My Summer Slam 2021 Reviews

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pjbebi
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My Summer Slam 2021 Reviews

Post by pjbebi »

I can't seem to post these in the reviews section, and I don't want to clog the slam discussion, so here it is. I hope these reviews are more helpful than they are annoying.
edit: fyi, I'm not a judge. I just wanted to write reviews.

STOAT.RPG
I don't know if I would say STOAT is an objectively good game. But I would say it's a great OHR game. It's funny, and I like a variety of jokes, forgetting to laugh at the constant fart noises. The thought of antifa fascists did keep me chuckling for the rest of my playthrough. Though I'm sure most of these gags would be funnier if I'd played all the games in reference.

The graphics are exceptional, inspiring even. But the gameplay is often tedious. Much like a JRPG, all of a game's great qualities can be shrugged off by a slow moving top-down with slow battles that most involve holding the spacebar. I like talking to the mice because sometimes they cause me to level up. At other times, I'm afraid there won't be one around later when I actually have money to buy the expensive stuff. The very sight of an unaffordable upgrade will often keep me grinding just to get that power. And then, it's not enough to have the best armor. I have to max out that inventory of holy waters, or try. Aside from satisfying the subconscious grinder brain, STOAT reminded me of how much fun it is to make and play linear rpg games.

Landscape Champ '58
Landscape Champ '58 is a pretty good mini game. My only gripes are really small. I wish there was a sound effect when you use and enter/exit every menu. The fact that some menus don't have a cursor sound, for some reason, makes my head hurt. Also, like with most of Spoonweaver's games, I wish he used music that sounded like video game music. While the tracks in this one are pleasant, they don't really check-out with the big pixel sprites.

The graphics are cool, very 50s, with the angled menus and wallpaper-esque backdrops. I also think the game itself is quite clever, and I appreciate that you can see the value of items in relation to their price. I could see this one really shining as a table top card game, since the stock of the stores seem to be randomized. Part of what would normally make this type of game worthwhile is the ability for the player to figure out how it works. As it is, I don't see how it matters what day you take off to shop, unless it's Friday (because you get paid first) or Saturday (because things are more expensive). And if that's the case, this game could definitely work with a deck of cards. In fact, I'd much rather win against my stupid friends than those nice pixel neighbors.

Mirror World
One thing that bothers me a little, which many OHR games have in common, is the inconsistent perspective. At random, you see some objects at an angle, some from above, and some from the side, all at odds with the floor. That aside, I think the graphics in Mirror World are stylish and beautiful. It took me a while to figure out how the text boxes worked, and kept feeling like I was trapped in them. I spent most of the game mashing Z and X, hoping they would do something. While the text box animations are sweet, I don't see how they provide anything to the game. But I can deal with a little style over substance. On that, I don't think there's a purpose to the sexualization of the baddies. It could add to the surreal/dreamlike nature of the premise, but the world itself looks pretty normal.

In battles, the text boxes are especially tedious. The battle system is pretty cool, an achievement for such a short contest. Well, I guess one on one battles aren't that complicated. Still, Kudos to team Ravan. I don't see how the team who made this game had time to test these battles, seeing how they take so long. And while the battles reward you with yen, I couldn't figure out how much of the useless currency I'd accumulated.

Finally, let's talk about the music by the talented Ravancloud. The sounds and the arrangements are good, but the tunes seem more random than they are memorable, especially the high-energy battle song, which started to annoy me. I like the vibe of improvised music, but that kind of thing usually works best when not constructed with short loops. Aside from the battle song, the rest of it's pretty good stuff.

While Mirror World doesn't hold up well as a game, I think it's a great proof of concept, and it'd be amazing to see it made into an epic rpg. With the wisdom of modern game design, I see definite Earthbound potential.

Ghost Ship
Ghost ship is a mini RPG in which you're a quartet of scurvy pirates on a ship filled with ghosts. The music is very fitting, reminiscent of the ghost ship on Super Mario RPG. And the graphics are all right. Since I consider this a basic-level OHR game, I should probably try to focus on how well these basic features were used. While the map looks good, it would be helpful if I could tell the difference between stairs leading up and stairs leading down. It would also be nice to know, when using those stairs, which level I'm on. Some of the doorways also look more like dead ends than doorways.

I like how each pirate has his own special ability, even though half of them seem useless. It would have been nice if Captain's Sea Shanty attack was assigned to a pirate with lower attack. I also think players should be informed which stat the technique is effecting. I think I could have figured it out if the battles weren't so fast. Mug seems pointless, since you can't spend any gold, and I wouldn't expect a vaporous phantasm to be carrying anything of value. The battles are also too fast for an active-time battle system. I know it's unique, but that's because it doesn't work very well. It also doesn't make sense to have Spells in the main menu when none of your heroes have any Spells.

So I think this is solid for a basic rpg. Nothing seems broken, and it's clear that a decent effort has been made. I'm excited to see what Idontknow comes up with next.

Fishing 2 Demo
This game is pretty freaking slick, and the characters look better than most pro games. I also really enjoyed the music. Aside from that, there's still not much going on here. Catching fish is pretty hard at first, but eventually I caught some. The hooking controls are really sensitive, maybe too sensitive for me. Also, the fish finder doesn't seem to do anything useful, since I can see the fish in the water. I guess that's one of the unfinished features, like the choice of bait. Either way, I can't wait to see what else gets added to this game. But even if the game gets completed, I don't see myself playing it to completion unless there's more going on than fishing. I also don't see how this ties in with the contest theme of "The Past."

Mystery Dungeon Friends
I'm darn impressed that Char could make this in less than a month. While the battles are all the same, I get what kind of game this is going to be, and it's the kind of thing I'd actually pay money for. Card-based battles are awesome. The fun animations provide more than flair, and the music's great. I can't wait for the finished thing. As it is, I don't know how to rate this demo since there's not much going on in the gameplay department. The interface is pretty complete, but there's almost no game so far, and the contest was for a game. If this were for an asset contest, I'd rank it first.

Video Goose
Video Goose is a clicker adventure about a video rental store and a ghost-fighting goose named Louis. The actual game is less than slick, but I have faith in its final form. It's a also short, not long enough to be considered an episode, but not so short that it's not fun. Everything about it is pretty stylish and right up my alley. It looks and sounds pretty close to a scumm game, but it's not quite there. And that's all right, too. I think there are better things to do with OHR than clone other engines.

Atman's Hyperspace Chronicle
While I like the wild art style in this game, it's really hard to read and comprehend the mass of gibbery instructions while the screen is filled with colorful, jerky animations. The whole thing is actually pretty stressful, and on top of that, the machine I am to command is pretty slow to respond. A good chunk of the time, the Focus Stabilizer doesn't turn on when set to On. I guess that's part of the challenge, but it's definitely more of a headache than it is fun. But gosh. What a work of art. Atman's Hyperspace Chronicle opens the mind up to a truly unique, tortured soul.

Dungeon
I know Arti's still getting his feet wet, and I understand why he might post such minimal games. Probably for constructive feedback. When I first played Dungeon, I started to write a review but scrapped it because I should be more nurturing. Let's face it, I could have really benefited from showing my early game concepts, but I didn't want to post anything until it was pretty much done. So kudos to you, Arti.

I think a problem a lot of people have with rpg design is, they make it too hard at the beginning, gradually getting easier. It's supposed to go the other way around, which is the tricky trick. I don't mind having to use a lot of potions right from the start, but the risk of dying is too high. Perhaps the player should start with a few of them, since the store is so far off. I don't like that my invisible hero is in the middle of the battle screen. It looks like I'm attacking an invisible enemy when they're in fact attacking me.

Grinder brain had me grind around Mindy Moon until I had enough money for both the sword and the armor, and I thank Arti for leaving the debug keys enabled. After that, I no longer needed any money, and I didn't need to fight a battle every three steps.

I do check out the Readmes, and I appreciate that this one had real info in here, and that Wall is one of the game's features. After fighting every enemy on the list, I realized it would still be a while before I got to the boss, and there are way too many random battles considering the zero experience you earn from them. I was also annoyed when backtracking to find my yellow key didn't work with the yellow door. So why shouldn't my pink key work with the red door? No dice. And that was enough unrewarding random battles for me, so I turned on the Walk Through Walls debug and walked in the walls until I found the boss, who was actually less dangerous (albeit with more hp) than many of the random encounters.

While this format of game can be great, if done well, Dungeon is step in the right direction but still far off. Also, if there's only going to be one map, and the designer is outsourcing their music, then the tune should be less grating and repetitive than the one used in Dungeon.

Ancient Gondola Tablet
This game looks good, and it works good, doing what it's supposed to do. But I wouldn't call it a game, so I have no real criteria for it. It's more of a visual, digital toy I guess. The idea is to find a sense of meaning in the randomly generated words. So if you are sitting at the keyboard or pad, it will probably give you some source of inspiration when you might naturally want to look at reddit or satisfy one of your many computer user ticks. The music is all right, but unnecessary for the game's purpose.
Last edited by pjbebi on Thu Jul 29, 2021 11:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Spoonweaver
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Re: My Summer Slam 2021 Reviews

Post by Spoonweaver »

Is this an ordered list?
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pjbebi
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Re: My Summer Slam 2021 Reviews

Post by pjbebi »

no. it's the order in which I played them. I might rank them later.
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Re: My Summer Slam 2021 Reviews

Post by kylekrack »

It's good to hear that people aren't too put off by how unfinished Fishing 2 is. I was worried about that. The characters are definitely the shining jewel of the game. The artist is just... I'm in love with their work. The game is going to involve the characters a lot more in its completion, and the fishing will have a progression to it (upgrades, access to deeper areas of the lake, etc.) The tie-in to the theme was with the story, which... didn't make it into the demo. Apologies for that.
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