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Nordomin: Call of the Elements vs. RedMaverickZero
Nordomin: Call of the Elements See those enemies? You will see different variations of them throughout the whole game.
DukeofDellot
Download: 115 KB
V.S.
RedMaverickZero
Play Time: 1 hours and 30+ minutes
Review # 21 for RedMaverickZero See those enemies? You will see different variations of them throughout the whole game.
Them's Fightin' Words
    Do you like to read but can't stand reading a book? Wonna stare at your computer screen and read an RPG novel until your eyes hurt like you squeezed a dozen lemons in them? Obviouslly not. Saying that a dozen lemons in your eyes is a nice thing to say about this game. Yet, it had it's ups and downs. Of which I will explain to you.
Graphics
    These were plain out lame. I mean, what I think the author did for some enimies was copy and paste and change very little to that sprite. Every single character had no face. So it's a wonder the character knew where they were heading. There was no shading involved whatsoever and it seemed that towards the end of the game that the author got extremely lazy and reused his/her graphics to avoid doing something great.

First of all, the only neat thing about these graphics were the size of the walkabouts. There were some people in the game who were shorter than others. And you actually knew based off appearance that they were. But some of us OHR users can't seem to make short walkabouts. Why? Because we use detail. The walkabouts were so plain, and so boring that it was a wonder that they were even there. The whole game was pretty much one big book and to me, that's not something I look forward to in a game. And especially when the graphics back it up for shit.

And as mentioned, the graphics all make the characters seem blind, deaf, and mute. All at once. What a sickness! Not just to the characters but to the player for playing this game through and wondering... "Hmmm.. It wouldn't have taken long to add in an eye, maybe two." To say the graphics were good in this game is like saying that hell has frozen over and is handing out free ice cream.
 
Storyline
    I'd say this was pretty much the only area of the game that was half decent. From the very beginning you get to choose what race you want to be. Now, you could do the big hardcore RPG fan way and play the game through with every character. Which odds are, the story is the exact same as the one before it. Just different fighting styles. But that will be explained in Gameplay. While I played I was the northern elf. Strong in magic and really short. His name was Rex (or that's what you find out later on, until then he's the "Northern Elf."). His father was a great warrior who had helped the world out many years ago. Yet, for some reason, Rex's church is burnt down when the game begins. And the lizard people, who killed his father have burned the church.
*Remembers GhostBusters1 when Mr.StayPuft smashed a church*

Anyways, after you get outta the church and head off, you meet this cloaked dude. Spooky? No. But he tells you that there were all these elements and when the keeper of the elements dies, that element is passed on to another person. Somehow Rex managed to get all of these elements except two. Life and Destiny. Which I really don't understand why the author mentions this because they never go out and find those elements. But you keep going until the cloaked guy leaves and you meet up with a dwarf named Redd. He pretty much trys to kick as much ass as possible to find his beloved Cherri the faerie. The game pretty much drags on like this. You get to know the character, they leave. Get a new guy, he leaves. It was pretty dull and repetitive for a long time.
 
Gameplay
    The game doesn't get a good score in this if you were thinking that because of the mentioning of it in Storyline. It's your standard button mashing ATB (Active Time Battle) RPG. It starts out fairly balanced by being slow and you doing a nice set of damage. Yet after a while, your speed becomes insignificant. Because the lil blue bar fills up so fast you pretty much can hold the spacebar for instant victory.

As for length of the game, it varies actually. Because if you wonna take the smart way out and only play as one character then it takes about an hour and a half. The boring hardcore RPG fan way is to play through the game as all 7 possible starter dudes. And I don't have enough time to waste to do that. No way.
 
  Battle
    Battles were like I mentioned in Gameplay; A button masher. If Sonic the Hedgehog were an RPG star, his battle system would be set up like this. Constant button masher. But this isn't Sonic.

For battles the character you chose is pretty much the only one with skills worth a damn. You have a skill of every element. And then one that looks like a hackey sack or a stripeity ball that hits all foes. Everyone else you get has one or two attacks and they are all useless. The only character worth a damn was the guy named Des who had an attack that did a whopping 400 damage! That wasn't bad. But you only used him/her for like 5 fights then they were gone. And the fact that you never had the co-characters made the fact that leveling up was useless. All the enimies were easy to beat. When you'd equip a good armor you were like a great big rock. Unmoveable and unstoppable. Push that rock off a hill and not only does it not get hurt, but it does good damage to all the opponents. But the battles weren't anything I'd play the game for.
 
  Map Design
    *Screams!*
That wasn't a good scream. This game had the worst freaking map design ever. I mean, if you pressed F1 while you were playing the game you could see the map clearly. And see that, you were the tiny little blinking dot and the rest of the map was very overwhelming. And you never really went anywhere now that I think about it... One particular part of the game had you try to find a blue dragonling with a beanie. Now that wasn't so bad and the story leading to that was halfway decent. Yet... the maze of trees getting to it, now that's a different story. First of all, every tree looked the same and if you got a lil drowsy while trying to navigate through this wretched maze of trees you would get stuck and lost. And what made it worse was the high random battle rate. Oh man... That really killed it. But I can cover more ground on that in the Balance area.
 
  Balance
    I'd scream again, but the game is repetitive enough as it is and doesn't need another repeat. As said in the battles area, they were button mashers. And they were awfully unbalanced. Considering every enemy was pretty much the same. Not just in appearance, but in stats too. It was a shame to see so many things reused. It's like that episode of South Park where Cartman farts on Kyle like 20 times. After 4 times it wasn't funny anymore. But the 20th time it was funny again. That appeal worked the same. With the exception of it getting funny/good again.

There was only two shops in the whole game. And everything was completely overpriced so that you couldn't get a good healing item even if you wanted one. And since most characters had limited spells and skills to heal this area of the game made a large downfall as well. As a matter of fact, the only balanced thing about this game was the equipment settings. But that pat on the back is quickly replaced by the lack of other heroes being able to use the armor.

Oh, and don't get me started on the random battle count. Like I said, the maps were awful and drug out. Well, that wasn't what made them so bad entirely. The random battles. Everywhere. They just wouldn't go away. MCW told me that using the F4 button was wrong and I shouldn't do it. But I couldn't help it. Every fight was so awful and every 5 steps in a some 1500 step map was a fight. Thank you thank you for the F4 button. I seem to grow to appreciate it more and more lately.
 
Music
    My computer does not play BAMs so I cannot judge this area...
 
Enjoyment
    The beginning of the game was half ass and almost decent. Yet I thought it would pick up from there and become good. I was wrong. And the same can be said for my enjoyment for this game. Like a flickering candle in a stormy wind. Out quicker than a blink of an eye. The only thing that stirred me on was being able to review this game so that others can see just how awful this game trully is.
 
Final Blows
    Alright, I guess I use this to give advice nowadays. But anyways, try to write a book. Or a novel for fun. Because making a game obviouslly isn't your strongpoint. Yet, your story and the way you typed text boxes for this game were magnificent and I can just visualize the way things should have been. It's just, games need to have motion, they need to flow and you need to see stuff. This game was pretty much just about reading.
NO!!! It's too much to do. And the random battles are so annoying!

NO!!! It's too much to do. And the random battles are so annoying!
Final Scores
Graphics: 1.5/10.0
Nothing exactly good. But something I consider "newbie" style. Maybe future games will look better if you make any.
Storyline: 4.5/10.0
Excellent. Too bad the graphics and everything else didn't support it the way I'm sure it was intended. All the same, a nice storyline. But I wish you could have stayed on one subject more.
Gameplay: 3/10.0
Different combinations. Different possibilities. Nothing too over the top though.
Music: 1/10.0
My computer does not play BAMs so I cannot judge this area...
Enjoyment: 2/10.0
I enjoyed the story for a lil while. But after that lil while was up, I didn't really wonna even play anymore.
Overall Grade: D+
Final Thoughts
    If you like to read, play this game. If you don't then... well, okay find another game.  


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