Obs Reviews - Zendir: A New World

[+ Novem 344]

Game: Zendir: A New World

Developer: HotfireLegend

Engine: RPG Maker VX Ace

Download Link: https://rapidshare.c...A New World.exe

Note: I use the same scoring system I do on my blog. Check my blog for more details.

 

 

Disclaimer: All views expressed within are MY OPINION. They are not meant to be offensive to anyone, they are just my observations at whole.

 

So, I have finally decided to review something. This was one of the first games I played that was made by a user on this site, so I decided to give a whirl at reviewing it. Did I enjoy the game? Yes, for the most part. Is it any good? Well, let's find out...

 

PRESENTATION

 

Where to start with the presentation of this game? I'm not exactly sure, but right off the bat, I'll tell you that it really is a mixed bag. The game is almost entirely RTP based, and that already makes it a little boring to look at and listen to, but luckily there are some moments here where it is truly used well.

 

Unfortunately, the game makes bad first impressions. The game opens on a world map, and shows you it's really drab and boring windowskin that does absolutely nothing to impress, on a world map that isn't all that impressive looking. There's just a lot of open water and the tiny island you start on, nothing all that impressive, just decidedly average.

 

That's not to say the game never looks good at all. It has some real shining moments of mapping brilliance, it's just the opening of the game does very little to impress on this front. The first town is a world map style one, with a drab color scheme, and NPC's walking around the lanes of extremely tiny buildings. It's an odd image, and as I said before, it doesn't help sell the look of the game at all.

 

It gets better though, a lot better, as the game goes on. The first dungeon is still extremely weak though...

 

That's some bland mapping you got there, xD

 

Still, as I said before, there is some great mapping here, like this place...

 

It's PWEETY! No, but seriously, it looks nice and has relaxing music!

 

Funnily enough though, pretty much nowhere else in the game looks anything like that pretty sample. In fact, most of the game features neither bad nor good mapping, just average mapping. There's just not that much that's very impressive here.

 

Combat is decidedly visually average as well, being almost entirely RTP-based as the rest of the game was.

 

The music falls into the same mixed bag as the mapping. There's some awesome custom music in some places, but at other times it just falls back onto the RTP tracks, usually with pitch slider alteration. The early battle themes use the pitch slider to very very poor effect, they have minimum pitch, so they are incredibly slow, and make the battles an incredible bore to partake in.

 

So, in the end, I will just say that this game features rather average presentation that could be improved on quite a lot. Especially because there is some pass-ability weirdness in some places, and the game could just make better use of empty space, like it did in that second map screenshot above.

 

SCORE: 6

 

WRITING

 

Let me just start off the writing section by saying there's a whole lot that could be done better. At the same time though, there are quite a few redeeming qualities about it. The world could be expanded, but the general under-tones established during the entire game give a good base to start from. There are some cool characters, but they all generally need to be developed more. The plot was okay, but needed more detail.

 

Detail is a real problem this game suffers from. There are some really good set-ups here, but a lot of them are never capitalized on because of a lack of detail nearly the whole game suffers from.

 

The basic premise, a female Magician getting run out of her village and being forced to explore, only to find that the fate of the continent could depend on her has no significant problems with it (besides being slightly cliche' of course, but I'm not complaining)... but the plot and characters never surpass the basic level.

 

There's too little character development, too little exposition, and too little dialogue. There are scenes that would be an obvious fit in many places, but those opportunities are never capitalized on. 

 

Nearly all of the characters fit into generic fantasy archetypes, they have little backstory, and there is little to no reason to care about any of them.

 

In addition, there are several things here that would make sense if they were further elaborated on, but they are never explored in such a deep way. It makes the entire game feel like it's based on nonsense.

 

For instance, apparently Zaphillia (the main character) got ran out of the village. But you can stroll right back on in with no consequences whatsoever. People apparently dislike magicians here, but the biggest building in the entire village (and the most fancy looking) is the magic academy. When you end up needing a little help with the first dungeon, this dude follows you around through it, only once you get out... he keeps following you, for no apparent reason, instead of just going his own way.

 

There's a cutscene after this boss, don't expect the shoehorned in reason for this bosses existence to ever be explained!

 

None of this is ever explained in further detail, and there's a lot of it that plagues the game. At the same time though, there are some genuinely cool things about the games story. The antagonist of the story has rather believable motivations, which is something I don't see very often, and it makes the short time he is actually present on screen rather cool.

 

Unfortunately, nearly all of this is ruined by boring and stilted dialogue... and the anti-climax that is the ending of the game. Not to mention unanswered questions and under-developed plot points. Oh, and don't even get me started on the multiple endings from a choice that you weren't even aware changed the ending.

 

Basically, it's a mess, but it's a rather intriguing mess at times. Zaphillia herself is a rather good character, as is a character you get a bit later in the game called Dorian, with everyone else being almost universally unlikable. The premise was sound, it just wasn't handled well. The antagonist was cool, but his involvement was brief.

 

SCORE: 4.5

 

GAMEPLAY

 

There isn't much special to say about this category either. The combat was a decent enough distraction, but it was incredibly easy until near the end of the game, when there was a sudden difficulty spike. I went from yawning my way through the battles to seeing my characters get one-shotted with every hit.

 

Not only that, but random encounters. Ugh, random encounters... I really hate them. But I won't hold that against it.

 

Or at least I wouldn't if random encounters weren't a part of the quite large world map.

 

Be prepared to fight things like this a lot on the way through! GAH!

I will tell you this now, the game has a bad sense of direction. It will tell you where something is once, and if you gloss over it even a little bit, then you'll probably be lost. Either way though, trust me when I say that you will be lost at some point during this game. Characters will tell you to look for something or go in a certain direction, but there are a few things that are particularly hard to find, meaning that you'll be doing quite a bit of aimless wandering.

 

Except, the world at large is vastly empty (as are the cities, towns, etc.). So all you'll have to busy your time are the irritating random encounters that make the aimless wandering to find out where you are supposed to go even harder to deal with.

 

But, other then that annoyance, the gameplay is mostly forgettable and average. As I already said, the combat is heavily RTP based, so there's nothing particularly special about it. So yet again, it's average, although... you won't like it if you aren't a fan of the tedious.

 

SCORE: 5

 

FINAL VERDICT

 

Honestly, I don't even really understand why I finished this game. It's rather average, and I don't really play that many RM games (especially not all the way through). Maybe it was the short run time of about an hour and a half, I don't know, but I think it was just that the story was interesting, it just wasn't capitalized on correctly. So, I have a really love/hate relationship with this game, and I really hope the sequel can build on what this game did RIGHT instead of the many things it did WRONG.

 

+
- Okay combat.
- Intriguing premise.
- Some likable characters.
- A good antagonist.
- Some decent mapping.

-
- Nonsense.
- Some bad mapping.
- Underdeveloped characters.
- Anti-climactic ending.
- Boring and stilted dialogue.

FINAL SCORE: 5.2 out of 10

 

Suggestions for Improvement

 

This is a list of things that will make this game a lot better.

 

- Use lengthier dungeons, they are all short, with boring bosses that just happen to be there.

- Dim down on the complete and utter nonsense that is prevalent throughout the games story.

- Give the player a much better sense of direction.

- Write better dialogue.

- Make sure all of the endings of a meaningful climax, or better then that, just have one. There's no reason to shoehorn in multiple endings for no reason when the rest of the game had a linear story.

- Have the final boss give some kind of death speech and ramp up the excitement, there is no meaningful climax.

- There needs to be more exposition and dialogue period.

- Explore the backstory of the party members instead of them just being there.

- Have the antagonists have a more prevalent effect on the story.

- Give the bosses a reason for being where they are.
 

[EternalShadow 28]

Thanks for the review - pretty surprised you found the antagonist to have believable motivations, nobody else said that. Then again, none of the other reviews focused on the antagonist. I'll keep that in mind, thanks.

 

It'll be interesting to hear your thoughts on Zendir 2 once it's released, considering the polarity of many of the things between the two games (lack of random battles in Zen 2 and consistently good mapping throughout Zen 2, for example) but that's part of being a games designer - finding out what works and what doesn't. It's quite fun, and that's what we're in it for.

 

Thanks!

[+ Novem 344]

I just felt he was a much better antagonist then what I see in most RM games, or really, most games period. Almost all of them end up being walking cliche's. It sickens me... lol

 

I can't wait to play Zen 2. Well, that is, if you fixed up that a million miles per hour rushed introduction.

[EternalShadow 28]

I'll come back to that intro when the whole story's done, can you pm me what was specifically rushed about it? Thanks

[+ Novem 344]

I believe I already gave you my feedback on the beginning of Zendir 2 a while ago, scroll back a few pages in our Zendir PM,