Neophyte-Ronin's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Castaway 2]

A Buggy Grind, but Captivating and Challenging!

I have a love/hate relationship with likwidgames. Used to be mostly hate. I thought "Ultimate Tactics" wasn't very good due to bugs and pacing, but even that game is prettier than most. Castaway 2 is no exception, a significant improvement over its prior incarnation and the company's previous releases. It features great depth balance with simplicity and stunning aesthetics for a flash game, but has some aggravating issues that suggest a lack of polish. The designer hopes to flush those aside with patches and leave us with a satisfying, memorable adventure game. It comes close as is.

In "Castaway 2", the player's nameless champion awakens upon a deserted island with no memories and only his wits and resourcefulness to gird him against a nightmarish monster infestation and the strange magics that still reside on the isle. He happens upon strange feminine statues that speak to him and believe he is late... over 3,000 years late by the number of days they've counted. With little hope of rescue, he must brave the Isle of the Titans and its mysteries.

While venturing through the island, he can tame a monster and attain much-needed combat assistance. Navigation is done in a top-down perspective, with an automap that not only lists exits and hostiles in green and red, but also items and even mineral veins necessary for the game's simple craft system. The player must collect items, merge them together, and create new gear. This could conceivably omit the need to purchase gear from vendors, except in a few cases. Enemy designs get larger and tougher, but most are not openly aggressive until attacked. Play your cards with your creature right (the first one you get will do; even flier enemies cannot travel over obstacles like water) and you can play tag-team on single targets until they're vanquished. There is no "wrong" manner of allotting skill points to the character after leveling up, although a warrior-centered character will shrewdly take the skills on the far left and far right. The game automatically saves when you enter a new area and the inn can let you save up to three slots to computer memory. There are many extermination missions and plenty of tasks revolving around the new craft mechanics, but the latter has some kinks.

In fact, there are a few good grievances with Castaway 2. When you start to collect items, it's almost impossible to tell how things fit together or in what amount. This devolves into endless hours wasted on tinkering with countless variations and combinations of artifacts, or lugging them around in the hopes that some day they become useful (most players will raise strength after level-up just to be able to carry it all!). At least the game keeps track of the winning or useful combinations upon figuring them out; the player has to keep track of the useless combinations so as not to duplicate past errors. Tedious. Rote learning can quickly eat away at the fun here. Some players might want a walk-through just for the craft system alone.

Another issue is the pet system. You only need one pet throughout the entire game--the one you find getting bullied. Due to the speed at which the creature levels up with you, it outpaces the levels of everything else. Unless there are differences in statistics, passive skills, or added effects while attacking, pursuing the pet system any further than the first pet is optional to the point of being superfluous. Sinkhole for time you never get back.

A savvy player will notice bugs. I noticed two. First: trying to create new objects with the craft function. It sometimes freezes up after several attempts, becoming unresponsive to controls and clicks. Blows all the time spent on actual creations you have to recreate. Second: sometimes, keys stick or become unresponsive on the field. Both bugs, the former especially, caused me to reconsider how much time I would invest in playing, or even the vote!

Despite these concerns, it is beautiful, handles well, and doesn't bog down too much, as advertised. Past the bugs, I see a great flash game!

[4 IN 1: Story Generator]

Excellent for a Couple Cheap Laughs

Since it is a text generator, I decided to give it a whirl. People are posting their unique creations, so I'll submit one of my own. This is my first attempt with the "Lonely Hearts" device by "seruphim":

"Hey all of you vivacious, females I'm a male looking for a shrewd night out with you! I love to desire and I play the martial arts (aikido). I hope you're a cunning person cause we would be Cosplaying alll night long. We would do it like the Black Mage and Agent Reno after a night of Virgin Pina Colatas. If you're not excessive and ready to hike then don't bother."

Okay, so I was hoping that the generator distributed the adjectives and such in a logical fashion, but it's a bit of guesswork on part of the user about where things go. To summarize, I didn't like how this one turned out. I had no clue it would talk about doing it like one celebrity and another celebrity. I just put a couple infamous characters from Final Fantasy VII and 8-Bit Theater and got an image in my head that refuses to go away. And I understand Reno does not imbibe VIRGIN pina colatas... or anything frilly for that matter. And the Black Mage has it for redheads but not THAT kind of redhead! Anyway, I never wrote out a singles' personal ad before, and now that this device helped me out, I got shivers down my greasy spine.

Like most generators, you don't get to preview what paragraph you're filling the blanks to, so the first few tries are going to end in misery. With that said, playing a little will help smooth everything out. And it's always fun to get surprised.

Why this thing hasn't gotten Front Page or better awards... or a better score in general... I will never know. But I do know that the "4 in 1: Story Generator" is an excellent GADGET (put it in the proper category, not Puzzles/Other) with a level of functionality on par with the plot generator that Tom Fulp designed for one of the competitions a few months back. And it gets just as many laughs with each use.

Little-Renastair responds:

I did put it in the gadget category but some how it seemed to have gotten changed, I have fixed that now anyway, thanks.

The reason there is no preview is for the purpose of the supprise, there should maybe be a generate again button or more descriptive input names but usually they are in order of how they appear.

[Labyrinth Prison]

Doesn't Break-Out of Stock Flash Game Conventions

"Labyrinth Prison" is like an Arcade action thriller in the style of Pac-Man and Bomberman with a hint of a game that nobody on Newgrounds has ever heard of: "Miner 2049er", a cartridge for the Atari 400 Computer. That game's objective is to wipe clean the floor you're treading upon without getting hit by radioactive creatures. In the same vein, "Labyrinth Prison" requires you to snatch up all the valuables lining the maze without getting snared by creatures that charge you when they are horizontally or vertically aligned with you.

There are plenty of pluses to this game. The graphic style is old-school arcade, as stated, including the use of pixels even though Flash is best with vector art. The soundtrack is mischievous and, like most professionally done browser games, happens to feature royalty-free tracks from Incompletech.com. The controls are solid, although making too sharp a turn might cause you to go down the wrong passage, which can cause a few annoyances and maybe even a life-threatening zig when you wanted to zag.

Playing the game is just a situation where the enemy script is simple, only their health ratings, agility and cosmetic aspects (growls, hisses, or visual appearance) ever change. They wander around like Pac-Man's ghost squad and change their speed like the Ropes in The Legend of Zelda (aka the snakes that wander around but rush in if you're aligned horizontally or vertically). No special stationary guards or built-in traps or special AI here... just progressively stronger adversaries that warrant use of the Upgrade feature. Your rogue compatriot can acquire improved mobility and health ratings necessary to outrun and survive close encounters with the fanged kind, and she can manufacture a variety of traps laid behind her to deal damage to her opponents. While that sounds brilliant, it only postpones the inevitable, because creatures spawn again at their own starting points after sustaining enough damage from those little things. Several players will consider that a gyp, and the strategies for luring out foes from the treasure-laden corridors are limited and quickly wear thin.

It's a cute romp, but it veers toward the stereotypical Flash game where you can pick up Upgrades after each level. What made some arcade games great was the variety of opponents and traps that exist to test your quick thinking and adaptability. The simplicity of the enemy script and overuse of the Upgrade feature makes this game just that: a cute romp. Nothing memorable and even thin with the substance. This doesn't mean "Labyrinth Prison" is a bad game... with a little variation and depth, this kind of game can shine, but as it is, "decent but flawed" is the best phrase to describe it.

[First Fantasy v1.1]

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

[Shitty Fucking Art Game]

Moronic Genre, Merciless Satire

I have been waiting for someone to derail this whole Christ-forsaken concept and, after four years of non-involvement, PsychoPop returns with his fourth edition in his Flash catalog doing just that. "Shitty Fucking Art Game" is the Piconjo to Art Games' Pico: it is abrasive, heavy-handed, and unrelenting in its analysis of this new genre of so-called game.

The one thing that a player needs to remember that "Dear Diary", the actual name of the game, is not to be taken seriously. It is deliberate in its skewed perspective, endless literary quotes, and lack of cohesive structure. Every one of the mini-games is meant to be pointless, frustrating, and disillusioned. The pixel graphics, intended by the genre to shout out to retro gaming, is unmasked for what it truly is: a lack of graphic artistry talent on part of the designer. Everything about this game reeks of satire and pretentiousness.

Considering the lack of art game satires on Newgrounds (this is likely the only one), "Shitty Fucking Art Game" sets a standard, but a good one. The file size is low for once, the scuba shooter is difficult, and the absurdity is constant. In other spots, it got completely sinister. It took me forever to understand the civilian-shooting event involved controls that changed every few seconds or so. You actually have to look down and put your finger on the proper buttons in order to select a weapon or shoot. Controls are deliberately shoddy, but that feature just put me in a foul mood. Also, I don't see the point in the paperwork-signing event, other than an extension of an author's self-righteous commentary on modern society. Is there an objective there, other than scribbling with a right-handed mouse on things that most people would never want to sign in the first place?

"Shitty Fucking Art Game" is shitty, as the name implies, but it is also a great way to pop some people's egos about a genre that really should not have existed in the first place. When I play a video game, I expect something that is fun, challenging, requires some wit, and doesn't frustrate you during play. Art games not only fail in every category, but also frustrate your intellect by spamming the authors' opinions down your throat. Did anybody have the guts to approach AustinBreed and tell him his games were not fun?

Either this game gets the Front Page and showcases an alternate perspective on the phenomenon, or someone will come along and start staging boycotts of non-viewership upon any Art Game that comes our way, in the same vein as zero-bombing a crew or a music genre. That's when things begin to get skewed and ugly, much like the content in "Shitty Fucking Art Game".

[Throw Knife Face]

Missing the "at" Somewhere Around the "Knife" Part

Perfect game to release on April 20th, with all the stoned hipsters trying to aim at the poor jerk on the wheel. Awesome timing. Excellent title, too. And to be honest, this is actually pretty solid as a game; it makes for a good browser game or a mini-game in a console title.

[Killbot v2]

HOLY SHIT! AAAAAARGGGHBLBLBE!

Everything on that screen wanted to kill me!

This game reminded me of Miccool's "Micwizard" cartoon. The premise was a "3 minute packed stick figure animation whored with random special effects to a state where actual content is practically incomprehensible and barely recognizable."* Those millions of bullets screaming towards my little blue dot immediately reminded me of the absolute confusion and disorientation that such flash cartoons provide with reckless abandon. Also, without instructions either in the game or in the comments, I had no clue how to operate. It took me a little bit, but by that point, I saw no need to continue further: I was extremely outnumbered, and it was fruitless to resist since no objective other than scoring high was apparent.

In other words, this could have gone through a longer testing phase or just a reworking of the concept before flooding the portal with another objectionable arcade abstract shooting game. The graphic quality could have gotten a facelift, too.

* Taken from Miccool's actual comments regarding "Micwizard".

ClickCreativeGames responds:

Thanks for the honesty. THis really is a Test game and I plan to remove it soon. I made it test Mochmedia, I have much better flash games and really should only upload (ONLY) the good ones.

[Magi: The Fallen World]

This Trip Could Have Hurt a Whole Lot Less

Despite the slick look and potential replay value, drawing inspiration from Hellgate London and Diablo, "Magi: The Fallen World" has several irritating quirks that prevent it from being a memorable, enjoyable role-play experience:

Straight off the bat: if you want to play as the Archer character class, you must visit the "primary" hosting site, ageofgames.net, and play it there. Really? Why release it on other sites? Generate traffic for said hosting site? This frown-worthy marketing ploy has no function in the game itself, and a role-play junkie like me gets irate when I see an arbalest crossbow that I can never use unless I'm at another site. I happen to like it here at Newgrounds, okay?

Second, the randomization for equipment is too random. Some items that are branded with a level 4 requirement with willpower as a core attribute necessary to wield are outmoded by a level 1 piece with half the statistics necessary to use as well as double the efficiency in combat. Not an inkling of sense went into this feature's implementation. This erodes game balance.

Between the two characters I played, Warrior and Mage, I found the Mage almost feasible. Just get high mobility and run around the battlefield. Warriors need the high stamina because it will ultimately devolve into a close-up brawl. I had to equip daggers to remedy the mediocre striking speed, and suddenly the character wasn't so far-fetched. But... daggers?

This is also the first game where I have died... routinely so... for no reason than being too weak to handle "Elite" enemies. It depressed me rather than incensed me, because it meant that I had to grind weaklings and, if none were available, exit and re-enter so that a few mobs respawn. Having used MMO terminology, I got to tell you: the handling of "Champion" and "Elite" and "Legendary" creatures in this game, while possibly a challenge to some, will appear unrealistic and annoying to others. Grinding and Power-Leveling appeals only to twinkle-toed munchkins.

In RPGs, the first few moments of play are the most crucial. They're meant to hook a player for the rest of the journey. Unfortunately, the voice-overs, set to ring once every ten attacks, quickly tax this player's nerves. If you're gonna be stuck through countless dungeons fighting bad guys and looting endless warrens, you might as well hear someone worth listening to.

Creature AI fails to satisfy my desire for a strategic approach to combat. While this looks like the good SKELETON of a fighting game-based role-playing engine, it is far from a complete engine. The creatures just amble or shuffle or, in the case of giant elites, SCRAMBLE after you in a straight line, they don't bother to back off from warriors' range or have their underlings try to harry or surround a mage. All you do is line up a mob and hit fireball or use rapid-fire with a dagger, simple as that. Most of these games neglect to feature hidden hit-detection programming that prevents creatures from getting too close to one another or the character, so nobody is on top of each other.

And if stagnation of strategy cannot get worse, the limited array of special skills appear promising, but some are either superfluous or just hazardous. There is a fixed cap on how much health is wasted on Bloodlust, for instance, while it only offers a percentile increase in damage, which doesn't increase as fast as the Health cost per skill level up. Unless you're wielding a slow-speed heavy-bruiser weapon, Bloodlust is useless... especially with a dagger that deals paltry damage. You'd hurt yourself more than the cretin you're fighting!

Don't get me wrong. Deploying the "dump-on" should not discourage the authors from using a lavish musical score or 32-bit quality fighting game graphics. Production values and artistic merits are, on the surface, incredible, and the game can keep players busy. It's a shame that such energy wasn't directed towards improving game play, but having been made in under three months, "Magi: The Fallen World" is, still, a professional accomplishment.