Before I start with my written review, I want to explain how I rate games when it comes to 1-5 stars:
1 - It's so bad, I can't see any way to save it.
2 - It's not done well, but with work and time it can become something good.
3 - It was good, but bugs or other minor problems kept it from being better.
4 - It was really good, but there is room for improvement.
5 - Done so well, that I can't find any flaw.
With that done, let me get to the review:
Overall Fun - 3/5
So, the world has gotten my interest since it seems to be a Zombie Apocalypse in a "generic" fantasy world. My question would be, are all the zombie's human? Or is it all races? Regardless, it was an awesome concept that I wanted to see for a while. The rivalry between Human and Orc is a classic, but it's the details of the lore that would make this unique. And from what I understand, there is a "Tower" where Humans (Paladins) control and they are a power that has what seems to be some dark corruption and taking advantage of the crisis, they attack their "enemies" to weaken them. The Orc's at first believe they came to help which I found really interesting, but quickly learned that is a false hope.
Gameplay wise, the maps were not simple boxes, I did not find it a bother traversing them even when enemies got in my way. I really liked that enemies only moved if you moved, so you could sit still and have time to think without 50 enemies ganging up on you immediately.
The combat, was basic RPG combat which is completely fine for this genre. But I wished each character had more unique skills, focused more on the Chief and Fighter. I was pleased to see that Guarding actually did something, it not only decreased incoming damage for the turn but also changed their turn order since a lot of RPG's I've played the Guard was utterly useless and only used to kill off my party members. I also really liked that the MP on the "Fighter" class was actually needed, which also in many RPG's the MP in such a class was a useless number.
Also, a random thought but may be difficult in RPG Maker. Is a system if several enemies "attack" you, they all join the battle at once, and not do one battle at a time, this would be really cool and add more to the games uniqueness in the RPG Maker industry.
Art/Graphics - 4/5
I assume that you are going for a Retro 2.5D, so far, you've done a good job in doing so including doing some simple effects with the camera positioning. The trees were the strangest thing for me, since they were perfectly aligned with eachother but as a "Retro look" it is perfect, but for a "natural look" it is far from good. The Grass and rocks looked completely fine, and they did not catch my attention which was a good sign since they are not the focus of the map. I have tried playing on Highest graphical settings and Lowest graphical settings. The lowest render-distance that does not make it unplayable I found seems to be 25, anything lower makes it impossible to know where you are going upward, 100 Render Distance seems useless right now, but I did not test to see what was the "best highest render distance". Shadows/Lighting though looked great on all settings and having the game look "good" on all graphical settings is a really good sign and is not easy to accomplish.
Graphics in Combat: The animations were really good, even when speed-up! I only tried "Faster" and not the "Fastest", I was worried that it would cut out frames in the animation, but it did not look choppy and instead looked "smoother"? My only animation complaint would be the "Orc Stab" does not have a visual of them stabbing, instead they are slashing. The background had no problems for me.
The main menu, the leaves looked off put together with the pixelated background. But if you are looking to make the leaves pop up from the background, then maybe try making the pixel effect subtle, possibly even only on the edges.
Controls/UI - 4/5
The controls are generic, basic RPG Maker controls which is not a problem at all and was actually a good thing since you had no special features or gameplay changes.
The UI was unique enough to not look generic RPG Maker, I just kind of wished the enemies "Turn Order Image" was also a face and not a sprite but keeping it the way, it is and only having Bosses or special enemies have a face would have an interesting effect, whichever is easiest and best for you and the game.
A lot of the Objective UI's had a lot of dead/empty space, I don't know if it was intentional but maybe repositioning them and removing most of the dead space would make it look cleaner.
Sounds/Music - 4/5
No sound was out of place, or too loud, and no music track was abrupt without intention, all of this was really good.
The BGS did not kill my ears, and the looping music did not get too "loopy" for me. Even after 40 minutes of gameplay.
Most of the sounds seemed to be built in MZ sounds, which is completely fine as they are good sounds. And they were used well in this game.
Final Thoughts:
The "My Horse!" quest was funny, but I believe it was a placeholder with no meaning, except that a Quest system is planned?
The Demo ended in a good place, can't really think of a better way to end it.
It has a cool concept, and I would like to see where it would go from here on out.
This review was written understanding this game is in development and that the Game's focus was on Mechanics testing.
Once my video is uploaded, I will add it here:
So that is all, I can think of. I wish you a good day and thank you for reading! I hope this has been useful to you and was the feedback that you were looking for.
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