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chuckroScarllet just wants to keep her sister safe after their parents die, but her sister’s magical healing gift has attracted the attention of the mysterious Brotherhood, who we can be pretty sure are up to no good.
Continuing in the theme of other games from this publisher...this isn’t very good. The balance is wonky, with hit point totals often very out of wack from what would make sense for an area. Bosses are giant mountains of hit points but your strategies beyond “attack and heal” are very limited. You get very few spell crests to start, and it’s easy to leave them on characters who then vanish from your party, because your party splits into two, but only sometimes manages to port parts of your inventory over when you switch. There are numerous spelling errors, including the main character’s name at various points. There’s an early glitch that if you buy equipment in the first town at the first opportunity, it disappears when you set out the next morning. Similarly, there are some NPCs who get surrounded by white boxes (rather than transparencies) in cutscenes and practically every location is just called “Local” by the navigation box.
Though the maps will sometimes seem open, you’re not allowed to enter anywhere you aren’t supposed to go yet; so the game is actually really linear. (This is not necessarily a complaint, mind you.) They make attempts at puzzles that don’t really pan out well: The monastery dungeon, for instance, requires that you go to the end, notice a statue missing, go back to a branch off the first room to get a statue, then bring it all the way back to the end. And though the undead enemies are visible on the map screen, what actually triggers battles with them is highly variable and in practice you end up fighting every enemy you meet. (Also, escaping battle is useless because the enemy doesn’t go away; it just initiates a new battle with you immediately.)
I give them credit for trying with the two-party switching parallel plotlines and the attempts at political intrigue. And they’re clearly really trying to establish characterization and motivation. In that regard, it’s much smarter than either of the other Aldorlea games I’ve tried. But the obvious lack of a debugging process and the gameplay problems mean it’s not fun to actually slog through. Even simple stuff like the lack of a minimap or escape spell makes the game less fun.
Overall: I paid 79 cents for this. I think it was worth that.
Continuing in the theme of other games from this publisher...this isn’t very good. The balance is wonky, with hit point totals often very out of wack from what would make sense for an area. Bosses are giant mountains of hit points but your strategies beyond “attack and heal” are very limited. You get very few spell crests to start, and it’s easy to leave them on characters who then vanish from your party, because your party splits into two, but only sometimes manages to port parts of your inventory over when you switch. There are numerous spelling errors, including the main character’s name at various points. There’s an early glitch that if you buy equipment in the first town at the first opportunity, it disappears when you set out the next morning. Similarly, there are some NPCs who get surrounded by white boxes (rather than transparencies) in cutscenes and practically every location is just called “Local” by the navigation box.
Though the maps will sometimes seem open, you’re not allowed to enter anywhere you aren’t supposed to go yet; so the game is actually really linear. (This is not necessarily a complaint, mind you.) They make attempts at puzzles that don’t really pan out well: The monastery dungeon, for instance, requires that you go to the end, notice a statue missing, go back to a branch off the first room to get a statue, then bring it all the way back to the end. And though the undead enemies are visible on the map screen, what actually triggers battles with them is highly variable and in practice you end up fighting every enemy you meet. (Also, escaping battle is useless because the enemy doesn’t go away; it just initiates a new battle with you immediately.)
I give them credit for trying with the two-party switching parallel plotlines and the attempts at political intrigue. And they’re clearly really trying to establish characterization and motivation. In that regard, it’s much smarter than either of the other Aldorlea games I’ve tried. But the obvious lack of a debugging process and the gameplay problems mean it’s not fun to actually slog through. Even simple stuff like the lack of a minimap or escape spell makes the game less fun.
Overall: I paid 79 cents for this. I think it was worth that.
