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Reviews for "Relic"

It seems like most people have pointed out most of the issues I would have, so I'll leave those alone. In particular, Ferphylss and Berder pretty much said most of what I was going to say about the system itself, so I'll let those posts speak for themselves and myself.

That said, there are also issues with other aspects of the game. I have several points in particular: story, graphics, items, interface, and speed.

The story was alright, but I felt like there could have been a lot more done with it. There were a lot of characters, but it was mostly just going to a location, listening to a tiny bit of dialogue, and then running off to the next area. I never really felt invested in any of the characters, and there just wasn't enough choices for me to really feel like this was a proper RPG. I would suggest adding a lot more options for character development and story develop in your next game. This one had wonderful potential; it just wasn't taken far enough.

As for graphics, I liked them for the most part. It was a nice style and I was entertained. That said, hiding chests behind objects somewhat infuriated me. In particular, the hint that said "check behind everything" made me think chests that I couldn't see must be hiding everywhere, and so I kept looking, but never found any. All of the chests I found I could see; most of the time I could see them perfectly. It was only in the last area that I really started seeing "hidden" chests. If you're going to go for the hiding the chests, I suggest leaving something visible, or pulling a "moving foreground" trick so that the chests are always visible from SOMEWHERE, even if not from all angles (Memohuntress is really the game that put that idea in my head, and it did it very well).

Next, items. Now, I liked the way the items were streamlined, but they were not balanced. For one thing, the elemental system was not used to any extent, and was mostly useless. The only one I found myself exploiting was Cinnacat's bamboo stick, because it let him actually kill one type of enemy one hit. Also, the only potion really worth buying was the one which restored 50 Mana, since Cinnacat was a better healer than any other potion.

But, what really got me with the items was how they were distributed. I got a hell of a lot of different items for use for different characters, but they were way out of whack. There was far more armor than hats or weapons (or shields for Fjor), and it was a little odd about which characters could equip what. That, however, was not really my issue. My issue was simply the huge number of items with not much difference. I found myself equiping items on one screen just to pick up more on the next. I'm all for lots of items, but that seemed a little bit much, even for me.

Fourth, interface. In particular, for being a flash game, being forced to use the mouse was a pain in the ass. I play on a laptop, and the mousepad is annoying. Being able to just select things with the arrow keys would have been such a step up in this game. Second, there were a few little things that ended up being annoying. The fact that I had to click on an equipment area just to see what equipment was available (I went through the first few stages not equiping things, 'cause I didn't see them), odd wording in some places (such as the Sunshine skill asking to select one person in the menu, but healing everyone), and sometimes frustrating (such as having to attack if I accidentally picked attack). It was just little things, but they added up.

And, finally, speed. More than anything else, this game felt too slow. The fighting did not go quick enough, in particular, and that made the game feel very long, and not in a good way. Additionally, the diminishing returns of the stats was somewhat off-putting when I got to higher levels and everything was suddenly one for one. Making it run faster would be one of the single best things you could do.

Now, in closing, I liked the game. There were some problems, but I played it through. And I enjoyed it. So, please, keep making games.

The graphics are nice, but I have a few serious issues with the mechanics of the game.

1) When you're asked to select an enemy to attack or ally to heal, you can't go back. This is troublesome because I'll often try to heal a character, but he dies before I can select him, and now I can't go back to select a reviving spell. I'm stuck waiting until my healer's turn comes around again.

2) I think it's just awful that you can't see what's happening while you're using items in battle. My characters tended to die when I was trying to use items.

3) One of your tips says to look everywhere for hidden treasure boxes, but I found none hidden. I saw a few that were partly behind the environment, but none that I could call hidden. I was only playing casually through most of the game, but I thoroughly scoped out the last level and found nothing.

4) Your game is seriously lacking an inn or some sort of town healing. For a little bit, I thought that the Grog and Cheese Pub would be one, but alas, it turned out to be a pointless building, (especially strange because the building had its own music.) Without an inn, I ended up spending all my money healing. Indeed, to recover my party's magic cost over 200 rooks each time at the end of the game (level 6). If I were to play through again, I would not have more than one healer simply because it cost way too much to use, while magic attacking would be completely out of the question.

5) I was a little discouraged that I ran into so much pointless equipment. I ran into a second copy of a bastard sword, and I gained several pieces of armor that were worse than what I already had. All this would be okay if I could sell them, but I saw nothing of the sort at the moment.

6) The elements were a little confusing. I ended up ignoring elements early in the game. I suggest going with a much simpler setup. I will give you kudos that your skills made it very plain whether they had an attribute associated with them.

7) I didn't see much point to the beholder, mostly because using enter for everything is much more convenient. The only point he came in handy was to light up the caves. If you keep him, maybe make dungeons that you need him to light the way.

Okay, now for the good things. I like the music and graphics throughout the whole thing. I only ran into a little lag, and that could probably be fixed if there was a lower graphic setting. The story was a little dry, but I thought that there was plenty of room for growth and expansion in it. You could definitely build into this world if you made a sequel.

I hope to see more from you, but definitely incorporate some of these ideas into the next game. My overall feel was that this game is starting to become a good game, but it for now incomplete.

The dog looks like the dog on Jerry and Tom.

Entertaining, but holy shit did that battle music get annoying. Definitely should have all keyboard controls.

All in all this game has a lot of potential. The art is crisp and bright, and the characters are set up in a dynamic way. That is to say that while each has their own style, it's not shoved in your face like many other games. This in turn allows you to discover them for yourself as you go, and provides good group synergy in battle. Each area has a clear difference, with no enemies really over used, and the battles are a nice difficulty.

Indeed, the game is thought out and for me it was bug free, though I was pleased to see you revisited this to add a hotfix for those who were having problems. I especially like it when there are attempts to correct work like that. It shows you take pride in your work and you should be commended. That said I didn't enjoy this game as much as I hoped.

Overall, this game plays out more like a demo. The storyline is extremely lacking. It's as if there was more to tell. Just about everyone has names, but few npcs in this game truly have any purpose. Your party is assembled from the beginning of the game on and rarely engages in dialogue as you travel.

In fact, you get more storyline in the beginning and ending scenes, or from the status menu than you do while actually playing the game. For me, this meant I spent the whole game simply bashing it out with enemies repeatedly as I pushed onward to new zones.

At first this was fun, but it got old fast. Without anything else to interact with, it began to seem pointless. In my eyes, the game became predictable and stopped moving forward. After all, with no twists along the way, and just a shop to waylay at in-between the fights, I knew how it was ending before it was over.

And speaking of the shop.. the potion formula you've decided to use actually made the higher end potions useless. Using Cinnacat as a healer, I never once used a health potion. There was no reason to. Mana potions fuel him just fine, and the cheaper the potion the better.

Why?

Because buying cheaper ones in bulk costs less for more net mana. Stock your mana pool up inbetween each fight, and you'll never need the larger potion. Since he can revive and heal the party, as long as he has enough max mana to outlast the fight, all other potions lose usefulness.

I suggest that to justify the more potent potions cost, and to bring them back to their intended purpose, there should be a carry limit on potions. The lower the class of potion, the less of it you can carry at once. That way, buying pricey ones is desirable.

Now, I did like the way you find gear in this game, as it was different and I could see you were trying out a new style there. It did leave me wanting more gear though, or at least more control over it. I think it would have been interesting to have a trade in shop.

Somewhere you could go to trade up your old armor for better, or swap weapons up or down. I had a few doubles by the end that were useless to me, and it would have been neat to have given two lower armor hats for a helm.

This game is pretty simple, and I felt it was lacking in interactivity. Still it does have some noteworthy aspects, and a final fantasy style RPG is pretty ambitious, so I give this game:

3.5 Stars

I'm glad you shared this game with others. If you were to make something like this again in the future, I'd like to see more uses for the town space. Even a gambling hall might liven the place up a little.

I know I have been critical, but I hope you'll take it the way I meant it.. constructively. I really like where is game is headed and I think with some more fine tuning and depth, it could be a really fun game. ^^