official [Oc Review] - The Last Pirate Queen

[Ocedic 249]

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Title: The Last Pirate Queen

Author: flarify

Version: Demo 1.0

 

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The Last Pirate Queen is a title that I've been following for a few weeks now. The pre-release trailer had a subtle sense of humor, and the character designs stood out from typical RM fare. Unlike most titles that I review, this was one that I was eager to try before I dove into it. At last, a demo was released this weekend just in time for my birthday.

 

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Like many of its other aspects, the visual presentation is Pirate Queen is outstanding but marred by a few key mistakes. Starting with the good, there is some of the most superb sprite animation I've seen. Maids clean away, kids play jump rope, and many other small touches make the world feel vibrant and alive. The game features a fair amount of custom graphics; most notably the main characters have unique sprites and busts. I have to give props to this game for realizing that humans come in varieties other than Caucasian, which is rare for RM titles. It has its own style while still invoking a somewhat nostalgic vibe that brings you back to 16-bit era RPGs of yore.

 

 

At the same time, there is room for improvement. The mapping is dense and rich, but sometimes to a degree that feels constraining. Multiple times throughout the demo, you're likely to unintentionally trigger map teleports. Otherwise, the maps are enjoyable to behold and explore with just a few areas that seem inconsistently sparse. The busts look great, particularly Anima's, but the title screen reminds me of the ill-conceived CD-i Legend of Zelda games in terms of quality and is oddly blurry. Most importantly, the lighting in the game tends to reach levels of luminosity that are far too dark, particularly in the final dungeon. It's also very jarring that the lighting changes gradually after you transition to another map, rather than being the intended lighting level as soon as you enter it. These graphical hiccups add up and definitely detract from the experience, which is a shame because of the game is otherwise very gorgeous.

 

The audio is another weak point of the title. The largely Aaron Krogh soundtrack often feels out of sync with the tone of the story in spite of the musician's formidable talents; the game's music is at its best when it branches away from that artists, such as the dungeon theme. The use of the music itself feels poorly paced; one track will often be used for multiple scenes in spite of tonal changes within the story itself. Other times, the music abruptly shifts to something that is completely different and jarring. The battle victory theme, for example, doesn't pair well with most of the game's battle tracks. This is one area where the game has definite potential for growth.

 

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I have a lot to say about Pirate Queen's gameplay, which in itself is a testament to its depth and variety. First, the exploration in the game is good and borders on greatness. The author did not get lazy and offers a lot of content to explore and interact with. See a side door over there? You can open it and go into that room. Too often I see RM developers fail to implement side paths and little nooks and crannies in their worlds. These divergent paths help build a sense of scope within the world, and makes the player feel like he or she is an actual explorer. On the flip side, at times the number of interactive objects feels lacking in spite of so much detail in the world. The minigames offered are distracting but not very engaging. For example, chicken hunting simply entails running around the village and picking up every chicken within a generous time frame. The minecart boulder-dodging section was promising, but a bug that makes boulders sometimes appear in the track suddenly can make it anger-inducing when it forces you to retry due to a bug. Pirate Queen does offer more interactiveness than other games that I've played, but I was expecting a bit more.

 

 

The level design is some of the best I've seen in an RPG. Normally I detest maze-like dungeon design as lazy and boring, but the author has managed to create non-linear dungeons that have a sense of purpose to their complex design. The abandoned mine is the best example of this with a deceptively sprawling layout that has you traversing on minecarts to different areas. As you explore it, you start to figure out its design and come to appreciate the beauty in the layout as you revisit previously treaded areas from a new perspective. It's like a watered down version of Legend of Zelda dungeon design and gives the title a lot of character that stands out from the crowd.

 

In terms of the game's macro layout, it's usually fairly straightforward but at times you can feel lost without a sense of direction. When you finally get a boat, it's easy to forget or miss where you had to go and end up traversing the world trying to find your objective. Having the party camp have some kind of quest log or dialogue that let's the player always know where the next destination is would be a great addition. One amazing feature of the game is the use of choice that other developers often to struggle to implement. Several times throughout the demo, the game presents the player with difficult choices that range from moral quandaries to strategic decisions. It's clear that the game is inspired by games like Dragon Age: Origins and The Walking Dead; one highly anticipated feature in future releases will be the ambitious relationship system. It's game doesn't throw in choice for the sake of it, but rather utilizes it to give the player a degree of agency in the world.

 

 

The battles are a step above average, demanding the player use a multitude of abilities and discouraging Attack spamming. On the other hand, the abilities aren't quite as unique as I'd hope. A lot of them are essentially the same spell but a different element; the 'strategy' in battles often boils down to using the strongest ability in your repertoire. There's a huge problem with randomness in the battles, with misses and evades creating frustration and debuffs seeming to fail 80% of the time. Using a turn to do no damage and apply a Blind debuff is even less fun when it doesn't work on 2 of the 3 enemies. Lastly, the ATB system is currently a bit questionable in how much it actually contributes to the gameplay experience as it currently feels like it just draws out battles longer than they need to and force you to navigate the UI quickly. Don't let me give you the impression that battles are poorly implemented in the title, as they are much better and tolerable than most RM games. But they don't stand out as fantastic and towards the end of the demo they became more annoying than fun.

 

One final note about gameplay is that there are numerous bugs that plague the game. Sometimes, they are benign and amusing, like a misplaced graphic when a character is 'hurt' at the sealed door, the village girl disappearing if you refuse to fight her pet Nutters, or the save book in the dungeon changing graphics if you read it from below. Other times, the bugs can block progress and force a reload, like resting in the dungeon while being south of the bed or picking up an artifact shard in an impassable area. Over time, these bugs and imperfections do try your patience, but I was always invested enough to finish the game in spite of them. The game definitely needs a lot of technical and functional polish.

 

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The writing in Pirate Queen is some of the best on this site. The author has a real strength in dialogue, with witty banter and humor peppering a journey that is at times dark and bleak. As a result, characterization is well done, though not all of the character patties are evenly heated. Some seem a bit reactive like Zita, who comes across as a bit of a plot device who conveniently accepts the protagonist in spite of some questionable actions. Though some of this can be attributed to the party camp's sparse implementation, the game seems to throw a lot of characters at the player without sufficient time to bring out all of their personalities. Having said that, Anima is a fantastic character and Arianna makes for a great protagonist though at times her character is overshadowed by her reputation and the game has a habit of name dropping the Pirate Queen and talking her up rather than actually showing us why she is so formidable.

 

 

Much like the audio, the story can sometimes feel ill-paced. The early stages of the game keep the story flowing naturally, but towards the middle and end there are some deus ex plot moments such as the character of The Witch. At the end, the game manages to tie things up and set up further challenges on the horizon. The story is never bad, but there are weak moments that comes across as filler. This could be improved by using these transitional moments as opportunities for character development. For example, the cliffs and mines could have cutscenes that further develop Zita.

 

 

The last bit of criticism on the writing is that there are a few plot holes and logical anomalies throughout the story. One small example takes place in the intro scene in which the protagonist encounters sentry golems that guard the entrance to an area. Somehow, her loyal underlings are already raiding the houses in spite of the fact that the golems have not been dealt with. These inconsistencies do break the player's immersion a bit. Overall, while I have minor quips about the plot, the writing is always compelling and keeps the player invested in the generally well-written characters. The writing utilizes inference and doesn't treat the reader like a poorly-read Neanderthal, which is always a plus.

 

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While it falls a tad short of the mighty Trial, Pirate Queen will be a serious contender for best game on the site. Its terrific blend of WRPG and JRPG elements will attract an audience of wide taste. It's a little rough in certain areas, but even in its current state it's worth a download. I look forward to seeing the growth of this engaging and accessible adventure.

 

Grade: B+

[flarify 128]

I would really like to thank you for your interest in my game, and taking time out of your weekend to play it and write such a detailed review! I really hope I didn't disappoint too badly. As usual, your critique is spot on. You make a lot of excellent points and have helped me see a lot of my strengths in making this game as well as my weaknesses. A lot of the errors you and Saif encountered were due to a sloppy and rushed release, and some were even on my to-do list, ignored in the final hours of finishing things up in the efforts of beating my long-time foe, procrastination..

 

(Below the cut is an overly-long analysis of your analysis - basically boiled down to "You're right, and here's why you are." No need to read, nothing to see here, move along...)

 

 

 

 

In all honesty, the title screen is a half-finished piece of art that did not translate well into the screen itself. The reason it's blurry is because I stuck a oil/watercolor filter on it to hide the awkward sketchiness. It was also drawn before I redid all the character portraits, so there's a few design inconsistancies there. It's definitely something I want to change - probably something more graphic and classic rather than, as you said, CD-i Legend of Zelda.

 

The lighting has the gradual changes because I felt it was less awkward than the 1second immediate change that occured when changing maps. I have since worked out a way to hide this transition in the teleport.

 

Music is most definitely my weak point - I find it difficult to match music to emotion, and this was another area I slacked off in. Most of the development was done with my own playlist, and the music was added only as an afterthought. (Also I really miss the Fade In BGM from RM2003 - a slow rise in volume just doesn't seem as smooth to me, and a lot of my collection has really sudden starts)

 

I actually was able to fix the issue with the bad boulder spawning in the mine cart minigame! I thought it was just an issue with lag because the event was simply moving events around, but it turned out to be spawning only five squares away from the player. The problem boulder has been changed to spawn much further away on the track, and my testing has shown that none of them spawn unexpectedly any longer.

 

A watered-down Zelda is a huge compliment to me - I feel that Zelda has some fantastic (if sometimes frustrating) puzzles and dungeons, and trying to give each dungeon a unique feel and at least a somewhat new puzzle (even if it was simply a different form of a maze) was something I worked very hard on. The dungeons definitely were the highlight of development time, aside from the writing, of course!

 

With battles, I was trying to flesh out each of the elements by giving them their own debuff that gave different benefits that could work off of each other, but I set the state rate to fairly low. In hindsight, I think I need to play up that aspect of tactical combat a bit more - inflicting statuses with more regularity, especially the new ones linked to elemental spells. (As an example, casting Water on an enemy may cause it to become Soaked, which makes the enemy especially vulnerable to Ice and Thunder spells, both of which have their own debuffs as well. Of course, when you think about it Zita is the only character with Water and Cyril is the only one with Ice and Thunder, making that particular combo unusable.) 

 

I really wanted the ATB in combination with Kread-EX's Skill Fusion, as without it, it was really far too easy to play off of spells without the danger of an enemy attacking and interrupting the combo. But I still haven't fully fleshed out the skill fusion, as I believe there's only one fusion per pair of characters. I'm currently testing it out with a slower speed so it doesn't feel so rushed.

 

On characterization - a lot of the weaknesses you described here can really be attributed to my lack of knowledge on the character themselves. Anima, Arianna, and Cyril are really the only ones who feel wholly fleshed out (to me, your milage may vary), and Zita in particular suffers. I don't doubt it's because she's the character that has had the most change done - her first incarnation was of a 6-year-old girl, then a young teenager, now she's Standard JRPG Protag age. I think I need to slow down the speed of plot a little bit, take out the irrelevant bosses - which are pretty much the first two - and play around with some character development there. I'm honestly glad you were able to digest my writing at all. This is my first major writing project that I've really made available.

 

And while it sounds like I may have overhyped The Last Pirate Queen a little much, I'm glad you got at least a little bit of enjoyment out of it.

 

[Ocedic 249]

Thanks for your well thought out response. I think you are fairly hard on yourself; perhaps the tone of my review came across as more negative than I intended. For example in retrospect watered down Zelda sounds a bit harsh, but I did mean it in a good way and it's unreasonable to expect an RPG to focus on dungeons the way Zelda does.

 

I did notice Anima, Arianna and Cyril were the most fleshed out characters. I think the other characters can be interesting, they just need some more fleshing out. You seem to be putting a lot of eggs in the camp conversations basket and I assume it's a feature you enjoyed from Dragon Age, though personally I would recommend toning down the scope of camp convos and add characterization elsewhere.

 

I think the game is already very solid and look forward to further improvements.