Good game but too slow. and you shoul allow saving on NG
Reviews for "Scarlet Stranger"
Charming layout and character design. Gameplay is equally fun.
Why only three stars then? Bugs.
I find myself locked into rooms to which I have the key, being unable to change my inventory, unable to turn off the sound and other such small hiccups that prevents the game from being played.
Sort the bugs and you have a real winner on your hands.
An option turn off the music but keep the sounds would be nice.
The game is decent, but it's nothing too special and it's pretty much a single play only type of game. Which is rather sad, considering this game seems to be one based around the idea of a randomly generated dungeon, which are usually games with good replay value.
The game is rather simple. Every time you first start it, you get the same dungeon layout, and I usually beat the game in a good 30 or so minutes, leaving it no chance to do the switch. As such, the mechanic of it changing layouts every hour is virtually lost; which is rather bad considering that appears to be a core mechanic. I could just wait around another 30 minutes to see how the dungeon changes, but I really do not see the point is staying idle just to see it. Perhaps lowering the time it changes to, say, around 40-45 minutes would have given it more of a chance to have the function, as one hour just seems too long.
The game also lags pretty badly on my computer, and nothing really seems to fix it. Having it as the only tab and changing it to low quality/turning audio off did pretty much nothing to improve it. There tends to be second long pauses between destroying objects or defeating enemies, and it can take anywhere between 5-10 seconds to load the next screen. This ends up killing the pacing, making me a bit irritated to have these abrupt pauses in gameplay.
Another bit of criticism on the gameplay is that I sometimes have trouble determining where my character will end up jumping. When I try to position it to, say, jump over a bit of water, I sometimes end up undershooting it and instead jump straight into the water. It's not too big of an issue, but it can be rather annoying to have to walk back to redo it. Perhaps adding a button to see outlines of squares to properly align yourself to a proper jump would fix the problem, such as using space.
And sometimes I end up jumping on top of a treasure chest and end up getting the character stuck, causing me to have to reload from a check point. It can be quite bothersome having to travel back to where you were because of a glitch. Although it does appear to happen mostly with unopened chests.
The store here also seems rather lackluster. The weapons hardly are much of an upgrade, and by the time you even get enough money for the better weapons you're virtually at the end of the game with all of the enemies beaten, and since the boss isn't affected by your weapon it tends to make them rather worthless. Same goes with the shield, as you can quite easily beat the game without a shield upgrade. It's also rather annoying that the only stores are at the beginning of the game, which ends up causing some tedious backtracking. Spreading the stores out more would be most ideal.
The music is also rather bland. It's not bad, per say, but it isn't remarkable or particularly rememberable. I tend the mute it simply because it's not worth listening to for more than a few minutes.
The story isn't too fantastic, but I do like the voicework of it very much. However, I dislike how the ending seems the same whether or not you have the cursed ring or not. Since the cursed ring takes a bit of work to get, it would be nice to have a second ending instead of just the same one.
However, one thing I really do like is the artstyle. The way it's drawn and the character designs are quite appealing, giving the game a bit of life. It's sorta like a fairytale styling, which is nice considering the way this game is written out.
Overall, it's a fair game, but it's rather dull. You only really need to play it twice to get all the medals, and since it's the same every time you start, it makes it rather easy. Although I do feel this game could have had more potential if more stuff was added, such as more bosses, more music, different puzzles, ect. Sadly though, this game is lacking as it is.
I do, however, hope to see some future works of yours. You seem to have a story idea behind this, so I would like to see how it plays out. Plus I'd like to see how you improve. Good luck to you in your next escapades.
cool :D!
The game seems bland from what I've seen of it, though I admit I could not finish it. I was already borderline dead from boredom, then my character glitched on top of a chest. Work out the bugs, and maybe I'd change my opinion, but otherwise I'd warn people to either steer clear of this one or if you really want to try it, do NOT jump on chests.