This is an angry rant triggered by idiocy I've had to suffer via email from Nexon's auto-mailer.
Most people probably haven't heard of Dungeon Fighter Online, aka "Dungeon and Fighter". It's a side scrolling 2D beat-em-up brawler game with some RPG elements that was released in the f2p (free to play) MMO format. While I've been generally sick of MMO's and and their sub-genre's for awhile I also have a soft spot in my heart for side 2D beat-em-up games, so about...I think it was almost 3 years ago...I gave DFO a shot, and I liked it. I liked it a lot.
Unfortunately I quit because publisher for its north American version has the intelligence of an escaped mental patient that is on crack and just received a traumatic brain injury. Frequently parts of their systems will just plain break. Not just in game but their website and cash shop servers as well. Temporary items with an expiration date 5 days from now auto delete today when they clearly aren't supposed to. Cash shop items that give a non descriptive error message when you try to buy something: "Error104". Real helpful guys.
And when you report these things you'll wait months (possibly years) only to have your support ticket automatically closed, get an email with a generic canned reply like "how to reset your password" that obviously does not apply to your problem, and maybe have the one staff member they have who's actual job is support for a completely different Nexon game decides to suggest things that don't even...Well I think you get the idea.
The game is shutting down, and that's probably for the best. I only wish Nexon itself was shutting down so the properties it has could go to a company that might actually care about why their number of players was shrinking. I now ask "is it a nexon game?" instead of "what's it like?" as my first question when friends want me to check out a new online game because there is no way I'll touch anything by Nexon ever again.
Nexon's own words on the matter suggest they thought the game would make money and then they'd pay for appropriate staffing to run and maintain the game...It doesn't work that way, you have to be able to run and maintain a game if you want to retain enough customers to make money! This should be obvious to anyone with half a brain!
But the stupidity doesn't end there, no, not by a long shot. It's been years since I logged into the game. I don't even have it installed. I never even used their cash shop when I did play. But I got a message saying my Nexon account is restricted due to "suspicious activity" related to DFO's cash shop. So I reinstalled the client and checked out my account both in game and on their website and found it was completely untouched since I left it and even shows it hadn't been logged in at all for that entire time. I never used the shop when I did play, so what activity was there that could have been suspicious?
Nexon has mass restricted and mass banned without explanation before on top of letting glitches do serious damage, to the point that the few who chose to stay got used to using the phrase "got nexon'd" to describe their disappeared friends, restricted accounts, and missing items.
No words of mine are adequate to explain just how horrible this company is.
Had DFO been properly supported it might have been the first review on this blog, and might even have broken the 4.0 barrier on scores. As it is with the problems and non support, it would be lucky to get a number at all instead of a photograph of my middle finger.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Dragon Quest: Legacy of the Lost (FanGame)
Developer: Orias_Obderhode
Download site: rpgmaker.net
Genre: Classic RPG
Art style: Retro (16-bit)
Overall Fun Score: 4.0
Balance: 4.0
Replay value: 3.5
Writing/Dialog: 3.5
Story/Plot: 3.5
Dungeon/Level Design: 3.5
Puzzles/Traps: 3.5
Graphics/Sound/Music: 4.0/Better than many fan games I've seen.
Missables: 2.5/Some
From the author: "Dragon Quest: Legacy of the Lost is a fangame highly inspired by Dragon Warrior 7. The game features the shard system and time travel aspect found in Dragon Warrior 7. The underlying story, however, is not the same and besides the time traveling portion, no plot sequence will be taken from Dragon Warrior 7."
Honestly, DW7 wasn't even close to my favorite Dragon warrior/Dragon Quest game yet Legacy of the Lost still earned a high score. The Dragon Quest experience is recreated so well here that several times I caught myself forgetting this was a fan game.
The graphics mostly come from Dragon Warrior games released on the Gameboy Color. The author placed the rips well with nothing horribly out of place and did a nice job of keeping the visuals sharp and vibrant after resizing and editing. A some fangames I've encountered had either a crazy color pallet, look like they were made with crayons, look washed out, blurred edges, or some combination of those things. Legacy of the Lost has none of these problems. The sound and music selection is also well done. Where it deviates from the Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest soundtracks the music used still feels like a good fit.
Game features include both monster breeding and alchemical crafting of weapons armor and accessory items. An update added rare spawn monster encounters that have better randomly dropped items, many of which are used in crafting. There is also an in game bestiary to keep track of what monsters you've encountered, what they drop, and where they live so you can easily hunt them again.
I have played through the game twice using different characters in my party. Overall I'd say the game it pretty well balanced. I never felt like I had spend days to grinding for exp. I'd say the game is less grindy than the old NES Dragon Warrior games were. People who played the remakes and not the older versions might disagree with me. When I played the remakes they felt easier than the original NES versions but I can't say for sure how much of that is nostalgia mixed with knowing where everything is already. I did have to grind for gold but the game has since had an update that increased gold drops.
Foes did not seem to be either too difficult or too weak, when my characters weren't either lacking gear or over-leveled. Bosses were reasonably challenging without being all about luck. If you're having trouble with a boss you likely need to adjust your strategy - for instance wearing fire resistant gear and defending on rounds when the game warns you about a strong incoming attack.
There are a few things you can permanently miss in this game, such as a few Tiny Medal in places you can never return to and an achievement that you can't know exists prior to reaching the NPC who awards it without someone telling you. To earn it, you must reach said NPC without ever using the church to revive/recover any character from the very beginning of the game. It's going to be quite some time before you'll reach him as he is several lands away so save often and keep a backup save (or 3).
Remember you can always zip/rar up some of your saves (Save1.rvdata ~ Save4.rvdata) to get around that 4 slot limit if you want/need to. Higher achievement scores come with progressively better rewards, and this includes one really nice accessory. You're really going to want 100% of the achievements completed. A score of 2.5 in this category is still good on my scale. A lot of games with missables don't do as well.
Most of the bugs have been fixed since my last play-through but there may still be a few that escaped notice prior to the last version update. If you encounter anything serious the author usually responds pretty fast if you or post private message or post a comment on the games page and has offered to fix bugged saved games before.
Download site: rpgmaker.net
Genre: Classic RPG
Art style: Retro (16-bit)
Overall Fun Score: 4.0
Balance: 4.0
Replay value: 3.5
Writing/Dialog: 3.5
Story/Plot: 3.5
Dungeon/Level Design: 3.5
Puzzles/Traps: 3.5
Graphics/Sound/Music: 4.0/Better than many fan games I've seen.
Missables: 2.5/Some
From the author: "Dragon Quest: Legacy of the Lost is a fangame highly inspired by Dragon Warrior 7. The game features the shard system and time travel aspect found in Dragon Warrior 7. The underlying story, however, is not the same and besides the time traveling portion, no plot sequence will be taken from Dragon Warrior 7."
Honestly, DW7 wasn't even close to my favorite Dragon warrior/Dragon Quest game yet Legacy of the Lost still earned a high score. The Dragon Quest experience is recreated so well here that several times I caught myself forgetting this was a fan game.
The graphics mostly come from Dragon Warrior games released on the Gameboy Color. The author placed the rips well with nothing horribly out of place and did a nice job of keeping the visuals sharp and vibrant after resizing and editing. A some fangames I've encountered had either a crazy color pallet, look like they were made with crayons, look washed out, blurred edges, or some combination of those things. Legacy of the Lost has none of these problems. The sound and music selection is also well done. Where it deviates from the Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest soundtracks the music used still feels like a good fit.
Game features include both monster breeding and alchemical crafting of weapons armor and accessory items. An update added rare spawn monster encounters that have better randomly dropped items, many of which are used in crafting. There is also an in game bestiary to keep track of what monsters you've encountered, what they drop, and where they live so you can easily hunt them again.
I have played through the game twice using different characters in my party. Overall I'd say the game it pretty well balanced. I never felt like I had spend days to grinding for exp. I'd say the game is less grindy than the old NES Dragon Warrior games were. People who played the remakes and not the older versions might disagree with me. When I played the remakes they felt easier than the original NES versions but I can't say for sure how much of that is nostalgia mixed with knowing where everything is already. I did have to grind for gold but the game has since had an update that increased gold drops.
Foes did not seem to be either too difficult or too weak, when my characters weren't either lacking gear or over-leveled. Bosses were reasonably challenging without being all about luck. If you're having trouble with a boss you likely need to adjust your strategy - for instance wearing fire resistant gear and defending on rounds when the game warns you about a strong incoming attack.
There are a few things you can permanently miss in this game, such as a few Tiny Medal in places you can never return to and an achievement that you can't know exists prior to reaching the NPC who awards it without someone telling you. To earn it, you must reach said NPC without ever using the church to revive/recover any character from the very beginning of the game. It's going to be quite some time before you'll reach him as he is several lands away so save often and keep a backup save (or 3).
Remember you can always zip/rar up some of your saves (Save1.rvdata ~ Save4.rvdata) to get around that 4 slot limit if you want/need to. Higher achievement scores come with progressively better rewards, and this includes one really nice accessory. You're really going to want 100% of the achievements completed. A score of 2.5 in this category is still good on my scale. A lot of games with missables don't do as well.
Most of the bugs have been fixed since my last play-through but there may still be a few that escaped notice prior to the last version update. If you encounter anything serious the author usually responds pretty fast if you or post private message or post a comment on the games page and has offered to fix bugged saved games before.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Hellion
Developer: Kentona
Author's website: kentona.freehostia.com
Download site: rpgmaker.net
Genre: Classic RPG (dungeon crawler)
Art style: Retro (8-bit)
Overall Fun Score: 4.0
Balance: 4.0
Replay value: 4.0
Writing/Dialog: 3.5
Story/Plot: Not scored
Dungeon/level Design: 4.0
Puzzles/traps: 4.0
Graphics/Sound/Music: Not scored
Missables: 4.0/None
From the author: "Hellion is best described as a cross between Dragon Warrior, Diablo and D&D - you have a blank slate character with 7 classes to choose from at the beginning of the game. You adventure solo. You can hire hirelings. The monster drops are random. The graphics are NES. The battles backgrounds are black. There are traps. There are locks to be picked and NPCs to be persuaded."
The plot is pretty simple. There is this village with a huge multi-floor deep dungeon beneath it packed with monsters, and you play the stranger who is going to dive right in there. You don't need much more than that for a dungeon crawler game but the player does get an explored backstory later.
The graphics, music, and sounds are mostly rips and recreations of those found in the NES Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest games but they are well placed and well chosen. Keep in mind the game is deliberately low graphic, don't expect fancy explosions when you cast a spell as everything is presented in 8-bit form. And it isn't just the graphics that are retro - this game really nails its goals in feeling like D&D meets Dragon Warrior. With the plot from Diablo.
Hellion has a ton of replay value, with 7 classes (each with unique skill trees) and multiple ways to handle many situations. For example, you can build up your stealth and try to avoid battles rather than fight everything and even pickpocket the monsters and townspeople. Your alignment matters too, to a lesser extent. If you get caught doing evil deeds the good people of the town will be wary of you and less likely to trust or help you. Some secrets will only be uncovered by players with the right kind of reputation.
Most encounters are not "random encounters". You can see the enemy, and often it will run towards or away from you. The stronger you are, the more likely lesser foes will flee in terror. Once your party comes in physical contact with a monster you get the traditional battle screen for your two parties to fight it out on.
I have played through multiple times as multiple classes with quite a variety of party members (henchmen) and the game is fairly well balanced. Not perfectly balanced but enough to be impressed when you consider factors like the short development time, item drops and character stats being in ranges rather than static values, and wide variety of possible gameplay styles.
Even when I temporarily skipped most of the monsters for large chunks of the main dungeons levels, I didn't feel like I had to grind for gold or exp. If you just kill a majority of the encounters on each floor, you should be able to tackle most of the bosses without too much frustration so long as you have a solid strategy. The old RPG staples will see you through: Save often, talk to everyone, explore everywhere!
The same author has made several very good games which you can check out on his site. I plan to review a few of these after I have time to finish them. Hellion impressed me so much I was inspired me to try my hand at creating an add-on package for it. I haven't had this much fun since Black Isle Studios last game came out. The add-on is being worked on with Kentona's permission and will add several new classes as well as some unlockable bonus areas and minor tweaks.
On the rpgmaker.net page there is already an add-on called the "Rad Sunglasses mappack". That is not the add-on I'm making, but it is definitely worth getting. It adds a new dungeon with some very nice treasures.
If I ever get find the time between my other projects, I'd like write a walk-through for this game. I've never written one before. If you were ever a fan of RPG's that came out in the NES or SNES era this is simply a must have for your collection.
Author's website: kentona.freehostia.com
Download site: rpgmaker.net
Genre: Classic RPG (dungeon crawler)
Art style: Retro (8-bit)
Overall Fun Score: 4.0
Balance: 4.0
Replay value: 4.0
Writing/Dialog: 3.5
Story/Plot: Not scored
Dungeon/level Design: 4.0
Puzzles/traps: 4.0
Graphics/Sound/Music: Not scored
Missables: 4.0/None
From the author: "Hellion is best described as a cross between Dragon Warrior, Diablo and D&D - you have a blank slate character with 7 classes to choose from at the beginning of the game. You adventure solo. You can hire hirelings. The monster drops are random. The graphics are NES. The battles backgrounds are black. There are traps. There are locks to be picked and NPCs to be persuaded."
The plot is pretty simple. There is this village with a huge multi-floor deep dungeon beneath it packed with monsters, and you play the stranger who is going to dive right in there. You don't need much more than that for a dungeon crawler game but the player does get an explored backstory later.
The graphics, music, and sounds are mostly rips and recreations of those found in the NES Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest games but they are well placed and well chosen. Keep in mind the game is deliberately low graphic, don't expect fancy explosions when you cast a spell as everything is presented in 8-bit form. And it isn't just the graphics that are retro - this game really nails its goals in feeling like D&D meets Dragon Warrior. With the plot from Diablo.
Hellion has a ton of replay value, with 7 classes (each with unique skill trees) and multiple ways to handle many situations. For example, you can build up your stealth and try to avoid battles rather than fight everything and even pickpocket the monsters and townspeople. Your alignment matters too, to a lesser extent. If you get caught doing evil deeds the good people of the town will be wary of you and less likely to trust or help you. Some secrets will only be uncovered by players with the right kind of reputation.
Most encounters are not "random encounters". You can see the enemy, and often it will run towards or away from you. The stronger you are, the more likely lesser foes will flee in terror. Once your party comes in physical contact with a monster you get the traditional battle screen for your two parties to fight it out on.
I have played through multiple times as multiple classes with quite a variety of party members (henchmen) and the game is fairly well balanced. Not perfectly balanced but enough to be impressed when you consider factors like the short development time, item drops and character stats being in ranges rather than static values, and wide variety of possible gameplay styles.
Even when I temporarily skipped most of the monsters for large chunks of the main dungeons levels, I didn't feel like I had to grind for gold or exp. If you just kill a majority of the encounters on each floor, you should be able to tackle most of the bosses without too much frustration so long as you have a solid strategy. The old RPG staples will see you through: Save often, talk to everyone, explore everywhere!
The same author has made several very good games which you can check out on his site. I plan to review a few of these after I have time to finish them. Hellion impressed me so much I was inspired me to try my hand at creating an add-on package for it. I haven't had this much fun since Black Isle Studios last game came out. The add-on is being worked on with Kentona's permission and will add several new classes as well as some unlockable bonus areas and minor tweaks.
On the rpgmaker.net page there is already an add-on called the "Rad Sunglasses mappack". That is not the add-on I'm making, but it is definitely worth getting. It adds a new dungeon with some very nice treasures.
If I ever get find the time between my other projects, I'd like write a walk-through for this game. I've never written one before. If you were ever a fan of RPG's that came out in the NES or SNES era this is simply a must have for your collection.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Indie gaming website I was introduced to recently : RMN
Not long ago the search engine I was using to look for a certain a soundtrack showed me a link to a game, and I decided to check it out. The game was called Hellion, and was made using RPG Maker 2003. The game was styled to resemble early games of the Dragon Quest series (aka Dragon Warrior), which is why the search engine picked it up.
I enjoyed this game so much that I contacted the author, Kentona, who introduced me to the website where he is an Administrator: rpgmaker.net (aka "RMN"). The site has a lot of useful resources, tutorials, and help for multiple development and middleware engines. The people there are mostly friendly, and you can count on the staff to be reasonable so long as you yourself are civil.
Some other places I'd been to in the past have been less than friendly. I've seen people so steadfastly against any form of middleware that I have to wonder why they were still present. I've seen rabid RPG maker fans too busy arguing over who's middleware engine is better and I've seen useless "help" such as "I have done that in my game which will not be released until I get my patent for my event script!" followed by "you're lucky anyone even replied you ingrateful[sic] sod"...Those were actual responses I've seen to simple newbie questions at other sites.
I haven't had to deal with any of that garbage on RMN.
In the coming weeks I'll be reviewing both Hellion and a fan made Dragon Quest game that I saw on RMN.
I enjoyed this game so much that I contacted the author, Kentona, who introduced me to the website where he is an Administrator: rpgmaker.net (aka "RMN"). The site has a lot of useful resources, tutorials, and help for multiple development and middleware engines. The people there are mostly friendly, and you can count on the staff to be reasonable so long as you yourself are civil.
Some other places I'd been to in the past have been less than friendly. I've seen people so steadfastly against any form of middleware that I have to wonder why they were still present. I've seen rabid RPG maker fans too busy arguing over who's middleware engine is better and I've seen useless "help" such as "I have done that in my game which will not be released until I get my patent for my event script!" followed by "you're lucky anyone even replied you ingrateful[sic] sod"...Those were actual responses I've seen to simple newbie questions at other sites.
I haven't had to deal with any of that garbage on RMN.
In the coming weeks I'll be reviewing both Hellion and a fan made Dragon Quest game that I saw on RMN.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Seyken: Crystal Kingdom
Developer: EpicBeyondStudios
Publisher: EpicBeyondStudios
Official website: seyken.org
Genre: Action RPG (calls itself JRPG)
Art style: Retro (16-bit)
Overall Fun Score: N/A
I am not going to score this game at this time.
I didn't give the game very much time - I could not stand the default (and unchangeable) control scheme. The game is still fairly new, and the help page claims developer intends to add native controller support which may clear up my problem with it.
As it is now, just remapping things using JoyToKey made trying to play the game worse instead of easier. It is a click-to-attack style interface. I particularly hate these, they wear out my mouse.
The game itself has several other issues that honestly should have been taken care of immediately - like being able to take loot from someone elses kills. In the first few minutes I also noted a higher level player had wiped out most of the newbie area monsters and left all the loot behind, and he also walked up and one shot killed the bee I was fighting. I was able to pick this up the abandoned loot and sell it to an NPC in town.
I think I would be very ticked off if I won a hard fight, and someone could just take the loot. I didn't note if I gained experience or not when he struck down the bee, and it didn't happen a second time for me to investigate that potential problem (he wasn't intentionally hassling me, he had accidentally clicked).
I didn't get far enough to see if the game contains any instanced area's. The potential loot/exp issues might turn out to be negligible if most areas are instanced.
I will be giving this game another shot farther down the road, and I will try to give the game a fair review even if the controls cannot be adjusted to my liking.
The gameplay, for what time I did play it, reminds me of Brain Lord. I loved that game. I can see myself really getting into Seyken: Crystal Kingdom with better/customizable controls.
If any readers have more experience with this game, feel free to comment and give it your own score of 1.0 to 5.0 with 1 being worse than the worst game you ever played before now, 5 being better than the best game you ever played before now.
Publisher: EpicBeyondStudios
Official website: seyken.org
Genre: Action RPG (calls itself JRPG)
Art style: Retro (16-bit)
Overall Fun Score: N/A
I am not going to score this game at this time.
I didn't give the game very much time - I could not stand the default (and unchangeable) control scheme. The game is still fairly new, and the help page claims developer intends to add native controller support which may clear up my problem with it.
As it is now, just remapping things using JoyToKey made trying to play the game worse instead of easier. It is a click-to-attack style interface. I particularly hate these, they wear out my mouse.
The game itself has several other issues that honestly should have been taken care of immediately - like being able to take loot from someone elses kills. In the first few minutes I also noted a higher level player had wiped out most of the newbie area monsters and left all the loot behind, and he also walked up and one shot killed the bee I was fighting. I was able to pick this up the abandoned loot and sell it to an NPC in town.
I think I would be very ticked off if I won a hard fight, and someone could just take the loot. I didn't note if I gained experience or not when he struck down the bee, and it didn't happen a second time for me to investigate that potential problem (he wasn't intentionally hassling me, he had accidentally clicked).
I didn't get far enough to see if the game contains any instanced area's. The potential loot/exp issues might turn out to be negligible if most areas are instanced.
I will be giving this game another shot farther down the road, and I will try to give the game a fair review even if the controls cannot be adjusted to my liking.
The gameplay, for what time I did play it, reminds me of Brain Lord. I loved that game. I can see myself really getting into Seyken: Crystal Kingdom with better/customizable controls.
If any readers have more experience with this game, feel free to comment and give it your own score of 1.0 to 5.0 with 1 being worse than the worst game you ever played before now, 5 being better than the best game you ever played before now.
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