To Light: Ex Umbra

Estoy sorprendido. Cualquier fanático de los “JRPG” clásicos sin duda habrá dado la oportunidad a uno que otro juego independiente creado con “RPG Maker”, explorando nuevas creaciones y simultáneamente evocar la nostalgia de una época ya ida. “To Light: Ex Umbra” hace precisamente eso, tomar lo bueno y clásico de aquella era, agregándole frescura y novedad con calidad y buen gusto. Un apartado artístico único y de alta calidad, sin dejar a un lado lo más importante, un sistema de batalla atractivo, variado y divertido. Pero me enfocaré en lo que creo es lo más destacado, que es la historia. Es muy madura, en el verdadero sentido de la palabra, ya que muchos confunden “maduro” con explotación o polémica. Yo me refiero a madurez en el sentido reflexivo, sensato y prudente; un guion profesional y bien trabajado. Los personajes son de fábula, de nuevo, en el verdadero sentido de la palabra. Ya que cada uno de ellos tiene un rol simbólico como el de una fábula, sus motivaciones y decisiones representan observaciones sobre personalidades reales. Todo esto sin excentricidades en los diálogos, cada persona se comunica de manera natural, hay seriedad cuando es necesario y hay simpatía cuando lo requiere; sin caer en la simplicidad o el relleno, cada plática tiene un propósito y está estéticamente cuidado. No quiero ser desmedido en mi análisis pero el manejo de la historia me recuerda al estilo de J.R.R. Tolkien y C.S. Lewis, en cuanto a combinar fantasía, fábula y acción, con mensajes y valores cristianos sin perder en ningún momento entretenimiento. Un triunfo del escritor, director y creador Craig Hodge Altamente recomendado.

I feel guilty not liking this game, because it's obvious that a lot of love was poured in. The graphics are particularly good. However, the actual gameplay is no fun at all. From the very beginning, fighting is incredibly tedious, and the story moves very, very slowly. For the first hour, you'll be doing nothing but reading and killing the tutorial-level enemies that we normally find at the beginning of these games. The biggest problem as the game moved on was the random encounters. They were absolutely relentless - spaced about 10 seconds apart. The enemies aren't very difficult, so there's no point using any of your special abilities; the quickest thing is just to keep hitting them until they die, or to escape the combat. I was trying to navigate the maze at the end of the desert section, but gave up from pure frustration because I was interrupted every 10 seconds by yet another encounter. I don't want to invest the time to complete the game, because honestly, it feels like work rather than fun. I'd have persevered if not for the random encounters, but have to admit I wasn't particularly enjoying the very slow-paced story either. The combat style is very unoriginal. There are free RPGs of a much higher standard. I don't like downvoting games, but sorry, I really didn't enjoy it!

This is a good well thought out game. The combat has some interesting quirks which I enjoyed. This is a good game and I do recommend it. The story is an old one but a good one and the game is well done. However, I am not a fan of flashing lights in graphics, long involved dramatic pauses in dialogue, or dark screens that are hard to see. And this game had all 3 of these, thankfully not all at the same time. I recommend this game

Graphics are good, music is good. Story does have a message at the end, but doesn't really do a good job at explaining things in the begining and middle. A few cool puzzles, but not much gear. At a certain point exp and levels are useless, and gold in general is 100% worthless. But yes, good art graphics, music and a ok game made by one guy. I recommend it

i'd recommend it. It has taken 15 hours or so to get to some good excitment, but now im hooked.

I got this game as a present from a friend. This game fascinates with a brilliant story and even NPC development. I recommend to talk to each NPC after the story takes a turn of events. The sidequests are sometimes fetch, sometimes beat the monster quests. At least the Handyman has much footwork involved. But this will get easier, once you learn to teleport. The graphic is mostly a mix of RTP maps and fully customized maps but that makes the charm. Some dungeons have some riddles to solve or nicely hidden treasure chests. Sometimes you wouldn't event think that are treasure chests. The monsters are great and the animations brilliant but laggy on a weaker PC. You need strategy to win your fights but you can switch your characters around to counter each difficulty. When you think the game ends with the (linear) main story you are wrong, the true challange lies in the post game. There are some grammatical issues but the developer fixed all critical bugs I found asap. This game only needs some achievements to be perfect. Note: I'm better writing guides than reviews.

Awesome adventure with deep meaning to the storyline...

so far i love the story line except the dialog is a little too long winded but sadly the last part to get to the final quest i dont seem to be able to get respond from the developer how to do the champion of the sword.

8 / 10 CAPTIVATING FRANCINE RIVERS TYPE STORY MIXED IN A FAIRLY GOOD RPG Pros + Great emotional and ultimately uplifting story that doesn't sugar coat. A lot of christian media have a vague struggle but here the characters have hectic/complex character arks. Reminded me a lot of the books of author Francine Rivers. + The game has a main mystery of some sorts and the reveal of the truth was really well done. I loved to see how tit bits of foreshadowing has been put in. In my 2nd play through I appreciated the story even more. + Amazing music that can be fun and lighthearted at times, but also melancholy and emotional. It sets each scene perfectly in my opinion. + Decent turn based fighting elements with characters levelling up system. I enjoyed how each character's fighting styles fit with there personalities. The princess for instance had more healing based abilities, while a knight that was escorted to protect the princess had more abilities that is almost self sacrificial to help the party. It made each party member feel unique. + The artwork is great. very varied, from a Castle, forest, to a snow region, desert ect + There are decent amount of side quests. Leads to cool content, like a battle arena area. + To 100% the game is not too difficult. It took me 20 hours and even lead to an epilogue + Easy at the start but at the 50% mark the difficulty ramps up so it didn't get boring. + You can flee from random enemy encounters if you don't want to fight every minute or so you are in a new level + Cool enemy designs and battle visuals Cons: - The tutorial section takes much longer then it needs to. - Side quests can be difficult to complete because of how much you would need to travel. This could lead to missing out on cool content, like the battle arena area I mentioned, that you wouldn't know how to access. however there is a way to go do all quests at the very end. - Like others said random enemy encounters can get annoying, but at least they are not hard. Just long sometimes - Few variety in the battle theme music and sound effects during battles are not the best. - Cut scenes can't be skipped This is a JRPG that is very character/story driven. I was hooked from beginning to end. I have finished the game in story mode about a year ago. I decided to try it again in normal mode. I enjoyed it just as much and even more with second play through. The game has christian undertones. I am christian myself but I think the metaphors of light and darkness is fairly relatable. The game is not preachy for about 95%, maybe just a bit at the end: Story: 9 / 10 Game play: 7 / 10 Music: 9 / 10 Sound: 5 / 10 Final: 8 / 10