Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

• PRESENTATION
  

  Graphically, the game used RTP assets. Mapping was very large, bare and had some issues that are common in new developers (large empty maps, no ceiling tiles, walls missing beneath some ceiling tiles, overuse of clutter tiles, etc). Despite these issues the game at least fits together visually well enough. That said, the ridiculous cave maze, created by use of the random dungeon generator, was very annoying and boring. It would have been a lot better if it had been used as a base and then edited a lot more to the developers' own ability.

  The music and sound are all default. It's use isn't anything interesting - nothing was used to enhance atmosphere but what was used fit well enough.

  The writing is where this game shines. I encountered precious few writing issues, spelling or otherwise, and the stories are each well-told. Your choice in characters changes the way the villagers interact with you as well as how the character interacts with them, often digging out different information from different people because of this. It's very well done and where this game shines most.

  I will say that I thought the last second ending felt rather tacked on an not necessary. Rounding the game up with a scene of the main character letting the village know the curse was broken would have been more than enough.

  GAMEPLAY
  Gameplay consisted of talking to people and battling. There were no puzzles, no shops and nothing else besides those two things. Good thing the talking was well done, then.

  Battles were a bit on the boring side. You had one skill available to you (characters each got different skills depending on their classes) and it did a fair amount of damage to the enemies you fight - enough so that it usually either killed them straight out or weakened them enough that one hit would kill them afterwards.

  For the most part the battles were easy. The only challenge came with three werewolves and that was only due to their being able to stun you. Thankfully, they never stun-locked you to death - they did very low amounts of damage and the stuns lasted only a round or two at the most. The boss at the end died within three spell casts for me, and again, didn't do too much damage. I had two elixirs and a potion by then so I wasn't too worried about dying or running out of MP, even if he did do better damage than the other enemies. It would have been nice to have had him have more life - he might have been a little more of a challenge, but I didn't even need to heal to beat him.

  There was a bug in the nymph story where she can't interact with the tree. Since she can't leave town, it halted progress and I had to restart and pick another hero instead (went with Witch, then with Vampire).

  The spells, enemies and items were all default.

  
  

  ENGAGEMENT
  The gameplay was a bit of a let down and getting around the town was annoying due to how big it was and how it was laid out. Having another bridge to allow access at the top of the town would have helped a bit. Also, the dungeon was annoying to navigate through due to the size and how much you double-backed on yourself. It wasn't fun.

  That said, the best part of the game was talking to the villagers and seeing how they responded differently to the other characters. I quite enjoyed that aspect and it was nice to see how the game differentiated between the characters and how they were supposed to figure out where to go and what to do.

  
  

  THEME
  It's hard to point out an overall theme to the game. It focussed mainly on being a fish out of water who wants to help (bar a few characters) and in that aspect the writing did well to support the idea. The villagers have a lot of commentary on your character and it was both well written and interesting.

  The mechanics, though, were very default - from the spells to the enemies to the items - and while they didn't exactly detract from the theme, they didn't really support it either.

  40/80