like it just a bit 2 big
Reviews for "Relic"
The art is really good. Music is above average, but not mind-blowing. The character designs were cool, but there's the question of why there are snake ladies and cat things and goblins. I get that it's a fantasy world, but fantasy races still need to have reasons and purposes behind their existence. Tolkien didn't just throw elves and orcs into LotR because he felt like it, the fantasy races have symbolism and meaning that adds to the experience. In Relic, it feels like they're just weird little characters thrown in haphazardly.
The story doesn't really catch me. I have a hard time feeling an emotional connection to my characters when I've only seen them for like five lines of dialogue before entering combat. The first time I fought with my party, I was like "who the hell are these people." And what is this flying eyeball that keeps stalking me? I saw someone mention a beholder and then there's this weird eyeball following me everywhere. Too sudden, needs more depth to connect players to characters.
The gameplay was boring. RPGs aren't exactly my cup of tea, but there could have been a lot of improvements. For one, players shouldn't be forced to use the mouse to select options, especially in an active time battle system like this one where speed is important. Also, you need to be able to see when enemies are preparing to attack. Battles also seemed a little disjointed, it was hard to recognize who attacked who. Make the damage show up when the character's animation lands on the enemy, not when the action is executed, because it's weird to see enemies dying from nothing and then having Coal throw his iron ball into thin air. The ally system was very weird, my party members are ordered differently in combat, in menus, and in the equipment page. Try studying Chrono Trigger's system for a while.
Also, the fact that the only way to heal mana or health at all is through potions is really debilitating. It drives the player into this ultra-conservative mindset of trying not to waste anything. Which can be a viable design decision, but you'd have to give them something to compensate, like maybe allow the player to manually evade so that the system rewards skill with conserving potions. At the very least, some kind of inn where you pay money to heal up, as it is the only alternative is converting your money into potions and then using the potions.
Hyptosis responds:
Thanks for the feedback.
I definitely like this so far, the little 2-D effects like the character animations bobbing and flipping to indicate physical movement is a great touch.
However, in the very first opening scene, I noticed that there was an error for you to scrutinize:
When the Fjor goes with Cinnacat and Fizzle to meet Coal and Jahti, a piece or two of dialogue was left out concerning the mercenaries learning why the girl was hiring them because of their skills. Somehow Cinnacat already knew about the artifact?
The music was a good choice for this style of an RPG, and I'm impressed overall.
Besides that script error, I would greatly emphasize correcting the combat scene animations when the characters are attacking. Especially with Coal (although his attack is pretty awesome as is), if you were to time the attacks with the damage and the victim's flashing to indicate damage...
You'd have a real kickass combat scene.
After that, the only real improvement that could be made is better art, graphics, and music. All of which are satisfactory now, and the improvements could very well be considered only as "tweaks."
Cheers~!
- Frostbyte
Hyptosis responds:
Thanks!
Awesome! Glad to see this finally released!
It's a solid game. Decent story so far, not that far in though.
Music - Fitting, but not outstanding. No positive marks but no negative either.
Graphics - Wonderful artwork as always, and the field art and movement feels fun and natural. The combat animations though are a bit.... simple though. Overall positive score, but could be improved.
Gameplay - Needs more 'back' buttons. Perhaps clicking or pressing enter on the save site should save instead of accessing a menu. No run feature in combat. Leveling up seems balanced, but oh how I ache that I can't get 4 skill points instead of three! Combat has strategy and intrigue, if not a bit dry. Solid performance, but nothing spectacular. Positive score.
Characters - Vibrant, colorful, and from what little interaction I've had with them, good personalities. Good positive score here, keep this up.
Story - Intriguing, but the story is a bit disjointed. How did the main character escape? What does the guy in the woods have anything to do with the missing relic? It's small stuff, but it can break the experience. Positive score.
Bugs - Found where, after beating the guy in the woods, coming back to town and buying some potions, the game froze. I pressed 'q' and that fixed the freeze. Went to the save point and couldn't access the menu anymore.
All in all, good work! I'm very impressed! It needs a thorough polishing, but you've got all you need to have a nice, fun experience here.
Hyptosis responds:
Thanks for the info, I'll set the q button to fix the menu vanishing too, I wish I could squash this damn bug, haha.
Fun game but I'm stuck. I just spoke to the guy in the forest and he said he'll put somewhere on my map but all I have is the cave and that maze. Where do I head now?
Hyptosis responds:
the maze, the cave is just there for flavor