RMXP IGMC Short Reviews (for everyone to participate)

[Lucy Fox]

Hey there! ^w^/)

I remember we had a thread in 2015 where people could just throw in some short reviews for the games they played. So I thought it could be a useful thing to do it again!

So, everyone can drop their short reviews here. And by short... I mean short.
Like:

GameTitle
Recommended / Not Recommended / Mixed / Not Playable

Spoiler

Pros:
- Point 1
- Point 2

Cons:
- Point 1
- Point 2

Score: 0-5

So people can just STRG+F this thread to look after the games they want to know about.
Maybe I'll also collect them here and there and make a summary.

___________________________________________________________________________________​

I'll collect some games here, that got a 4 or 5 rating from more than one person. °v°

• Abyssal Shine: Nevermelt (4)
• Azure Isle (2)
• A Conga's Tale (2)
• Journey to the East (2)
• Moop (2)
• Once Upon A Spirit (3)
  
• Once Upon a Child (2)
• The Midnight Train to Nowhere (2)

Have fun!

 

[inazumathelightning]

Hay man thanks for looking at star child! I hope you enjoyed it!

 

[Nirwanda]

This sounds like fun!

EDIT: Note that the performance issues I've experienced may not happen in all systems even if underpowered. Apparently mv seems to lag more on amd pcs.

This is (not) my true form
Mixed
Pros:
- Unique setting with a very Erilex feel (i'm a fan of his)
- Beautiful custom graphics
- Interesting combat mechanics

Cons:
- Due to poor planning (on the author's own words) extremely short

Score: 2/5 (I'd like to give it a 3 but it wouldn't be fair as there's just not enough of it)

Last boy on earth
Recommended
Pros:
- Amazing prerendered backgrounds
- Cool post apocalyptic setting
- Fun interactive combat with an empahsis on timing

Cons:
- Sometimes enemies take too long too die
- Too powerful for my comp, it lagged then it crashed

Score: 3/5 (Great game, not old pc friendly...and I mean my pc is not THAT old, I can run the Witcher 3)

Azure island
Recommended
Pros:
- Great use of the retro modern tiles
-Lots of custom systems
- Mysterious story
- Fun Riviera styled point and click-ish gameplay
- Deep battle system

Cons:
- Another game too powerful for my systerm, sadly. It gave me a low memory warning that made me close chrome. And even after that, it crashed not long after.

Score: 3/5 (it deserves a 4 if you can run it)

Yomotsu
Recommended
Pros:
- Final fantasy VI's train sequence made into a game. (The author claims to never have played FFVI though)
- A lot of possibilities for character customization with a clear shin megami tensei influence
-Fun battles

Cons:
- Too many options for such a short game

Score: 3/5

Abyssal Shine: Nevermelt
Recommended
Pros:
- Another great addition to Indrah's game universe.
- Fun and charming
- Interesting combat skills
- Creative puzzles
- Great use of an edited rtp

Cons:
- Unbalanced: very easy, aside from a small temporary spike in difficulty in one area.
- Big lag on a complex evented puzzle
- Cliffhanger ending may bother some

Score: 4/5

 

[Lucy Fox]

Okay, I'll drop my reviews from the startpost to this one. Just for the oversight.

Quidget the Wonderwiener
Recommended

Spoiler

Pros:
- very cool artstyle and music/sounddesign
- I love the humor
- fun items and environment

Cons:
- some doors and interaction points feel a bit too strict

Score: 4/5

Stolen Light
Not Playable

Spoiler

Pros:
- very beautyful maps and overall graphics
- interesting story that makes one curious to learn more
- some minor choices

Cons:
- choices are based on items you pick up at the beginning. So you will likely pick either all or none
- sadly very buggy and hardly playable without manually editing a few events

Score: 0/5 (3/5 without gamebreakers)

Star Child
Recommended

Spoiler

Pros:
- nice art (also nicely used)
- swet story and fairytale like storytelling
- some of the coolest battles I've seen in RPG Maker so far

Cons:
- Bosses could need more health so you can actually use all your cool skills and combos

Score: 4/5

Caterpillar
Mixed

Spoiler

Pros:
- nice graphics, artworks and fog fog effect

Cons:
- it feels very random overall
- the dialogues feel way too dramatic some times
- the story is very confusing D:

Score: 2/5

Understood
Mixed

Spoiler

Pros:
- intersting topic for a game
- sweet story overall and some very funny moments

Cons:
- the topic was more in the background than the real focus

Neutral:
- I'm not sure about the setting regarding the topic

Score: 3/5

 

[Nirwanda]

Paletta
Recommended
Pros:
- Gorgeous custom art with a gameboy color like pallete
- Adorable with a little dark edge
- Interesting world
- Great sound direction
- Fun

Cons:
- The game crashes if you chose options at the start menu
- I would have liked to see the darker part explored more. (it felt like it was building up to something)

Score: 4/5

 

[Erilex]

This sounds like fun!
This is (not) my true form
Mixed
Pros:
- Unique setting with a very Erilex feel (i'm a fan of his)
- Beautiful custom graphics
- Interesting combat mechanics

Cons:
- Due to poor planning (on the author's own words) extremely short

Score: 2/5 (I'd like to give it a 3 but it wouldn't be fair as there's just not enough of it)

Hey, thanks for playing! Sorry the entire thing is kind of a mess, I spent most of the month working on the graphics and severely underestimated how long it would take to actually put the game together.

Making games is hard, it turns out!

 

[Lucy Fox]

The Midnight Train to Nowhere
Recommended

Spoiler

Pros:
- very nice artstyle and music
- a quite surreal setting
- mysterious and very interesting
- I hunted a 10 dollar bill

Neutral:
- could need a few more background sounds (like train rattling and stuff)

Score: 5/5

Light in the Dark
Recommended

Spoiler

Pros:
- very nice use of black and white and colors
- nicely used tilesets and pretty maps
- interesting story
- kinda creepy, but not too much
- no jumpscares

Cons:
- one interaction spot is a bit hard to miss
- the last gameplay part totally ruined the game's overall feeling (at least if you have a slow reaction like me )

Score: 4/5

PALETTA
Mixed

Spoiler

Pros:
- Very beautiful artstyle
- I love the menu sounds <3

Cons:
- Gameplay consist of running around and speaking to everyone in the right order (no real puzzles, jus lots and lots of walking).

Score: 2/5

Dear Edwin
Not Recommended

Spoiler

Pros:
- very nice and detailed artstyle

Cons:
- could need some more atmosphere sounds
- it's a detective game without any kind of detective work (ar any gameplay at all)
- the dialogues would have a lot more appeal if the game had either facesets or animations between the lines, or even a narrator (or just anything to make the dialogues interesting to read through) As it is now, it's only lots and lots of text walls.
And the characters don't have much... character without, cause any kind of mimic and such is missing completely

Score: 1/5

 

[Tea's Jams]

Whoa! @Lucy Fox Thanks for reviewing my game!!!

I'm so happy you played it and at least didn't want to bore your eyes out! LOL.

As for the topic, it was actually the entirety of the foreground but that can be hard to... (drumroll please!) Understand!

Pun totally intended... just in case it wasn't painfully obvious. The disorder involves a lot of social nuances that negatively impact the lives of both those with a broken frown (Alexythemia) and those close to them, every single interaction in the game is meant to highlight one or more of those nuances, it can be a difficult thing to portray successfully.

Thank you again, you are the most awesomest! Thanks for starting this thread

 

[Dezue]

Thank you very much for the review!

 

[Gabrelik]

Thanks for the review!

Not sure how you missed all of the custom behaviors and character animations going on during the dialogues, but we'll be sure to be more conscious of this, and make them more obvious in the next installment.

There were quite a few puzzles and additional gameplay elements that sadly missed the timeframe, but we'll definitely add more of that as well. As it was, we ended up taking this in the direction of an interactive novel.

The deficiencies are certainly noted, and every review helps us to improve on a project that was wonderfully fun to create. Thanks so much for taking the time. I'm sure the next Edwin title will benefit from it.

 

[Jaiden]

Observing this thread with immense anxiety.

 

[Frogboy]

Story of Dras'lia
Not Recommended

Pros

• Nice looking logo

Cons

• Very little game play, no direction
• Maps you can't return from
• No story ... despite the title
• Alpha version that's a long way from being finished
• Seems more like a test project used to figure out how a bunch of plug-ins work as opposed to an actual game.

Score
0/5


Understood
Recommended

Pros

• Cute and memorable characters who have well defined personalities for the short time you get to spend with them
• Several funny moments
• Relaxing game play that varies enough that it doesn't get boring
• Learn about a rare condition that you're likely not aware of (I wasn't)
• Helpful mini-map that points out where to go to keep the story progressing
• Nice aesthetics that fit the cutesy theme of the game
• The book titles
• Stays within scope of the 1 hour format. You get to experience the game from start to end in that time.

Cons

• You have to feed your pet a lot but there doesn't appear much purpose to it. Of course, I didn't try to starve it to see what would happen so I could be wrong.
• A plug-in randomly crashed the game a couple times while I was just wandering around the town. Make sure you save often just in case.
• If sweet, cute and a bit campy is something you can't appreciate, you probably won't like it as much as I did.

Score
4/5

 

[Tea's Jams]

@Frogboy
I'm curious are you using windows 7 operating system? I had some issues with the audio (that one specific song...) in town bogging down my sons pc, but only his pc (he uses win 7) I thought (oddly enough) removing the preloader plug in fixed it but maybe not. Although his pc would just freeze for a bit, and then keep going, it never crashed. I would love to track that bug down to fix it after the judging period is up.

Thank you Btw, for playing and reviewing my game!!

 

[Frogboy]

@Frogboy
I'm curious are you using windows 7 operating system? I had some issues with the audio (that one specific song...) in town bogging down my sons pc, but only his pc (he uses win 7) I thought (oddly enough) removing the preloader plug in fixed it but maybe not. Although his pc would just freeze for a bit, and then keep going, it never crashed. I would love to track that bug down to fix it after the judging period is up.

Thank you Btw, for playing and reviewing my game!!

No, I played it on my Windows 10 handheld pc. It's definitely low power but I didn't run into any performance issues. It threw JavaScript errors. Something tried to set the width of an undefined variable. Seemed to be a background process because it just popped up when I wasn't even doing anything but walking. It's either a buggy plugin or you're running a parallel process and calling a plugin with bad data every once in a while by accident. It only happened in town although it didn't happen enough to say for sure if it's localized there.

 

[Tea's Jams]

I considered making two town maps actually, maybe I should have, there are a LOT of events in town, haha.

 

[Frogboy]

I considered making two town maps actually, maybe I should have, there are a LOT of events in town, haha.

Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me one bit, especially around the garden.

 

[chalkdust]

Here are my reviews of the games I've completed so far:

Azure Isle
Recommended
Pros: Time Fantasy graphics, good use of audio, interesting gameplay/navigation system
Cons: some early battles need the difficulty adjusted, character faces do not match Time Fantasy style

Dear Edwin
Mixed (Recommended if you're into the genre)
Pros: Incredible visuals, interesting story, well-written dialogue, excellent mapping and eventing, novel combat mechanic
Cons: A bit dry and unengaging gameplay (for me - others may enjoy this style)

Heroes of Valcarta
Mixed
Pros: great puzzles, unique in-depth game universe, compelling timer system drives the action
Cons: game-breaking bug in intro (skip it when prompted), skill design leaves no reason to use anything but the "best" skill, mapping needs improvement (although the barebones style can be ignored or explained a bit by the cosmology of the game universe)

Abyssal Shrine: Nevermelt
Recommended
Pros: Fun gameplay, good combat balance, convenient difficulty settings, mapping, music, visuals are on point
Cons: The encounter rate still seemed high when set to 99, interfering with puzzle completion

Moop
Recommended
Pros: Custom retro graphics, excellent story, well-written, logical (mostly) plot progression through use of key items
Cons: Leaves some unanswered lingering questions about plot points

 

[Geoff Moore]

@chalkdust: Thank you for reviewing MOOP! I'll be developing the game further and -may- clarify some things, or at least make it feel more like an intentional decision that they aren't clarified haha : )

 

[PKLpikachu]

The Azure Island
Recommended

Spoiler

Pros:
- Unique navigation system
- Lovable characters
- Well balanced battles

Cons:
- The game left me wanting more. xD

Score: 5/5

Dreaming Alice
Not Recommended

Spoiler

Pros:
- Good mapping. Not too much clutter and most maps don't feel too big or too small.

Cons:
- Just a re-telling of Alice in Wonderland. Doesn't add much else.
- Very little gameplay
- Unplayable if you don't have the proper fonts installed.

Score: 1/5

Follow the Map
Not Recommended

Spoiler

Pros:
- Unique concept

Cons:
- Battles felt too easy
- Repetitive gameplay
- Overall, not much substance.

Score: 0/5 (IIRC it's mentioned within the game that it's a demo, but as a game itself, it doesn't have much going for it.)

Grimoire
Mixed

Spoiler

Pros:
- I'm a sucker for stories that combine two unlike genres (film noir and fantasy in this case) so I immediately fell in love with the plot and setting.
- The main puzzle mechanic was well designed; the puzzle solutions had solid logic behind them.

Cons:
- No save feature. It's a short game if you know what you're doing, but saving would have been nice if you're stuck on a puzzle and want to put the game down while you try to do a brain cool-down like I did during my play through
- Could feel like a "pixel hunt" when trying to find clues.
Score: 3/5

Happy Slappy
Recommended

Spoiler

Pros:
- The title, concept, and writing are hilarious as hell
- Even though slapping everything is the selling point of the game, I like that the player doesn't have to slap everything to beat it.
- Good use of sound effects

Cons:
- The maps could be sized down by a LOT
- The battle system could use more polish.

Score: 4/5

Idol Goddess Made Captive 2017
Not Recommended (Recommended if you're into Boss Rush-type games)

Spoiler

Pros:
- I see what you did there with that title
- Many secrets to unlock
- Unique battle system

Cons:
- The Guidebook felt like an info dump. It probably would have been better if the things listed in the guide were introduced bit by bit instead of all at once.
- I felt that the battles were a bit too slow paced? Maybe it's just me.

Score: 2/5

Journey to the East
Recommended

Spoiler

Pros:
- Fun-looking art style
- Great writing
- Unique rhythm-based battle system

Cons:
- Battle system has a steep learning curve

Score: 4/5

Once Upon a Child
Recommended

Spoiler

Pros:
- Short, sweet, and to the point
- Writing was good: had a good feel for the characters, plot was heartwarming

Cons:
- I feel that the save menu was brought up too many times. I didn't think you'd have to save that often during the game.

Score: 5/5

The Protest Vote (Yes, I actually played this.)
Mixed

Spoiler

Pros:
- If it's satire, then it did pretty alright as a satirical piece.

Cons:
- Completely confused if it's supposed to be satire. I have a feeling it is but you never know with some people.
- Nothing too special about the battles.
- The maps could be a lot smaller and could have more added to them.

Score: 3/5

 

[slimmmeiske2]

@PKLpikachu Thanks for trying out my game (Dreaming Alice). It’s true that there’s not much gameplay as I had to scrap quite a few puzzles and some other features due to time constraints. The plan was always to expand the game and adding them in.
Out of curiosity, did you complete the game or did you give up after a while? And if you stopped early, at what point in the game was this?
Again thanks for trying it. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy yourself.