outlandish38's Profile
Stat Summary
- Average Rating:5
- Helpful Votes:61
- Reviews Submitted:4
- First Review:July 30, 2012
- Most Recent Review:November 18, 2012
- Featured reviews0
outlandish38's Review History
An ocean liner was caught in a storm and wrecked in the ocean. Discover mysteries, save your friends, and get back home!
Overall rating
5
/
5
1 of 1 found this review helpful
Lost of fun
PostedNovember 18, 2012
outlandish38
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Family, Adventure, Large File, Strategy, Time Management
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
4
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This was a really fun game. No creepy stuff or even any magic to speak of. Just a group of people lost on an island. I love the different minigames, hunting boars and snakes, fishing, hunting crabs, cooking, and lots of trophies for things. The only thing I didn't like was the voice acting wasn't really great. Other than that I had a great time.
I recommend this game!
Join Claret and a lovable cast of characters explore, build and battle your way through a tale of magic, metal & mystery!
Overall rating
5
/
5
2 of 2 found this review helpful
My new favorite indie RPG
PostedSeptember 1, 2012
outlandish38
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Large File
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
I just finished this game. Absolutely loved it! The story was so fun and witty and full of great moments and dialog. The ending was so good and yet open enough for a sequel, hopefully. The graphics are beautiful for this type of retro RPG Maker style game, especially the wonderful large character portraits that lend such great feel to the game.
I loved being able to craft my own weapons and gear, and the augmentation system was really fun being able to try and decide just the best augments for all my gear to make it the most powerful.
You can change the difficulty in the options at any time which I found very useful. On normal difficulty I felt that it was just right for the most part but I did put it on easy for a time.
The game itself can take only 6-8 hours to play but I actually got a good 17 hours in it just wandering around trying to find every bit of treasure, become champion in the Colosseum and find all the spades cards which I couldn't find them all. Not to mention crafting the best gear. Eventually with careful crafting and augmenting my characters got to be pretty powerful which was fun.
The bosses were great. Characters where great. There were a few caveats. The mazes were fun and well designed but they were long and there's no maps so it's easy to get lost and disoriented. Also most of the enemy graphics were standard enemies from the RPG maker VX and it's graphics expansion packs. Most might not notice if they aren't into making or playing RPG Maker games. Also the battles themselves, while okay, weren't all that exciting. I did like the ability to have threat, so that enemies would attack the "tank" characters with the most threat and HP.
Despite a few flaws this was my favorite and best done RPG since the Aveyond series. Oh and I almost forgot, the music was absolutely wonderful and so memorable I still have the main theme stuck in my head! Sound track please.
If you like RPGs play this one. It's just plain fun.
I recommend this game!
Unite star-crossed lovers on the opposite ends of an incredible war! Help Rick, a young warrior, get together with Yuki!
Overall rating
5
/
5
20 of 21 found this review helpful
Engaging story and characters and gorgeous graphics
PostedAugust 26, 2012
outlandish38
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Family, Adventure, Large File
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
First of all the retro sprite graphics in this game are gorgeous. All the main characters have painted portraits with different expressions. Unlike most RPG Maker made games, it seemed like all the art and music was original and wonderfully done. I especially thought the turn-based battle sprites and animations where awesome. The theme song was great with a Japanese vocalist and lyrics and really set the tone of the game.
The story was a bit convoluted and complex and at times and the underlying message or theme seemed a bit unclear. That little problem aside I found the story gripping and couldn't wait to see what happened next. The characters were engaging and I really found myself getting attached to them, especially Vanessa. This was made even better by the fact that the main characters all had nicely illustrated portraits that changed expressions depending on the mood. This, in my opinion, made a huge difference.
The turn-based battles were okay but got a bit tiresome at times. The real treat in the battles was the great battle character art. This game had great looking enemies, all animated, and original looking. Also a great boon was that you could see the enemies on the main map screen and could avoid them if you weren't into fighting at that time.
The game is kind of short and to me felt like there was a lot of "busy work" and backtracking. I'm not sure how many times I had to search through the same three forests looking for different characters, enemies, or items. There were times when I really wanted to get on with the story and then found I had to backtrack and walk through the whole of three different areas that I'd already been through several times before. It got a little tiresome and repetitive.
Even so, don't let that put you off. The story was engaging and I have to say had some of the most epic moments I've seen in an rpg like this. Moments with giant anime style robots fighting it out with big boss monsters, pitched battles, daring escapes and much more. It felt very epic, and made all the more so by the brilliant artwork. The backgrounds, and characters looked so amazing! I love the "Angel" robots. And by the end you really felt that great feeling of empowerment that make these rpgs so fun.
The battle animations were pretty awesome as each special skill had a large image of the character and a fancy animation.
The game took me approximately seven or eight hours to play, but then I did most of the little side quests and took my time. One caveat I found was that the mouse interface wasn't very smooth. Not as smooth as that used for the Aveyond games. There were times it was hard to go up to a shop character or sign or door and had to click on the tile in front of the sign first. Otherwise the interface was good and very much like in the Aveyond games which is no surprise since the maker of those games had a hand in this one too.
All in all I'd say give this one a try and you'll probably get sucked into it like I was. If you're a fan of retro Japanese style RPGs then definitely play this one.
The game has a good ending with a bit of a to be continued thing going on setting up the sequel. But I still felt it was a great and satisfying ending to this first game. Let's see the next in the series!
I recommend this game!
Tour the Sunken City while interrogating suspects to nail the masked thief in this authentic Adventure game.
Overall rating
5
/
5
38 of 40 found this review helpful
Confession of a ND Addict
PostedJuly 30, 2012
outlandish38
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Large File, Puzzle
Fun Factor
5
/
5
Visual/Sound Quality
5
/
5
Level of Challenge
5
/
5
Storyline
5
/
5
This has got to be one of my favorite Nancy Drew games. I never really liked first person adventures with hard puzzles until trying ND games. Now I’m so hooked I won’t be happy till I’ve played all 26!
Now I’m a guy and am used to playing classic style adventure games like Monkey Island or Broken Sword or Secret Files. So I wasn’t sure I’d like Nancy Drew. In ND you never actually see Nancy. It’s always from her perspective. Usually when they do show her it’s only in silhouette or in this game there’s a dancing mini game but she’s completely covered in a costume and mask so again you never see her face. In this game you can also change what she’s wearing, and it really ties right into the plot, which I really liked. Even in the “paper doll” like view, showing what she’s wearing, she’s just a silhouetted outline. I think that’s pretty cool because then it you feel more like your in her shoes. (Not exactly in my case since I’m a guy, but aside from that I do feel more like I'M the detective and not just controlling a detective character on screen, which is pretty cool.)
I really like how wholesome these games are. No real violence or any blood. There’s some suspense in places, but nothing really scary in this particular game. No inuendos or unrealistically proportioned heroines in their under garments, like so many games these days. So I really liked that. It’s a good change. You CAN lose, but it lets you try again right from the start of the perilous moment.
This game has excellent voice acting and graphics as usual. The setting of Venice is great and you get to learn something about it and get the feel of being there. There aren’t a ton of characters but they are colorful and fun to talk to. I really got into the story. There’s not so much mystery but there is a sense of being undercover and working with the police and secret service which was great.
It should be said that one of the “trademarks” of ND games is that you can’t skip puzzles, minigames, or dialog. So I found myself having to do certain mini games over and over until I beat them. I usually hate that, but the major mini game in this is the card game Scopa which at first I found hard and frustrating, but after starting to get good at it, it felt pretty good when I finally beat my opponent fair and square. It’s actually a pretty fun card game, and requires some practice and skill to play, but it gave the sense of being in Italy. I looked the game up on Wikipedia and I guess it’s one of the major national card games of Italy, which is cool. I'm not into card games as a rule, but I liked the variety in this game. There's also a variety of puzzles and not just the usual stuff.
This game does involve several cyphers and you have to figure out how to break several codes and secret messages. And they’re pretty clever, I thought, but hard. Still I figured out most of them, and I only had to quickly glance at a walkthrough a couple times (mainly out of laziness), and I had to get some hints from Nancy’s boyfriend, Ned and also Joe Hardy, whom you can call on the phone. But I was surprised I figured out almost all of it myself. Again, I love the feeling of getting to be the clever detective (even if it's only the "feeling" of being clever :)
One word of warning though. I had to take a TON of notes to help break the codes and figure out some puzzles. I actually started taking photos of my screen with my iPad and annotating over them and using it to make notes. Worked great but I still used up a lot of sticky notes trying to track everything. There is a journal but it doesn't track everything. So if you're not into taking notes of clues you may find this a hard game. Personally, though, I loved it.
All in all though, this is one of my faves and I can’t wait until the next one.