Reviews for Arcuz (Full Version)

[Brae]

Great gameplay. Medicore planning.

The subject line above says it all. This submission was clearly created by a skilled programmer with an affinity for classic, Diablo-style RPGs. The gameplay is smooth and superb, as you navigate your character through a 3D world, running, jumping, and slashing various enemies into submission, putting numerous items and special attacks to use.

Where the game falls short is planning. The game is excellently programmed, but really poorly designed. After getting an hour or two into the game, you reach a point where you simply can't continue with the storyline unless you grind your way to an insanely higher level. You've done all of the quests provided to you. You've bought the best items you can afford. You're ready to get on with the game. But you can't. Because the next area you have to go to has enemies that kill you in one hit. So you sit around killing hundreds of the same enemy over and over again. With each level you gain, you require exponentially more experience points, slowing your progress. Plus, to encourage you to move along, with each level you gain, you get progressively less experience points from the easier enemies you've been grinding against. So you get squeezed on both ends. But you still can't get on with the game because the enemies in the next area over still kill you in one hit. So you spend four times as long as it took you to gain your last level doing it again. And again. And again.

Maybe if you could buy better items, you'd have an easier time. But good items cost you hundreds, even thousands of those precious coins, and the only way to get these coins is to...you guessed it...grind for them. Randomly, a dead enemy might drop a whopping 11-30 coins, or something you can sell for a piddly sum.

But whatever you do, don't get frustrated, bored, and try your hand at a harder area. Because if you die, you lose a chunk of money and a chunk of experience points, setting you way back. And if you get hurt, the only way to recover your health is to buy healing potions, which cost money, which means more grinding.

Piles of potential, but the design needs a good look. The numbers need tweaking, or there need to be more intermediate activities to keep you busy while you advance, or there needs to be a smoother difficulty gradient. Something to make the game more of a game and less of a grind.

[MasterEarl]

Awesome!!!

[Mantarok]

this is good, but...

there are good things about this, and bad. good things its fun and challenging, not to mention, that the sprites are creative, and the attack animation is really good.

now the bad. Its all mechanics, I tell you nothing is more frustrating when your fighting a monster that can kick your ass with little to no problem, and when you are about to kill him, your animation makes you leave the screen, and when you come back he has all of his life back, this is like pulling teeth. second problem, in diablo when you die you have a chance to recover what you lost. here you don't. Makes you wanna pull hair. #3 Dying feels like a kick to the face,(every time you die you lose Exp and money). this didn't work for maple story its doesn't work here. i fight hard earn gold and exp, i go to town to save, i do such and die though i still lose Exp and gold. this breaks the flow and i restart to get my stuff back, because like i said dying is like having a stroke, you pay for it hard and there is no bounce back form that. i like hard but when early in the game you die all the time you can barely get anything done. #4 this game has no versatility you have to run head long into anything to get past it, even its a brick wall, (come on, hit it 15 more times i think you can crack it...I think). #5 there is balance issues regarding this game when it comes to weapons, faster weapons win out against stronger weapons, thats not how it should be. the game mechanics works like this, Axe= heavy damage, but slow, sword = medium dmg, med speed, Dagger= low damage, fast attack speed, but what makes the weapons, falter to the dagger, chain flinching, he is being flurried to death and can't attack back, but your only doing 10 points less then a sword, and maybe 20 to an axe, but sword, and axe are slow enough for enemies to get hits in, basically you have to work harder if you are a sword or a axe. find a way to balnce them like, dagger stays the same, or shit make it faster. Sword gives extra armor(not alot though) , and axe at the end of their combo gives knock away and a slight power boost, that would fix alot of stuff, and still make them balanced, the trees are fine just some moves are going to be effective some aren't its just how it is. i have played wow (not any more) long enough to know how its like
though i hope you can try to fix some of these problems other than those frustrationg things, the game is good. trying not to be ass, but somethings can't be over looked.

[Suxz0r]

solo MMORPG...

Graphics 5/5
Gameplay 4/5
Music and SFX 5/5

Yet, 7/10 overall rating. Why? Because the game felt more like playing one of the many all-too-similar MMOs out there except combining all their elements so effectively into so small a package is worth kudos. However, the drop rates and other such factors seem to have been directly ripped off one, hence the many complaints that are coming from people. The no rest or shelter wouldn't hurt that much as it makes the game more competitive, but potions are seriously overpriced given how money is not the most readily available feature of the game, perhaps 15 coins per potion?
Since the drop rates and item prices seem to be exactly the same as in MMOs, it has caused some unexpected problems in the otherwise extremely smooth gameplay - people can spend this much time grinding in MMOs because they have company, not many are capable of appreciating such solitude. The potions require a proper description, so do the various character stats. I do applaud your efforts in minimizing the grammatical mistakes that are rampant in flash RPG games - I couldn't find a single one in this! A first for me! (well, atleast till the point where I've played the game) Ah, also the weapon system seems to be a bit lacking, there are three categories of weapons but no differences or strength/weakness descriptions are provided, I just picked the axe due it's high damage since no other factor was mentioned.
Some people mentioned trouble in moving from one area to another, to quote someone's review, "enter a new area and you are a cunt". I would not deny that the distribution of strength is not very smooth over the levels, but hey, people, the real reason it seems so tough is because the slimes are wimps! A player goes from dealing 100-200 damage per hit right from the very low levels on slimes to dealing less than 50 damage on wolves! If we neglect the slimes, the other monsters have a relatively smooth transition.
umm...I think that's about all for now....gonna play the game a while more and will message you if I find something new, if you want that is. But yes your effort was brilliant, the game mechanics were really intense! Keep it coming!
p.s. maybe more "secret moves" like the jump slash can help add to the excellent fighting experience ;)

[bbrtki]

Played this on armor games

It's a fun game, and has huge potential, but after a while the difficulty shoots WAY up. It needs a softer cap, or a better way to gain skills and xp to be playable for a longer period of time. Currently it's very near unplayable unless you grind like crazy.

Which is understandable in a mmo or such, but in a flash game, I'd rather not spend hours and hours to raise my level by one or two.