Extravaganzicon Contest Results

[Valkysas]

Will be posted in this topic within the hour. I'm eating nachos right now. they have chicken on them, they're pretty good.

[Valkysas]

Re: Extravaganzicon Contest Results

Obright's Extravaganzicon Contest Reviews - RPG Maker 3

Duder and the Mage - Winner for RPG Maker 3

After playing this game for only a short time, I realised that it was most decidedly NOT a 'serious' game...and yet the battles were treated very seriously, and it showed. Likewise for the maps, although the BIGGEST hit that this game took (no pun intended) was in 'polish'...there are things all over the place that should be...tucked in, if a higher 'polish' score is to be achieved. However...it's not supposed to be a slick, polished game. It wouldn't be as amusing if it were. If the polish score is meant to be a measure of how 'professional' the game looks, then Duder & the Mage, HAS to take a big shotgun hit (pun intended) in the polish department. That's fine, that's not what the game is about anyway...it's the OPPOSITE of that on purpose. That wound up being both a blessing and a curse for me.
LAYOUT:
Initial Layout Score:
05**********
+1 * The first town is set up very well. It had a nice eerie mood to it, and I liked the way it looked overall.
+1 * One of the dungeons in particular has an awesome layout. All of the battles are scripted, and this one had a 3-way choice to get to the other side. All 3 dungeon paths had a battle, and you needed to fight all 3, but there was a strategy to which one you fought first, second, and third that went beyond the 'hard-medium-easy' scheme. It was more in tune with individual player's playing style, and which choices they had made earlier (particularly one where you customize a certain character)...I liked that a lot.
+1 * One town has the most unique feel to it imaginable to me. I love the idea of urban decay, and places that look like they've been abandoned for hundreds of years have a dream-like quality to them for me. This one town is only 1 ranshackle building, a save point, some NPC's, and a lot of weeds...but I almost had a 'Logan's Run' moment. You know the scene I'm talking about.
Final Layout Score:
08**********

PLOT or CONCEPT:
Initial Plot Score:
05**********
+1 * The biggest mistake people might make when they play this game is to take it seriously...the game doesn't even take itself seriously. Once you stop doing that, the game is actually pretty funny.
+1 * The game has a dream-like, stream-of-conscoiusness feel to it that I liked a lot.
-1 * ENOUGH WITH THE **** JOKES!! The game revolves around three things: sex, drugs, and FECES. It would be different if one of the characters or enemies was...idunno...a 'brown mage' or something...where all of his attacks centered on 101 violent uses for poo...but... I'll put it this way: about 1/2 of the skills in the game (both enemy and ally) have the word '****' in them. I grew tired of it quickly...to the point that I started calling it 'doo-doo and the mage'. It was only a term of endearment...of course.
Final Concept Score:
06**********

CREATIVITY:
Inital Creativity Score:
06**********
+1 * There's lots of genre-breaking/stereotype-breaking in the game. Some of it left a rather bad taste in my mouth...like Duder's crassness...but ultimately I can't deduct from creativity for that.
+1 * There were many maps, and all were handled EXTREMELY creatively...once again with the 'rule-breaking'.
+1 * The overall gameplay was improved by the creative use of several 'devices', like the NPC which will customize one of the characters for you, and other key decisions in the game.
Final Creativity Score:
09**********

POLISH:
Initial Polish Score:
05**********
+1 * The battles all seemed well-balanced, for the most part.
-1 * There were about 100 game messages that needed to have the empty name window disabled.
-1 * There were certain important story events that were not water-tight. No spoilers, but for instance...one event causes NPC's to leave town to look for you after a battle...but if you go and look for those NPC's (instead of going into the house in front of you), you'll find that they've already come after you...but you never left the front of their house...things like that.
-1 * LOTS of typos...not so much spelling errors, or gramatical errors, but just simple typos. 'Bequiet' was used at least twice, for instance.
-1 * A lot of the maps...while really cool...were pretty rough around the edges.
Final Polish Score:
02**********

FUN:
Initial Fun Score:
06**********
+1 * At one point, you can decide which type of magic you want one of the characters to have (offensive or restorative). I liked that touch a LOT.
+1 * I'm a big fan of epic exploration...I love to feel like I've actually been around the world...some world, anyway. The game had many maps, and they were all totally different.
+1 * In this scoring scheme, there really was not a seperate category for 'battles'. This wasn't even an issue until I got to Duder, as the first 2 games had no battles anyway. Since this game DID have them, and I wound up enjoying them, I have to give a star for that.
-1 * Crassness in the main character may be amusing if not taken seriously, but I would've laughed even harder if the gorilla suddenly just picked Duder up and ate him. I kinda stopped caring about him after a while, and was even cheering for the enemies to eviscerate him eventually. At one point, there was a 'token stereotypical RPG dwarf' NPC that you have to fight if you talk to him. Call me sentimental, but that dwarf could have knocked Duder over with a fart. I facilitated that, and actually let Duder die just to see that happen. It was to the point that having to play as him started to not be fun any more.

Final Fun Score:
08**********

FINAL SCORE: 33

Final Thoughts:
While there were things that bothered me a bit about Duder and the Mage, there were many more things that I liked, like the maps, the epicness, the battles, and a lot of the otherworldly moods.

Suggestions:
The game just is what it is. I may not agree with it 100%, but I'm not going to suggest that you change anything...because then it would lose all of its character. I would perhaps suggest taking the strong points of Duder and the Mage and making a more serious game for your next game project, but that's up to you.

[Valkysas]

Re: Extravaganzicon Contest Results

Obright's Extravaganzicon Contest Reviews - RPG Maker 3

Shadows of Torayu

This game was a bit tricky to judge...it was like judging the Mona Lisa based on a blank canvas with only 2 hands painted in. What IS there is neat, but there were not nearly as many opportunities to award stars as there were in games with at least one map and/or dungeon. However this also meant that there weren't as many reasons to deduct stars, either. All I could do was judge what was there...for better or worse. What was there consisted of one town, several NPC's, and some coding...there's no world map, not one dungeon, and no battles or enemies.
LAYOUT:
Initial Layout Score:
06**********
+1 * The town looks nice overall, and has a certain character of its own.
Final Layout Score:
07**********

PLOT or CONCEPT:
Initial Plot Score:
05**********
+1 * The plot is simple, but grew on me. 'Cliche' plots are sometimes that way for a reason...because so many people can relate to them. 'Needing to pay off your parents' debts so that you can strike out on your own' may be used as a device over and over, but how many people can't relate to being held back by a lack of money? It's not bad for a beginning-game concept, but the only problem is that it's really the only main plot concept in the game at this point.
+1 * On a personal note, I liked the idea of 'rich people moving into the area and driving property taxes up'...actually I hate it...LOL!! But that's because I'm going through that EXACT thing right now. In any case, I could relate to it, and that helped to pull me into the game.
Final Plot Score:
07**********

CREATIVITY:
Initial Creativity Score:
06**********
+1 * Some of the characters are fairly well developed for such an early stage of game development
+1 * The events (such as the 'thief' event) are handled creatively
Final Creativity Score:
08**********

POLISH:
Initial Polish Score:
05**********
-1 * There's a tree growing out of one of the buildings in the town. I know this is a fairly small detail, but considering that the town & the people in it are really the the only things in the game at this point, it bothered me a little more than it otherwise would.
Final Polish Score:
04*********

FUN:
Initial Fun Score:
05**********
This is not to say that the game so far isn't fun...if it weren't fun I would have deducted a star...but there wasn't really any specific reason for adding a star, either.
Final Fun Score:
05**********
FINAL SCORE: 31

Final Thoughts: This is a good beginning! The game has potential to be great, but you've got to make it!
Suggestions: Work on the game!! I played this demo when I was up against it for the 'most promising demo' award at the MAG...and after playing it again, I found that it's the exact same demo! Personally, my advice is to finish the map you've got going...that will help you build more of the game really quickly, because you'll have a nice setting for things like more towns and dungeons, which can further the story, plus having a nice map can be a good point of departure, and can inspire a lot of other things. Like I said, though...it's a GOOD start! Don't be afraid to just jump right in there and work on it some more...I will be disappointed if you don't!

[Valkysas]

Re: Extravaganzicon Contest Results

Obright's Extravaganzicon Contest Reviews - RPG Maker 3

A Series Aside

The overall concept of A Series Aside is amazingly cool...it's a puzzle diary of sorts, and therefore the concept score is extremely high. I had my own scheme for scoring, which operated within Hito's scheme. I played for a little while, and scored the game in each category according to my initial reactions. If I leaned more toward the positive side, I gave a score of 6, and if I was leaning more toward the negative side, I gave a 5. As I played through the game these scores fluctuated, of course...and just because a category was given a 5 initially didn't mean that it wouldn't go up, and vice-versa. Those scores were just a starting point. If I found an aspect of a particular category that I really liked, I added a star, and for everything I didn't like, I took one away. This was the best way that I found to judge all three games fairly.
When I played these 3 games, I tried to figure out what the main crux(es) of the game were. For instance, in A Series Aside, I could discern fairly quickly that the main thrust of the game was the puzzles & minigames, and the writings. Those had to be judged a bit more severely, because of their importance. After playing a bit further, I decided that certain things affected 2 or more categories, and as an example, any deductions in the 'puzzle' aspect would also affect the 'polish' score, and any problems with the 'story' aspect would also be deducted in 'layout', because the main problems I had with the puzzles were more in the realm of 'polish', and what wasn't so great about the stories was mainly caused by their layout. Both problems are more related to those other aspects than the original ones anyway. The overall score would probably be the same, but the scores for the meat of the game wouldn't suffer so badly with the 'divided damage'. There are scores that are deducted in more than one category, but there are also good scores which apply to multiple categories, as well.
LAYOUT:
Initial Layout Score:
05**********
+1 * The dungeons weren't anything spectacular, but they were neat, and not overly complex.
+1 * The relation between the minigames and the various text unlockings is nice. It's a deeply thought out pattern, and deeply cool.
-1 * The map feels like it's just a holder for the 3 areas...it's not very interesting.
-1 * The town model has a nice feel to it, but it's too big for so few buildings in my opinion. The town might just get cluttered with the addition of anything else, but it still felt a bit too big and open for 5 buildings to me.
-1 * The books in the 2 reading rooms were way too unorganised, and they could have done with some 'decorative display ON/OFF' codes. I found myself having to look at every single book in both buildings quite often, to find the ones that were newly unlocked. Eventually that seriously wore on me. Also, there are several stories running congruently, all parts of each are opened seperately at different times, and quite often I got a bit lost or confused with the plotlines as a result. I know that's 2 things, but they both come down to how disorganised the the layouts of the reading rooms are.
Final Layout Score:
04**********

PLOT or CONCEPT:
Initial Plot Score:
06**********
+1 * Using puzzles to unlock the text part of the game is just a cool idea.
+1 * Many of the characters in the writings appear in the game as NPC's...I loved that.
+1 * There are a variety of text plots that are interwoven with each other, and with the game itself.
Final Concept Score:
09**********

CREATIVITY:
Inital Creativity Score:
06**********
+1 * The minigames had a lot of variety. All of them were pretty fun, and some were simply amazing. Brilliant use of variables to overcome the lack of a random generator!
+1 * There was also a big variety of writings...prose of different moods and themes, song lyrics, and poetry of different styles...even a stream of consciousness poem (which I loved).
+1 * The various ways that things were unlocked were very creative.
+1 * The Concept score has already reflected my love for the overall game idea, but the fact that it's executed so creatively is great...the fact that this game was made at all earns the creator one star.
Final Creativity Score:
10**********

POLISH:
Initial Polish Score:
05**********
+1 * The grammar, punctuation, and spelling in the writings are nearly perfect...I only spotted one error, and it was obviously just a simple typo.
-1 * The reading rooms look like that warehouse at the end of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. I know I already deducted for this in 'layout', but unfortunately the 'polish' score has to take a hit, as well...because not only does it effect gameplay, but it just doesn't look good.
-1 * Almost all of the minigame events desperately need modes set to 'AUTO', so that they don't operate so klunkily.
-1 * Some of the stories are not finished. Since reading the stories is the whole reason for going through the trouble of unlocking them, I had to take a point away for that.
Final Polish Score:
03**********

FUN:
Initial Fun Score:
06**********
+1 * There are 'easter eggs' in the game, which open additional things beyond beating the game. Even though I didn't wind up finding many of them on my own, I enjoyed looking for them.
+1 * I had fun with the puzzles, minigames, and 'collecting' unlocked books.
-1 * I have to say that I did not enjoy the overall writing style. I absolutely refuse to take away from your creativity score...this has nothing to do with a lack of creativity, but at the same time I have to be truthful, and say that it hampered my fun with the game. I hate 97% of poetry (unless it's my natural gas goddess Sylvia Plath, or Walt Whitman), and I almost never enjoy lyrics to a song I've never heard. I realise that you wrote all of this when you were younger, but I think you should have re-written it, or at least edited it to better reflect your current sensibilities. For me, the writing style's a bit too obvious, although you did begin to toy with the idea of symbolism (the 'shadow of a cross' in one story comes to mind). The various other problems I had with the game also hampered my fun with it, but I thought a one-star penalty was enough for all of them.
Final Fun Score:
07**********
FINAL SCORE: 33

Final Thoughts:
Like I keep saying, the overall concept of the 'puzzle journal' is amazing. The puzzles and minigames were brilliant, although a bit klunky to operate. I didn't want to deduct for this unless it was possible to fix them, but after a few minor tweaks, I was able to get several of them running much more smoothly without triggering any infinite loops...all it took was for a few event modes to be changed to 'auto'. They all work fine the way they are, but without modes set to auto, the events just stop for all intents and purposes until you press X, and they each do this several times. To me, that just feels broken.
Suggestions:
Personally, I would have loved to see some 'decorative display ON' codes used for the books in the 2 reading rooms. That would have avoided a lot of confusion and frustration for me. Also, I would have liked it if the NPC's, and even the plot of the game itself, were woven more closely with the stories. Like I said, I like the fact that that the characters from the stories were used as NPC's, but the only reason why they are there is for novelty...they just say 'Welcome to Perversion's world.' I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wish the game was more based on the writings, not the writings' author.

[Valkysas]

Re: Extravaganzicon Contest Results

ChuckRich's Extravaganzicon Contest Reviews - RPG Maker 2

Musical Chores

I'm not sure if this should be called a game. It seems to be one unfinished puzzle from a future game. You navigate three mazes to find the correct songs to play on three harps. Everything is in a first person perspective which is completely impractical for the mazes. You're basically stuck staring at varying shades of gray trying to decipher if it's a wall directly in front of you or a step away. Your only option is nearly blind trial and error. But you're punished for that trial and error since there's a limit of steps you can take then you're dropped back into the harp room to start over again. It's senesless and frustrating. If you do manage to finish a maze you're given a code, such as CXTTS-1. At no point are you told what to do with these codes. As it turns out CXTTS = circle x triangle triangle square. These are the songs to play on the harps. Apparently only the first one works as the other two harps only allow one key press each time. When you do play the correct song on the one functioning harp you're rewarded with "Congrats! A WINNER IS YOU" message and the RPG Maker 2 title screen. Game over I guess?

Layout 4 - The mazes were challenging.
Plot/Concept 0 - There was none.
Creativity 5 - It seemed to be a decent puzzle idea but completely unfinished.
Polish 3 - A few points for the on screen timer and first person view but everything was broken one way or another.
Fun 3 - Without the step limits I think I would've had a little fun with the mazes.

Final Score: 15

[Valkysas]

Re: Extravaganzicon Contest Results

ChuckRich's Extravaganzicon Contest Reviews - RPG Maker 2

Tales of Goblia?

A point for point reproduction of the RPGM1 sample game Gobli done in RPGM2. It's not devoid of originality though as lots of jokes have been added, many referencing the original Gobli and some completely random. The story diverges away from the source more as you go along yet stays basically the same. But there is one huge change to this 'port,' a side scrolling active battle system inspired by the Tales series of RPGs, hence the title. Unfortunately it doesn't work terribly well. It's not always obvious if your attacks are connecting and enemies overlap making them impossible to keep track of. Button presses don't seem to react consistantly. Also, the additonal party members are handled through a rudimentary semblance of AI that just doesn't get the job done.The difficulty ramps up drastically at the castle, to the point I couldn't get through it. I remember a similar issue with Gobli so perhaps this was on purpose but that doesn't make it any less frustrating.

Layout 6 - Exact replicas of Gobli's areas in 3d.
Plot/Concept 5 - Mostly copied but with lots of original jokes thrown in
Creativity 6 - Since it's mostly a copy of Gobli suffers but the CBS keeps it from being too low.
Polish 8 - The battle system needs some work but is well built and good use of VFX throughout.
Fun 7 - If the battle system was improved this would go up.

Final Score: 32

[Valkysas]

Re: Extravaganzicon Contest Results

ChuckRich's Extravaganzicon Contest Reviews - RPG Maker 2

SS World - Winner for RPG Maker 2

This is more of an action-adventure than an RPG. The plot is standard adventure fare but is interesting and very well written. It's a well made game but it's inherits the shortcomings to come with trying to make a real time game with RPG Maker 2: clunky movement, unreliable button recognition, inconsitent attack ranges and a host of other issues. The game creator can't be faulted for that, he did a great job with what he had to work with and I think this game would be great if it was made on something designed for real time action. I especially want to thank him for the frequent inclusion of save points and that the Game Over screen (which I became quite familiar with) automatically brings you to SS World's title screen rather than RPG Maker 2's. Therefore you don't have to load the game from your memory card every time you make a mistake.

Layout 7 - Levels are short but good, towns are minimal.
Plot/Concept 9 - Decent story with great writing.
Creativity 8 - Any real time game in RPGM2 takes creativity. The interface and controls are custom made.
Polish 8 - Points for customized interface/controls and lots of VFX.
Fun 8 - SS World is a fun game but frustrating thanks to RM2's limitations. The save points and quick continue help ease the frustration though.

Final Score: 40

[Valkysas]

Re: Extravaganzicon Contest Results

thetruecoolness' Extravaganzicon Contest Reviews - RPG Maker 1

Untraditional! - Winner for RPG Maker 1

LAYOUT - 7/10

All the towns look very expansive in this game, however you will be disappointed if you think they serve any function, besides in Pennsylvania. Basically it's just a bunch of buildings scattered around, so it looks nice, but serves no real function. It's a pretty good simplification of North America, which it is meant to parody. However each town is just there to serve as a plot point so the layout is very linear.

The dungeons however were well done. Very nice puzzles await you in a lot of them, and most of them are not just places to just walk through and fight monsters.

PLOT - 7/10

The premise is pretty different for an RPG, and RPG parodying RPG cliches. So that means of course the story is pretty cliche itself but it's meant to be and you can see that through the dialog and meta-conversations in the game. If it held itself seriously, this game would be getting a much lower score for plot, but in this case it does work.

The writing itself is pretty brilliant throughout and will have you laughing most of the way. Some of the jokes do fall flat but for the most part they are classic. With meowing babies, trolleys and random pop culture references, it's like Family Guy, old Family Guy. Like Family Guy it's pretty hit or miss though.

So though the plot itself is pretty weak the writing makes up for it, and the fact it's parodying itself.

CREATIVITY - 10/10

There is pretty great use of the music in the game and changing of the tempo and dropping it out to create cheesy dramatic moments. This game also has minigames galore. With many of them you ask yourself, "This was made with RPG Maker 1?" You have basketball, modern working trolleys, and even a platformer minigame. Then the puzzles in the game are pretty creative and very well done.

So it's obvious in this game he used the maker to it's fully potential. The custom art was also very well done, from having a Mig jet as a airship to Osama Bin Laden, and George W Bush. Then the concept and writing is great. Also the escaping from jail puzzle was very well thought out, not something you expect in even a low budget commercial RPG.

POLISH - 6/10

So as stated above the game looks very well layed out and looks very professional throughout. From very large cities, working casino games, and lots of other extras to add that finishing touch to the game.

However the game suffers from lots of bugs. Most of them not showstopper level, but there are a few of those as well. Going back to the Mig fixers house can result in you having to reset the game as you get stuck in it. Then about 50% of the story events can be restarted, forcing you to complete them again before moving on. So any adventurous or curious player will end up doing most story events twice.

So while this game is so good in many areas, the amount of bugs and ability to restart so many story events really drags this category down for this game.

FUN - 7/10

As I've mentioned the story is very funny and entertaining to read. The highly varied gameplay also adds a lot to the fun of this game. It's just a blast to play, though the battles are pretty easy and you'll likely switch to auto battle around halfway through the game (or maybe even earlier).

So it's really fun to play, right up to when you get to the end board. I would venture over 75% of people will refuse to beat this portion. Mainly because for no reason it has a quiz of 30 questions (yes 30) of random things about the game that you've played. Not only is it pretty ludicrous to believe that people would pay attention and remember such remote and mundane things, some don't deal with the game but pop culture references, and getting any one of them wrong forces you to do the whole thing over, which also includes 6 puzzles in the dungeon before the quiz. To say me doing this 20 times is annoying is an understatement (I think I missed around 8 questions, but each one has 3 answers, and if you have to just guess you could get it wrong 2 times per question). So while it may seem petty, I guarantee at least 75% of people would just deem it not worth it to keep going at this point. So this is the reason for the docking of points. Mainly because a lot of the questions you can't even make an educated guess on as some of the answers are pretty much the same exact thing (was it A Lady, Lady, or The Lady). Getting through that was torture.

But everything up to that was great and fun, but man, after missing it 10 times I was ready to quit and really wanted to. If it weren't for the contest I would not have beaten this game. I know end boards are hard, but at least most involved more than just luck to get through. 30 questions was way too many, plus some were just the most inane things, that no one would remember.

OVERALL - 37/50

This game is a really fun parody of a standard RPG while still offering very varied gameplay to keep things interesting. While the plot is bad, it is on purpose and the game is constantly poking fun at itself. This game could have been really good if it just ended before the final castle, and it wasn't so buggy, and you were only able to do story events once. So it's a good game, but these very major eyesores keep it from being a great game.

[Valkysas]

Re: Extravaganzicon Contest Results

thetruecoolness' Extravaganzicon Contest Reviews - RPG Maker 1

Omegablade Saga

LAYOUT - 4/10

The layout for most of the towns was pretty standard but it fit the game. Though the casino in the main town seemed a little out of place. All of the towns are merely there to make the story go forward. The burning town was done pretty nicely, but really each place was basically a town and then one or two dungeons you had to complete before going to the next town.

The dungeons themselves were pretty decent, though still you could tell they were made with an RPG Maker. In some of the dungeons you had to find certain walls that you could go through to get the treasure, which broke any suspension of disbelief. You didn’t break the wall to go through it, you just completely break physics and walk right through. Also a couple of the dungeons were pretty bad, as the treasury looked like a jail/dungeon, the ice dungeon had random open places with no point whatsoever, and on one of the later dungeons is a mine which the bottom floor inexplicably has a futuristic setting.

So though it was pretty innovative that he choose to use the dungeon editor to make his map, the drawings were clumsy, and though you could roam around, you pretty much went in a set path. All in all pretty generic layout.

PLOT - 2/10

Where to start with this one. Well lets see, the story starts out as you, a normal teenager, being asked by your dad to go out on a random quest for some random sword of lore. So of course you happily agree, because you have nothing else better to do. So then you meet up with your wild friend, who’s mom is a whore (classic), and your friend has an odd affinity with the word S***. Next you do like every other good main character in an RPG and go befriend a priestess and a wizard. So lets see we have a Warrior, Thief, Priestess, and Wizard, if that’s not cliché I don’t know what is these days. Of course they all live in the same town (what are the odds, I’d say about 1 to 1).

Black magic is of course called sorcery and white magic creation. Then you find out your friend Bobby, the one who loves the word S***, later on is magically able to pick locks (guess his mom taught him escaping from random guys houses so their wives didn’t find out, but the story never tells you).

Now you’re thinking maybe the story gets better. Well I’m here to tell you it does, and how. Get this, your nemesis, the antagonist of the game, is … Lady Evil. Where does she live? In Castle Evil of course. So for those keeping score at home that’s probably RPG Cliché 158. And if you think that’s good wait till then end. I won’t spoil it for you but lets say it’s downhill from here, cliches abound. The secret end isn't all that special, but it is better than the normal one.

CREATIVITY - 3/10

The casino was pretty cool, though you couldn’t actually do much besides just choosing text options. It did have a working slot machine, roulette and guess which cup the ball is under game. Other than that and having the world map made in the dungeon editor not much else here. Though the game does feature an interesting level up system by making plants stronger by seeds and then harvesting them with herbs to power up your characters stats, this totally threw off the balance (I'll get to that in a bit). It also has a plus game, for what that’s worth.

POLISH - 5/10

Probably the best area for this game, though that’s not saying much. It was nice how you could interact with almost every item on the game. It got annoying at times, but shows some effort was put into making it.

Now for the bad news. The balance of this game is almost non existent. I went through the whole game on auto battle and was never even close to scared of dying. That is until I hit the final 2 of 5 end bosses. You have to fight these alone, with the main character, and he has an attack that will do 1700 to you. So even after taking full advantage of the uber leveling offered in this game (basically enemies drop lots of an item which you can use to permanently up one of your stats, and you can get these easily in the casino [for those wanting to make a game, don’t ever do this]) it still took me a few tries and some more focusing on just that character to beat him. Before that, without magic enemies would do from around 0-2 HP of damage. This includes the first form of this guy.

The game also had a few major bugs. On involved going back into to speak to the king after the first time you did. If you did this you would get stuck and not be able to get back, so you had to restart. The teleports only transport you between the town your in and the first town (probably not a bug, but they should have worked for all towns). Also the forest event will start again if you go back in to the forest.

FUN - 2/10

Are you kidding. When the first urge you have is to put on auto battle on a game, you know that’s bad news. When the second urge is to get through the dialog as fast as you can, you have a worst game ever candidate (well for projects that can be considered a game, this is a full game, I'll give it that). Also the total lack of any balance in the game just kills it. Goes from laughably easy, to almost FF Weapon level on the last two bosses.

So though this had a plus game, I wasn’t going to bother because it was so boring the first time.

OVERALL - 16/50

So though the game shows some effort, it falls through on so many occasions. Lack luster and cliché story paired with widely unbalanced gameplay, and the desire to autobattle through all the random battles makes you wonder why they are there at all. So though it had a few good moments those are quickly overshadowed by all the boring and monotonous ones in-between. This game just lacked any real kind of professional touch to it, as besides FF7 I haven’t seen the word S*** used so much by one character. So in the end this is a pretty terrible game, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, unless you just got about 8 hours to waste.

[Valkysas]

Re: Extravaganzicon Contest Results

thetruecoolness' Extravaganzicon Contest Reviews - RPG Maker 1

Monkey Brothers Demo

LAYOUT - 8/10

This game had really nice layout throughout the two areas you were able to explore for the demo. The towns looked exactly like what you would expect for a monkey village, and none of the places looked like they were the default dungeons included with the game. There is very good attention to detail, as it looks like you're going through a real forest and not just a some open field with some trees. Also the planning on the dungeons was just amazing. Just a great job on capturing that jungle feel.

It doesn't get a perfect though as at times things do just feel like they are just there to be a plot device, but it's pretty open as to where you can go. So this game really shines through in the layout category and you can tell that the creator spent a lot of time planning out each dungeon and town, and worked hard to generate a cohesive theme for each area.

PLOT - 5/10

Being an adventure game there is not a whole lot of plot. What there is, is fairly well written but not very deep. Essentially there is a rich guy named Mr. Doom (yes Mr. Doom), who decides one day he's tired of eating gourmet meals, and decides he wants some monkey brains. So he sends retarded hunters to go kill the monkeys in your village, and the surrounding areas. Then your character decides he wants an adventure and drags his brothers along. Then you goto the Forbidden Temple (what game doesn't have one these days). Of course the main characters are also a bit cliche as you have the smart scrawny monkey Matt, the tough cool monkey Malcolm, and the tough looking guy who's really a wimp Mitch. Better than Thief, Mage, Warrior, but only slightly.

To it's credit though it does have some pretty good use of breaking the fourth wall, by having the character reading a story which is the story of the game, and a couple of other moments like that. So it's pretty obvious that the story is meant to be comedic and is different, but the character names and other things throughout the story are pretty uninspired. So it's pretty good but nothing stellar, and there isn't much story to speak of.

CREATIVITY - 10/10

First off this is an adventure game made with RPG Maker, so definite bonus points there. Plus it's a well made adventure game made with RPGM. His use of the normal stats to keep track of various quests and progress in the game so you can quickly check it, was genius. All of the puzzles are very well thought out and different from a lot of games, from using chimes to make a certain sound, to dodging mines in the ground, this game has a variety of unique puzzles. Not to mention the fact the game features an inventive system for changing characters, and the ability to swim with certain characters.

Since this isn't in any other category the art for this game is amazing. The default character sprites are just great looking. The title screen is one of the best I've seen for any RPG Maker game, definitely the best of the games I judged.

Lots of boundaries broken by this game.

POLISH - 6/10

The fact that it comes with it's own manual is a step up from the other games I got. The manual, though with some grammatical mistakes, is pretty long and includes everything you need to know to get started. From the other categories you can see that this game looks very good and could easily pass as a SNES level game, and is a pretty good adventure game.

But there are quite a few things that also bring down this particular category. One is the constant switching of memory cards, as you always have to have at least 3 handy (sometimes all 4). This planning oversight does start to get annoying since the only place to save is the art card, and I think even it may have some scenario data on it. Also this game does have some bugs in it, one of them requiring a reset of the game.

Perhaps biggest of all, which also ties into fun, is the fact the battles are completely random, since there are no real stats in the game. After getting the power-ups for Mitch and Malcolm they become more bearable, but really even then if you don't have 5 lives one cat could still kill you. So sometimes you kill the enemy without a scratch, sometimes they kill you without you even getting a chance to hit them.

FUN - 7/10

This game is pretty enjoyable, as the puzzles are pretty difficult to figure out, but that becomes fun trying to figure them out. Playing as different characters adds a lot of variance to the game and it's interesting to see what certain NPCs have to say to your character, and using each characters special ability. Plus after you get the first couple of upgrades, battles become bearable and the randomness adds a little excitement to the battles.

However this game can also be really frustrating at times. As I said the battles are really hard because of how random they are. No matter how many upgrades you get you still have to be careful around the cats. Also a lot of puzzles require you to completely start over the dungeon if you get them wrong. So until you get those first upgrades the game really is so hard as to make it really hard to get into for most.

But once you get a little better the pace picks up, and it is an enjoyable adventure, plus some of the dialog is pretty funny.

TOTAL - 36/50

This is a pretty fun game to play, and the amount of polish on the looks and puzzles in this game really shines through. However it still has some shortcomings that really bring the game down, perhaps the biggest being playing memory card shuffle, and the high level of difficulty. But all in all this is a pretty good game, maybe even up there with the best RPG Maker 1 games, but probably just above average. Hopefully all this will be fixed in the full version of the game, and it will become one of the best RPG Maker games, it has the potential.