educational game (also called DGBL/Digital Game Based Learning by the developer), it lean on good side. But as RPGMaker game, unfortunately it doesn't lean on good side even considering the developer primarily target younger audience. Valve really should let game owner choose "Neutral" or "Informational" when curators already given "Informational" option. [h2]Story[/h2] Overall the story is great, while considering it primarily target younger audience. It has some good moral message, choice which could invoke critical thinking and some fun cast/character. But for older audience, you might find the story/character is shallow/not deep enough. Even though the developer attempt to mitigate that by including selected philosophy quote/text on bookshelf, personally i find it's boring. If you're looking for something casual with teen/all ages age rating which could spark one's curiosity about philosophy, you might want to check Girls Last Tour (anime/TV series version) instead. Unfortunately the story has few serious flaws. The beginning part of story is weakest part where the pacing is very fast, many character shown with little introduction and there's no room for breathe needed by player to figure what's going on. While it gets better latter, i find there are so many characters with little appearance time. Even for child story, IMO fewer character with more appearance time would be better option. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] While many RPGMaker game (even few RPGMaker game which cost higher than 5 USD) suffer from mediocre combat where decent amount of grinding is required and player only spam attack/skill with biggest MP cost, fortunately Sydney's World does better than that. Some strategy is needed to win in a fight where it's not hard to find optimal strategy. Grinding is optional and there's no random encounter, although i find combat on last part of story/area is rather difficult since i always try to avoid combat. Character on your party sometimes changes following flow the story. While it add variant to gameplay and strategy planning to keep you engaged, unfortunately some character has very low level when they join the party which makes that character die quickly in combat. Aside from combat, there's fair amount of puzzle and maze. The difficulty is just what i expected from RPGMaker game, but many of them require trial-and-error which isn't really fun. Halfway the game, the maze become more difficult. While the game let you skip maze by then, i expect younger and impatient player would feel frustrated if they decide not to skip the maze. [h2]Player friendliness[/h2] The game offer so many tutorial/advice without shoving it to player face, which can be found through interacting with the puppy. RPGMaker veteran wouldn't value it much, but IMO it's very helpful for everyone else especially those who're not familiar with RPG game. But on the other hand, this game lack auto-save feature which is very odd choice considering some choice you made could lead to sudden game over or teleport you to entry/spawn point of a level. [h2]Visual[/h2] Overall the visual is mediocre, where it use generic/stock-looking asset. Although i have no problem with mismatch artstyle. The game CG is nice though. [h2]Audio[/h2] This game surprise me since voice acting is rarely used feature on RPGMaker game, even for top-rated or popular RPGMaker I've played so far. The voice acting for Sydney (the main character) is great and greatly enhance story immersion. But voice acting for other characters is mixed bags which varied from improving immersion, just exist or even break the immersion. As for soundtrack and sound effect, i find it's mediocre. But it's probably because i have expectation RPGMaker game should have great soundtrack/SFX. [h2]Conclusion[/h2] Sydney's World is great educational game. It manages to escape major pitfall/flaws which usually exist on educational game, such as gaining player interest first. However as RPGMaker game, it has few major flaws which ultimately made me choose not to recommend this game. Unless you're parent looking for fun-and-educational game or huge RPGMaker enthusiast, you should look for different game. [h2]Reference[/h2] Before writing this review, i checked developers website and read few article about educational game. Take note few links are also mentioned on developer's website. If you seriously consider buying this game, these link dump might be helpful for you. [list] [*]Developer's website which can be accessed by clicking "Visit the website" on this game's store page. [*]https://districtadministration.com/reading-as-an-adventure/ [*]https://web.archive.org/web/20191214113551/https://www.njea.org/digital-game-based-learning-enhances-literacy/ [*]https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-08-09-how-video-games-can-teach-reading-just-as-well-as-books [*]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yhTiVbKpP8fapz1Gjldbwgcz18wYoUor/view [*]https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/113783/how-do-i-make-educational-games-engaging-not-boring [/list]

Mit Unterstützung von Eltern, die Englisch beherrschen, ist das Spiel für Kinder um die 8 Jahre, die Freude an einfach niedlichen Dingen haben durchaus geeignet. Obwohl es in manchen Dingen (wie z.B. Charakternamen) mit der Niedlichkeit etwas übertrieben wurde. Da hört es aber leider auch auf. Denn gegen das Spiel spricht: [olist] [*]Fehlende Einstellungsmöglichkeiten für Musik- / Geräuchs- und Sprachlautstärke. Gerade die Hintergrundmusik ist teilweise sehr laut. [*]Keine Möglichkeit den Schwierigkeitsgrad effektiv zu beeinflussen (auch keine wirklichen Trainingsmöglichkeiten, nur fest vordefinierte Anzahl möglicher Kämpfe). Für ältere erfahrene Spieler bietet es keine Herausforderung, für jüngere Unerfahren sind die Kämpfe teils zu schwer. [*]Rätsel gerade für Kinder teils schwer zu durchschauen [*]Wenn man das Luftschiff hat kann man beim Erkunden der Welt Situationen schaffen, in denen man das Luftschiff nie wieder erreicht. Man ist dann also stucked, was besonders bitter ist, wenn man nur einen Spielstand hat und diesen das letzte mal direkt nach dem unwissentlichen triggern des Bugs gespeichert hat. Sowas kann gerade bei Kindern schnell passieren. [*]Inventar ist teils irreführend und überflüssig. Der Bereich Keyitems bleibt dauerhaft leer und Ausrüstungsgegenstände, gibt es meinem Spielerlebnis nach genau einen. Die Charaktere haben alle zwar Ausrüstung, aber bis auf eine Waffe findet man weder andere, noch kann man welche erwerben. [*]Es gibt keine wirkliche Möglichkeit einzukaufen. Man sammelt im Laufe des Spiels mengen an Gold, kann es, bis auf in wenigen einmal Events, nirgends für Heilgegenstände oder anderes ausgeben. [*]Heilen kann man sich zwar durch Übernachtungen in Inns für je 100 Gold, allerdings ist dies meist komplett überflüssig. Bis auf ein Inn auf der Weltkarte sind alle nur einmal aufsuchbar und an Stellen im Spiel platziert, wo sie nicht wirklich gebraucht werden. (z. B. kein einziger Kampf auf der Passage zwischen zwei inns) [*]Die meisten Orte (Dörfer und Co mit eingeschlossen) können nachträglich nicht erneut besucht werden. Das ist irritierend, da es Sidequests (leider allgemein nur sehr wenige) gibt, die dadurch unerfüllbar scheinen. Das sind sie zum Glück aber nicht, warum soll hier jedoch nicht gespoilert werden. [*]Die Handlung ist sehr sprunghaft [*]Texte sind nur für bestimmte Charaktere eingesprochen. Die Auswahl für welche Charaktere wirkt jedoch eher sehr undurchdacht und zufällig zu sein. Insgesamt sorgt das immer wieder für ein etwas befremdliches Spielerlebnis. [/olist] Insgesamt wirkt das Spiel noch nicht richtig ausgereift und auch das Ende ist leider nicht mehr als mittelmäßig.