Nordomin: Quest of Creole

[JSH357]

You know what? I’m betting on Duke. Nordomin is an interesting little RPG that has a lot of potential in its present form. It tries a lot of things most OHR developers don’t. You’ll notice you have a lot of options from the start—several heroes based on various elements, a selection of gender, and tons of branching dialogue. This makes for a rather unique experience. I personally opted for an egotistical male Wind magician, and only ended up with one complaint about the demo. There’s also a crafting system, teleportation, and some basic puzzles that are unobtrusive enough to be engaging.

Nordomin has a simple visual style that reminded me immediately of Wandering Hamster. It’s cartoony and reasonably effective. The game also contains (what I assume to be) an entirely original soundtrack. It’s not the best stuff, but it’s not the worst I’ve heard either and could be improved as the author gets better. Major props have to go out for making an entirely original work. I also enjoyed that the game thrust me right in to the action, with the two main characters escaping their home from the very beginning. The pacing is nice, though perhaps the threat originally presented could have been a little more prevalent during the escape sequence. I don’t know; something to chew on.

The battle system is also interesting, pretty reminiscent of games like Sword of Jade. First, battles are initiated Chrono Trigger-style, which is a plus. You gain MP by using your spells, and then can unleash more powerful spells by burning the gained MP. Unfortunately, because the demo is so short you don’t get to see this battle system truly flex its muscles. The enemies in the first area are simple and don’t require thought beyond spamming your spread attacks. This isn’t actually a bad thing—as the game expands, the easy start should prove to benefit the game.

The only thing I really have to whine about is the first boss. It’s really hard, as in has an attack that one-shots both of my characters hard. I could probably handle it with a bit of grinding, but as I mentioned previously, nothing in the first areas gave me a clue that the difficulty was ramping up. I think Duke of Dellot needs to nerf this boss a tad and make the second wave of regular enemies a bit tougher, just to show a progression.

Overall, I was impressed. Nordomin is one of the better OHR games released in 2011, even though it’s a 30 minute demo. I hope the Duke updates this, and that it doesn’t become his Duke Nukem Forever.

Rating: 7 Babes Captured out of 10