Reviews for Valthirian Arc

[Khann]

Fav'ed

Technically, it's well done, I didn't see a single glitch. Graphics and sounds are nice too, very pro. Game design isn't bad at all, but as many reviewers stated already it gets repetitive. Many also complain about the fame requirements, I'd say they about right tho.

However I'd like to stress a few things:

- The fame you get from the tournament is too low. If the player go at it with mostly grade 30 students it's not rewarding enough. How I'd like it to work is to make the party members (given they won) graduate with a 50% (if not slightly higher) fame bonus. It would make a lot of sense, add some fluff to the tournament thing and make it more appealing ... Especialy in the late game. As a side effect the player must have 8 students before entering (so he still gets 4 left if he wins) ... Unless you decide to lift that restriction.
- I assume there's no ending, correct? But the achievements aren't enough to avoid a feeling of unavoidable doom which doesn't match with the colorful graphics and sounds.

And to the players:

It isn't as hard as it first seem to get all those achievements, on my second try I'm 6 months from year 4 with 3 penalties so far (about to get a 4th tho). Getting more than 1300 gold a week. And I didn't kite / use water as a shield much, doing so makes the game too slow for my taste. I won all the tournaments but 2 of them. A few tips about management:
- Give it a first try, play about 1 year to learn about the mechanisms
- Start from scratch, now that you know how important it is to get a high fame and how to get some more efficiently don't waste time in the first weeks and start building your fame pool up.
- Don't graduate students without the 50% bonus as long as you can.
- Never miss an opportunity to get that bonus on 4th week.
- Recruiting is more important that better equipment. Only "equip up" when you have extra money and only the students with the better success rate.

Thanks again for that game,
Khann

[Avidowa]

Good Game

Wasn't crazy about the fame system but everything else was really good , took me a while to realize what i was doing ( i was lazy and skipped tutorial lol) but after everything kinda fell into place for me the gameplay of it improved greatly ... another thing i didnt like was the weapon upgrading , it just seemed random fails lol a couple times it would be fail after fail , but they were cheap so it didnt really bother me to bad. Keep up the good work

[XCariusX]

A Must

You got there an excellent game, The design is good you took all the good point of a flash simulator while having a certain RPG interactivity. We can find a bit of similarities with My Pet Protector yet not repetitive. The audio isn't boring quite enjoyable and give good atmosphere. No lagging in the game, easy to learn how to play but it get challenging on the late game so:
+ Fav

[Pavitra]

Very solid and polished. Good work.

While not groundbreakingly original, this is game is extremely solid and polished, and even reasonably unformulaic.

The gameplay blends seamlessly between RPG and resource-management sim, and the mechanical choices feel instinctively right. (For example, learning to use a more difficult weapon has a percentage chance based on character class.) The artwork is delightful, pixel-painted 2D in its full glory.

The closest things I have to actual complaints would be these incredibly minor nitpicks: that the Sorceress artwork is cropped for the Organize screen in such a way as to make the eyes look pinched, and that the font used for the date display in the upper left is ugly. And, as not so much a criticism as a suggestion, I would like the game to give the characters randomly-assigned hair colors or such, to make them stand out more as individual people.

However you look at it, this is a good game. If you're a fan of story-light RPGs, you should probably play.

[disagree]

Very good ground work

Loved the arts, the music and the sprites. Also the game play.

Would have loved even more if it would not be just a game against time ( or lack of ), since requirements just get higher to a level where they become unachievable.

Have gotten all medals and runes within first 3 years, but would have expected a bit more when having all runes achieved, like e.g. 'You beat the game'. Some kind of reward for putting so much time into it. A bit annoying that the game pops up all the time with 'Medal gained' for NG medals, instead of remembering those settings.

A story mode would do this game real justice. To fight against certain opposing schools/universities with their principals. Like e.g. a mix of 'Rival Schools' and the Pokemon principle. A win-tournaments-in-a-row bonus would be great, in terms of money and LP. So you can rather suffice to the kings hightening demands, instead of just getting 400 LP per won tournament. Top of the notch could of course also be a tournament tree that you follow throghout the year against rival schools.

A bit of clumpsy coding, since the maps just go into abusing mode. That is, pick a high level student, and 2-3 low-level ones, jump into a Melee level ( Wolves give best XP ), and run as fast as you can behind some water, while 'SHIFT' warping your students out of danger. ( Basically same tactic as 'Abusing the apprentice' ) Enemies should spot, that they are running all the time on one place, and have some more random logic behind that when they see they cannot get forward.

Still, this game will be one of my favorites. I love the feeling and the style, and I hope there will be a second part with the mentioned improvements by the community. Thumbs up!

PS: The wiki is of a lot of great help. 3 Sorceress + Mirage Caster is the strongest team for any tournaments. ( Normally not required, just 2-3 high-level scors will do + low level player to gain some EXP ). Also 4 star hunt missions give you more than 5 star ones, and graduating non-evolved students gives more fame as they have a 1.3x multiplier ( except for current months target group with 1.5x multiplier ),