Artifact Adventure

[CryptRat]

Link

First impressions :
- No full screen mode, the UI is OK (no mouse support)
- Gaining skills through artifacts is fun : you choose who will take the skill, according to a vague description.
-There is a lot of C&C : I started the game by choosing to take some cryptic item and saying farewell to an airship (that was brillantly painful). You can sell some of the characters you created, you can also put an end to you journey. The game seems to be full of side quests with choices, and an evil choice especially. As an example, I could take the skill artifact which is used to sanitizied the water of a town (or maybe simply gave them water). Instead I explained to the keeper that I won't take it and instead he gave me a shitty shield. You definitely should take a look at the game if you like to play evil characters, you will get you own rewards for being evil.
- The fights are really quick and the encounter rate is correct ; the fights are easy as long as I am not underlevelled and have the good equipement ; besides for example I have got an Exorcism spell which make a big amount of damage to undeads, so there may be some depth in the combat system.

Also :

 

[Crooked Bee]

Looks interesting.

 

[lightbane]

So, is this "old-school" enough to prevent you from saving anywhere, or does it at least give you that benefit? What about the classes? How are these?

 

[Scroo]

Cool, looks interesting. Thanks

 

[CryptRat]

I finished, one playthrough doesn't take much more than 10 hours (if experimenting does not count). If any of you was already going to play the game, just do (the game is good), otherwise mini-spoil because it's the best point of the game :

Spoiler

There's a Fallout-style ending based on most of what you have done, and it has some hilarious parts.
As an example :

Spoiler

near the beginning of the game I brought back a key to a soldier without tolding his superior that he had lost it. And then, at the end :

I particularly appreciated that because, the ending apart, the game is not particularly silly.

It's an open-world dungeon crawler with small dungeons and "small" sidequests (most of them with some choice) where you'll have to make many basic choices : sometimes (often?) you'll only choose a way while another will get blocked, and there are also some classic moral choices (sometimes good or evil, sometimes more "gray").
The reward you will get will often be very different depending on your choice (for example you will earn an equipement part OR a skill).

Good :
- The choices : playing a JRPG with choices is very refreshing.
- The world is relatively well built.
- You earn some XP via quests (that's not substantial, though).
- No JRPG-style whining or romance or so.

Not good :
- The combat system is lazy (very classic) ; the game is easy but the difficulty is relatively adapted to the open world.
- The character creation is very limited, you choose 4 classes between 6 and it is not even so important.
- The dungeon design is also lazy (because there's no puzzle). Maybe that's a little hard because the exploration is generally pleasant, mostly because the dungeons are small.
- Since the game is heavily based on C&C, it is annoying that you can't bruteforce (you can't attack NPCs). The choices are heavily scripted.
- The quests are generally completely disconnected from the other ones (the NPCs are involved in only one quest).

Bad :
- Once again, no fullscreen mode and you can't even change the resolution, "Run in 640x480 screen resolution" and it's far from perfect.
- Maybe it's just me, but my feeling is that there are some "Won't you not choose not to accept not to help us?YES/NO" questions.

So, is this "old-school" enough to prevent you from saving anywhere, or does it at least give you that benefit? What about the classes? How are these?

You can only save in inns, and it's important when you want to try multiple choices. You will also have to use only one save slot for one game, so sometimes you really hesitate before saving.

 

[Crooked Bee]

As an aside, whoever's looking for a JRPG with C&C should check out Oriental Blue. It's also a classic style JRPG, but it's arguably got some of the best world state-altering C&C ever. (You haven't saved a city about to be overrun by the enemy? It gets destroyed. Lost a boss battle? The game goes on, while acknowledging that. Etc.)

 

[CryptRat]

It's today's flash deal on Playism ($3.50). I don't know if the game is worth buying, but at least it's cheap.

 

[V_K]

As an aside, whoever's looking for a JRPG with C&C should check out Oriental Blue. It's also a classic style JRPG, but it's arguably got some of the best world state-altering C&C ever. (You haven't saved a city about to be overrun by the enemy? It gets destroyed. Lost a boss battle? The game goes on, while acknowledging that. Etc.)

Just how classic is it exactly? I saw some screenshots that suggest you get to create your character(s), is it true?* And what about level design, puzzles etc? I've also read that there's heavy level-scaling, how bad is it exactly?

*As a completely side note, concerning Artifact Adventure too - why would you call a game with full character/party creation and non-linear storyline a JRPG? What is J about it?

 

[CryptRat]

Artifact Adventure is made by a japanese developer, so the J makes sense here .

Hmmm... still on the verge.
Are combats random or fixed? I see that there are no puzzles, but are there any traps or other environmental interactions and skills that support that? Or is it basically an 8-bit AoD? :D

The combats are random, there is no non-combat skill (OK it's not exactly true, for example you can switch between night to day) but the dungeon exploration is pleasant with some hidden doors or such things and the little "events" with choices even if there's indeed no real Dungeon Master-like puzzle.
I haven't played AoD yet so I may be mistaking , but from what I've read, in addition to the skill check gimmick, I think that AoD also has a full branching storyline with even different places depending on what you choose while Artifact Adventure has a fully open world with a set of small dissociated branching quests and events (there are different endings, though).

 

[V_K]

Nah, by "8-bit AoD" I meant just that there are only combats and multiple-choice dialogs, with no other systems and little meaningful exploration. I guess AA beats it on that front at least. :D

 

[Siveon]

As an aside, whoever's looking for a JRPG with C&C should check out Oriental Blue. It's also a classic style JRPG, but it's arguably got some of the best world state-altering C&C ever. (You haven't saved a city about to be overrun by the enemy? It gets destroyed. Lost a boss battle? The game goes on, while acknowledging that. Etc.)

Just how classic is it exactly? I saw some screenshots that suggest you get to create your character(s), is it true?* And what about level design, puzzles etc? I've also read that there's heavy level-scaling, how bad is it exactly?

*As a completely side note, concerning Artifact Adventure too - why would you call a game with full character/party creation and non-linear storyline a JRPG? What is J about it?

You do not create your character in Oriental Blue, instead you simply pick a gender. Of course there is a system in place where you can allocate stats and what-not but its not that dramatic. The stat system would be a mixture between Materia and old school Dragon Quest.

 

[aweigh]

i read this post and i still don't know if it's turn based or not.

 

[Siveon]

It is.