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Author Topic: Montana's Mobile (iOS) RPG Smorgasbord.  (Read 2854 times)

Niji

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Montana's Mobile (iOS) RPG Smorgasbord.
« on: August 23, 2014, 10:35:40 AM »
Rather than review each one individually I will be giving mini-reviews and logic(usually) based score. With a few getting on going reviews as I have time.

Each review was based on the crucial opening 10 minute window of a game. I picked up this methodology in game design school and if a game fails to have you hooked by minute 10 it's not going to do well (and in mobile gaming with the freemium model this is beyond crucial). This is more a guide to see "does this fit my tastes?" And quality guide. A game that plays good in the first 10 might be terrible after hour 4 or 6 in the "endless" models.

Music/Score is missing intentionally as Secret of Mana obviously dwarfs all the others and if used as the base line "5" others would all be so under it its not worth the time.

Upcoming long form reviews:
Epic Hearts
ITARUS
Band of Monsters
Fortuna Magus
Secret of Mana iOS (revised,translation updated and glitch fixed!) (sample short form conversion score for comparison)
Graphics - 7.89
Gameplay - 8.5
Controls - 7.3 (may be a 10 with the newest patch which I cannot download that adds controller support and some new dynamic system)
Story - 10 (original SNES version would be a 7.9 so the update is a VAST improvement to clarity and character development especially of antagonists and villagers)
Customization - 3
No Customization to speak of outside of weapon choice and charge up combos.

Final Fantasy VI iOS (revised and graphically updated)

Short Form Reviews:
Power Puff Girls: Defenders of Townsville
King the MMORPG
Godus
Hello Hero
Galaxy Legend
Battleheart Legacy
Hero Deckmasters and other CCG RPGs
Angry Birds: Epic
Wayward Souls
Punch Quest
Demon Souls
Empire Online
Battlecamp
Inheritage: Boundry of Existence
Espgaluda II
Hybrid 2: Saga of Nostalgia
Zenonia 1, 2, 5, & 6/online
The World of Magic
Inotia 3: Eternity
Battle Gems (Adventure Quest)
Card Wars (Adventure Time)
BladeZ
Elgard
Fantasy Adventure
Dragon Eternity
Illusia 2
Monster Legends Mobile
Brave Frontier
SOL (Stone of Life)
Aurum Blade
Heroes of Order & Chaos
LAR (Children of Pandora)
Maplestory Live
Alice of Hearts

Game Developer Review: Excited to write this one.
Kemco (makers of Lagoon, yes they are still at it!)
« Last Edit: August 24, 2014, 12:41:42 AM by Niji »
2D/2.5D RPGs, Platformers, Action-RPGs, Brawlers are my bag! Minor Video Game knowledge outside of those!

Niji

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Re: Montana's Mobile (iOS) RPG Smorgasbord.
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2014, 05:56:53 PM »
Lets get this underway with the short form!

Scoring is based on 0-10 and includes decimal(% score based) and based on its GENRE or intended style(IE a 2D side scroller with HD sprites would get 100% for meeting all criteria, if the pallet is muted in a bad way or aggravates the eyes the score would be lowered, an intended Retro graphics game would get a 10 if it meets all criteria of desirable retro graphics(8bit, 16bit, etc). 3D games an 8 would at reality's visual standard (late gen PS3) or past it at 10(I.e. upcoming PS4 games) YES the iphone can display PS4 quality games in its platform quite easily apparently though functionality is cut elsewhere or we'd have several gig sized game) or feel if its aiming to "be close" or "spiritual successor" to a certain game or type of game. A lot of these are "krpgs" which are action rpgs like Secret of Mana but with a heavy emphisis on Korean style grinding (mass killing of monsters with associated kill X monsters repeatable quests, etc) and high levels of customization. Many of these are "freemium" games but as such usually $5-10 is all you need to spend in the in game shops to get all you need out of the game making them 5-45$ cheaper than buying a console game (Steam excluded). All terrible grammar is intentional, spelling mistakes are not and usually means spell check has failed me.


Power Puff Girls: Defenders of Townsville
Graphics - 8.5/10
Gives the option for the "Modern" new look for powerpuff girls which is quite stylistic and moody but falls short slightly to similar games, and the "classic" look which is pulled off perfectly and is seemless with the rest of the in game art artifacts.

Gameplay - 7.5
Flying beat-em-up essentially kinda reminiscent of a toned down Bangai-O. Fly around beat up monsters and stuff, hunt for your powers.
Quite possibly features every single powerpuff girl ability ever, but I haven't unlocked them all yet so "acrobattack!" may not be featured as well as some of the other "team up" ones. Seems they included all one-off powers too so its awesome!

Controls - 7
Smooth touch screen game play, but if you have fat fingers its very aggravating in some areas. Suffers from "Touch Screen Aphasia" but its lesser than most touchscreen games with the problem, and has little to no impact in terms of getting you killed or overly damaged, slows down speeding through the game.

Story - 5
Its powerpuff girls! but the premise for losing your powers is silly and obviously gimmicky as well as retrieving your powers. But great if you've always wanted to "play as them" and use their powers and stuff.

Customization 7.3
You pick and choose which power you have active at any given time, there is various power ups and passives to equip and earn, over all great customization and your choices matter as you need some powers for puzzles and to reach certain areas and the passives are all useful and require achievements to unlock. Pretty Solid concept and great execution.


King the MMORPG
Graphics - 4
Gameplay - 3
Controls - 8
Story - 3
Customization - 5

Godus
Graphics - 9.3
Stunning and fantastic, a little unique and so hard to compare but they are pleasing, great colors and color cordination.
Gameplay - 8/4.3
Sandboxy SIM game + civilzation builder. I found it incredibly boring since I don't care for SIM games so its playability is low for despite all its good points compared to SIM CITY.
Controls - 6.7
Pretty responsive. Suffers from "Touch Screen Aphasia" like most iOS touch screen centric games.
Story - 2.4
You are God, do the work and enthrall the peeps.
Customization - 7.6
Sim/civilization builder, limited resources, time pacing, etc

Hello Hero
Graphics - 9.3
Chibi style 3D graphics extremely well rendered, very cute and well done like most of the Mario primary game Franchise
Gameplay - 6
Controls - 5
Story - 5
Customization - 5

Galaxy Legend
Graphics - 9
Gameplay - 2
Controls - 1.4
Story - 6
Customization - 7
BUY ships and outfit them and such, good concept, freemium model obviously

Battleheart Legacy
Graphics - 3.4
Really gross for the intended "claymation" looking 3D graphics the differences between male and female are very amusing however... Nice to have a female dwarf with muttonchops!
Gameplay - 9!
WOW its quite hard and unforgiving even in the first 10 minutes, don't wander into the wrong dungeon! PAIN PAIN PAIN. Great Class system, skills, and execution
Controls - 7.3
Shockingly good, very smooth and you can "kite" mobs around its quite challenging and the controls and system fit the challenge well.
Story - 7
Above average story for mobile games, VERY funny and satirical/tongue-in-cheek/4th wall. It is very genre savy as are many of the story options you can take (you get 2 or 4 choices for every conversation at least 1 is usually genre savy and sarcastic or outright douchebag! so good)
Customization - 5.4
Average level of customization for an all inclusive mobile RPG. Slight boost of points for its fun class system (acquiring them that is).

Hero Deckmasters
Graphics - 9.7
Steampunk + Cyberpunk Chibi stuff, really both fantastic/majestic and cute or cool depending on if Human, Monster, or Robot.
Gameplay - 6.7
Definitely the best "auto" gameplay for all the CCG RPGs still on the store, but around level 70+ its incredibly boring since energy costs are always relative to your level (and so all the resources you earn are practically worthless after around level 50) ONE battle with another player is about 67-73% of your battle resources so you can have about one battle per 3-4 hours. Tournaments use 20 points per battle so here is where max level is nice but now that the game caught on the top 10 spots(only good rewards are top 10 or top 3) are not populated by the "big spenders" tournament points lately: #1 6399 #2 6327 #3 921(thats right) #4-10 639 with around 1 less point for each rank(the best of the "Free" players). note for spots 1 and 2 you would have to "buy" your resources and that many points would cost with perfect play and the best "deck" at minimum around $120-230 depending on if they bought their resources during the opening sale when the items were introduced. It should be noted that same top 3 ALREADY have the rewards from that tournament in their deck before they competed(so the only incentives are to "win" and "deny all others theses cards"). So a great game quickly ruined by its own popularity now. Events are regular and its relaxed enough you only need to play about twice a day for around 10 minutes to enjoy the game, but you won't get anywhere and the story is pretty much over by level 62 or so.
Controls - 4
Everything is auto but it has some fun luck based stuff you can "Up + B" and other roshambo'ing with.
Story - 5
Pretty interesting but over to quickly for an "endless" game, suffers from "engrish" and "gender pronoun" issues, either that or there is A LOT of crossdressers which could be indeed what is happening as the translation is very suggestive of it! Very modern for ancient technology futuristic victorian era card battler!
Customization - 7
Definitely some of the better customization I've seen in the hundreds of card battlers out there. 8 slots, you decided what skills they have, and you can actually feasibly level the skills, would be a 10 if not for the "combo-spike/multi-range" attack 4 times back row skill and its 65% chance to miss.

Angry Birds: Epic
Graphics - 10
Perfect angry birds visuals since it is now its own genre.

Gameplay - 8.7
Great angry birds style game-play considering it am an RPG! No sneaky freemium finagling shockingly. Proceeds smoothly at least in the first 10 minutes and has good quality, the "Theater Zone" lets you watch up to 3minute shorts I haven't found elsewhere! GREAT old school stuff getting new episodes and other obscure things as well as lots of angry birds cartoons, its probably the best part of the game! Classes are varied and feel sound for each bird, hopefully there will be a "rio" and " "Stella" expansion!
Controls - 6.9
Unique from an RPG controls standpoint but very "angry birds" no spoilers as its a great system!
Story - ?? (10? 3? Eleventy?)
Its an angry birds game so in line with that it gets a great 10 for being as good or better than the space/starwars ones! From an rpg standpoint its cute and quirky cast and very basic pigs steal eggs vs birds rescuing them.
Customization - N/A
Not any really you choose your party members though but everything is static and railed otherwise.

Wayward Souls
Graphics - 8.5
RETRO GRAPHICS WOOT there is some artifacting and excessive tile repeating since the dungeons are random on each playthrough, very frustrating to see a wall with poorly visualized barrier that you can break an identical one elsewhere in the same level but not that one.
Gameplay - 10
This is Super Ghost and Ghouls style but from an Isometric view, pulls it off perfectly, though not the "Japanese Hard-Mode" its definitely about a tier above the US/EU port's hard mode. Great character designs and its just fun and incredibly challenging.
Controls - 7.23
Responsive and all around good, though not quite up to the best ones on the market, because as challenging as the game is the controls moving you in a direction you didn't tap for = instant game over in later levels so a net loss of points for that.
Story - 8.5
Wow really fantastic, moody and dark story, really unexpected for this type of game so a pleasant surprise, it would be a 10 if i hadn't played 2 others that inched out over it.
Customization - 5
Average customization, collect power ups and healing pots mid level, GREAT challenge though on when you should use them(and you will need to use them more often than you have them!) but it gets a point hit despite the genre because its very RNGy about the drops so you could go vast number of levels without encountering a health pot or a choosable power up, depending on how strong your prayers(re: how good your offering of orphan babies) to the RNG gods are.


COMING UP!

Punch Quest
Graphics - 9.5
Retro Glory, only the rare artifact issue.
Gameplay - 5/7
Punch things, punch them a lot, and to death. Average for that beat em up style but combos and super moves give it a subjective feels bump
Controls - 8
Smooth and no problems, standard "Touch Screen Aphasia" = death clause.
Story - N/A ( 0.5 )
There is no story go punch stuff!
Customization - 1
You decide your combos I guess

Demon Souls
Graphics - 9
Gameplay - 8.5
Controls - 7
Story - 8.3
Fantastic hook and great opening 10 minutes of play, may play more later.
Customization - 4
Standard skill selection for kRPG

Empire Online
Graphics - 6.3
Gameplay - 2
Controls - 5
Story - 1
Customization - 5

Battlecamp
Graphics - 4
Gameplay - 5
Controls - 5
Story - 2.67
Customization - 2


Inheritage: Boundry of Existence
Graphics - 9.7
Making it shy of a 10 because as its unique and its own thing the technical composition factoring artistic liscence is still flawed in a slightly detracting way in certain expressive areas and color.
Gameplay - 10
WOW JUST WHAT IS THIS GAME, the lite version left me wanting more. Kinda like a Tohou Shooter/Bullet Hell I guess?
Controls - 10
For a simple shooter they are seemless, does not seem to suffer from touchscreen aphasia!
Story - ??
Lite version contained not much story but the exposition for the opening was original feeling and stunning, too subjective to give a logic rating.
Customization - ?? N/A

Espgaluda II
Graphics - 9.7
Gameplay - 8
Bullet Hell....hard mode bullet hell.
Controls - 8.6
Very Finitely Responsive, touchscreen issues = death.
Story - 4
After the previous Bullet Hell titles with real story giving this one a below average.
Customization - 5
POWER UPS

Hybrid 2: Saga of Nostalgia
Graphics - 6.7
Sub Par for what the company produced earlier to it, and Hybrid 1 for that matter really. Main character is well designed and detailed however.
Gameplay - 6.23
Above average + points for being a bit unique for an aRPG. Hyper Grindy despite its very short nature a downside and a minus on the points.
Controls - 9.7
This game has hidden moves the game creator intends you to use to combat the game, this is on an otherwordly level of difficulty and is not completable if you do not use all the combos at your disposal and special moves at the right time vs certain enemies (some enemies are immune to all but one section of one part of a combo, and if you didnt invest enough in your resource to use the full duration of the combo you cannot beat them and die horribly/cannot advance). These are all huge pluses for this genre of game. HOWEVER the rare error with the touchscreen forgetting that you are giving it commands = horrible horrible amounts of damage late in the game (or in an area you are under leveled)
Story - 6.3
Picks up where Hybrid left off by of course partial retconning(dimensional timey whimey junk!) and other unpleasant tropes they really didn't need, Poor fairies. Still fairly above average for kRPGs and more pleasing hooks than average.
Customization - N/A

Zenonia 1, 2, 5, & 6/online
Graphics - 7, 7, 10, 9.7
Gameplay - 8.79
AMAZING gameplay but the freemium model in 5 and 6 hold it back considerably, why yes you do have to pay real money for the revival item and you will easily die ALOT.
Controls - 9
Pretty flawless and one of the least "touchscreen issues" kRPG out there in 5 and onward touch screen issues means failure in a timed raid and loss of real money resources.
Story - 7, 9, 6, 5
Great opening story, vastly improved upon in the sequel then it kinda goes down hill but still entertaining and compelling enough to play through.
Customization - 3, 7, 7.9, 8
Improves steadily as you move on, the first game was the most restrictive and poorly done skills wise. Weapon and Armor models change your characters appearance!!!

The World of Magic
Graphics - 7.7
Very cutesy windwaker kind of graphics
Gameplay - 3
Controls - 5
Story - 2
Customization - 7

Inotia 3: Eternity
Graphics - 8.324
Gameplay - 5
Controls - 7.5
Story - 8.5
Great story for a kRPG!!!
Customization - 5

Battle Gems (Adventure Quest)
Graphics - 7
Better than Normal Adventure Quest the base line for this game.
Gameplay - 6
Match 3 + Adventure Quest
Controls - 3
Huge pointloss for being forced to use any TERRIBLE powers you unlock during gameplay without option to turn them off(aka you will always cast poison instead of heal your self with the alchemy flasks...very poor design here)
Story - 5
Customization - 0.5
Equip armor! BE HINDERED BY EVERY NEW ABILITY YOU ARE FORCED TO UNLOCK.

Card Wars (Adventure Time)
Graphics - 9
Gameplay - 8.5/10
Pre major update and Post major Update
Controls - 8.5
Lag outs that result in match crash, otherwise would be perfect.
Story - N/A
No story going on here except what you put in your imagination its just a big series of battles!
Customization - 8.5
Total control over the contents of your deck, who you play as, etc.

BladeZ
Graphics - 8.9
Gameplay - 3
Stopped playing before even minute 10
Controls - 8
Story - ???
Customization - ???


Elgard
Graphics - 6.5
Gameplay - 8
Controls - 5
Story - 2
Story killed it for me
Customization - 5

Fantasy Adventure
Graphics - 8.9
Gameplay - 8
Really interesting mix of Units + Civilization + Resource Management + RPG Battles
Controls - 6.5
Story - ???
Story killed it for me within 10 minutes, but subjectively you might enjoy it, its very high quality game otherwise.
Customization - 6.3
Above average for the genre


Dragon Eternity
Graphics - 5
Gameplay - ??
Kind of a monster battle weird thing, it is noteworthy for having killed my interest within 30 seconds of play.
Controls - ??
Story - ??
Customization - ??

Illusia 2
Graphics - 4
Gameplay - 5
Maplestory clone
Controls - 6
Story - 1
Garbage and throw away
Customization - 5

Monster Legends Mobile
Graphics - 8
Gameplay - 4
Pokemon + match 3 clone but on freemium crack
Controls - 5
Story - 6.5
Customization - 5

Brave Frontier

SOL (Stone of Life)
Graphics - 5.7
Gameplay - 6
Controls - 4
Story - 5.5
Customization - 6.7

Aurum Blade
Graphics - 4
Gameplay - 7.22
Duel Wielding 2Her craziness!
Controls - 5
Story - 7
Customization - 6.5


Heroes of Order & Chaos
Graphics - 6.66
Gameplay - 4
Moba game
Controls - 3
Story - 4
Customization - 5


LAR (Children of Pandora)
Graphics - 6.7
Gameplay - 5
Controls - 5
Story - 5
Customization - 7.4

Maplestory Live
Graphics - 8
Gameplay - 5
Controls - 3
Story - 3
Customization - 1


Alice of Hearts
Graphics - 6.5
Ehh but its Wonderland so its ok!
Gameplay - 7
Controls - 5
Story - 5
Customization - 5
« Last Edit: August 24, 2014, 12:45:52 AM by Niji »
2D/2.5D RPGs, Platformers, Action-RPGs, Brawlers are my bag! Minor Video Game knowledge outside of those!