official [Oc Review] - Night of the Living Noobyas

[Ocedic 249]

 

Title: Night of the Living Noobyas

Author: AMerk

Version: Version 1.1

 

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Night of the Living Noobyas is a comedy community game made by our resident potato head admin: AMerk. It features a lot of people from the forum RRR, many of whom migrated here and have become staff, such as Kaz and Jonnie19. The game takes a jab at the mass of uninspired, insipid games that get churned out by newer users who often try to run before they walk, tackling their grand vision without practicing and learning the tool beforehand. It's ironic that many comedy games are often not too different from the games they lambast; I was curious to see if AMerk had managed to avoid such pitfalls in his own work. Like many of you, I was also curious to explore some of the history that predates this site; in more than one way Living Noobyas feels like nostalgia even for those unfamiliar with RRR or its denizens in days of yore.

 

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The game's presentation feels, whether by design or otherwise, very inconsistent and at times schizophrenic. Upon booting up the game, you're treated to a lazily-made title screen (see an excerpt above) and title music that makes you want to get out of that screen as soon as possible. Should you have the misfortune of reaching the Game Over screen, whether by selecting an option in the prologue or dying in combat (both of which are very likely possibilities), a Game Over screen pops up with an autistic child yelling at you. While such gaudiness may be intentional, it lacks both humor and subtlety and simply reinforces the notion in the back of your mind that this title is made without regard to craft or interest.

 

It's unfortunate because many elements of the game speak to the contrary: the mapping is fairly competent and there's a wide range of non-RTP sprites. The UI is laid out in a fairly presentable manner as well. I personally feel the game would be better off without the moments where it seems to shrug its shoulders and remark, "I'm not even trying." It's somewhat hypocritical to criticize games for being lazy and uninspired when similar elements plague certain areas of the game as well. Long story short: I think the author is fully capable of spending more effort on the presentation; I don't think the fact that it's a comedy game excuses it from doing so.

 

 

The game's humor and charm could be drawn out with sprite animation. In one scene, X-M-O dances in a curtain dress but it's basically depicted with the sprite moving back and forth. Such a scene would have brought laughter if it was actually represented on screen. For example, in Shadows of Odessia I laughed out loud when a cat was dressed in a pirate outfit. What Living Noobyas has going for it is charm; it should leverage this through putting more effort into visually depicting its absurd and humorous narrative.

 

Finally, the game's music fits the tone and mood of the game, though the audio was RTP and often felt out of place. When morning comes, the chicken sound was played but it wasn't actually a rooster crowing, which I assume was the intended effect. Much like sprite animations, small touches can go a long way with comedy, so extra effort should be put in here.

 

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This is what will turn off a lot of potential players as it did myself and several others. The game is hard and unforgiving in a way that doesn't promote skill or critical thinking. In the first dungeon, some monsters you encounter will kill your party members in one hit, which is rather absurd. Your abilities seem underpowered and cost a lot of mana relative to the characters' MP pools. Numbers seem oddly balanced in general; you start with a healing ability that recovers 250 HP when the highest HP any party member starts with is 100. The obvious intent is for the player to grind boogers for a bit, but it's rather tedious and feels pointless. I can understand if gameplay isn't meant to be the main focus of a story-driven, humorous game; if that's the case then it should really strive to minimize our time spent in combat. Having to wander about a forest hoping not to get one-shot by mushrooms is a pure test of conviction that only the most patient - or game reviewers - will slog through. It makes one feel like Jonnie19 within the context of the story, forced to endure a poorly balanced game for the sake of writing a review.

 

 

In version 1.1, the game was toned down in difficulty, but it feels like the changes were in the in the wrongs areas and the new version comes across as placing bandaids on a gunshot wound. The party has higher agility, allowing you to act sooner, but it won't prevent mushrooms from killing Jonnie19 in one spell. EXP and Gold were buffed to facilitate easier grinding, but it doesn't change the fact that grinding in this game is not fun at all thanks to low MP pools. The game is so difficult that it comes with a walkthrough that feels more mandatory than optional. I appreciate that the creator spent time on including such a feature, and it's well-written and easy to follow, but again it seems like a quick fix to the larger issue of poor balance. I think many of the game's woes could be solved by increasing the character's HP and MP pools, slightly and greatly respectively. A character shouldn't be slain in one shot in the first dungeon with no chance for counterplay.

 

Exploration is something that could be improved upon in the author's future games. The dungeons are mazey and not very fun; the player walks around and stumbles upon the occasional treasure here and there (and in its current state of difficulty, doesn't hold onto that treasure for very long). I felt like I was trekking through dungeons because I had to rather than because I wanted to. Having puzzles and less of a haphazard design would go miles in making the game feel cleaner, more approachable and more engaging.

 

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The key to humor in RPGs is in the writing; Living Noobyas is hit or miss in this area. First, I will state that I never browsed RRR and that I didn't know anyone in the game before coming to this site, so my perspective is that of someone unfamiliar with the people in the story (as I assume many prospective players here would be). I think the author does a surprisingly good job of characterization, especially with the main characters of Jonnie19, AMerk and X-M-O. I was pleasantly amused by Jonnie19's ingame playthrough and review of a terrible game. On the other hand, the other characters feel half-baked and thrown in for the sake of being inclusive. I don't even remember most of their names; they're fairly one dimensional and uninteresting. Some of their quips feel like esoteric jokes and memes spawned from their IRC conversations that the rest of us aren't privy to.

 

 

I think the narrative would be improved if it focused on a smaller core cast at the beginning of the game before introducing other members of RRR. As it stands, there's a needlessly long-winded intro with a lot of seemingly inane conversations. The humor mostly consists of the protagonists pointing out the weird and unreasonable environments around them, with little to no inference or wit. I don't think the writing is bad per se, but in dire need of reiteration and revision. It feels like the author was trying too hard to tie in 'real' elements of the people he was casting in his game rather than allowing them to be independent characters. The end result is a cast that feels like caricatures rather than characters. In my personal experience of making a comedy game featuring friends, I found it easier to use the names of friends and some elements of their personality rather than trying to accurately depict them as people.

 

The author is clearly a capable writer, but the game feels as if it was beholden to the fact that it's a community game rather than utilizing that aspect as its strength.

 

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Your mileage as a reader will vary depending on how familiar you are with the content, but most players will get turned off by the painful and tedious grinding. The game is beautiful in its own right, like a snapshot of simpler times that offers the player a voyeuristic glimpse at the lives of RRR staff.

 

Grade: C

[MasterTaffer 23]

Great review, I could tell that it was very honest and unbiased. Was looking at the game on RRR yesterday and wasn't sure about it, I'll have to try it out when I get the time.

Edited October 26, 2013 by MasterTaffer

[amerk 1,122]

Thanks for this review. Very well written and concise, and I think you've hit all of the problems I faced with the game.

 

 

The author is clearly a capable writer, but the game feels as if it was beholden to the fact that it's a community game rather than utilizing that aspect as its strength.

 

And that would probably sum up the number one problem I had with designing the game. Initially I didn't want to release it outside of RRR, but at the time I completed it, RRR was practically belly-up and I really didn't have a choice but to, unless I wanted to risk nobody bothering to play this. People not readily familiar with RRR probably won't appreciate the game or understand it as much as somebody who does.

 

I definitely learned the hard lesson about balance and it's really ironic how I can easily play a game and advise against the difficulty of combat to another developer, while falling into the same trap as myself. I had hoped that the ability for free resting (in healing beds) and full restoration upon leveling up would be enough to circumvent some of the difficulty, but that doesn't seem to be the case, since several people have commented about the difficulty of this game.

 

In any case, no more joke games for me. I'll let the pro's handle comedy while I return to fantasy.

 

Thanks again for reviewing this. It's information that will definitely be put to use for future projects.

[M3shyS 2]

Can I just say Ocedic,

 

Your reviews are amazing, interesting and funny to me. Even though I've never actually played most of the games you review.

Your reviews also inspire me, and make me realise, I should known and prepare in advance not to make the same mistakes people have made before countless times for their projects, which benefits my personal project.

 

Thank you,

M3

Edited December 9, 2013 by M3shyS