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.
