Event Secret Santa 2018 aka the IGMC Review Trade Thread

[SJWebster]

Count me in! My Game's here: https://sjwebster.itch.io/bail-the-bounty-hunter

 

[bgillisp]

Group A is ready to go. I'll work on group B throughtout the day

Spoiler: Group A

@Zelgadis85 you will review https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336429
@Gabrelik you will review https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/327844
@hadecynn you will review https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/the-last-journey-igmc-2018.102716/
@slimmmeiske2 you get to review https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/335936
@Tome571 you get https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336717
@kenjivn14 you get https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336807
@Jesse - PVGames you get https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/323160
@Mrs_Allykat you get https://lazybumstudio.itch.io/fading-remnants
@Uzuki you get to play and review https://hadecynn.itch.io/abyss-of-oblivion
@Dezue you get to play https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/334657
@OmnislashXX I know you said you'd like to review games too, but have no entry. Want to just pick one of these 10 at random?

 

[dragoonwys]

Can I join in too? I'd love to review someone's game as well during the weekends. ^.^
Here's mine https://dragoonwys.itch.io/specter-crypt-or-crime

 

[OmnislashXX]

Here is the review for Our Adventure. Zelgadis seemed brave enough to put out his game. My reviews can be brutal.

Alright. It seems as if I have some time on my hands while I recover from this stroke. While I'm still developing my own game, it'll be nice to take a break and play some games. So, with that being said, I'm going to post some of my reviews on here. I'm not taking requests to review your game, because I don't wish to be bogged down with a list I'll have little hope of finishing. But I will play some games, so check back here to see if I played yours. If you listed your game in the Secret Santa Thread, I'll most likely play it.
I'll be rating games on four factors: Storyline, Controls(Battles), Presentation( artwork) and Fun Factor. Finally I'll give you my overall rating which will be shared on itch.io.
If my handicap prevents me from playing your game properly, I'll put it aside to give to someone else to review.
Good luck!

Spoiler: Our Adventure Review

Title: Our Adventure
Link: https://zelgadis85.itch.io/igmc18
Done by Zelgadis85 and punamaagi
RPG

Storyline: You and your sister go out to become adventurers. Adventurers all seem to come from all walks of life, but all want gold and glory. Also, there seems to be some evil force somewhere. It's a pretty average storyline. You need to name both your character and yourself. The other adventurers you get on your party don't talk either and are just random dudes, so don't expect much from them either. The town is pretty active, so you'll get most of the storylines from the people you talk with.


Controls: Pretty much standard stuff. You needs to choose from a list of things to do in town, from shopping, to resting and of course the quests. The battles were pretty difficult starting out. I played the game on normal difficulty, which gave you a handicap if you died. Unfortunately, my sister died a lot, and the others weren't as hard to take down either. Perhaps I needed a healer, but random battles shouldn't take that much out of you at the start of the adventure. You choose the class for each of your two characters, which is fine, but when your mage is getting curb stomped with one hit, maybe it's time to test the difficulty.


Presentation: Some good artwork for the intro and the town you enter. RTP for the most part, when you get into dungeons. There are some imported battlers. The game looks and feels ok.


Fun Factor: This was an average game for me, mostly. The artwork was charming, but the battle system works against it.


Rating: 3
/SPOILER]

 

[slimmmeiske2]

@slimmmeiske2 you get to review https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/335936

Done.

 

[Mrs_Allykat]

I did not see an RMW page for 'fading remnants' so I posted my review on the itch.io page instead. As I state in the review, I consider myself really lucky to have drawn the straw for that title. (P.S. WTG HiddenOne!)

Review Link

 

[slimmmeiske2]

@bgillisp @Dezue It seems my IGMC entry had a bug that made it nearly impossible for new players to play it, so I withdrew from the contest. Dezue, if you still want to try it, here's the link: https://slimmmeiske2.itch.io/fairy-cabs
I'm still up for trading reviews if that's still fine?

 

[bgillisp]

@slimmmeiske2 : That's fine.

Also be sure to note if you want to go again when you finish the review. Right now group B has 8 people in it, and I'm waiting until it is at 10 before assigning.

 

[slimmmeiske2]

Thanks. And I'm up for another round

 

[hiddenone]

I'll hop in for round B, gotta get Fading Remnants all the love~

 

[hadecynn]

@Jesse - PVGames Your review is done. I posted it on your project thread.
@bgillisp - Put me down for round 2.

 

[Mrs_Allykat]

I'm good for another review.

 

[Gabrelik]

Likewise! And thanks, @Mrs_Allykat for the review! Very thorough and extremely helpful.

 

[Tome571]

Review posted on itchio! Nice work on that one, impressive

https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/336717?before=2#post-611396

 

[bgillisp]

Group B is ready to go. Assignments in spoiler.

Spoiler: Group B

@Paladin-Cleric of Awesome You got: https://sjwebster.itch.io/bail-the-bounty-hunter
@Chez : This one is yours to review. https://slimmmeiske2.itch.io/fairy-cabs
@SeaPhoenix : This is the one you get to review: https://paladin-cleric-of-awesome.itch.io/a-witches-heart
@KayZaman : Enjoy: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/33594
@Arend Galenkamp : This is the one you get to review: https://thelastyurisamurai.itch.io/monster-village
@Faye Valentine : Enjoy: https://lazybumstudio.itch.io/fading-remnants
@SJWebster : Here's your assignment: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/330963
@dragoonwys : Here's yours: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/332961
@slimmmeiske2 : Enjoy: https://dragoonwys.itch.io/specter-crypt-or-crime
@hiddenone : Enjoy: https://itch.io/jam/igmc2018/rate/328715

Looks like we only got 2 waiting for Group C at the moment. Still plenty of time to sign up, or if you finish your game you can submit yours again if you wish.

 

[l8rose]

And I totally thought I signed up to this earlier. -coughs-
Game is here on Itch.io. =]

 

[Faye Valentine]

Oh wow, so honored to play Fading Remnants. I'll post my review tomorrow, as my internet is too slow atm and this will take at least two hours to download (yep, that slow). And it's midnight over here, so yeah.

 

[TheLastYuriSamurai]

My review of fairy cabs is completed and posted under their topic in the forums! I'd love to be assigned another game! Keep up the hard work guys!! (I'm really excited to have my game reviewed)

 

[dragoonwys]

^u^ Finished my review, it was a fun time and glad to play it! HERE

 

[Zelgadis85]

@bgillisp @Tome571 My review of Rise of the Pharaoh is complete.

Spoiler: Rise of the Pharaoh review

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

Now for the scoring (refer to either the master list or itch.io judging criteria for more info)

Gameplay: 12 / 20
Presentation: 16 / 20
Engagement: 8 / 20
Potential: 10 / 20
Bugs: No critical bugs found

Final Score: 62 / 100

I'm up for another round. Our Adventure can be found here, as always.