by SirHedge » Fri Jun 08 2018 4:55am
Really excited to see this! I had fun playing it. It's clear a ton of additional work has been put into this beyond the first demo. And it has a very clean presentation overall. I may do a short Let's Play in the future, but in case that never comes about, here are my thoughts so far:
General goodness: graphics, map visuals, dialogue, music quality, characters, character balance, battle design
Some improvement: map navigation, dialogue logic, plot, battle balance, menu interface
Graphics:
Loved them, especially the battle animations (which are absolutely gorgeous through and through). The new Darkling attack animation in particular was something I had not seen before, and was a wonderful surprise. There's certainly some places that still need help, but I don't know what's final and what still may be worked on (such as head shaking animations), so all I'm going to say is that some of the lip flaps could use some help.
Mapping:
Visually, the maps were very good. The tile sets were competent and allowed for sufficient diversity in visuals to keep maps looking interesting and generally vibrant. And the mappers did a good job of using the available tiles in interesting ways to make visually appealing maps.
However, map navigation could be improved. Namely, the maps should be smaller. Things are really far apart in the game and I found myself wanting a run button -- something I never once felt in either SF1 or SF2. Those games were very minimalistic in the size of houses and buildings, and were careful with how the walk-ways were built so that you weren't often running around buildings. Only important buildings, like the school house, received larger floor plans. And even then, some houses (like Bowie's or Rohde's) were made into two floors instead. The castle in Legacies of Veridocia especially had large empty hallways that could be shrunk. They look good enough, certainly, but when I walk around I want things to do and see. Zoomed out or in screen shots is one thing, while playing is something else entirely. I should note that both battle scenes (the courtyard and dungeon) were appropriately sized. And I liked the large house that broke up the town in the lower right. If the other houses shrunk, I think it would make that scene all the more impactful.
Besides the size of maps, my only other comment is that there is one cobblestone floor tile whose border looks unpassable. This isn't usually a problem, but sometimes it is used in places where one should walk over it. It is not so confusing that I got lost or anything, but it is something which could be improved (or at least considered in future maps or tile sets).
Dialogue
The dialogue was surprisingly well written. At least, I was surprised. I remembered not being particularly impressed with the first demo in terms of dialogue (it was written well enough, but went on too long or didn't feel natural -- I don't quite remember what I didn't like, honestly). But this release felt really good and engaging. Cut-scenes were long enough to provide characterization, but short enough to get me to the gameplay. The NPCs also were cleverly written and generally had more world-building comments than inane "nice day" tropes. One caveat I will say to this is that while I fully explored the town, I haven't fully explored the castle yet. So hopefully the castle NPCs hold up to the same quality elsewhere.
My one complaint with dialogue is that is it not consistent with itself (I wrote this as "dialogue logic" up above). Basically, Noah wakes up and talks to someone about a storm last night. But then a child is being called to go home to bed, and a shop is closing for the night. It just feels wrong. Somehow the timing of the day needs to be setup and followed or else I'm thrown out of the story. (Close to night seems to be logical choice here, given the rest of the story, so all that probably needs to be stated is that Noah has a night shift or something.)
Plot
Really not much to go on yet here, but it held together well. I actually originally had plot as "general goodness" above, and it honestly could go either way. Mistral was presented as a competent villain adapting to unexpected circumstances. We have some intrigue with the unknown person to which she was talking. We have a tie-in with why the shop was out of weapons. We have a reason for why our trio checked the courtyard (no one should be there at night). We were broken out of jail by some very high powered individuals and even split the battle into two for a logical reason. So, awesome!
However, one thing I couldn't get away from was that I have no idea what Mistral pinned on the trio to call them traitors. So far as we know, nothing has been done against the crown. All we have thus far is Mistral planning to do something. But nothing was done. I think she says the trio were plotting against the king (I know she say "treason," but can't remember specifically what else), but unless she's already taken over the kingdom, such a weak argument certainly wouldn't result in next-day execution, right? I dunno. It felt like a plot hole to me.
Also, the whole "tripping" thing is pretty ridiculous, but in light of Bowie's soap drinking habits, that can probably be forgiven.
Oh, and before I forget, Noah's really growing on me as our hero's name.
Music
Music was great. The game could use some additional scores which better fit certain scenes, but I'm sure that will happen with time and as more are written, so I can't hold that against anyone. I also appreciated the updated sound quality. I love pixel graphics for their expressiveness and flexibility (they look good "hopping" with no additional frames of animation, for example), but I'm not going to deny that the Genesis sound chip hasn't aged as gracefully.
Characters
We're still early in the game, but there's already some clear characterization coming through (hopefully Huun gets a few more lines moving forward, though). And they all are distinctive graphically.
From the battle side of things, they have far more diversity in stats than early game SF1 or SF2 as well (though my Noah got shafted on Attack ups, either randomly or intentionally, which made him as weak as Sharna damage-wise and ruining some diversity). Having an early archer felt really good, too. And giving Noah some early defense and HP boosts to allow him to tank for the back-liners gave a fundamental strategy back-bone that SF2 lacked with it's 3-4 person parties (SF1, of course, did not have this issue with their five person parties). All party members felt equally useful. No one was overpowered. And they all had different roles to play, but could also pinch-hit by fulfilling another role (attack, tank, heal) if necessary.
Battles
Both battles felt interesting and fresh. The Darklings were generally passive, but moved in aggressively when triggered. Correct play allowed one to catch them in choke points, and the battle map did not feel either too large or too small. I honestly feel as though this battle was better in this new release than in the original, but I can't remember what exactly is different. Either way, it was interesting and provided opportunities for strategy even at this early stage.
I saw a demo a long time ago of a split battle where Craig and Olivia were doing their thing while everyone else did theirs and thought it was pointless. However, Battle 2 (which was a different battle from the demo) felt really good and added some interest to the battles even at this early stage in the game. From a gameplay perspective, it could also be seen as a sort of tutorial for advanced spells too, since Craig and Olivia were by and large invincible. Battle 2 was also thematically appropriate.
However, the battle balance and difficulty curves could be improved. I got through the first battle fairly easily, but I did have to think how I would do it, and there were times I hoped the Darklings wouldn't swarm or I'd be in trouble. I've always felt one of the biggest problems with SF2 was its first battle being altogether too difficult for a game introduction, and I levy the same complaint here. I could have very easily lost someone in battle (which is a bit awkward plot-wise), which really shouldn't be happening for a first fight without unabashed carelessness on my part. Moreover (just like in SF2) the second fight is far easier. There are fewer enemies to face, more 10% terrain, and my level 2 stats means that the enemy increased attack and HP are not very relevant.
I think decreasing the attack of the Darklings by 1 (from 10 to 9) would go a long way in making the first battle more forgiving and making a clear up-tick in power for the soliders because the attack power difference would now be greater than the expected defense increase from level 2. I may also remove one of the Darklings from the first fight. Not sure on that yet, though.
Menu Interface
Really beautiful menu designs. I loved how individual icons bulged from the set of four when selected, the extra flourish on the spell level selection, the general graphics, even the weird glass effect on the selection cursor. I also appreciated some quality of life changes, like virtually eliminating the use of "A". There were some things I was less enthralled with, however. I realize some of these may already be listed as something to improve in the future, and some may be a matter of opinion. But I figured I'd give my opinion anyway.
First, not having to press a button to see HP/MP of allies and monsters was a masterstroke. But I think the "swoosh" noise isn't necessary then. It felt weird to have a double "swoosh" when I then hit "D" and I could also see it getting a bit annoying as I scroll through an enemy grouping.
When selecting which enemy to attack, not having the stats swoosh in and out, while nice in its own way, caused a loss of clarity for when the target was switched. This doesn't sound too bad if you're staring at the map, but it can be nice to stare at the stats to find the monster you thought was low on health, for example. Hopefully what I'm saying here makes sense. It would be easy to explain in a video, but not so much in text format.
I prefer the magic spells to start at max level rather than the level minimum, since I suspect I'll usually be using their highest level.
For the priest, Save should not be the first option. I know it's by far the most used option, but it was changed in SF2 to avoid accidental saving (which was a problem I've definitely encountered with friends), and I think that still applies here.
For the shop keeper, it was weird when buying an item to have to hit "confirm" after the message came up explaining the cost, but before I said yes or no. If I didn't want to buy the item it felt especially bad since hitting "cancel" wouldn't do anything. I'm assuming this is something that you are already aware of and will be cleaned up in later releases, but just in case I figured I'd point it out here.
When in battle, you always have to lift the key and press it again to get past the first dialogue of a fight. I love how if you don't press anything the battle will sit without advancing (really nice if I want to listen to the music, for example), but I do like it how just holding down a key essentially fast forwards through all the text like in SF2. Again, I hope it is clear what I'm talking about.
As with plot, I could potentially place menu interface under "general goodness" rather than "needs improvement," but I think there's enough that could be improved to warrant the downgrade.
Overall
I think "feels like a real game" is perhaps the biggest praise I can give right now. The demo is extremely well done, and was engaging and fun to play. Easily my biggest complaint is that there wasn't a third fight. Congrats to all who have put time and effort into this project. The dedication shows.
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