2012 In Review 030 - The Death of Von Stabbingmore

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Gizmog
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2012 In Review 030 - The Death of Von Stabbingmore

Post by Gizmog »

Pre-Thoughts:

This was another collab game, and I think it did very well in the contest. James and Spaz did a good tall-walkabout script, great puzzle-style battle. Really neat game, was glad I played it. I don't remember anything about it, so puzzle-wise I imagine it's still going to have some value. Really liked it, so looking forward to this.

Thoughts-During:

Paid so much attention to the game I forgot to do this part. Whoops!

Post-Thoughts:

Von Stabbingmore is a pretty interesting use of the OHR's default battle engine to tell a story through cutscenes. Counters, transmogs and captions are put to great effect for a somewhat whimsical tale of medieval justice against an unruly Duke. You can't actually lose, which is good 'cause it would get repetitive real fast. Instead you're free to try again, as many times as you need, to solve the puzzle and advance to the next stage until finally Von Stabbingmore experiences his titular death. Because of this, you can't really judge the game by standard RPG metrics.

The graphics are REALLY nice. It's a good looking town, good looking carriage for the Duke. The heroine is in the top 3 most attractive OHR women of all time. Hell, the peasants even look suitably haggard. You can tell what eeverything is, though since the game takes place entirely in one village on one day, there isn't a whole lot of variety to them. James does his own mumbly voice acting again and it works out really well.

It's a hard game to judge because it's not terribly long and it's not terribly deep. If you want to experience a weird combo of an old Sierra adventure game and an OHR RPG then go ahead and give it a try. The writing's good, there's lots of polish and fun bits in the battle. Gonna take some trial and error to figure things out, but there's an ending and credits and everything so at least it is a complete experience. It just feels like it's missing something that would tie the whole thing together.
Attachments
He's kind of a jerk. Don't feel bad about his inevitable death.
He's kind of a jerk. Don't feel bad about his inevitable death.
vonstabbingmore0002.png (33.78 KiB) Viewed 2115 times
She's that kind of dame.
She's that kind of dame.
vonstabbingmore0011.png (4.18 KiB) Viewed 2115 times
Walking around and learning these is my favorite part of the game.
Walking around and learning these is my favorite part of the game.
vonstabbingmore0023.png (27.67 KiB) Viewed 2115 times
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