A Review of Dark Slayers by Rose Guardian
By your friendly neighborhood Secret Santa!
This is another IGMC 2018 entry that looks like it’ll be pretty decent from the onset, and the initial impression given is about on-point. While there may be some things that could be improved upon, the base of this game isn’t bad at all. This title has the hallmarks of a game that could grow into something special, custom imagery, a reasonable story, and workable progression/combat. There are a few flaws, of course, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from trying this title out. All said, a game at it’s core is supposed to entertain the player, and this title does just that.
What struck me first was the characters that are obviously hand drawn. Little did I know that the custom artwork wasn’t going to stop at that. No, no, no, the maker included custom images to help drive the story by using custom images to tell the story through imagery. Due to RPGMaker games being so text driven, it was a breath of fresh air to see a little emotion carry through from images. The text boxes, the battlers, and even the side-view battlers are all given a sprinkling of the custom artwork too. In every game, there is usually a little of the maker’s soul; here, it’s in the artwork. I truly enjoyed this part.
The story is fairly well told; though it does have a smattering of grammatical errors and a couple of logic jumps. Still, for a game that on the surface is reminiscent of the Devil Hunter series, it’s done well with the short time allowed for the story to play out. What I liked most about the story is it doesn’t feel like an epic; rather, it feels like a novella, or maybe a pilot episode for a television series. This is far from a bad thing, as it allows the player to enjoy the story for what it is. This is not to say that there aren’t any issues. The issues, however, are not big enough to overshadow the story itself. P.S.: I also really liked that some side-quests were included.
The combat is well done, and time was spent to get the balance to work. Now, it’s not perfect, as I never felt that I was having to overcome a massive obstacle when fighting. For those not used to turn based combat, the difficulty would likely feel a bit more aggressive. The combat was made especially fun when a boss was the hand-drawn battler. I cannot emphasize that enough, I loved those.
In closing, the game was enjoyable. I can nitpick away at the mapping (too much negative space, particularly with interior zones), grammar (commas are “frenemies”), and the like. Those improvements will come with time, and I hope the maker does spend the time to make adjustments. I really feel this entry has potential to be really fun for quite a few people-myself included. Bravo Rose Guardian, bravo.