Archive: 3 posts

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I'm sure if you read the reviews section regularly, you may have noticed another reviewer by the name of Neverynnal around here, and although he hasn't been actively reviewing levels (where did he go?), he's certainly been active making levels. A long time ago, in a galaxy that pretty much is exactly the same as this one, I did a review for Neverynnal's "Good or Evil: A Knight's Tale", a level where the player would be engaged in a mission to save a princess from abduction and would have to choose between the paths of being Jesus the second or being the abandoned love child of Hitler and Black Mage. In one scenario you save the princess and become a knight of justive and light, in the other path you blow up the princess and join the demon god Ranaku to overthrow the Kingdom. So, in this particular case, Ranaku's awakening is a direct split path sequel to GoE under the assumption that you chose the Dark path. This level continues on that road by putting you in a level that remarkably reminded me more of The Abandoned Coal Mine and "His" World than it did the Evil Path of GoE. The Evil path gave the impression of a stereotypical old fashioned kind of hell, almost cartoonish style in that it was all just goofy looking demons and walls that were all lit on fire. In fact, the whole thing was pretty much on fire. Well, RA decided that it wanted to do a level more in the style of Temple rather than Hell, a choice that while seemed appropriate and fitting for what the level was going for also disappointed me to a degree because it seemed to suck away a tiny bit of the charm that was GoE's Evil path. It's like taking a child happily sucking away at a Lollipop and having someone yank the lolli away and give you a gumball in return, and while the gumball is certainly good it still doesn't satisfy that constant flavor sensation the child had with the lollipop, and thus the gumball becomes stale rapidly. All I'm saying is that I felt like the level was doing better when it was trying to be more silly and less serious, which is not to be confused with the level being taken seriously. Now then, how is the level is functionality? Well, it certainly is a level by definition, and there are additional content bonuses like a few enemies and a boss at the end, but really the whole level was constantly alternating between rather fun and rather stale. Everything incorporated felt like it was by the book, and that definitely made it solid for gameplay but also gave it a sense of lethargy. Yeah, some new things were tried, like a makeshift attempt at combining a standard level with a music level at early points, and although the idea is untested and a bit new it didn't seem to fly off the ground much further than Calvin does with his wagon (slightly higher brow joke). The boss at the end is big, but not big as in epic rather the boss just happens to be prodigious in size. Still, you know what they say: "The bigger they are, the harder they fall, just make sure they don't fall on you." While I'm here, I think I will use this as an opportunity to state something that has been on my mind for a while: If you are going to make a stationary boss, make it harder to get to. Otherwise the whole experience flops a little bit. The boss is easily defeated in the same manner you would defeat an enemy in Shadow of the Colossus, so be ready to employ tactic "Climbing and Stabbing" Finally, mood. Yes, I feel it's necessary to talk about mood in this level which is not entirely the same as design. All the alters and fallen hero spirits try to inform you that what you are doing will cause horrible tragedy upon the world and nothing will be able to stop it, and these allegations will show up frequently so I hope you are ready to spend a good majority of the level being complained towards. Every once in a while you will get a message from Ranaku telling you to press onwards, but most of it is the old spirits complaining or endlessly warning you about the dangers ahead. Somehow, this whole thing continued to play into the whole "Abandoned Coal Mine" comparison again, feeling like somehow you are doing the wrong thing across the span of the level, but then I remember part of the point to this level. You've already been given the choice between Jesus II and Skele-Hitler, and you clearly picked evil, so there's no point trying to make you feel like you picked the wrong choice across the span of the whole level. It just seems a little......demeaning. Final Score: 7.5 / 10 Either play this or play "The Abandoned Coal Mine", because they don't feel that different. I guess the biggest differences are that TACM feels a bit more creepy and sinister, and RA actually feels like there's more actual level component behind it, but the experiences are pretty similar. On a side note, I just finished Eternal Sonata. That's an amazing game.

2009-01-26 07:36:00 Author: Shining Aquas Posts: 353

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Definitely a fair review man. But I do completely disagree with the resemblance to The Abandoned Coal Mine. The plot, visuals and goal of the level are in complete contrast. The warnings to turn around are simply tomes (books) revealing some story and begging you to reconsider letting loose the dark lord that is Ranaku (since they put him to rest in the first place). But yeah, like I said, fair review, and I'll take the 7.5 with a smile Thanks bud! EDIT: Oh and the boss...definitely the low point of the level in my opinion. He's easy for a number of reasons: 1) Long level, didn't want to make him unbearably hard and force people to 2 star/frustrate the level. 2) Thermo space. I was at about 9/10 thermo when I built the boss >< I really wanted something epic, but I guess that will come in the next installment

2009-01-27 03:41:00 Author: Neverynnal Posts: 374

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Sorry about the comparison to TACM, but I just couldn't shake off the feeling that it felt similar to me. It's kinda like playing Fallout 3 and constantly reminding yourself "This is a hell of a lot like Oblivion"

2009-01-27 05:16:00 Author: Shining Aquas Posts: 353

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