Ugh
The character is retarded! On the fox boss, it said that he was pretty sure 20 times and not a single one hit the dang thing.
Reviews for "First Fantasy v1.1"
bcdefg123 responds:
If it says he's pretty sure and you're not hitting him, you would do well to train elsewhere for a bit. If you're pretty sure this is not supposed to be the case, send me the player stats and I'll see if there's a mistake. - Brian
I think your hour and a half estimate is a bit low
There's way more than an hour and a half here. It's very impressive you managed to fit so much in such a small size. Gameplay was good, but pressing "attack" all the time got really repetitive. The balance wasn't bad, but I feel that having the main way to level up being "train" basically screams "I designed the game to force you to grind constantly." Grinding isn't fun. Don't design games around it. Every sidequest boss and the side chapter was much harder than the final boss. Very annoying. You get to the end of the game, but if you want to do sidequests, you have to find somewhere to train and spend hours clicking the same two buttons repeatedly. The main reason there was more than an hour and a half of gameplay is that once you get to where you can do sidequests, you have to spend hours grinding to get from where you can fight the final boss to where you can do the sidequests. After playing the game several times, I figured out how to spread the grinding out so that you never need more than 5 minutes or so at a time, the game gets really easy, and you can go to the sidequests with little wait. But there's just no way to prepare for that damn floating head. Seriously, there's no chance of beating it unless you're around level 50. I tried 45 and 48, but 45 got me creamed and 48 ended with a stalemate where the battle took so long I almost reset the game. I beat it and got the medal at level 51, but holy crap. That was completely unnecessary to get the point across that it was a tough boss. That's 30 levels higher than what you need for the Omega Guard! You have to earn more experience between fighting the Omega Guard and the giant floating head than you earn in the entire rest of the game! The writing was very good, but I must say, for having ten endings, they were all horribly unsatisfying. A one screen summary that ranges from a few sentences to a paragraph after I just spent several hours on this game? I think I deserve a bit more. I have no problem reading more. Good grief, I just played a text-based RPG. I just did a LOT of reading. Reading isn't a problem. I'd have liked a decent length epilogue. I mean sure, the one where TM wins doesn't really need one, but it was really annoying when it was just like, "Yep, they won, and even though there was a betrayal, everyone made up and lived happily ever after." Some of them are a bit more elaborate mentioning Haruka going to jail, but then you cut it off saying "and then they waited for them to get out of jail and lived happily ever after." (Yes I know those aren't even close to actual quotes, but it's basically what was said). So really, giving us this much of a story and then cutting the ending off abruptly like that was not cool. You could have done better. A couple more screens of text wouldn't increase the file size that much, it's not like it's a cutscene or music. And the other issue I had with the story was the heavy implications that Haruka and Ryou had romantic feelings, then not developing it at all. Seriously, why is the medal called "Eternal Friendship"?!? There was at least more than that at the end. I played through enough to get New Game Plus hoping either the ending or the romance subplot would get extended somewhat, but the endings were the same, and there was a bit more development to their relationship in Haruka's thoughts, but not much. If you go so far as to make a relationship sidequest with dating and whatnot, you should at least develop it a bit more. At the very least a brief mention in each ending of the relationship going somewhere would have been fine with me. That said, it was an excellent game. Obviously, since I actually played it 4 times. I got all the medals except the one for being enemies with Haruka. That was too hard, and I hate that kind of ending too much to try for it more than once. One other thing. When you fight the doctor, the final phase with the "link helmet" made NO sense. I had no idea what was happening! How can a metal exterior become "real" but no longer be made of metal? What the heck? Still, I really liked the game.
bcdefg123 responds:
*New Game Plus and general spoilers in this one*
The hour/1 1/2 hour estimate was for a first-time playthrough without seriously making an effort for any of the sidequests. If you do the sidequests, then of course it's going to be longer. If you're trying to take on the Giant Floating Head, then good luck, because that will take exponentially longer.
I didn't design the game around grinding. I'm only talking about the main story here, though. I think I struck some sort of balance between the grindfests of yore (and, er, Korea) and the less-involved games of today. As for the sidequests, they are going to be tough, yeah. But the catch is, you don't have do them. Frankly, I've had more people try (and subsequently succeed) the harder sidequests than I originally thought would.
Longer endings are something for me to consider. I guess the main reason that I didn't do it in the first place is because there is a limited amount of text that could be shown at once, and I never try to have more than two or three screens in a single text-based scene (as opposed to the art-based ones, which have more screens for obvious reasons). Usually I try to keep it in one. I wasn't really sure how having a game heavily devoted to text would go down, but it seems to be fine with most people (not many people are complaining about it at all), so it's something I'll consider in a future update. File size definitely wasn't the issue here ;)
Personally, I beg to differ about the feelings between Ryou and Haruka. At the beginning, they have feelings of general indifference (well, New Game Plus shows that that's not true, but to the average player, it's just indifference), and then it shapes itself depending on choices. The best you can do is, in my mind, a rather good friendship. If I wanted it to really be love, then I would have had it much more explicit in the game (random kissing scene or something). Since Haruka was depending on Ryou to crush her master (again, New Game Plus stuff), and feigned politeness to Ryou in the beginning, it might have SEEMED like love, but it isn't.
As for the link helmet thing... the animal robot looked more like a genuine animal after the link (of course, forgetting the fact that there were tubes and stuff coming out of it). The metal was made to look more like actual animal skin. But it just LOOKED more like it, and it was still metal. I made a small change to clarify that will go out with the next update, whenever that is.
Thanks for the detailed review! - Brian
Awesome game
Ive unlocked everything but that Giant head guys was hard because i had to like get to level 52 just to beat him. The game had alot of great stories too and i really liked the text you could read when you battled, So all of that said good job you made a great flash :)
Overlooked Text-Based Role-Play Adventure
Ah, the Eastern tradition of role-playing games. Structured, simple rules, major emphasis on storytelling and concrete, linear progress. "First Fantasy" is a major tribute to the text-based adventure, which propels the player along for a ride as vivid as the writing, as opposed to relying on artwork. It is also a decent flash game with several interesting highlights.
The first thing that blows my mind about this game is its bottomless pit of a soundtrack, all in-game, that spans multiple musicians and genres. The event programming for each track is extensive and each piece fits the mood very well. None of them stick out though, so while the magnitude is impressive for the medium, it's a somewhat forgettable soundtrack overall.
Another feat involves the multiple endings. Your decisions during cinemas affect the ending, provided you can get that far. The game boasts ten of them, although, like everything in this game, they are all text-based. This game is without a great deal of the high immersion practices of contemporary role-play adventures. On the other hand, it draws upon game elements that have not been in practice for over a decade.
The text sells this game. It pokes fun at role-playing stereotypes, like sand elementals or just kids picking fights at the beach, or harmless woodland creatures. Instead of stating that the character has actually sliced a head open, the text that describes success or failure (in the simplest combat engine since D&D version 1.0) manages to tickle at your sensibilities with lighthearted humor and oddball commentary. Certain occasions could call for greater detail or a check of proper tense, a spelling error here or there, but the volume of text is extensive. It's also inspired... a good effort much akin to a game like the original Exile or Avernum, which relies upon descriptive text amidst its lack of visual splendor.
Wherever there are visuals, they are decent. Most of the background shots look like stock photography, including cheeky depictions of thick suburbs and metropolitan cityscapes. Undermines the whole swordplay schtick. KatRaccoon's youthful manga work brings weight to the description of this game as a Japanese Role-Playing Game, although text-based games are seen on either shore; her work adds to the game's status as one intended for kids as well as adults. Without any duplication of style, KatRaccoon pays tribute to manga artists like Akira Toriyama of Dragon Quest, Dragonball and Chrono Trigger, who often sets the tone of the real "cute" role-play adventures.
First Fantasy is not without faults. It is a game where you leave lots of patience and time to mere chance, especially if you abhor power-grinding level after level. Granted, it gets simpler as time goes on, but having to do that irks me. Several of the really difficult areas of the world almost require you to grind well before hand. Even after you ground your footing to the earth's mantle, there are super-boss encounters that just seem impossible. The sheer fact that the combat engine is stripped down without any options or tactics will aggravate the strategists among the role-playing crowd. Having the story present options without giving clear indication about consequence or purpose tends to be a drain as well. In short, this game could have used far greater interactivity than what was presented.
Still, ten endings to discover, several Newgrounds Medals, and plenty of lighthearted humor and adventure make "First Fantasy" an excellent way to spend about half an hour per day. This is coffee break Flash role-playing that neither sets standards nor spits at our intelligence. It's just a shame that the 1.1 version never got Daily awards or Front Page, even though "Steelcurse" debuted back in early March and was about as good. Not as extensive a soundtrack, but with excellent fantasy visuals and such. If this is a gauge to determine the next big collaboration between KatRaccoon and bcdefg123, our expectations should be reasonably high.
bcdefg123 responds:
Yikes, thanks for the great long review. Where do I even start...?
Yes, I'm quite surprised I could pack this much music into a 10 MB flash game and not have it sound horrible. I personally think that's one of the greatest draws of this game (being as big on game music as I am). The music was limited in scope, because I felt sweeping orchestrals would simply not fit at all with a text-driven game like this. In fact, I specifically told Koori-Kun, who composed the main battle theme, to tone his style down a bit for that track. If the progress on my next big project so far is any indication (and I like to think that it is), it shouldn't be a problem from now on.
Without the story, this game would probably be crap, and that goes for most RPGs. When I wrote the story, it started as something just completely silly and grew to have a serious plot tying it all together. Whether that works it completely up to you, but most like it. The text system during fights is based on Kingdom of Loathing, which does pretty much exactly the same thing, except there's more text. Writing text for, say, three basic elements of magic, for EACH individual enemy would add a lot more to the workload, so that's why I didn't do more with the battle system. I do agree with you that combat was simple, in terms of both the equations running behind the scenes and the ways to fight (only direct attacks and bombs), and perhaps even a bit annoying too when text kept repeating.
If you have any specific typos or grammar oddities, you can PM me. I'm still supporting this game with updates, and I'll fix those with the next update (which might be a while, but it will come one way or another).
If the visuals seem tacked on or even disconnected from the game, that's kinda because they are. I found KatRaccoon midway through development, and I got most of the character art AFTER I had finished everything else, so the full-art scenes were added last. As you noticed, the background art pieces are Creative Commons or public domain pictures. I started adding those halfway through. Obviously, I didn't have a background artist, nor can I draw in any real capacity myself. Again, it's something that is much better planned out for my current project.
Sometimes it does get to be particularly tough grinding. It's rather hard to create a good difficulty curve and keep it constant the entire game. I've added stuff to the later parts to assist in this, but I might actually want to consider something for the beginning now. And honestly, I didn't expect too many people to try and beat bosses like the Giant Floating Head, although the medal added to it without a doubt made it a must-beat for many people.
For the part about having no clear idea of consequences, that's a part where I personally have some thoughts on. I dislike having games tell you stuff that you wouldn't know if it was the same situation in real life (e.g. saying this to Haruka gives you +x relationship, this attack does x damage). A bit of that made it into the game, but it could have been even worse - at one point I was planning for a minimalistic HUD. Maybe your name, your weapons, and your buddies, but that would be it. XD I realized that would be bad, so of course that never happened. But I'm still interested in making games feel more realistic in that respect whenever I can without angering a lot of players.
When 1.1 was released, it was a bitter fight to the end for 5th place. I think three games were jockeying for that position, only a few hundredths of a point away from each other. This game unfortunately got in sixth for the day it was submitted. Medals being present when the game was uploaded (they were added about two months later) would have definitely been that extra push needed, but oh well. Trophies aren't everything.
Well, I'm about to break the character limit for the reply, so let me just say thanks again for the long and detailed review - I really appreciate it! - Brian
I like it
The only problem I found is that i can't level up in the Island of Not Return, i'm stuck there u.u
bcdefg123 responds:
Wow, we're still finding legitimate concerns a year afterwards :P
I'll take a closer look and see what I can do this weekend. - Brian
EDIT: I'll also forget about it completely and say it'll be sometime soon :P