rmvxace Breathwind: Return of the Dragons [Review by Dante]

[Radiant Arin 412]

Link to game: www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/3329-breathwind-return-of-the-dragons-e0-v22-released/

 

That was kind of disappointing. I was expecting more out of it, simply because it's a Version 2.2. I simply just wasn't expecting only 30 minutes of gameplay.

 

That being said, that 30 minutes could easily be converted into 2 hours of grueling, laggy gameplay due to a shit computer. And also because Rapidshare sucks and it took fifteen minutes to download the file, even with my top-speed internet connection.

 

Anyways, irrelevant. I open it up, it's all good, and then I get to the opening movie, and, while I'm not exactly advocating that voice-over intros are the best thing known to God's creation, the voice-work in the beginning could use a bit of tuning up. At the moment, it just sounds like a bored, uninteresting narrator is reading a passage that he doesn't really care about (if you're the one who narrated that, just replaced "narrator/he" with "you"). It's not superb in the least bit, which is something that I was expecting.

 

Same thing with the log entries. There carries with it no sense of inflection, and it drones out word for word without any real emotion. I had to stop reading after the third entry because I just wanted to get on with the game, not hear some monotonous chatter about the backstory of the game which later on has no relevance whatsoever.

 

So, I'm moving along, and whatnot, after about 20 minutes (which is about an hour due to my shit computer) of searching the entire volcano, I finally get to the puzzle room. See, not everyone is as smart as I am, so that battle question was really simple, along with the puzzle. The strength enemy...kind of a challenge, but not really, since it's just spam Attack anyway.

 

Which brings me to my next point: combat is kind of blehh. At least the music was interesting enough to keep it going, but due to how quiet the music was, it didn't really feel.......epic. In fact, a lot of the menu sounds are a lot quieter and some of the other counterparts (i.e. the exit command is louder than the accept command), but, again, irrelevant. Since we're already at Level 40, I was expecting some more skills that players can utilize, but sadly, that is not the case.

 

Didn't like the Stamina system. It clutters up your inventory of useless things that you wish you didn't have in the first place. I had to use my tent like 5 times just to make it through the volcano, even with the Armor on. :| But I suppose nothing can be done about that.

 

I'M SONIC GOTTA GO FASTER I'M GOING THROUGH THIS DUNGEON SO FAST-Ohwait, a boss battle. That does the same thing every two turns with no variation whatsoever. :| And then to top it all off, the MC sacrifices his former comrades in a Deus Ex style that doesn't do jack squat to the enemy simply because "Fuck you".

 

And that, kids, is why Deus Exs suck.

 

Dialogue was pretty cool, as far as text situations go. I love the window border that you used. I did notice a spelling error somewhere before approaching the boss room that said like "I to sense something" or whatever, when it should be "I too..." Again, wasn't paying particular attention to the dialogue because I was holding Shift the whole time BECAUSE I'M SONIC AND I GOTTA GO FAST THROUGH THIS DUNGEON.

 

If this review had a title, it would be "I Hate Volcanoes".

 

OVERALL EXPERIENCE: A little bit of both. Since I'm trying to keep bias to a minimum, I'm just going to say that, apart from the dialogue, the whole experience was bland. Some of it may be my own fault for playing the game with a computer that isn't handled to play most RMVXAce games, but that alone is an insufficient factor in deciding the quality of the game. A bland battle system and a Deus Ex'd ending to a small episode that I was expecting more out of has led me to a small bout of disappointment.

 

RATING: Maybe 3/5. 3.5 at most.

 

WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS GAME TO SOMEONE ELSE:  Sadly, I would have to say no. The game is too bland to me to be of any real fun.

 

And with the advent of the new Critique Forum, this shall officially be the first topic in said forum. Because I called it.

 

 

[+ Novem 344]

Thanks for the review. As for the voice entries, they aren't supposed to have any inflections. They're supposed to be informative. As for the intro, yea, I agree that needs to be souped up. As for the rest, follow the statues to easily solve the maze. The maze is just as much of a puzzle as the puzzles afterwards, follow the hints, or get lost. The combat isn't anything I can't really solve. I'd actually rather have a Action Battle System, but considering the game is supposed to be story focused it shouldn't matter that much. As for the armor, I noticed it didn't work and I forgot to take it out, oops. Rapidshare is also unfortunately a necessary evil, as anything in excess of 200MB won't go onto better download sites without me forking over some cash. Also yea, I really do need to do some song tuning. As for the 2.2, a lot of it was solving problems with my scripts and systems more then anything else. As for the stamina/survival system, it's everything to do with taste. If you like that kind of thing, you can play it and have fun. If you don't... well... not my problem.

 

The entire thing was a prologue tutorial dungeon type of thing. It wasn't supposed to be difficult and the final boss isn't actually final, the entire thing is an introduction to the game. As for the Deus Ex, I'm not sure if that actually counts if the character you're playing as isn't actually the main character. This entire thing is a setup for the rest of the game, and is not meant to be taken as a standalone bit. Also, it does do something. It seals him and protects the world until someone can come that's actually able to stop it (thus, actual MC).
 

I promise you, everything gets a whole lot more interesting in the first episode after the game opens up. It's an open-world, and you will find yourself making small decisions from just about the beginning of the game. It's a game very much like ACIII, where the game takes a while to open up, and then it gets good (well, maybe ACIII isn't the best comparison, I'm pretty sure my characters are actually interesting and likable). The survival system makes a whole lot more sense in the context of an open-world and traveling. The story gets a lot more progressive and characters develop from seemingly unlikable and flat to fleshed out, just as the world does.

 

As for the codex entries, they will matter later. Just not in this episode. An open-world, a Homebase with a minigame you can purchase, decisions that matter in the context of the overall story... there's a lot to love that isn't here and isn't supposed to be.