official [ Oc Review] - Liphidain: Dissonance of Darkness

[Ocedic 249]

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Title: Liphidain: Dissonance of Darkness

Author: Tharis

Version: Demo 1.12

 

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I reviewed this title many eons ago in February. At the time, the author Tharis had just begun the project and it was his first game. While most people give up on their first game and try to incorporate the skills they learned into new projects, Tharis has diligently stuck by his game throughout these months. I've been eager to try this game for a long time now just to see what kind of improvements have been made. A lot has happened in the past few months, but at its core Liphidain is very similar to the modest little demo that I tried out at the beginning of the year.

 

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Okay, before we get to the audio or graphics, one thing has to made clear: The font is terrible. The "medieval-style" font just makes everything a chore to read. It's extremely difficult to tell the difference between capitalized and lower-case letters. Once you get past that major hurdle, the game's graphics are fairly presentable, if at times messy and inconsistent. The mix of RTP and Mack graphics are used to adequate effect, and the world looks fresh and original even with these commonly used tilesets. The mapping has improved leaps and bounds over the original demo, with environments that manage to balance detail with open space. Some locations, which were recycled from the original demo, feel dated and archaic in comparison to the newer maps. There's also a fair amount of pathing bugs present; though none of them affect gameplay, they do take you out of the experience when they occur.

 

 

The music seemed well-chosen and often worked well with the scenes they accompanied. What really stands out are the sound effects, which provide more detail to the events happening onscreen than the average RM title does. Sometimes they feel a bit out of place compared to the cartoony-ness of the game, but they definitely help draw you into the story. While the sound effects help convey onscreen actions, the lack of sprite animation falls short in this regard. There's an over-reliance on battle animations to convey the action, which feels a bit tacky and lazy. This game would really shine in the presentation department if sprites were better animated to actually perform the actions.

 

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Like the first demo, this is where Liphidain struggles. There are a lot of improvements like adding more interesting abilities to the player's arsenal, but it's usually obtuse as to what situation they can be utilized. For example, you have an ability that deals extra damage versus enemies with lower agility, but in every situation that I used it, it did less damage than my regular attack despite costing TP. And this is a symptom of a larger, more problematic issue: Spells don't do enough to justify their use. Healing spells feel like they barely heal the amount of damage you take in a turn and damage abilities are far too weak (except on Arysana, but we'll get to her in a moment.) Basically, every turn I looked at all of my options, and attack was generally the only choice I could use other than potions (of which you will be running burning through a lot.)

 

 

Which leads to the next problem: The game is hard... in an annoying way. Because your abilities are so awful, fights consist of attacking until your health runs low, then popping a potion and attacking some more. Sometimes, enemies are so strong that you can only get 1-2 attacks in before you need to pop the next potion. In certain fights, you can abuse the First Aid ability to heal up, but this only gives a surplus of 10 HP or so after the enemies have dealt their damage. The result is you end up spamming First Aid for 3-4 turns just to heal a respectable amount of health. Overall, fighting is tedious and you eventually come to dread fights, rather than want to enter battles. And that's a huge issue in an RPG.

 

Eventually, I came to a boss fight that felt like it was tuned way too difficult and I didn't have the patience to try again after being worn out from the previous battles. What it comes down to is that the game isn't fun to play from a gameplay perspective. Abilities aren't fun to use. Battles don't require critical thinking, just a lot of healing that drag out the fights. And a quick note on Arysana: She provided some hope in that she had unique spells and an interesting Infusion ability that converted TP to MP, but that ability was bugged and there was no other way to replenish MP to my knowledge. So after one battle I depleted her MP and could never cast a spell with her again. Even if Infusion DID work properly, you gain enough MP per cast to use one spell. When you run out of MP, you'd just be casting Infusion every other turn so that she could have some output. Super tedious, not fun.

 

Finally, I mentioned that the mapping is aesthetically well done, but in terms of gameplay it's quite the opposite. The maps are large, which I initially did enjoy until I realized that there actually isn't much to explore. You might take a winding path that takes a fair amount of time to travel down just to find that it has a lame treasure chest or (usually) a dead end. The towns are huge, but you can't interact with any of the environments. The result is that you end up doing a lot of walking around without much reward. It's fine to have large maps if there's actually a purpose to them, but in this title it felt like it was just making me walk around more. Be prepared to abuse your Shift key.

 

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Liphidain is well-written, with dialogue that flows together and a world that feels alive to a certain extent. The one flaw with the writing is that there's little room for inference. It's a common problem in RM games that I've played: The author doesn't leave room for inference, and sometimes it feels like he doesn't trust the player to be able to read any subtext within the story. For example, one character mentions multiple times that he won't see a girl he likes because denying her attention is the way to earn hers. This point is beaten over our heads several times and he even states it explicitly to the girl herself. The author needs to leave room for the player to figure things out him or herself. And tangentially, the romantic aspects of the plot feel contrived, almost as if they exist solely for Tharis to teach guys how to pick up girls. The female characters feel vapid and pedantic, and it seems like a stretch that an angelic immortal would fall in love with an exotic dancer. Though keep in mind that these are minor quips; the characterization in the game is actually fairly engaging most of the time.

 

 

The story itself is at times exciting, but usually generic and uninteresting. The cool parts of the lore are similar to the Diablo series, where a war wages between angels and demons that inadvertently involves humankind as well. Though it works, it doesn't leave much room for surprises. It's about on par with your typical fantasy RPG overall. I do feel that the beginning portions are much better than the later ones, where you start to play as a teenager which is an immediate turnoff. The story seems to lack direction and it only gets worse once you become a teenage guy who spends most of his time performing odd jobs for the town's citizens. It's just not engaging, especially considering just 15 minutes ago we were battling demons in the much more awesome prologue.

 

As I mentioned above, I did give up a bit in due to an annoying boss fight, so perhaps the story does pick up from there. It's definitely not bad, but doesn't stand out as revolutionary and it certainly wasn't enough to keep me playing in spite of the tiring difficulty.

 

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A great improvement over its previous iteration, but still haunted by an inexplicably unforgiving difficulty. Otherwise, this is a very solid game that will hold your attention at least through its sizable prologue. Looking forward to future versions, as Tharis has clearly demonstrated that he's a game developer capable of growing.

 

Grade: B

[Tharis 212]

Thanks so much for this, Ocedic!  I am going to do my best to address the things that came up that I found poignant to myself though I will likely do this in sporadic fashion in no particular order.

 

Yes there is a lot to improve upon with the game overall. First I would like to address the text. I was given a bit of warning about the font that the game uses, by one of my testers. I am still looking for one to replace it but that will likely cause me to need to refit the text again, and was a problem I was hoping to avoid. But clearly it needs addressing. One of my biggest problems wasn't so much the capital vs. lower case but the periods(".") were all but invisible and if next to a word that ends in "R" are covered up. So yes that does need some changing. 

 

Now with regards to the Female characters and how they come across, it's not my intention to make them seem shallow or uninteresting though I suppose with what I have shown the player it may very well come across that way. These characters, with regards particularly to Firana and Arysana, will start to show a different side as chapter 2's story will progress and you'll come to understand Firana a bit more (I can't say much for Alice, she's will have a few more appearances but not many.). Since we are on the subject however I might as well kill 2 birds with one stone here haha! I am aware of 2 situations in which Larik speaks about or has some influence on someone else's opinion about how to "pick up" girls. The parts shown of Firana in regards to this (as she is the subject of Larik's affection) were shown simply to help the player have a better feel for how Tharis came to be and who his mother is. Once her story becomes more important to Tharis in his journey through life, more of her will be shown. Right now the scenes that had her in them were scenes that really only have to do with how his parents met. The rest of the prologue is about Larik and the beginnings of his military career.  Also further down the road there will be 2 more additions to the party that are both Female and will add an interesting dynamic to the group in terms of personality and ideology.

 

For the level of difficulty... I have to apologize I went against my better judgment here and lowered the damage formulas for the player skills literally 1 week ago. Mostly due to the fact that once I got to the forest area I was wiping the floor with the enemies so much that I could 1 shot them and battles were just too easy, though I have to remember that, it doesn't need to be difficult for me, since I know how to win the game (a fact that I will constantly have to remind myself of). Which boss were you speaking about? The fight with the bullies? If that is the case I may just put in the previous damage formulas and re-upload the game this would allow you to continue from your current save without a problem and I will likely do this anyway since others will inevitably want to progress with less hindrance.

 

Battle animations on screen are kind of at this point my only real option, for on screen action. I spent countless hours editing tilesets, characters, battlers and more but my propensity for making these things animated is somewhat... well non-existent. I will try to have more requests for this kind of thing but currently I have (and have had for a few months) a request for a simple dance routine for Firana that has yet to be filled beyond 3 frames haha! And I was going to use the 3 frames of animation I did have in the demo, but decided to wait and see if I could find someone to add a few more moves to Firana's repertoire. The problem I see with this is that since I cannot do it myself and others have many other projects to complete on their own, my only other option is to make it as best as I can with what I have. Though I do agree I would love to see more of a "Final Fantasy Tactics" Style of sprite movement and animation. Nothing would make me happier than to more adequately mimic that game. I actually saw a program to let people make games with and was seriously tempted to get it and try it out.

 

Overall I am glad to see there was an improvement to my overall grade but I am not satisfied with that score I will get back to the grind stone and hope to iron out some of these issues further before continuing on with the story. Thank you O, I really do love your reviews keep up the good work!

[Ocedic 249]

Thanks for the response to clear up how you came to your decisions and such.

 

• The main reason I found the female characters and their relationships to be shallow is that, at least at the juncture in the story I was at, it seemed like they existed simply to be love interests. Arysana is definitely interesting and I love how she is an unstable mage, but the dialogue makes Tharis come across as patronizing to me. Just my own personal opinion that I took away, so if other players or you don't agree with me, you can just disregard what I say. Something that may be of interest to you is the Bechdel Test, not as a hard-set rule but it may be interesting for you to consider while writing.
• On the topic of difficulty, that does explain the difficulty. Some advice I'll give: Avoid making last minute balance changes before releases, especially sweeping ones that affect every spell. And second, I believe I gave this advice in a status before but when in doubt, err on the side of ease. The number of people who will quit your game over it being too easy is far fewer (if not non-existent) compared to those who will quit your game due to it being too difficult. In turn-based RPGs, it's usually not a matter of skill (though there is some skill involved) but rather time. People have grinded countless years of their lives in previous RPGs. They simply lack the willpower to do it again and again. Your game can still be challenging, but your average run-of-the-mill random battles should not make your player think, "Oh god why?" That was annoying when we were 14 years old playing Final Fantasy 4, but at this point people just have less patience.
• On the topic of animations, I know how you feel. However, you'd be surprised how easy it is to make some simple animations. I too am not an artist, but have been doing minor pixel editing. It really does give you a lot of bang for the buck of effort you put in.
• On that note, I do notice you have a lot of requests and commissions. At this stage in production, I would evaluate whether it is working out for you (not saying it isn't, just that only you as the developer can know.) The amount of work you receive from others will probably stay where it is now and I wouldn't plan on finding someone who will make your resource needs go away. At a certain point, it's a matter of conforming the story to your available assets rather than trying to find assets to fit your story. I don't know what you have planned for your story, but it's something to keep in mind as you continue and come across 'blockers'.

Anyway, I hope the tone of the review and this response isn't too negative. There's a lot I like in the game, I just tend to focus on the negative in hopes that developers will fix those issues. When it comes down to it, this is the longest I've spent in an RM game in a while. Most games either don't last this long or I get bored/tired of them prior to that. So for that, kudos!

[Tharis 212]

Very awesome! Really I don't find any of what you said to be "too negative" it always hurts the pride a little when someone peels away the thin veil we try to hide our mistakes and short comings under but really no one benefits unless someone does just that. And I've been writing long enough that I can take the beating and probably didn't do as well as I should have given the fact that I have had quite a bit of practice and have written for this world specifically a lot in the past.

 

I don't disagree with you on the point of some of the characters appearing to be regurgitated mindless meaningless love tripe, it's something I'll have to address in the coming development. I don't want any of my characters to feel contrived or to be in the story simply to serve as a "love interest" male or female, and that actually brings into question a male character that I had for simply that purpose in chapter 2. that being said however the characters are who they are, and the scenes Firana appears in are not her best, again her story will become a bit more fleshed out as it pertains more to Tharis' future. Arysana has, and I'm sure you could see this fairly easily, a much deeper story about her than what comes across in some of the dialogue between her and Tharis. Tharis' dialogue actually comes from my own youth, when dealing with girls I liked. Trying to be smooth, and not really pulling it off too well. trying to be polite and not appear like a wiener. I will be honest I did almost scrap chapter 1 altogether. However I really felt like things would seem so out of place in the following parts of the narrative, or I would spend a lot more time trying to build up the relationship between some of the more similar characters like Balidor and Tharis and it would feel less natural then how it will appear going forward after having spent some time with the characters as kids. I will keep this in mind when continuing to write for the extended characters. I don't know if you got a chance to interact with anyone in the Inn's café in Bayle but there are quite a few people both male and female that have quite strong opinions and different personalities. These are in conversations you "over hear" if you interact with the people, hopefully their more politically charged banter will infuse a little bit of equality back into the world. One last note It's funny you mention the Bechdel test because I actually have seen it before and it was in the back of my mind when putting this together. I will continue to make sure the story doesn't oppress or degrade anyone for any reason, gender or otherwise and I appreciate the feed back about it. It's something I really should be watching for.

 

The final note on the story, it appears that as the review goes, the false hook did quite a nice job of hiding the true plot of the tale and that makes me happy. There is a lot of smoke and mirrors, things eluded to, and questions brought up so subtly that you would have to play through the entire game to understand what is really going on (as I'm sure that anyone who plays an RPG hopes is the case). This makes me very excited to continue and I can't wait till chapter 2 is done! But I'm not holding my breath it may be a few months.

 

With regards to some of the commissions and requests, I actually am willing to pay people to do a lot of what I request in the free request area and have stated such in the past. The problem is, even with the offer of remuneration the request is left largely unanswered. I did have a much easier time with the pixel manipulation when dealing with characters of 32x32 because the overall detailing is easier however when I switched over to 32x48 sprites the detail became much too taxing for my abilities. I'll keep looking but despite the discouragements I'll forge onward I've been waiting 11 years to make this happen and if I have to go to conventions, send emails to artists I know outside the community, bribe universities or summon the legions of hell with the necronomicon I will finish this game haha!