Aisnon-A's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ava RPG]

What a unique battle mechanics! It requires both skill and a level-head, which realizes a personal effect, that is, the player receives as active feeling of adrenaline as he or she progresses through the battle, provided that said player keeps an open-mind to the game. The music certainly maintains the mood, and I hope to see more variety should this game have future updates.

The graphics, though simple, were appropriate. I could see visual effects and maybe some animations added to help promote visual stimuli, which would also support the momentum of battle rendered by the battle mechanics. Though, sometimes the simplicity clashes with the background at points. Whereas the characters' design employs contour and basic coloring, the backgrounds utilize complex principles of design, seemingly actuating a realistic style. The juxtaposition between the two is not distracting, but it can be disconcerting if one ponders it. This, however, is a matter of taste, so it nothing worth deeming as an intrinsic impairment to quality. It is still something to nevertheless consider. Also, the background, from my experiences during the game, seem to be determined haphazardly. Where one is on the world map usually does not reflect the environment in which one battles. This is also the case for the factories. I imagine a factory as an industrialized setting filled with glorious technology and whatnot, but this ideal is not met when I fought in the plains within the factory. Because there is no indication of whether or not this should be, I am left to adopt my unwarranted expectations. This, of course, is a peccadillo and definitely not a quality that ruins this particular gaming experience.

I, moreover, cannot find myself being immersed into the plot. There is little with which I can sympathize, for instance, the impersonal protagonist, enemies, etc. and there is a lack of in-game appraisal for the player's accomplishment, especially when one conquers a factory (the message provided by the conclusion of a factory is a touch, and it can be developed more). The prelude to the game was effective in that it was vague yet informative, providing enough detail to adumbrate the progression of the game, but more development would be nice to see, unless, of course, that is the point, in which case the technique is fine where it is.

Overall, this is a solid game with a lot of a stored potential with the mechanics and the plot, but it is not one that I can continuously play.

Kwing responds:

I think this is a more than fair review.

The battle mechanics are kind of a weird hybrid that I developed while trying to figure out how to get something real-time to run on the PSP. I think I've said this before, but if I had played Megaman Battle Network prior to making this I probably would have tried to mimic that. I'm glad you enjoyed it - while this game will not get future updates, it certainly expands as you build your arsenal of abilities.

I have to agree with you completely as far as the graphics are concerned. The backgrounds are taken from Final Fantasy I directly and I coded them to appear randomly out of laziness. I wholeheartedly agree that they clash with the simplistic icon-like graphics of the characters - I probably could have drawn my own instead, perhaps even traced the existing ones to make them appear more fitting.

The plotline was never supposed to be incredible. I remember pounding a paper-thin plot out of my keyboard one day when designing an intro, and it was only after the game was finished that I decided to give each town a name and a background. I figured this was a simple way to generate a little bit of interest in the game world, and it was also a way for me to pay homage to my favorite games by using names of other locations. There is a little bit of dialogue at the end, and in the end I wrote it to be a non-sequitur; I understood the plot was ambiguous and wanted to surprise the player a bit at the end.

Ultimately I can wholeheartedly agree that for what this game has to offer, it endures a bit too long. I've found that on the PSP, which can be repeatedly put in and out of sleep mode, it's about the right length, while it tends to be a drag on a PC especially with the lack of a save feature.

I'm really glad you gave this game a fair chance and some solid feedback - this is my first open-world RPG and finishing it was a hefty accomplishment for me even though I know it has a LOT of shortcomings.