Review: Nordomin: Quest of Creole

[Meatballsub]

Nordomin is about a god's descendants and their endeavors; I think? Maybe, I don't know for sure. I felt that the short introductory text was solid and it caught my interest. It was short lived though, because the game ends up not really following much of any plot. In other words the backstory was laid out, but nothing was done with it.

You play as Creole, and are given a choice of six classes to choose from that can be both male and female. I've always been a fan of character customization, but was not very impressed with the choices given (I tried two or three different ones). It actually reminded me a lot of Locke's Magic Force in that you have the choice of class but they all end up feeling the same in the end. Perhaps as more content is added, each class will start to shine. Regardless, it still doesn't help the fact that the class system is not really exciting in its current form.

I found a few minor bugs while playing Nordomin, which was a little surprising given it's only about 30 minutes long. I was extremely surprised that one of the very first textboxes had a spelling mistake. There's also a wandering enemy npc that disappears for no apparent reason rather than engaging you into battle.

In addition, there is an orb that you press to create a pathway across a pit. I noticed that when I left the map the pit was on, it removed the path. This would be okay if I didn't come back to the same area, fall down the pit where the path was supposed to be, climb back up to the surface, and the pathway magically appear again. I'm not sure what could be causing this issue, and I didn't check to see if I could repeat it. Regardless, all of these minor issues could have been easily fixed before releasing the game.

The music appears to be original, but I could be wrong. None of it really stood out to me though I suppose it fits the game well enough. I was a little shocked that no sound effects were used, especially during combat. I don't know whether the Duke plans to implement them at a later date, but I think it would help for sure.

Battles can be a bit challenging and you run a high risk of party members falling; even in random encounters. However, after each fight, you are brought back to life (if party members are dead) and receive full health. A similar feature was used in Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest and although I despise that game, it works surprisingly well here. There's also a crafting system that seems alright though it forces you to grind some to make it worthwhile.

Nordomin's strongest point are the graphics. While nothing is exactly stellar, nothing looks terrible either. The only real complaint I had was that almost every map looked the same. I think that some additional foliage/props would easily fix this issue though.

When done properly, a demo can be great for creating excitement for your project. When done poorly, it lessens the chance of people caring about future updates and/or the finished title. Unfortunately, the latter is the case with Nordomin. No, I don't think it is a terrible game by any means, I just think that it was released too soon. It doesn't matter if the game is only 30 minutes long or 30 hours long; demo or full version. I shouldn't be able to play through a game and feel like I just did all of that stuff for no purpose or reason.

I'm not trying to be overly harsh, but I am trying to be realistic. Nordomin has potential and offers some neat features, but I feel like the author needs to capitalize on them to make the game worth your time.