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Neo Krysta vs. JSH357
Neo Krysta Observe how this boss crushes.. er.. piddles?
Realmsoft Interactive America
Download: 851 KB
V.S.
JSH357
Play Time: 1 hours and 0 minutes
Review # 8 for JSH357 Observe how this boss crushes.. er.. piddles?
Them's Fightin' Words
    Neo Krysta is the first game in the Neo Krysta Trilogy. I have not
played any of the three games in a very long time, so this playthrough
was essentially my first experience with the series. I will relate it
to the later games when I review those.

A note about this game: I'm not sure if there was a bug or not, but
the game ended rather abruptly. I walked into an area and the 'game
over' screen popped up. A bad way to end a demo, but I will assume
that it was the ending. If not, then so sorry.
Graphics
    Neo Krysta looks pretty average for an OHR game. The graphics are
generally above average or below average, but never horrible or
particularly excellent. Maptiles were very griddy- sections would
often stick out and just look bad. The battle backgrounds also
looked pretty griddy. Walkabout graphics were very good for the most
part, but battle sprites and enemy graphics looked pretty poor.

On a side note, there are some graphical glitches in this game. They
are essentially the fault of the engine, though, so I will not count
off for said glitches.
 
Storyline
    Neo Krysta's story isn't bad, but it isn't that interesting either.
The heroes are all pretty hollow, and the villains are even more
hollow. I was a bit curious to see how the game turned out, but as
I said, the demo ended abruptly. Basically, you're a man with
amnesia(boo) who is a sword-fighter(boo) who has to find the pieces
of the crystal(boo). Nothing unbelievably original, but at least he
doesn't have spikey blonde hair.
 
Gameplay
    This game is just plain unbalanced. Enemies at the beginning do two
points of damage to a character with 200 HP and ten becomes the
highest amount of damage by the end of the demo. Magic, which is
used up quickly, does less damage than attacking physically unless
the enemy is weak to the element, in which case the extra five damage
dealt isn't really worth the cost of the spell. In other words, this
is a hold-down-the-space bar game. All of the characters are
essentially identical- everyone can use every spell and has no special
skills. Just different stats. Yep. Final Fantasy II syndrome.

For an example of how unbalanced the game is, look at the upper right
screenshot(Which is a boss battle)
 
  Battle
    I covered this mostly already, but I do have a few things to add.
Enemy variety is nil. You fight 'Slime' then 'Forest Slime' then
'Slime King'. Bosses are poorly designed; they're just regular enemies
with high HP. The battles are also really easy. Enemies barely do any
damage at all, and potions fully recover your HP.
 
  Map Design
    Well, I did like some of the puzzles, but I have two problems:
First off, this game has a certian really-annoying fetch quest that
requires you to go back to an earlier area and find an item. Why is
this bad? Because the map is huge, the enemies are weak and
uninteresting, and nothing happens along the way to make the quest
interesting.

Second problem is with the encounter rate. It's very high. What's
worse, the battles suffer from an annoying flaw: enemies are easy to
beat, but it takes a while to do it. This is bad. I don't want to
have to sit through a battle that I know I'll win without any effort
for more than ten seconds.
 
  Balance
    I explained this.  
Music
    I hear the author is good with music, but unfortunately, I cannot
hear .BAM sound. :/
 
Enjoyment
    I could think of worse ways to spend an hour, but I could also think
of much better ways. This game wasn't really that fun at all. It
seemed like a gigantic web of RPG clichés and beginning game designer
mistakes. I don't think I would play this game unless the battles
were improved, the maps were lowered in size(or made more interesting),
and the encounter rate were lowered.
 
Final Blows
    I can't recommend this game. It isn't terrible, but there are so many
games similar to it that are better, and it just doesn't stick out
as anything special. If this was one of the author's first games,
though, it's a nice start. It just needs work and lots of it.
An interesting way to block off new areas.

An interesting way to block off new areas.
Final Scores
Graphics: 5/10.0
About dead average for an OHR game. The flashbacks were interesting,
so +5.
Storyline: 4/10.0
It just seems so overdone. This game really isn't that interesting.
On the bright side, it seemed fairly well-written. +4
Gameplay: 2/10.0
Attack. Attack. Attack. Attack. *Yawn* Oh, my! I'm low on HP!
Herb. Attack. Attack... Oh, and did I mention the hugeness of the
maps? Very trying on my nerves... +2 for the houses.
Music: 10/10.0
Nil
Enjoyment: 3.5/10.0
Unfortunately, there are just better games out there to play. I did
enjoy the overabundance of descriptions of items you get in chests.
+ 3.5
Overall Grade: D-
Final Thoughts
    Not horrible, but not necessarily good.  


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