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Blu Eternal vs. Me
Blu Eternal You can climb the vines.  That's a good thing, a very good thing.
mamoru
Download: 379 KB
V.S.
Me
Play Time: 0 hours and 20 minutes
Review # 1 for Me You can climb the vines. That's a good thing, a very good thing.
Them's Fightin' Words
    Well, wow. This game is really good. When I first got it, I had no idea what it was or who it was that had made it. I thought I was downloaded just another typical newbie game. Then I fired up game-exe and got hit over the head with the sheer goodness of this excellent, ableit short, demo.

Graphics
    Okay, these graphics piss me off. Why? Because they're SO DAMN GOOD. Seriously, we're talking professional quality. The walkabouts were beautiful, animated wonderfully and imbued with that remarkable character that makes a 16 color palette look really good. Likewise, the battle graphics were wondrous. With excellent shading and proportions, they hit the semi-anime style RPG look perfectly. The best part about the battle graphics, however, had to be the fact that the creator had opted to go with a more dynamic set of frames. Instead of taking a single standng frame and basing all the others on that one, each individual battle frame was drawn seperately. When Loke swings his sword, it really looks like he's swinging a sword. Likewise with Phael's staff. Excellent here. The maptiles were so good, I seriously thought they had ripped from FFVI (or maybe V) - after more close scrutinization, however, I could see that they were original as well. Attacks were nicely animated, though few in number, the "urn" attack was particularly nice looking. Enemy graphics looked escellent, you could really see that tons of effort had gone into each one. Especially the dragon. The dragon was some bombass shiznat. Battle backgrounds were simply constructed out of tiles, but they looked really good - it wan't just floor tiles, wall tiles. There were also a few storyboard backdrops, done with some sort of 3D rendering program, which looked nice, but I thought they sorta subtracted from the overall graphical feel of the game.

 
Storyline
    Well, this was a 20 minute demo, so not much story was expected, but I did like what story was presented. You are a man named Loke, the typical swordsman, and your partner is Phael, the typical healer female. Or maybe you're Phael and your partner is Loke. Or maybe you're neither. Whatever. Beside the point. Anyway, the two are bounty hunter/hero for hire types who have been hired to slay a dragon that's been terrorizing the villiage. A very typical story for a fantasy/RPG setting, but I thought it was presented very well. Plot sequences appeared in the right places, and best of all, the lines of the characters sounded like something someone would actually say. Most RPGs sound like the characters are reading from a script, but these lines I liked. There's also a bit near the end when the existence of at least one definite nation is mentioned, so there's a world that's been created for this game. Which is good. Some sort of allegiance to a nation is also implied, which adds the possibility of breaking alliances/political struggles into the mix, so so far the story is looking good.
Also, there's an air pirate. Yarr.

 
Gameplay
    Gameplay was nice. There was one minor box puzzle that offered a nice challenge (but I suck at box puzzles, keep that in mind), and a few side areas existed in the cave dungeon that made up the majority of the demo. The mine-cart riding was a good use of vehicles.

 
  Battle
    Battles were nicelty put together. The heroes weren't overpowered (a common defect in games) but they weren't drastically underpowered, either. Not many skills were implemented (only one for each character, aside from their default attack), but I wouldn't expect many in what is basically the intro to a game. The battles, due to their challenge, were not boring to play through (another shortcoming of many games), and you actually had to use abilities at points. The radom encounter rate was set at a reasonable level, as well.
 
  Map Design
    Well, really only one map here, the abandoned mine, but it was nicely put together. You had to use a mining cart to travel along the mine tracks, and while the carts didn't alter your speed or encounter rate or anything fancy like that, they did offer a nice cosmetic touch to the game. You could also climb the vines that grew on the mine walls (and the hero picture actually changed! Yay climbing animation!), which for some reason rarely exists in games. The only thing I disliked here was the item distribution. At one point, there was an optional area, with a few extra HP-restoring herbs, but at the end of it I would've expected something extra-nice for my efforts in getting that far, rather than just another herb. Perhaps this could be changed in further updates - add a MP-restoring thing or a life potion up there. The map itself was basically straightforward, no realy possibility of getting lost here, but, once again, this is the first map in the game, so naturally, it shouldn't be a freaking maze. The outside map has a nice use of animated tiles to simulate a waterfall.
 
  Balance
    Balance was excellent. The battles were challenging and varied - against bees, you could kill an enemy in one hit, but there were many foes, while other enemies came in smaller groups but were harder to kill. The heroes had a slightly small amount of HP for first-level characters, so damage had to be healed with your limited supply of herbs and MP. Boss fights were tough, which was good. Basically excellent here.

 
Music
    None so far, but the opening credits say that the music [u]will[/u] be original, so we'll see there.

 
Enjoyment
    I definitely enjoyed this game. Overall excellence everywhere, and no where I particularly disliked. The pretty graphics made it a game that didn't cause pain while playing, and the lack of totally mindless battles of overly hard or easy difficulty made it actually fun to play. I actually failed to become bored while playing through this one. And that's darn good for an OHR game. Darn good.

 
Final Blows
    Excellent job, Alugasoft. And if this is your first game, then REALLY excellent job.

The enemy graphics are purdy.

The enemy graphics are purdy.
Final Scores
Graphics: 9.5/10.0
They look like Final Fantasy VI. The extra story backdrops look a bit out of place, but they don't subtract that much.
Storyline: 7/10.0
Well, not much, but good for what's there.
Gameplay: 10/10.0
A bit of challenge, varied battles, fun to play. I'd say all's good here.
Music: 2/10.0
None whatsoever. But they're planning on using original songs, so they get a point for that.
Enjoyment: 10/10.0
VERY MUCH ENJOYED YES.
Overall Grade: A
Final Thoughts
    Play this game. Now.  


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