Valcarta: Rise of the Demon

Ещё одна из многочисленных посредственных игр, сделанных на движке "RPG Maker", счёт которых исходит на сотни. И попробуй найди из них хорошую. Да и не те это игры, чтобы искать стоящие среди них. Попадаются иногда и вполне неплохие. Основная же масса игр с этого движка копируют друг друга, незначительно отличаясь в геймплее. Геймплей и визуал в этих играх обычно одинаковые и однообразные. Про визуальную составляющую нет смысла и говорить, так как движок представляет одни и те же ассеты. Музыка, за редким исключением, однообразная, с заезженными темами. Когда запускаешь очередную такую игру, то не видешь никакой разницы, если только вам повезло и вы столкнулись с неплохой игрой, в которой есть хороший сюжет, понравившийся вам. Вот и данная игра ничем не удивляет и ничем не отличается от других игр на "RPG Marker". Сюжет в игре есть, но он банальный и скучный. Самое примечательно, это возможность выбора каким путём идти, быть на стороне света или тьмы. Ну а геймплей типичный для таких проектов. Большинство же из них не русифицированы, что для русскоязычного комьюнити не комильфо. В общем, ещё одна однообразная игра на "RPG Marker", которая годится только для выбивания достижений и карточек, для чего, собственно, эти игры и приобретаются. Здесь есть и то и другое, а профиль игры не ограничен.

(Note: This is a VERY gimped version of the review I wrote for ticgn . com. To see the full review, look up Valcarta there.) While I often stay away from RPG games (with exceptions such as the Mario ones and the GBA Pokemon games), I felt I could still set foot in the independent portion of the genre since there’s no telling what exactly they could offer. However, there are polar opposites among the indie spectrum. Players could revel in the uniquely charming world and innovative play of Undertale, or they could accidentally look up one of many failed attempts to make loads of money via Kickstarter from an amateur-ish game cobbled together in RPG Maker. Mind you, I’m not one to condone people for using a certain kind of game engine to create stuff. If anything, I’m just going to say I personally prefer Game Maker if you want to make anything you would want to safely call your own work. I am open to playing games made in RPG Maker that are at least fun and enjoyable, though. If I can be engaged with the story told and world on display, I’m good. That said, Valcarta really wants to be such a thing, but ends up being a very, very middling experience. Graphics Easily one of the weaker categories around here; the graphics in Valcarta are mostly, if not completely, made up of stock graphics developers can use for RPG Maker projects. I wouldn’t have too much of a problem with this if it weren’t for the fact that they are simply the most overused graphics I’ve seen in any game engine! That, and the settings in particular are as generic as any fantasy RPG, notably other ones made in RPG Maker. You have your grass tiles, town areas, caves, castle tiles, and whatever else gamers have seen before. I’m not saying there should be grasslands or caves at all; I’m saying that they should at least look fresh rather than bland and arguably dull. Audio The sound effects are the ones pre-made for RPG Maker, but the music selections are composed of royalty free songs elsewhere. That said, the choices used in the game are actually stellar stuff. The music is diverse, fun to listen to, and has every right to be used in an RPG. In fact, the music (and even the sound effects) are memorable, which is more than I can say for the story. Story Now I know why there are critics on the Internet that take notes while playing games they review. Valcarta‘s story is complex on a massive level, to the point where it feels unnecessary to have it at such a scale! And considering the atmosphere is still that typical fantasy setting RPGs are most often associated with, it, along with the graphics, neuter most sorts of actual personality from the environments the protagonists find themselves in. It’s basically a blur a lot of the time. The basic sum-up is that there’s this dude named Valek, and he assists a mayor in a simple town named Olm. But then destiny is calling him to go to some shack and choose between a letter and an orb. This is where the game splits into light and dark paths. The dark path sees Valek work for a Lady Astrid, who is seemingly nothing but a mystical creature wearing a black cloak. It is revealed that the mayors of Olm and Malvern are working with the Empire, and Valek responds by instantly killing them. Hang on – even in the dark path, Valek seems as good-natured as any protagonist in a game of this genre. Why would he suddenly have the (lack of) heart to kill the mayors? There was even a scene where a guy was trying to sell Valek the boat needed to travel to other islands and places, but he gets killed simply for charging too high. Anyway, after meeting up with Astrid, Valek is tasked to rally up allies, and then he and his team set off to perform some Cleansing Rituals in sacred locations containing special crystals, as well as stop the Empire. And Astrid apparently isn’t a spirit, but a woman Valek is somehow sexually compatible with. There are so many details and tidbits that it makes my head spin. I didn’t even mention that robots also become important plot points, and that one of the team members eventually abandons Valek for personal reasons that I have in no way recalling because these characters just aren’t that memorable. I’ve never gotten to understand Valek’s relationships with the world around him, let alone the people he talks to. Ah, well. I’ll give credit where credit’s due. Even though there’s a lot to bicker about with the characterization, I can at least applaud that the story tries to be an epic that divides itself into two for the potential of replayability. Gameplay First off, I would certainly thank the game for letting me run around without holding down any buttons. That’s something more games of its kind should do. Otherwise, the game does more-or-less follow the typical conventions of an old school RPG title, albeit with some subtle things thrown in to make it its own. There are towns and similar locations with NPCs, places to buy things, and important plot points occurring. There’s an overworld map the player travels through to go from one major location to another, and random enemy encounters happen at appropriately…random timings. One thing that’s interesting about the battle mechanics is that while it is mostly the same as one may expect for the genre, there is a stamina bar for each character in battle. The bar automatically fills up, and when it does, the character gets to attack. Or so that’s the case if you set the ATB settings to “Full” instead of “Wait” before beginning the game. If the player chooses the latter, the enemies’ bars won’t increase when it’s his or her turn, effectively turning the majority of battles into “take your time to select Defend when the enemy bar is nearly full”. Battles with regular baddies can be over in less than a quarter of a minute if the player can button mash attacks and specials whilst still keeping an eye on the enemy’s stamina meter to make sure when to defend, but I do like the quick pacing of it all. The more interesting battles are with bosses; some of them could be genuinely fun and show a sign of brilliance for the combat design, but there are also bosses that feel like a chore since they take so much damage (making them waiting games). The same thing can be said for roaming territory. There are some puzzles that are enjoyable to solve, while others (especially ones in the form of mazes) feel like they’re only there to pad out the game length. This feeling gets driven home when enemy encounters pop up in places one would prefer not seeing them appear in. Areas like the spider web forest complement the enemy encounters since the player is challenged to race against a time limit, but there are other areas that feature more direct puzzles; yet they include enemy encounters. Verdict This is a meaty package, but only a fraction of it is what I believe is good enough to eat. I may not play RPGs super often, but when I do, I expect to appreciate the characters, their personalities, the worlds they travel to, and the story being told. There’s a reason I constantly give the original Paper Mario series my praises; if writers can have Mario join a wrestling federation, spoof train mysteries, fight an anime-loving chameleon, and still be able to balance the crazier antics out with genuinely moving and emotional moments such as Princess Peach’s interactions with a computer trying to understand the concept of love, then they are darn good at their jobs to say the least. I’m sure loads of people find writing to be difficult, but if you’re going to do it, you have to make sure you could really pull off such a feat. With Valcarta, I don’t feel it does that well, especially with its generic fantasy setting the graphics plague. Similarly, the gameplay as a whole isn’t really that fun, with moments here and there demonstrating a sense of something more yet lacking enough fulfillment in the long road.

Classical of RPG, graphics, combat system, music pleased. Of course, no less Russian. But there is a card.

[h1] Just skip it. [/h1]

I am an RPG maker addict. I just want to get that out there to begin with. This game is wonderful. The story line......fantastic. A few awkward moments in the dark line, but it just adds to some of the humor. I thoroughly enjoyed the game, the music, the story, the humor, etc. I usually refuse to pay this much for an RPG maker game, but I thought I would take a chance on this one based on some of the other reviews. I don't regret it one bit. Next up.....the light path! ****EDIT**** OK, I'm on the light path. I was worried it would just be the same story on the flip side. It's not. There are different areas you go to, etc. Again, recommend sooooo much.

I can't recommend this game. While the story seems to be somewhat all right, it fails to give you directions very much. Most of the time you have no idea where to go and what to do. Fights are really long and tedious, there seems to be no flee option. I'm sure you could deal with this kind of stuff, but: It crashes about every half hour. This is so annoying, even more as boss battles take a lot of time, and if you are unlucky (like me), it crashs right after. You won't have a chance to save and have to do it again. I never played another rpg maker game this unstable. So do yourself a favour and save your money.

Let me preface this by saying that I have played my fair share of RPG's over the years. At first look Valcarta would appear to be another sword & shield RPG churned out with RPG Maker's stock art & sound clips. Look deeper and you will find a compelling storyline & some custom sound effects. [u][b]Gameplay[/b][/u] [b]Combat[/b] I found that the Boss fights in Valcarta were challenging and forced me to think each encounter through and did not allow me to take the same plan into each fight. Each boss was unique, requiring me to formulate new strategies to achieve victory as opposed to using the same battle plan and button mashing until they were dead. This reminded me of battles from Final Fantasy in the past. [b]Puzzles[/b] Another element of Valcarta's gameplay I quite enjoyed was the puzzles that were encountered along the way. Brought me back to the Zelda days of puzzle gameplay. [u][b]Storyline[/b][/u] I found the story to be compelling and elaborate, comparable to that of some other RPG franchises. It kept me wondering whether motives presented by key characters are actually true or simply ruses to enlist henchmen to assist the key characters to achieve their true motivations. On occasion the dialogue can be juvenile, but that can be attributed to the nature of certain feline characters. Felines will be felines. Information was consistently provided and I was not left wondering where I was headed next to progress the story. The story also provides the opportunity to discover some hidden gems and entertain you with comic relief. [b][u]Conclusion[/b][/u] So far I have completed one storyline option with 23hrs of gameplay. I am looking forward to taking on the second option and rounding out the storyline to see if my initial ideas of where things are headed are accurate.

抽到的游戏，感觉好像发现了一片无人踏足的新大陆。。。。。。。。。。 至于游戏内容，没有中文，啥都看不懂的说。。。。。。。。

Quite an interesting RPG that draws from the first minutes of gameplay , as the game meets us good graphics and good music , looking deeper , we find a very interesting storyline that seemed to me very interesting .

没中文的RPG怎么玩？，你以为人人都是外交翻译官吗？ 我们需要中文 We need Chinese 中国語は必要 Nous avons besoin de chinois Wir brauchen chinesisch Necesitamos chino potrzebujemy chin Precisamos de chinês Нам нужно китайский เราต้องการภาษาจีน Χρειαζόμαστε κινέζικα 给中文改好评！