The Princess's Dragon

Very short. Very charming and cute.

I grew a quick attachment to the story and banter mechanics since writing is such a difficult thing to put out confidently, yet when the first floor taught me that most items have a randomized pool of dialogue, all of the burden of intrigue was placed onto the before-and-afters of each combat encounter, as well as the ending, which did reinvigorate the charm, despite being inescapable since 'Restart' only placed me at the start of the ending and 'Quit' did nothing. The game is a dungeon crawling mazer wrapped in the affectations of a Mind-Heart banter, yet these sections are too easily winnable to claim mechanical prominence. Implementation of the mazer elements such as the locked doors and repeating projectiles derive a simple and pleasing flow; however, the paths of magma are an odd element, since I'm able to be damaged by them but not cross over them. Imagine further incorporation into the mazer such as an item or upgrade that allows me to traverse the magma, or allowing me to do it at the risk of damage and the reward of a correct or quicker path. Pokemon's dialogue strikes a delicate balance against its text based combat in being largely inconsequential, which places more tension on the combat interactions. There's something to be said about the shift in priorities as the series has gotten gradually easier with each entry, but my point is that if the story beyond the game is consequential, it ought to try and match that energy everywhere else. I imagine the instructors wouldn't be satisfied with the combat taken out in place of nothing but environmental descriptions and level design, but it's something to consider once you're free of a grade and bound by a budget, because it'd definitely satisfy someone like me. The Princess's Dragon gets a B for Beating Up Monsters and Ennui.

No complaints

☀️

It's a fairly simple RPG dungeon crawler. battle mechanics are very basic (sword attack, magic attack, minor heal, special melee attack with big recoil), but the story was cute.

Nothing about this game is good other than it technically runs and is beatable. Gameplay is not great. Art is not great. Music is not great. Story is not great. Kudos to making something and finishing it, but this is just not good.

An okay and simple RPG—very reminiscent of old RPG Maker games you see on Steam. It’s short and straightforward, which is fine, but I was disappointed that you can’t continue from the middle. I quit halfway through and had to restart from the beginning. Since the game is short, it wasn’t a huge issue, but still inconvenient. I also ran into a bug after the ending where you can’t quit the game properly. Restarting puts you back into the ending loop, which breaks immersion a bit. Overall, it’s average—nothing amazing, but not bad either. As a student project, there’s clearly effort and potential here. It could definitely be a stepping stone to better games in the future.

Alright pokemon ish game