Brilliant!
I've been going to newgrounds for years, but I created an account today JUST so I could comment on this game... a lot of reviewers don't seem to understand why this game is so brilliant, and I thought I'd spell it out.
A good game has to balance several psychological factors - it has to be interactive, involve a lot of small rewards, make the player feel like he or she has choice, and it has to feel 'fair', that is, challenging enough to be difficult but never ridiculous - the difficulty must ramp up, and if there is a learning curve involved (takes a while to become a pro - its complex) then the difficulty needs to ramp up exponentially. Other factors that can spice up a game, but are nonessential, are graphics (yes, this game had bad graphics) plot (yes, this game had no plot) and the sense of being in a complex world with something new to learn as the game progresses (which can be a downside as well)
The common objection to this game is that it's boring, that it lacks replayability. Well, I certainly wouldn't play it again, so I'd agree there, but here's why I gave it a ten: It's a brilliant experiment, and its a wonderful meditation - the player transcends the realm of mere action/reaction, is not drawn into fascination with graphics and instead is allowed to make only those choices which facilitate communion with intuitive mathematics.
The mind - without even knowing it - becomes filled with subconscious calculations, graphs of predictions, pie charts, calculus, probability assessments. The mind is freed of meaningless questions - what are these Orcs really about? What sort of boss will I be up against? What's the hero's real backstory? - disappear before they emerge. These questions can enhance the gameplay experience in some cases, but are ultimately a source of dissatisfaction when they lead to a disappointing experience, which is most of the time. This game is a meditation.
It is also an experiment, and we'd be fools to miss the value of an experiment. It must be difficult to generate the proper formulas to guarantee a progressive RPG gaming experience - but since this game is all about that, the intuitive insight that it grants the player through the meditate exercise that lies at its heart is a tool to be used in perfecting those formulas.
Congratulations Sergio, you've created a masterpiece.
