Gamelist Review List Song List Watched Journals Forum IRC Gamelist Song List Review List Forum Articles IRC Log Out Add Game Edit Games Add Reviews Edit Reviews Add Songs Edit Songs Log Out Edit Games Edit Reviews Edit Songs Sign Up Log In My Journal My Game Journals Watched Journals All Journals Journal Settings All Journals About Us Staff FAQ
Castle Paradox
Title Bar
Log In Box
 
______  
[more]
    1) A
        Vikings Of Midgard by Fenrir-Lunaris
    2) A-
        Deleted Game by JSH357
        Sword of Jade: Parallel Dreams by RPGCreations
        Purgatory100% by Friend
        Trailblazers by Retrogamer
Journey Through Time vs. Aethereal
Journey Through Time Floor...so...bright...urge...to...jam...pencils...through...eyes...building...
Coolpengu (Brad Charles)
Download: 146 KB
V.S.
Aethereal
Play Time: 0 hours and 10 minutes
Review # 7 for Aethereal Floor...so...bright...urge...to...jam...pencils...through...eyes...building...
Them's Fightin' Words
    Did I do something wrong? Something is wrong with the entirety of this game, even though it started off fairly well. However, serious issues with design forced me to attempt to complete a task that became all but impossible. I'll attempt to dissect this "screw-up" as I'm going to call it, but it may be fairly short, for as you can see, the game lasted about ten minutes.
Graphics
    The graphics fall prey to the same problem that befalls most graphics in the OHR: there is no effort. Also, the color selection isn't that great...the graphics are extremely bright. Now, I'm all for bright graphics, but these were of the neon-bright variety, which inflicts pain on my eyes. If I wanted to do that, I'd just jam pencils through my eyes. Anyway...the sprites weren't that great, mostly because they lacked shading, but the battle graphics were okay. Oh, and the maptiles didn't blend well at all. I'd also like to take note of the backdrops and title screen: they look like someone was having a bit of fun with multicolored tubes of toothpaste. It's not a look I personally enjoy, but it's wacky, and so people who like wacky'll like the backdrops and title.
 
Storyline
    There's no cohesive story, all that happens is a couple of events that lead you to the "impossible task" I mentioned earlier. I'll explain why I deem the task "impossible", but that's for another section. Anyway, Exos the robot is called to the house of a Professor, where he's given the task of hunting down this other robot that's out of control. Exos gets a "pet", TechDragon, to help him. Now, get ready for it, the (dum dum dum!) impossible task! That task, my friends, is the boss battle with the robot. I'll discuss that next.
 
Gameplay
    The only gameplay, besides fighting that robot boss, was walking around on the less-than-stellar map doing nothing. I couldn't find any random battles or anything to fight, and only about two of the six houses in the area had working doors.

Now, for the "impossible task"...the Professor, after granting me the use of the TechDragon, told me that I could use him as a shop/save point/inn, and that I'd need to get stronger to beat up the robot. Fair enough. Then he also says he will teleport me to the area near the robot. No big deal, I think to myself, I can just fight some random battles and get back to the Professor for healing. Unfortunately, there were two major issues that put me between a rock and a hard place: there were no random battles (that I could find), and there was no way to get back to the Professor, as there was no path there from where I was teleported. I try fighting the boss anyway, and get my ass severely kicked. So I restart, and use F11 to get back to the Professor after being teleported :grumble:. Oops, he's gone! And there were no other shops/save points/whatever that I could find, and I'm sure I thoroughly searched everything, so I'm left to do nothing but get the crap kicked out of me by that boss. That is why I deem it an "impossible task".
 
  Battle
    There weren't random battles, just the unwinnable battle with the robot that resulted in a "Game Over".
 
  Map Design
    Not too good. The maptiles don't blend at all and there is a definite showing of laziness, such as not making roads curve and whatnot. Of course, there were only three maps (the "overworld", the Professor's house, and the robot's area, which was one room). Oh, and don't get me started on the lack of a wallmap on the houses (not in them).
 
  Balance
    That robot came with three lackeys who did minimal damage to me. Both my characters had about 50 HP. The robot boss immediately attacked TechDragon, and did about 26 damage, but then attacked again immediately for another 26 or so. Oops, Draggy's dead. It didn't take long for Exos to follow suit.

Is that enough to sum up the balance for you?
 
Music
    Well, it wasn't awful, and I didn't recognize it (but that may be partially because it's almost midnight as I write this), so that gets a few points. However, there also wasn't much of it.
 
Enjoyment
    I can't say I enjoyed it, but at the same time, it's not the most boring game in existence. I think if the author fixed that issue with the robot, this could really be a fairly fun game.
 
Final Blows
    Well, before I close this review, I'd like to say that I appreciated the author's clever use of the global strings by changing Levels to TechLevels and other creative things like that. However, even that doesn't make up for the big faults that this game has, although I still have a suspicion I did something wrong.

In any case, this is a good example to you authors out there: make sure your game is well balanced, and nothing is mislinked or mistagged. It will prevent frustration later, not to mention keep the hate mail to a minimum.
It looks like we have a case of dyslexic roadmen here...

It looks like we have a case of dyslexic roadmen here...
Final Scores
Graphics: 4/10.0
The lack of effort, as with almost all OHR games, keeps the quality of the graphics down. They aren't mind-numbingly bad though.
Storyline: 1/10.0
There's no real story yet, but that's probably because the game lasts ten minutes.
Gameplay: 1/10.0
Well, dying against an unbeatable boss that gives you a "game over" is pretty much all I did, and it wasn't too cool.
Music: 5/10.0
There was at least one track I don't remember hearing, which is definitely a plus. The music was pretty well selected, actually.
Enjoyment: 1/10.0
This game is masochism in a bottle, all you have to do is open the cap. How? Fight the boss!
Overall Grade: F+
Final Thoughts
    One major issue makes this game unplayable, but that's not to say it doesn't have potential. I still don't recommend you download it, at least not until the author fixes the awful bugs in it.  


All games, songs, and images © their respective owners.
Terms of Service
©2008 Castle Paradox