official Oc Reviews: Horse Fantasy II

[Ocedic 249]

Game Title: Horse Fantasy II

Game Author: Ironhoof

Version: Demo

Review by: Ocedic

 

Introduction

 

Horse Fantasy II is a JRPG that takes places in a world where horses and humans coexist.

 

 

Graphics

 

The visuals of HF2 suffer from two main issues: inconsistency and messiness. A lot of graphics seem to be shoved in from everywhere. Facesets are either frankened, RTP or from completely unknown sources. Monster battlers range from map sprites for humans to RTP battlers to where-ever the dinosaur boss crawled out of. In inconsistency in size is jarring, and the huge battlers look really awkward next to the chibi sized party members. Maps look completely different from one another. Sometimes they use lighting scripts and most of the time they are uniformly lit, as if the author put a lot of effort into making the beginning of the game look nice and got lazier as the game progressed.

 

When you take away all of the flash, the graphics are very bland and unexciting. Locations are blocky and disproportionately sized. Instead of adding some decor to make things look nice, the author simply utilizes scripts to add some vapid flashiness. Whether it's a lighting script, Moghunter's weather script, fog or some old-fashioned tinting, these effects are horribly misused and thrown together, often clashing with the maps they are on and of course the rest of the game. The first dungeon in the game, for example, is obnoxiously dark to the point where you can't see details. Light colors seem random. There were normal colored lights here and there, then a blue light in one location for no apparent reason. Once you step outside, Moghunter's weather script makes some leaves blow in the wind. This is actually one of the nicer looking sections of the game, but when you ignore the effects the area is the same dull design as the rest of the game.

 

Eventually you enter a burning building and the combination of fog and tinting make you almost completely blind. My main advice to the author in regards to this: Sometimes less is more. Stop overwhelming the maps with unnecessary visual effects.

 

Verdict: :wacko:

 

Mapping

 

As I mentioned before, environments are blocky and excessively large. Roads are huge and unnaturally devoid of any variation. Visually, it's an eyesore. In terms of level design, it's even worse. Dungeons and levels are basically giant mazes that you have to wander around blindly until you find where you need to go. Sometimes they're nothing more than vast, open stretches with random treasure and monsters sprinkled throughout, somehow making the aforementioned windy labyrinths and corridors a luxury you yearn for. These are fairly common rookie mistakes; I suggest the author try some other RM games or ask for assistance in the level design forum, as this is an area that needs quite a bit of work.

 

Verdict: :wacko:

 

Audio

 

This is probably the best part of the game, but it's not without flaw. Like a recurring motif, inconsistency rears its ugly head here. The music as a whole just doesn't have a coherent style. This is probably because the author 'borrowed' music from so many different sources, from Final Fantasy to Ratatat to Aphex Twins. The songs themselves are good, and sometimes used well, but it still feels messy. The FF music in particular sticks out like a sore thumb. I let out an audible "Really?" when I booted up the game and the FF title screen theme started playing. It's just one of many elements that are derivative of the Final Fantasy series.

 

Verdict:

 

Gameplay - Exploration

 

I covered a lot of these points in mapping, but I'll reiterate that the maps are humongous and maze-like. The redeeming quality is that there aren't random battles, but enemies use the same on-map sprite so you can't tell what kind of enemy you'll go up against. One cool part of the game is that there are Pokemon-like obstacles such as vines that you can clear away with the right tools. Unfortunately, the extent of this feature is simply having the right tool for the job and tools aren't utilized in any creative or interesting fashion. Also, the game isn't friendly toward backtracking (in that you can't do it,) so once I reached a new area I couldn't go back with my newly acquired tool to clear the paths that were previously inaccessible to me. I think the author is onto something with the idea, it just needs to be executed better. Overall, exploration isn't particularly interesting but it also isn't annoying like some other games that I've reviewed.

 

Verdict:

 

Gameplay - Battles

 

First, I'll mention what the author does right. Skills are useful (necessary, even) and between attacking, skills, limit breaks, bombs, scrolls and healing items there are a lot of options. However, the rest of the battle system is like an exercise in frustrating game design. Hit and evasion rates make it feel like you miss waaaay too often while enemy attacks seem to always connect. The limit breaks are massively stronger than other options and boss battles seem to balanced around that fact. It makes it feel like everything you do OTHER than using limit attacks is absolutely pointless. You get four characters which creates a highly imbalanced system. Against bosses, be prepared to have two to three of your characters using revival and healing items constantly. That's not really a challenge, it's just tedious.

 

The game uses an ATB system which serves no purpose except to make the whole thing run at a plodding, tiresome pace. The option to steal is interesting, but ultimately annoying because stealing can fail. I mean, I'm giving up a turn of dealing damage and you STILL want me to sometimes fail at that? Overall the battles just wear you down and not very fun. You can ignore them since they aren't random, but good luck fighting the horribly tuned bosses if you didn't do the prerequisite amount of grinding.

 

Verdict:

 

Story

 

The one aspect of the story that stands out is the fact that there's horses. But when you take out the horses, the story is fairly generic and seems like it comes right out of a Final Fantasy game. Dialogue is at times painful to read; 90% of NPCs have nothing relevant to offer and serve only as tools to tell you game mechanics like which elements enemies are weak against or that holding shift allows you to dash. Your companions are fairly likeable, but the main character is oddly annoying with an ugly face to boot. All of the characters lack motivation to pull the player in; they all seem to be following your main character who starts her journey because she 'feels that she's destined for something greater.' The story needs a real plot device to drive the events, because otherwise it just feels like I'm re-enacting random, disjointed scenes out of Final Fantasy. Basically, the author fails to make you care about any of the characters, settings or events. It's a very common mistake in which the author tries to create an epic journey simply by having a journey and labeling it as epic. When you strip away the main character's 'destiny', there isn't any meat to the tale.

 

Verdict:

 

Polish

 

Though I wouldn't call the game polished per se, there weren't any bugs or tons of grammatical errors which is a good thing. There are a lot of little annoyances, but fighting glitches won't be one of them.

 

Verdict:

 

Overall

 

This was clearly a learning experience for the author, and I hope he or she does not become discouraged from trying future projects. Overall, I think the main issue is that the author is biting off unchewable portions. Tone down the scope of the story, don't add crazy visual effects for the sake of it, and slow down and really focus on making quality content. I'd rather play a great 15 minute game than a mediocre or terrible 15 hour one. Also, work on finding your own voice. It's clear that you are influenced by Final Fantasy, but it seems like you're trying to recreate it rather than your own unique story.

 

Score: 3.9/10