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    5) A Blank Mind reviewed by Dorumagesu
Magic Force vs. Meatballsub
Magic Force
Old OHR Games
Download: 127 KB
V.S.
Meatballsub
Play Time: hours and 40 minutes
Review # 4 for Meatballsub
Them's Fightin' Words
    Have you ever thought about what you would get if you put Pokemon, Megaman, and a sack of terds in a blender? The concoction would be called Magic Force.
Graphics
    The graphics are not very good. The world map is large and monotonous, and all of the towns look exactly alike except for one that is nestled within the mountains. The hero sprites look like Megaman rejects.

The battle graphics are a slight notch above the map tiles in terms of quality. Most of the hero sprites share the same basic frame. There is some variation in the enemy sprites, but some also share the same outline as our heroes. Battle backdrops are your typical five minute paint creations, with a few revamped Sandsea backdrops thrown in to mix things up.

Even though the graphics are not great, in Locke’s defense, they are easy to understand and follow. There are a lot of poorly animated games out there that cause pain to one’s eyes, but this is an exception.

 
Storyline
    You are Jaese, a Magi Warrior in the making who has been told by a fellow Warrior, Dayn, to venture out and battle others like yourself in various cities and learn their unique spells. Once this is completed, you are to report back to him.

There is really nothing out there to move the story along after the initial dialogue. NPCs in town are nonexistent except for the Magi Warriors and item vendors. It is sad to think that even the small amount of dialogue that this game offers is plagued with spelling and grammatical errors.
 
Gameplay
    Your mission is to find and defeat other Magi Warriors from around the globe. In most cities, you will find the Magi Warriors at a Magi Center. The Magi Warriors, much like Gym Leaders in Pokémon, have their own unique elemental abilities. Even though you will meet people along the way to help in your quest, most Magi battles focus on a bout against the Warrior and Jaese, alone. Fear not though, because if the fight seems to be more than you can handle, you can always run away from them and still win. Try and keep this in mind because any of the text boxes that give you an choice will erroneously net you only one event, usually being a battle.

The game pretty much ends after you have explored the third or fourth town.
 
  Battle
    Battle difficulty ranges from stupidly easy to a game of luck. Most random battles are a walk in the park. The only real challenges you will confront in this game are the Magi Warriors, which are really hit or miss. They will either blast you with a spell that one or two shots you, or you will get lucky and be able to down them before they get to you.

I think that Locke tried to design the game to encourage you to beat a particular Warrior and gain their elemental abilities in order to trump another Warrior of a different elemental type. However, it is poorly executed, because you can pretty much kill anything with Jaese’s standard Energy blasts. It seems as if each and every Magi Warrior I confronted was extremely weak against his base moves, which made it pointless to buy any new spells.

 
  Map Design
    As I mentioned earlier, the world map is quite large and monotonous, but is easy to navigate. Same goes for the towns, as they all have pretty much the same houses and shops.
 
  Balance
    The majority of the battles are simple, and most items and spells are free of charge. The combination of the latter just makes the game way too easy.
 
Music
    The soundtrack is…strange, but yet, somewhat fitting. You will hear tunes that range from Kansas to the Indiana Jones theme. Even though the selection is odd, the placement is decent.
 
Enjoyment
    Because there is absolutely no challenge to the game whatsoever, I did not really enjoy this game.
 
Final Blows
    If some testing was implemented into this game before release, it would have turned out to be a much better product.


Final Scores
Graphics: 4/10.0
Bland but easy on the eyes.
Storyline: 2/10.0
Other than the initial spill of dialogue at the beginning, there is nothing else.
Gameplay: 2/10.0
No challenge whatsoever. The game is just too easy.
Music: 5/10.0
There something awesome, yet strange, about trekking across the world map to Indiana Jones.
Enjoyment: 2/10.0
I enjoyed this about as much as I do making a sandwich.
Overall Grade: F+
Final Thoughts
    If Locke would have spent more time polishing his work; this could have turned out to be a mediocre game.  


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