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Figured since I'm going to review some games I'd post them here.
Notice: I'm not biased, I judge games by how entertaining and hooking they are for me. Some people may disagree with me, and that's perfectly fine.
I might sound harsh, but I'll try to find out the good things about the games as well. I also try to play the games for quite a bit unless they're so short they can be completed in under an hour.
Last: Do not request me to review your game. I'll probably do it anyway. I won't promise any schedules that I should uphold, therefore I update this thread as I go.
A bit more information about scoring: I use the same judging criteria that is described on the official itch.io page. The same details can be found on the master list (points at signature). I'm not going to type it here, too.
Onward with the reviews!
I have also tried out Starlight: Celestial Beginnings and Umbral, astral dreamers but did not write a review yet, so they should come out next.
And the list of games I'm probably going to review soon, in no particular order:
Notice: I'm not biased, I judge games by how entertaining and hooking they are for me. Some people may disagree with me, and that's perfectly fine.
I might sound harsh, but I'll try to find out the good things about the games as well. I also try to play the games for quite a bit unless they're so short they can be completed in under an hour.
Last: Do not request me to review your game. I'll probably do it anyway. I won't promise any schedules that I should uphold, therefore I update this thread as I go.
A bit more information about scoring: I use the same judging criteria that is described on the official itch.io page. The same details can be found on the master list (points at signature). I'm not going to type it here, too.
Onward with the reviews!
Game by HilmB
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/332980
You wake in complete darkness. A figure is in front of you. It seems like you are in an ethereal place of sorts. You can make out a hole on your right. Unsure where it leads, you jump in. The bottom is nowhere in sight. Some memories come to you as you keep falling. Finally, you see light at the bottom.
You land in a lush forest. As you try to get your bearings, you are attacked by a zombie. After a fierce fight, you finally defeat the zombie, but upon more exploration, you encounter another one. This time, your strength fails you and you die. Game over... or is it?
Dcay plays by the idea of progressing little by little between deaths. After you die, you are taken to the save screen and return to the black beginning. You will find Dust from your encounters that is used to purchase gear that will hopefully keep you alive a little bit further next time you enter the dungeon.
The combat is the most polished part of this entry. Depending on your equipment, new options open up. I played with fists and Flurry and Barrage shards for that weapon. As noted by the game, Flurry is a multi-hit attack that is mostly used to build up Charge Points to unleash more powerful attacks on the enemy. Barrage is another multi-hit attack that basically one-shots every enemy if it isn't a boss.
There are currently three weapon types available: The fists, the shield and the gloves. Judging from their descriptions, the fists are for melee attacks, the shield is for mostly defense (along with shield bash) and the gloves allow you to use magic. I did not try them all as I completed the game with the fists equipped.
There's also a world selection via colored dust, but I did not explore that feature very well. Mostly I just did what the NPCs told me to (except for that boss fight where you were supposed to kill an exploding zombie, I ignored that) and the game felt rather railroaded.
The graphics are RTP and there is little music to speak of. Well, it goes along with the theme. Highlighting pickable items in a dark map was useful. However, is there another use for the flowers than to learn the healing skill? If not, it feels like you have missed an opportunity there.
The combat kept me entertained for a while. However, there is a lot of work to be done before the game could be considered finished. I see you have added a number of equipment slots, I hope you can balance the game around that when the time comes. (I learnt this on my previous projects)
Scoring:
Gameplay: 9
Presentation: 7
Engagement: 6
Potential: 10
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Final Score: 42
Verdict: An alright prototype, but needs more work if you're going to make this a finished game.
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/332980
You wake in complete darkness. A figure is in front of you. It seems like you are in an ethereal place of sorts. You can make out a hole on your right. Unsure where it leads, you jump in. The bottom is nowhere in sight. Some memories come to you as you keep falling. Finally, you see light at the bottom.
You land in a lush forest. As you try to get your bearings, you are attacked by a zombie. After a fierce fight, you finally defeat the zombie, but upon more exploration, you encounter another one. This time, your strength fails you and you die. Game over... or is it?
Dcay plays by the idea of progressing little by little between deaths. After you die, you are taken to the save screen and return to the black beginning. You will find Dust from your encounters that is used to purchase gear that will hopefully keep you alive a little bit further next time you enter the dungeon.
The combat is the most polished part of this entry. Depending on your equipment, new options open up. I played with fists and Flurry and Barrage shards for that weapon. As noted by the game, Flurry is a multi-hit attack that is mostly used to build up Charge Points to unleash more powerful attacks on the enemy. Barrage is another multi-hit attack that basically one-shots every enemy if it isn't a boss.
There are currently three weapon types available: The fists, the shield and the gloves. Judging from their descriptions, the fists are for melee attacks, the shield is for mostly defense (along with shield bash) and the gloves allow you to use magic. I did not try them all as I completed the game with the fists equipped.
There's also a world selection via colored dust, but I did not explore that feature very well. Mostly I just did what the NPCs told me to (except for that boss fight where you were supposed to kill an exploding zombie, I ignored that) and the game felt rather railroaded.
The graphics are RTP and there is little music to speak of. Well, it goes along with the theme. Highlighting pickable items in a dark map was useful. However, is there another use for the flowers than to learn the healing skill? If not, it feels like you have missed an opportunity there.
The combat kept me entertained for a while. However, there is a lot of work to be done before the game could be considered finished. I see you have added a number of equipment slots, I hope you can balance the game around that when the time comes. (I learnt this on my previous projects)
Scoring:
Gameplay: 9
Presentation: 7
Engagement: 6
Potential: 10
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Final Score: 42
Verdict: An alright prototype, but needs more work if you're going to make this a finished game.
Game by @Jesse - PVGames
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336586
You are Galathan, a captain of the King Alex's guard. Your quest is to gather a group of friends to escort the king to Candle Point (I keep thinking of Candlekeep from Baldur's Gate, maybe because of the graphical style). On your travels you will face a number of dangers, including spike traps in dungeons, kobolds, trolls, chimaera, undead and what have you. There's a variety of enemies to battle, each with their own skill sets that keep you engaged on your travels.
Each character has a unique set of skills available, and it becomes clear quite soon that you cannot fight only by spamming the Attack command which most RPG Maker games suffer from. The idea to balance the combat around buffs and debuffs seems ingenious, however it seems some skills are far more useful than others. Bosses quickly fall victim to Nathan's Mark and Strategist, while Alyssa's Finale sees little use. After the defense of the monster drops to 0, you can just pummel on other attacks instead of caring how much life the opponent has.
The combat is where this title shines, but also somewhat of a downfall. Both the characters and the enemies are beautifully rendered, and come with a variety of animations for waiting and acting. Each buff and debuff is clearly displayed over each character, along with a mouseover caption (which I haven't seen in another game so far). However, the combat tends to lag, and quite a bit, too. The FPS dropped to single digits very often when there were multiple enemies with active buffs, and this caused the game to either miss or lag on a lot of animations. I certainly hope this can be fixed later on, as there is a ton of promise on this game.
As mentioned, the graphics outshine most standard RPG Maker games. Jesse has an artistic style of his own, reminiscent of old Infinity Engine games. The game features those and a custom soundtrack that sets the mood of the game pretty well.
The difficulty seems to be a bit on the easier side when playing on Normal Difficulty. Not once did I have to stop to grind for EXP and Sovereign (currency unit) and I could purchase everything I needed the second I stepped into town. Granted, I only played the game up to Eoten Mountain Summit.
A quest journal on your current quest (as well as hints you may or may not have gotten from NPCs) would help. While folllowing the road is simple and pretty straightforward, I wonder if I took a break from the game and came back. Would I remember what I was about to do? Even though I think myself as an old-fashioned gamer, I recognize some QoL things from today's games that even I have come to like and want in an RPG.
There are two minor things I'd like to point out. First, is the "Total Saves" fact really necessary on the save screen? Especially since the game autosaves when changing areas, and these saves are added to the counter. I think someone could get confused. Also, Thomas's constant cussing gets on my nerves. It is somewhat hard to take him seriously when he keeps on cursing like that, reminding me of games like Grand Theft Auto. I understand that war can change a person dramatically, but perhaps you should tone down that dialogue a little bit?
Oh yes, and finally, before I forget. This is probably the first RPG Maker game where I find moving with the mouse almost necessary, as the featured 8-direction movement seemed not to register some of my keypresses. Sadly this shows that RPG Maker MV isn't really made out for that, but as mentioned, using the mouse alleviates movement quite a bit. I won't be blaming the lag on this, as I get a constant 90+ FPS on field maps.
Anyways, definitely one of the best games in the competition I've played so far.
Scoring: Gameplay: 16
Presentation: 14
Engagement: 11
Potential: 18
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Final Score: 77
Verdict: A solid game that has already cleared the prototype stage and looks like a demo of a completed project (at least up to where I played it). Needs some optimization, but it would not be a wonder if it ranked high. Recommended.
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336586
You are Galathan, a captain of the King Alex's guard. Your quest is to gather a group of friends to escort the king to Candle Point (I keep thinking of Candlekeep from Baldur's Gate, maybe because of the graphical style). On your travels you will face a number of dangers, including spike traps in dungeons, kobolds, trolls, chimaera, undead and what have you. There's a variety of enemies to battle, each with their own skill sets that keep you engaged on your travels.
Each character has a unique set of skills available, and it becomes clear quite soon that you cannot fight only by spamming the Attack command which most RPG Maker games suffer from. The idea to balance the combat around buffs and debuffs seems ingenious, however it seems some skills are far more useful than others. Bosses quickly fall victim to Nathan's Mark and Strategist, while Alyssa's Finale sees little use. After the defense of the monster drops to 0, you can just pummel on other attacks instead of caring how much life the opponent has.
The combat is where this title shines, but also somewhat of a downfall. Both the characters and the enemies are beautifully rendered, and come with a variety of animations for waiting and acting. Each buff and debuff is clearly displayed over each character, along with a mouseover caption (which I haven't seen in another game so far). However, the combat tends to lag, and quite a bit, too. The FPS dropped to single digits very often when there were multiple enemies with active buffs, and this caused the game to either miss or lag on a lot of animations. I certainly hope this can be fixed later on, as there is a ton of promise on this game.
As mentioned, the graphics outshine most standard RPG Maker games. Jesse has an artistic style of his own, reminiscent of old Infinity Engine games. The game features those and a custom soundtrack that sets the mood of the game pretty well.
The difficulty seems to be a bit on the easier side when playing on Normal Difficulty. Not once did I have to stop to grind for EXP and Sovereign (currency unit) and I could purchase everything I needed the second I stepped into town. Granted, I only played the game up to Eoten Mountain Summit.
A quest journal on your current quest (as well as hints you may or may not have gotten from NPCs) would help. While folllowing the road is simple and pretty straightforward, I wonder if I took a break from the game and came back. Would I remember what I was about to do? Even though I think myself as an old-fashioned gamer, I recognize some QoL things from today's games that even I have come to like and want in an RPG.
There are two minor things I'd like to point out. First, is the "Total Saves" fact really necessary on the save screen? Especially since the game autosaves when changing areas, and these saves are added to the counter. I think someone could get confused. Also, Thomas's constant cussing gets on my nerves. It is somewhat hard to take him seriously when he keeps on cursing like that, reminding me of games like Grand Theft Auto. I understand that war can change a person dramatically, but perhaps you should tone down that dialogue a little bit?
Oh yes, and finally, before I forget. This is probably the first RPG Maker game where I find moving with the mouse almost necessary, as the featured 8-direction movement seemed not to register some of my keypresses. Sadly this shows that RPG Maker MV isn't really made out for that, but as mentioned, using the mouse alleviates movement quite a bit. I won't be blaming the lag on this, as I get a constant 90+ FPS on field maps.
Anyways, definitely one of the best games in the competition I've played so far.
Scoring: Gameplay: 16
Presentation: 14
Engagement: 11
Potential: 18
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Final Score: 77
Verdict: A solid game that has already cleared the prototype stage and looks like a demo of a completed project (at least up to where I played it). Needs some optimization, but it would not be a wonder if it ranked high. Recommended.
Game by LockeCole88
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336974
The story begins when you approach an abandoned dojo and take control of it. The place has been unattended for quite some time, yet there is an old man who seems to live there. He acts as your tutorial guide while you go through the basics of the game: managing time, doing (menial) tasks and, of course, combat.
You can completely customize your character (using SumRandomDde's Character Creator plugins) which adds to the immersion somewhat. A preset character would have been nice to have, though.
There is a lot of customization found all around the game. You can (and probably should) tend to the dojo be clearing weeds, breaking rocks and repairing the walls. Your first quest seems to be finding some copper ore from the nearby mountains. However the chances to find that ore aren't that high, and you can encounter wildlife while doing this. My original character died when a wasp attacked and poisoned me, but he was succeeded by a punk named Panko who acted as a tutorial battle in the beginning. I like this feature, it allows for some leeway when you're learning the game to not have your progress completely reset when you ultimately die.
The combat seems to consist of three different actions. You can attack, which opens a minigame of sort where you need to hit a certain area of a circle with a stick that rolls around. Where you hit determines how you strike your enemy, but I honestly did not find much of a difference in the three colored areas (granted, I did not manage to play for that long). You can also block by hitting the action button at the right time when the enemy is striking you. However, I'm not sure if it's because of my 144Hz monitor but this margin of error seems to be too little. I only managed to block once after the tutorial, maybe this can be fixed by using the Synch FPS plugin by Yanfly, I'm not sure. Still, something to look into. Finally, you can use skills, which seem to require you to press designated buttons quickly. The first time I managed this, but the next time I failed, ultimately leading to my doom. Of course, there's an option to use items and escape, but since those are default options, I'm not describing them.
I liked the fact that you are able to name your character (and the dojo) without the clunky RPG Maker MV name input screen that most projects use. Now, if you only could change the font on those screens to the same one you use elsewhere, that would be perfect. Also the picture about keyboard command layout at the beginning of the game was a welcome addition. Most projects tent to approach players as people who already have knowledge on how to play RPG Maker games in general, and this might not always be the case.
The graphics and music were composed of (mostly) RTP assets, which wasn't that bad. The mapping was pretty good, too. However, there was a passability error with the larger tree tiles, allowing you to walk through them.
I sadly encountered a game-breaking bug on my second game. When entering the graveyard, I noticed that the grave of my first character was there. When I went to check it out, well... Let's just say the game wasn't that happy.
Overall, a pretty good entry that gave me enjoyment for a while. I might return to this some day, and I think I'll keep an eye on how the game develops further.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 10
Presentation: 8
Engagement: 13
Potential: 11
Bugs: Found a game crashing bug, but only late in the game play
Final Score: 50
Verdict: Some clever ideas, but still lacks some polish. Slightly recommended. Hopefully will be fleshed after the competition, as it could turn out to be a fun game.
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336974
The story begins when you approach an abandoned dojo and take control of it. The place has been unattended for quite some time, yet there is an old man who seems to live there. He acts as your tutorial guide while you go through the basics of the game: managing time, doing (menial) tasks and, of course, combat.
You can completely customize your character (using SumRandomDde's Character Creator plugins) which adds to the immersion somewhat. A preset character would have been nice to have, though.
There is a lot of customization found all around the game. You can (and probably should) tend to the dojo be clearing weeds, breaking rocks and repairing the walls. Your first quest seems to be finding some copper ore from the nearby mountains. However the chances to find that ore aren't that high, and you can encounter wildlife while doing this. My original character died when a wasp attacked and poisoned me, but he was succeeded by a punk named Panko who acted as a tutorial battle in the beginning. I like this feature, it allows for some leeway when you're learning the game to not have your progress completely reset when you ultimately die.
The combat seems to consist of three different actions. You can attack, which opens a minigame of sort where you need to hit a certain area of a circle with a stick that rolls around. Where you hit determines how you strike your enemy, but I honestly did not find much of a difference in the three colored areas (granted, I did not manage to play for that long). You can also block by hitting the action button at the right time when the enemy is striking you. However, I'm not sure if it's because of my 144Hz monitor but this margin of error seems to be too little. I only managed to block once after the tutorial, maybe this can be fixed by using the Synch FPS plugin by Yanfly, I'm not sure. Still, something to look into. Finally, you can use skills, which seem to require you to press designated buttons quickly. The first time I managed this, but the next time I failed, ultimately leading to my doom. Of course, there's an option to use items and escape, but since those are default options, I'm not describing them.
I liked the fact that you are able to name your character (and the dojo) without the clunky RPG Maker MV name input screen that most projects use. Now, if you only could change the font on those screens to the same one you use elsewhere, that would be perfect. Also the picture about keyboard command layout at the beginning of the game was a welcome addition. Most projects tent to approach players as people who already have knowledge on how to play RPG Maker games in general, and this might not always be the case.
The graphics and music were composed of (mostly) RTP assets, which wasn't that bad. The mapping was pretty good, too. However, there was a passability error with the larger tree tiles, allowing you to walk through them.
I sadly encountered a game-breaking bug on my second game. When entering the graveyard, I noticed that the grave of my first character was there. When I went to check it out, well... Let's just say the game wasn't that happy.
Overall, a pretty good entry that gave me enjoyment for a while. I might return to this some day, and I think I'll keep an eye on how the game develops further.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 10
Presentation: 8
Engagement: 13
Potential: 11
Bugs: Found a game crashing bug, but only late in the game play
Final Score: 50
Verdict: Some clever ideas, but still lacks some polish. Slightly recommended. Hopefully will be fleshed after the competition, as it could turn out to be a fun game.
Game by @hiddenone @Plueschkatze @Gabrelik @futrchamp
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336491
The game follows three young girls, Angela, Devon and Lia, as they track Lia's lost sister in the Cypress Hills. As expected from the team that brought us Dear Edwin last year, the audiovisual aspect is really great.
However, the game is quite railroaded. You aren't given much of a freedom to explore as your companions constantly remind you if you're about to enter places you're not supposed to. I can understand that somehow because each map is hand-drawn, but it derails from the experience somewhat.
As mentioned, the graphics are beautiful. There are a few exceptions, though, that I hope you will consider paying more attention to when the contest is over. The pipes you find in the city look plain and dull, perhaps because of the lack of any shading on the sprites. The storagehouse in the Cypress station looks dull with grey colours, and I quite honestly disliked the puzzle minigame there.
Speaking of puzzles, the Moonshine puzzle had a bug in my playthrough: I did not notice the buttons (I think there were buttons) for changing the pipes, it was by pure coincidence that I noticed that pressing Esc (cancel) allowed me to try another pipe. And the "turn pipe around" gimmick would work better with curved arrow pictures, in my opinion. Anyhow, after spending about five to ten minutes on that puzzle, I managed to get the thing working and could progress. I'm not sure if I could have gotten the moonshine right away, but the backtracking from Gerdy to that machine and back was unnecessary.
I can see the potential for a full game in this entry, but it still requires some extra polish before it would sell, if you're going that route. I can understand developing the story, hopefully you will consider the other points of this review as well.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 9
Presentation: 16
Engagement: 8
Potential: 13
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Total score: 62
Verdict: A short demo of what seems to become a solid adventure, with some polish. Somewhat recommended.
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336491
The game follows three young girls, Angela, Devon and Lia, as they track Lia's lost sister in the Cypress Hills. As expected from the team that brought us Dear Edwin last year, the audiovisual aspect is really great.
However, the game is quite railroaded. You aren't given much of a freedom to explore as your companions constantly remind you if you're about to enter places you're not supposed to. I can understand that somehow because each map is hand-drawn, but it derails from the experience somewhat.
As mentioned, the graphics are beautiful. There are a few exceptions, though, that I hope you will consider paying more attention to when the contest is over. The pipes you find in the city look plain and dull, perhaps because of the lack of any shading on the sprites. The storagehouse in the Cypress station looks dull with grey colours, and I quite honestly disliked the puzzle minigame there.
Speaking of puzzles, the Moonshine puzzle had a bug in my playthrough: I did not notice the buttons (I think there were buttons) for changing the pipes, it was by pure coincidence that I noticed that pressing Esc (cancel) allowed me to try another pipe. And the "turn pipe around" gimmick would work better with curved arrow pictures, in my opinion. Anyhow, after spending about five to ten minutes on that puzzle, I managed to get the thing working and could progress. I'm not sure if I could have gotten the moonshine right away, but the backtracking from Gerdy to that machine and back was unnecessary.
I can see the potential for a full game in this entry, but it still requires some extra polish before it would sell, if you're going that route. I can understand developing the story, hopefully you will consider the other points of this review as well.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 9
Presentation: 16
Engagement: 8
Potential: 13
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Total score: 62
Verdict: A short demo of what seems to become a solid adventure, with some polish. Somewhat recommended.
Game by Xenoneo
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336596
The game starts with the player dying and being sent to Heaven. However, as there's nothing really to do in Heaven, you decide you'd rather go to Hell instead. In order to move from Heaven to Hell, you decide to do some bad things.
The game could be described as being quite random. In the beginning, it is not exactly clear what you are supposed to do, but the lack of NPCs helps in this aspect. Talking to NPCs mostly advances the story or at least gives you hints on what to do next.
The main strength of this game is probably the somewhat wacky characters. It's probably the first time I've been accompanied by a tree. Too bad the game suffers from misspellings and sometimes unnecessary crude language.
The graphics and sounds are mostly RTP stuff. There are some items I don't recognize, but they go quite well with the chosen style.
The maps are dull, and there is one map that suffers from either bad passability or bad eventing. I'm talking about when you are in Hell and need to push a sleeping angel into a dark pit. The pushing event works alright, but sometimes she just did not move. I'm suspecting there was an invisible event blocking her path.
The ending was somewhat anticlimactic. I'm not sure on how to go on adding to this game, I guess the author is planning on adding some combat or something?
Scoring:
Gameplay: 6
Presentation: 8
Engagement: 5
Potential: 5
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Final Score: 32
Verdict: Not really recommended. You might find the game amusing for a bit, but I did not. It is quite short, though, so if you have thirty minutes to spare with nothing better to do, might as well give it a shot.
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336596
The game starts with the player dying and being sent to Heaven. However, as there's nothing really to do in Heaven, you decide you'd rather go to Hell instead. In order to move from Heaven to Hell, you decide to do some bad things.
The game could be described as being quite random. In the beginning, it is not exactly clear what you are supposed to do, but the lack of NPCs helps in this aspect. Talking to NPCs mostly advances the story or at least gives you hints on what to do next.
The main strength of this game is probably the somewhat wacky characters. It's probably the first time I've been accompanied by a tree. Too bad the game suffers from misspellings and sometimes unnecessary crude language.
The graphics and sounds are mostly RTP stuff. There are some items I don't recognize, but they go quite well with the chosen style.
The maps are dull, and there is one map that suffers from either bad passability or bad eventing. I'm talking about when you are in Hell and need to push a sleeping angel into a dark pit. The pushing event works alright, but sometimes she just did not move. I'm suspecting there was an invisible event blocking her path.
The ending was somewhat anticlimactic. I'm not sure on how to go on adding to this game, I guess the author is planning on adding some combat or something?
Scoring:
Gameplay: 6
Presentation: 8
Engagement: 5
Potential: 5
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Final Score: 32
Verdict: Not really recommended. You might find the game amusing for a bit, but I did not. It is quite short, though, so if you have thirty minutes to spare with nothing better to do, might as well give it a shot.
Game by @Tome571
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336429
You are Kylus, a champion of your chosen deity that is aiming to become a new pharaoh after the old one died. You are required to pass trials of the six Egyptian gods before you are supposed to tackle the Tomb of the Pharaoh. I chose Anubis as my Deity and started my gameplay at his temple.
The dungeons are randomly generated. I found a bug in one room where you could jump off the floor into the walls, but nothing major came out of it. I couldn't use the trick to take a shortcut or anything, and I could safely jump back into the floor to continue my exploration.
There are puzzles in dungeons. In Anubis' dungeon I was tested of my knowledge of Egyptian gods, which I barely have, so I did not find that exactly enjoyable. Failure to answer the question resulted in a battle. I also played Isis' dungeon, in which the puzzles were more classical 'push switch to progress'.
The game features ATB combat. It is done pretty well, although there are two points I'd like to make:
Speaking of combat, I found the encounter rate a little high. I ultimately had to stop in the middle of Isis' temple because both my HP and MP were too low to continue. I played around an hour and a half, so I think I caught a good impression on what to expect.
The game featured pretty, vividly coloured graphics, which didn't deter from the experience. The battle backgrounds felt a bit empty. The music was alright, nothing too memorable, but not at a level where I'd turn the music off.
There were two things concerning plugins I'd like you to address: because I play on a 144Hz gaming monitor, having Synch Monitor FPS turned off by default resulted in sped-up gameplay. I suggest you turn that on when you finish the game. Also, I think having Print Screen save screenshots into MapShots folder isn't exactly expected behaviour, and I suggest you turn Hudell's plugin (I think you're using that) off when deploying. Neither of these is a major issue and thus won't give you a penalty in my scoring.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 12
Presentation: 16
Engagement: 8
Potential: 10
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Final Score: 62
Verdict: Recommended especially if you're interested in Egyptian lore. Otherwise, a rather good dungeon crawler.
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336429
You are Kylus, a champion of your chosen deity that is aiming to become a new pharaoh after the old one died. You are required to pass trials of the six Egyptian gods before you are supposed to tackle the Tomb of the Pharaoh. I chose Anubis as my Deity and started my gameplay at his temple.
The dungeons are randomly generated. I found a bug in one room where you could jump off the floor into the walls, but nothing major came out of it. I couldn't use the trick to take a shortcut or anything, and I could safely jump back into the floor to continue my exploration.
There are puzzles in dungeons. In Anubis' dungeon I was tested of my knowledge of Egyptian gods, which I barely have, so I did not find that exactly enjoyable. Failure to answer the question resulted in a battle. I also played Isis' dungeon, in which the puzzles were more classical 'push switch to progress'.
The game features ATB combat. It is done pretty well, although there are two points I'd like to make:
- You should give the player an option to have the enemies wait while you choose a command. Sometimes I was wondering on which spell to cast while the enemies pounded away whittling my HP.
- The attack "minigame", while an interesting gimmick at first, becomes rather tedious after a while. And while I understand this is just a demo, hitting the marked area resulting in a miss isn't really fun. You should probably try to make these into certain hits, if possible.
Speaking of combat, I found the encounter rate a little high. I ultimately had to stop in the middle of Isis' temple because both my HP and MP were too low to continue. I played around an hour and a half, so I think I caught a good impression on what to expect.
The game featured pretty, vividly coloured graphics, which didn't deter from the experience. The battle backgrounds felt a bit empty. The music was alright, nothing too memorable, but not at a level where I'd turn the music off.
There were two things concerning plugins I'd like you to address: because I play on a 144Hz gaming monitor, having Synch Monitor FPS turned off by default resulted in sped-up gameplay. I suggest you turn that on when you finish the game. Also, I think having Print Screen save screenshots into MapShots folder isn't exactly expected behaviour, and I suggest you turn Hudell's plugin (I think you're using that) off when deploying. Neither of these is a major issue and thus won't give you a penalty in my scoring.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 12
Presentation: 16
Engagement: 8
Potential: 10
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Final Score: 62
Verdict: Recommended especially if you're interested in Egyptian lore. Otherwise, a rather good dungeon crawler.
Game by @Paladin-Cleric of Awesome
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/323147
The game takes place in a dungeon called the Witchbringers Keep. Your task, it seems, is to clear the puzzles on the two sides of the dungeon, ultimately ridding the land of evil coming from the rift (if I remember this correctly, sorry but I tend to quickly read introductions). After beginning the game you are greeted with instructions on how to play the game, which is always good for newcomers. However, I'd probably move the information on the two crystals to the next screen where they reside to help with the info dump in the beginning. Perhaps this could be considered for the future versions?
The game features custom graphics and music. I am, however, disappointed in the title screen music as it feels like it is cut off from the beginning, the start of that song doesn't feel... natural, for the lack of a better word.
There are some slight mapping and eventing errors in the game, but they are not major. It is possible to teleport on top of an enemy at some points. You can also walk one tile deep into some northern walls, but if nothing else it feels inconsistent. As I mentioned earlier, there is a focus on puzzles, and that is good. While the game features custom skill building, it is done somewhat clunkily and is inconsistent. More on this later, as I will first focus on the puzzle part.
There are your typical "push box to move them" types of puzzles on the right side. While somewhat easy, they are more complex than usually seen on games made in a month, so props to you on that. However, what I would have enjoyed would have been a large puzzle with multiple correct routes to complete. The puzzles, at their current form, take only a few moments to figure out, possibly because of lack of possible solutions and where to push the boxes (or statues as they are). The puzzles on the left side, well... I did not manage to complete the firebird puzzle after thinking about it for a while, so it sadly left me unable to progress. Perhaps I will try again later on.
As for what comes to the combat, well, it feels unfinished. On one hand, the normal enemies are really easy and pose little threat at all, but there was this one enemy with life drain that wiped me out in two hits. When I had all passive defense boosts, normal attacks (Dancing Claw was the attack name) did around 15 to 20 damage. But I wasn't prepared for that Life Drain to hit for about 260 points of damage. Also, why is Attack on the list of skills to learn? Imagine that the player did not learn Attack, I think fighting would be rather difficult in that state. Also having it cost MP was a mistake in my opinion.
The skills, too, are inconsistent. Some attacks I could never use (they were greyed out, without any explanation as to why) and there was this issue with the Evade boost skill that both the Level 1 and Level 2 versions appeared in my skill list, while every other skill that had more than one level only showed the highest in my skills.
There are some spelling mistakes in the game, but they can be easily fixed. My suggestion would be to rethink about the combat and concentrate on the puzzles. With that in mind, and more polish, I could foresee this becoming a nice little game to play in rather small bursts.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 8
Presentation: 11
Engagement: 8
Potential: 8
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Final Score: 46
Verdict: A somewhat nice little puzzle game. Combat feels clunky and unfinished. The game is a bit of a hit or miss; try downloading it and playing it for a while, if it doesn't grab your attention in that time, I doubt it never will.
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/323147
The game takes place in a dungeon called the Witchbringers Keep. Your task, it seems, is to clear the puzzles on the two sides of the dungeon, ultimately ridding the land of evil coming from the rift (if I remember this correctly, sorry but I tend to quickly read introductions). After beginning the game you are greeted with instructions on how to play the game, which is always good for newcomers. However, I'd probably move the information on the two crystals to the next screen where they reside to help with the info dump in the beginning. Perhaps this could be considered for the future versions?
The game features custom graphics and music. I am, however, disappointed in the title screen music as it feels like it is cut off from the beginning, the start of that song doesn't feel... natural, for the lack of a better word.
There are some slight mapping and eventing errors in the game, but they are not major. It is possible to teleport on top of an enemy at some points. You can also walk one tile deep into some northern walls, but if nothing else it feels inconsistent. As I mentioned earlier, there is a focus on puzzles, and that is good. While the game features custom skill building, it is done somewhat clunkily and is inconsistent. More on this later, as I will first focus on the puzzle part.
There are your typical "push box to move them" types of puzzles on the right side. While somewhat easy, they are more complex than usually seen on games made in a month, so props to you on that. However, what I would have enjoyed would have been a large puzzle with multiple correct routes to complete. The puzzles, at their current form, take only a few moments to figure out, possibly because of lack of possible solutions and where to push the boxes (or statues as they are). The puzzles on the left side, well... I did not manage to complete the firebird puzzle after thinking about it for a while, so it sadly left me unable to progress. Perhaps I will try again later on.
As for what comes to the combat, well, it feels unfinished. On one hand, the normal enemies are really easy and pose little threat at all, but there was this one enemy with life drain that wiped me out in two hits. When I had all passive defense boosts, normal attacks (Dancing Claw was the attack name) did around 15 to 20 damage. But I wasn't prepared for that Life Drain to hit for about 260 points of damage. Also, why is Attack on the list of skills to learn? Imagine that the player did not learn Attack, I think fighting would be rather difficult in that state. Also having it cost MP was a mistake in my opinion.
The skills, too, are inconsistent. Some attacks I could never use (they were greyed out, without any explanation as to why) and there was this issue with the Evade boost skill that both the Level 1 and Level 2 versions appeared in my skill list, while every other skill that had more than one level only showed the highest in my skills.
There are some spelling mistakes in the game, but they can be easily fixed. My suggestion would be to rethink about the combat and concentrate on the puzzles. With that in mind, and more polish, I could foresee this becoming a nice little game to play in rather small bursts.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 8
Presentation: 11
Engagement: 8
Potential: 8
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Final Score: 46
Verdict: A somewhat nice little puzzle game. Combat feels clunky and unfinished. The game is a bit of a hit or miss; try downloading it and playing it for a while, if it doesn't grab your attention in that time, I doubt it never will.
Game by @hadecynn
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336550
We are quickly drawn in by the beautiful custom title screen and music. I noticed that there is no options command in the menu, I hope this won't bring any problems later on. The idea to put credits into the beginning sequence was good and very well done. Already I can feel like playing a professional game.
However, due to the fact that there was no option menu in the title, I ran into an issue right after beginning. As I'm writing this review (with the menu screen open) I can see that the game runs on over 60 FPS, which leads in the play time to increase faster than in seconds. This is a recurring issue with projects without Yanfly's Synch Monitor FPS plugin when they are played on a monitor with higher frame rates than 60Hz (I'm playing on a 144Hz gaming monitor). Because the FPS is so high, most animations run too fast. There's even more of a reason to do so in this entry as there is a 30-minute timer each time you enter the Abyss. The time counter runs faster than normal due to a single frame being less than 1/60th of a second. This is easily fixed by applying the plugin, though, so I sincerely hope you consider this.
As I mentioned the menu, I must say I really dig how clear and intuitive it seems to be. I also like that you include a reference for important things, such as status conditions, over there.
After some time spent playing, we learn that the story has us trying to resolve a curse which makes no one remember us. Although the setting is pretty general, it is well played out and the silent moments in our flashbacks put more emphasis on the feelings you're trying to convey.
The combat flow feels natural and it is executed brilliantly. The basic rock-paper-scissors weakness element feels good and somewhat prevents 'press attack to win' situations. Since MP is so important in combat, I liked how you are able to choose what bonuses you gain after battle, however I mostly set it to recover MP and left it there.
There are little to no errors in the game. Brilliant work! The only typo I found was that both blessings of life and mana had the same description when selected after you have obtained four blessings and must use or discard one. The typo was not present (at least I didn't notice it) when using the blessing in battle.
I played the game for two runs of levels 1 - 10. The difficulty felt rather good, although after learning on how to play, I felt like it was a bit on the easy side. I guess I lucked out on the RNG as I got Rain of Pain (the AoE arrow attack) rather early on in both runs (I only learned that you lose unlevelled skills after beating level 10) and most normal combats changed to "take hits, use skill and win, recover HP and MP as result" after that. The bosses were a tad different, but the patterns were a bit too predictable. However, it's all good as this allows for more newcomers to pick up your game and not suffer with balancing issues.
I really enjoyed this game, and for me personally it is already a winner. (although I said the same about LuizCubas' game last year) Great job, hadecynn, and thanks for making this!
Scoring:
Gameplay: 18
Presentation: 16
Engagement: 19
Potential: 17
Bugs found: None, save for a tiny spelling error
Total Score: 89
Verdict: The best game in the competition I've played this far. No matter if you like dungeon crawling or not, you should definitely give this game a try. It's not perfect, but it is really addicting, and that says a lot. Winner candidate.
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336550
We are quickly drawn in by the beautiful custom title screen and music. I noticed that there is no options command in the menu, I hope this won't bring any problems later on. The idea to put credits into the beginning sequence was good and very well done. Already I can feel like playing a professional game.
However, due to the fact that there was no option menu in the title, I ran into an issue right after beginning. As I'm writing this review (with the menu screen open) I can see that the game runs on over 60 FPS, which leads in the play time to increase faster than in seconds. This is a recurring issue with projects without Yanfly's Synch Monitor FPS plugin when they are played on a monitor with higher frame rates than 60Hz (I'm playing on a 144Hz gaming monitor). Because the FPS is so high, most animations run too fast. There's even more of a reason to do so in this entry as there is a 30-minute timer each time you enter the Abyss. The time counter runs faster than normal due to a single frame being less than 1/60th of a second. This is easily fixed by applying the plugin, though, so I sincerely hope you consider this.
As I mentioned the menu, I must say I really dig how clear and intuitive it seems to be. I also like that you include a reference for important things, such as status conditions, over there.
After some time spent playing, we learn that the story has us trying to resolve a curse which makes no one remember us. Although the setting is pretty general, it is well played out and the silent moments in our flashbacks put more emphasis on the feelings you're trying to convey.
The combat flow feels natural and it is executed brilliantly. The basic rock-paper-scissors weakness element feels good and somewhat prevents 'press attack to win' situations. Since MP is so important in combat, I liked how you are able to choose what bonuses you gain after battle, however I mostly set it to recover MP and left it there.
There are little to no errors in the game. Brilliant work! The only typo I found was that both blessings of life and mana had the same description when selected after you have obtained four blessings and must use or discard one. The typo was not present (at least I didn't notice it) when using the blessing in battle.
I played the game for two runs of levels 1 - 10. The difficulty felt rather good, although after learning on how to play, I felt like it was a bit on the easy side. I guess I lucked out on the RNG as I got Rain of Pain (the AoE arrow attack) rather early on in both runs (I only learned that you lose unlevelled skills after beating level 10) and most normal combats changed to "take hits, use skill and win, recover HP and MP as result" after that. The bosses were a tad different, but the patterns were a bit too predictable. However, it's all good as this allows for more newcomers to pick up your game and not suffer with balancing issues.
I really enjoyed this game, and for me personally it is already a winner. (although I said the same about LuizCubas' game last year) Great job, hadecynn, and thanks for making this!
Scoring:
Gameplay: 18
Presentation: 16
Engagement: 19
Potential: 17
Bugs found: None, save for a tiny spelling error
Total Score: 89
Verdict: The best game in the competition I've played this far. No matter if you like dungeon crawling or not, you should definitely give this game a try. It's not perfect, but it is really addicting, and that says a lot. Winner candidate.
Game by @kenjivn14
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/327844
Okay, so first thing I noticed was that the game title is bugged out and reads #{text.title} which doesn't bode well for the entry. I like the title screen, however I feel like the light particle effects are too much. I am also happy to note that I finally find an entry that has the Synch FPS plugin embedded, so excess frame rates should not prove to be a problem.
The look of the menu reminds me of old SNES classics like Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger. I like that.
In my opinion, having the game use the WASD control scheme and no way to change it is a fatal flaw. Sure, most keyboards allow natural movement via these controls, but I think French keyboards use the AZERTY scheme that becomes inconvient when playing with this scheme. Was there a real reason to move away from the arrow keys or was it just personal preference? If the latter then I hope you can consider re-implementing arrow key movement, and perhaps give the player a chance to rebind the keys as they see fit?
Once the game starts I am already receiving string errors: DANG learned '# {SKILL_ID: 14}!' etc. I also heard that the game suffers from bad grammar, but, honestly, I wasn't aware it was this bad. The game should seriously go through a proper spellcheck by a person that is proficient (or even better if a native speaker) in English. There's also some weird debug-like messages like "Playing footsteps_08_mono" shown briefly.
The main character looks like Kiriyama Rei from Sangatsu no Lion anime, I hope this is just a coincidence. After the short introduction, I enter the menu to see that I'm suddenly accompanied by two others, I think the other is my sister? No idea about this Tuan fellow however. I also noticed that there are no icons for menu categories. (Nevermind, the icons loaded after I closed the menu once and reopened it)
The graphics seem to be a mixture of custom and RTP. The music is somewhat smoothing.
The controls seem to really favor mouse movement. I noticed that you use pixel movement, which is a daring thing to do, but I cannot use the WASD keys to use in anything but cardinal directions. I also noticed that it seems that the mission (quest) log on the left doesn't register mouse clicks below it, rendering mouse movement to the left somewhat moot.
Aha, after talking to some random girl in the courtyard I am familiarized with the game buttons. After opening the options menu I finally see an option to change keys. However, my earlier point stands. You should bring this option to the title screen and probably use arrow keys as default.
I entered a fight with a policeman when riding the motorcycle. There I caught a glimpse of the interesting SRPG battle system, however there were issues where my healer could not travel forward as his route was blocked by the tree sprite that had no passability despite logically being so. I also did not find out how to exit the motorcycle and couldn't progress that far into the game. The lack of instructions didn't help either.
Sadly I only noted that the developer acknowledged this in an itch.io comment after trying out the game. Therefore my game time was cut pretty short.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 8
Presentation: 13
Engagement: 7
Potential: 8
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Final Score: 49
Verdict: The game has pretty graphics and several mechanics that have been well thought out, but it lacks overall polish. The grammar was horrible at some points. The english version seems to fail to load some text strings, might be because my computer runs in Finnish, though. There's a potential for a somewhat good strategic RPG, but as it stands now, I cannot recommend the game.
Game page: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/327844
Okay, so first thing I noticed was that the game title is bugged out and reads #{text.title} which doesn't bode well for the entry. I like the title screen, however I feel like the light particle effects are too much. I am also happy to note that I finally find an entry that has the Synch FPS plugin embedded, so excess frame rates should not prove to be a problem.
The look of the menu reminds me of old SNES classics like Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger. I like that.
In my opinion, having the game use the WASD control scheme and no way to change it is a fatal flaw. Sure, most keyboards allow natural movement via these controls, but I think French keyboards use the AZERTY scheme that becomes inconvient when playing with this scheme. Was there a real reason to move away from the arrow keys or was it just personal preference? If the latter then I hope you can consider re-implementing arrow key movement, and perhaps give the player a chance to rebind the keys as they see fit?
Once the game starts I am already receiving string errors: DANG learned '# {SKILL_ID: 14}!' etc. I also heard that the game suffers from bad grammar, but, honestly, I wasn't aware it was this bad. The game should seriously go through a proper spellcheck by a person that is proficient (or even better if a native speaker) in English. There's also some weird debug-like messages like "Playing footsteps_08_mono" shown briefly.
The main character looks like Kiriyama Rei from Sangatsu no Lion anime, I hope this is just a coincidence. After the short introduction, I enter the menu to see that I'm suddenly accompanied by two others, I think the other is my sister? No idea about this Tuan fellow however. I also noticed that there are no icons for menu categories. (Nevermind, the icons loaded after I closed the menu once and reopened it)
The graphics seem to be a mixture of custom and RTP. The music is somewhat smoothing.
The controls seem to really favor mouse movement. I noticed that you use pixel movement, which is a daring thing to do, but I cannot use the WASD keys to use in anything but cardinal directions. I also noticed that it seems that the mission (quest) log on the left doesn't register mouse clicks below it, rendering mouse movement to the left somewhat moot.
Aha, after talking to some random girl in the courtyard I am familiarized with the game buttons. After opening the options menu I finally see an option to change keys. However, my earlier point stands. You should bring this option to the title screen and probably use arrow keys as default.
I entered a fight with a policeman when riding the motorcycle. There I caught a glimpse of the interesting SRPG battle system, however there were issues where my healer could not travel forward as his route was blocked by the tree sprite that had no passability despite logically being so. I also did not find out how to exit the motorcycle and couldn't progress that far into the game. The lack of instructions didn't help either.
Sadly I only noted that the developer acknowledged this in an itch.io comment after trying out the game. Therefore my game time was cut pretty short.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 8
Presentation: 13
Engagement: 7
Potential: 8
Bugs: No critical bugs found
Final Score: 49
Verdict: The game has pretty graphics and several mechanics that have been well thought out, but it lacks overall polish. The grammar was horrible at some points. The english version seems to fail to load some text strings, might be because my computer runs in Finnish, though. There's a potential for a somewhat good strategic RPG, but as it stands now, I cannot recommend the game.
I have also tried out Starlight: Celestial Beginnings and Umbral, astral dreamers but did not write a review yet, so they should come out next.
And the list of games I'm probably going to review soon, in no particular order:
- Judged for Crime by @Tuomo L
- Momo Bomber by Sugar & Spice
- FAST QUEST by @The Mighty Palm
- Chosen by @watermark
- Dia : Dol - Diamond Idol by @Makio-Kuta
- Don't Loot Back by @eluukkanen
- Fairy Cabs by @slimmmeiske2
- Starlight: Celestial Beginnings by KendallFire
- Umbral, astral dreamers by @Kato-A
- Dark Slayers by @Rose Guardian
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