Oooh, or maybe an MMO version where people can earn the right to submit new icons and combinations? That would make it easier to fix obvious errors like "Boat + Alcoholic != Pirate." ;D
This is an amazingly good desk puzzle, but it doesn't quite feel like an amazingly good GAME yet. I loved it, and I enjoyed the time I spent compulsively fiddling with it, but I'd be totally raving about it if it were used as a mechanic for something deeper, maybe with a storyline or a real sense of competition -- elements of a spellcasting system or something? As a discovery toy, it's still really cool, but a sequel that has more than one game mechanic could hook me for months.
On lvl 8 of the human campaign and having a lot of fun with this. I'm concentrating on Juggernauts and Platforms, while my boyfriend is going through with hordes of fighters, and we're both doin' pretty well so I guess the game is pretty well balanced! Our only gripe is that the later promotions seem to assume you use the big ships -- it would be real nice if there were another promotion track for players who like to spam fighters. Maybe higher speed and bonuses for adjacent "attack formations?"
I hated this fiddly platform game a lot less than I hate most fiddly platform games, enough to play the whole thing through. So I guess it deserves a 5/5. But I still hate platform games. :)
Whoa. I breezed right through this and NEVER felt I had a challenge, and dude, I am NOT that good at strategy games. Is there a difficulty setting I totally missed out on? 'Cause otherwise, either this game is way, way too easy, or a financial rush strategy is way too powerful. Still, I'm gonna give this game a 5/5 'cause the production values were awesome, especially the humor, and I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to see a sequel where the difficulty's ramped up, there's more to do, and all these cool, fiddly mechanics matter the whole game through. (I never even had the pleasure of watching a #2 henchman die!! *sniffle* )
OH NOES I JUST GOT THREE FREE ROLLS IN A ROW AND BEAT THE COMPUTER WAAAAAAH THIS GAME IS SO BROKEN TOO EASY FIX IT 6/5 OUT OF 10 I FAILED MAFF CLASS. :( :( :(
Whiny kids with bad luck: The game is not rigged. There is extensive discussion of this in the blog posts linked to RIGHT IN THE GAME INFO. Look up "The Sharpshooter's Fallacy" on Wikipedia and SHUT UP.
Also, here's a hint for people who are STILL totally convinced the game cheats: play a bunch of online games and see if you feel the same way against a bunch of human opponents. Bet they have the same streaks of luck. I just a completely awesome game where we were both racking up huge multi-thousand pt rolls. Just be patient when it looks like your opponent's about to blow you away. You might get lucky too.
No mute command. Tutorial text scrolls at about 1/10th my reading speed. Rotten grammar like "if your stuck." "Persecuted" doesn't mean the same thing as "prosecuted." Lots of stages, like #8, are more about tedious precision than puzzle solving. And having your mouse cursor change on a meaningful spot gives way too much away. Clever in parts, but pretty amateur stuff. Maybe I'm just in a grumpy mood today, but 2/5.
There are lengthy blog posts right there in the game info full of evidence that the game is random. I just now kicked the computer's butt, with three consecutive turns where I got a straight or three pairs. A player hacking a game is not evidence that the computer itself cheats. These people who think the game is rigged are whiners and idiots of the Sarah Palin level.
Yeah, I agree with most of what's already been said. The mechanic of having to cycle your party members for points is brilliant for a CRPG and has a lot of potential. The artwork is gorgeous. But it feels like there's not much to DO. The hunts are just grinds, with your characters acting automatically, the pathfinding isn't good enough to allow real tactics, and the "principal" bar doesn't really give you enough to do. Maybe switch battles to a turn-based system and add more strategic options, give characters more stats -- and more CHOICES, and yeah, you definitely need multiple ways to accumulate fame. Plus it drives me nuts that a Lvl 10 student is worth less than two Lvl 1 students -- that makes no narrative OR game balance sense! 2/5 right now, but the sequel could easily be 5/5 if you make it richer and offer more meaningful options.
Huh. OK, I'm still giving 4/5 because I really like the village-building subgame and the expanded choices in general. But I still have a lot of criticisms. The big one that comes to mind right now is that getting suddenly kicked out of dungeons is REALLY annoying and makes the game fiddly in a not-fun way. You've got all these stats to play with -- why not USE them? Let the player push their kid a little harder to finish a dungeon, but make it RISKY. Make it start to reduce their stats permanent. Make lastingly bad things happen at random in dungeons like diseases or mental traumas or loss of bravery compassion etc. It makes no sense to me that a hero would turn around and go home when they're ONE STEP away from the big treasure. None.
Oh, and upgrading the village is hellaciously more interesting than just min-maxing your character. That's a really good development and makes this feel a LOT more like a real innovation over Princess Maker!
Still only on Age 14 of my first play, but this is... the big improvement over the first one I was hoping to see. 4/5 so far, probably higher once I figure out all the fiddly bits.
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