Shadows of Adam (PC)
Jan. 23rd, 2018 12:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroTucked away from the outside world by the impenetrable haze of the Misty Woods, the village of Adam has mostly lived in peace since the days of the Wraith War. Magic, the dark power that fueled that war has vanished. But darkness is descending once more and Adam's legendary hero, Orazio, is no more. 10 years ago he left without explanation and never returned, leaving his son and adopted daughter to wrestle with the dark secret he left behind—a secret that must now be revealed if the children hope to save both Adam and their departed father, though its revelation could unhinge the world.
This is one of the high-quality RPGMaker games. Called “a love song to Final Fantasy Mystic Quest for a reason; it features a similar art style and approach to puzzles; static enemy encounters and a quest to collect elemental trinkets. They add a more tactical battle system and don't dumb anything dumb, though. While I don't know for certain if this was made with RPGMaker (the art isn't the stock stuff and it's very FF4/FFMQ-inspired), it has a similar sort of feel.
The dungeon designs are quite nice—monster encounters are generally visible and spiked, and they make a good showing of mazes and tricks that lead you to hidden items. There are a number of mine cart, switch-changing, and rolling-ball puzzles, and I found them to often be the kind that made you feel smart when you solve them. (The ones in the bonus dungeon are very tricky, but once you figure out that trick, it's an ego boost.) They also don't go down the road of space-filling paths—dungeons tend to feel like they're the right length for the amount of material in them. And monsters only respawn when you leave the dungeon, which means that you can clear them out and not have to worry about encounters while solving puzzles or searching for hidden treasures.
Instead of MP, characters have AP that is measured in percentage, restores gradually during battle, and can be restored quickly by defending. This means you use very little magic out of battle, but use it like crazy in-battle. There's a lot of strategy in killing enemies quickly while still keeping yourself topped up. And because special abilities are intended to be used freely, enemies are scaled with that in mind—there's no auto-battle, and you wouldn't want it anyway.
The characters have actual personalities and a lot of fun dialogue interactions. (And they're actually amusing, not just neverending anime banter.) The relationships between each of the four main characters get explored in an organic sort of way that doesn't feel forced in. You could honestly believe that three of these people grew up together and have the history inherent to that.
The game runs about 10 hours (without DLC, including endgame sidequests), which is a good length for this type of game.
Overall: This is a solid indie jrpg. I'm not sure it's as good as The Amber Throne, but it's in that weight class. Recommended.
This is one of the high-quality RPGMaker games. Called “a love song to Final Fantasy Mystic Quest for a reason; it features a similar art style and approach to puzzles; static enemy encounters and a quest to collect elemental trinkets. They add a more tactical battle system and don't dumb anything dumb, though. While I don't know for certain if this was made with RPGMaker (the art isn't the stock stuff and it's very FF4/FFMQ-inspired), it has a similar sort of feel.
The dungeon designs are quite nice—monster encounters are generally visible and spiked, and they make a good showing of mazes and tricks that lead you to hidden items. There are a number of mine cart, switch-changing, and rolling-ball puzzles, and I found them to often be the kind that made you feel smart when you solve them. (The ones in the bonus dungeon are very tricky, but once you figure out that trick, it's an ego boost.) They also don't go down the road of space-filling paths—dungeons tend to feel like they're the right length for the amount of material in them. And monsters only respawn when you leave the dungeon, which means that you can clear them out and not have to worry about encounters while solving puzzles or searching for hidden treasures.
Instead of MP, characters have AP that is measured in percentage, restores gradually during battle, and can be restored quickly by defending. This means you use very little magic out of battle, but use it like crazy in-battle. There's a lot of strategy in killing enemies quickly while still keeping yourself topped up. And because special abilities are intended to be used freely, enemies are scaled with that in mind—there's no auto-battle, and you wouldn't want it anyway.
The characters have actual personalities and a lot of fun dialogue interactions. (And they're actually amusing, not just neverending anime banter.) The relationships between each of the four main characters get explored in an organic sort of way that doesn't feel forced in. You could honestly believe that three of these people grew up together and have the history inherent to that.
The game runs about 10 hours (without DLC, including endgame sidequests), which is a good length for this type of game.
Overall: This is a solid indie jrpg. I'm not sure it's as good as The Amber Throne, but it's in that weight class. Recommended.
