Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar

[Viata]

And not a particularly unique or well-made one, by any stretch of imaginations...

Fuck, I'm quite mad at this. Really fucking mad. I refuse to believe people can be this retarded.

 

[Invictus]

But did you use the spells and prebuffs? Those tactics are there to give you a chance to win those fights without cheesing and from your screens you rarely used those or specifically used the diplomacy option to get though those areas

In most cases the only pre-buff that makes any difference is Amorplate to buff armor, so that insta-kill attacks are harder to hit & penetrate. And honestly, I'm not really sure the spell actually WORKS - the numbers on character's equipment screen don't change when you cast it. There's also Magic Screen when dealing with those fucking fairies, but that's basically it.

Also, what diplomacy options? lol

But here, I made a cool little video to prove just what a thinking man's game Grimoire truly is. This is me kinda-soloing the game's supposedly most difficult optional boss - the final beast on its own "Hall of Gorrors" - on SuperHero difficulty. With no buffs. At Lv 9.



I say "kinda-soloing" because this wonderful hardcore masterpiece of the olden days apparently doesn't support soloing. Going into battle with just one character led to a Game Over screen - BEFORE THE COMBAT EVEN BEGAN!

Yep the diplomacy option... mondblut reportedly dealt with these guys without fighting they actually let him pass, maybe that is the way to actually go through that area and the combat is a kind of you fucked up scenario?
As for armorplate and magic screen... yeah now we are getting a bit smug aren't we? Those dont have a "numbered effect" since Wizardry so maybe you were expecting a Sawyerism of "this gives a 2.5% chance to miss per powerlevel of the spell" yeah that was Mr Blakemore's point; oldschool games didnt do that and neither does grimoire
And yeah one of the staples of spells like Heroism is that you really didnt know and that made it kind of fun too...?

For all the angst, agendas and wiseassery the game is fucking awesome and ultimately you are doing it a disservice by reviewing it based on your agenda or perception

Kind of reminds me of the review from CGW for Darklands (my favorite game besides Wizardry 7) where the reviewer felt she couldnt recommend it because of the bugs and personal preferences in the Citadel of Baphomet and the very editor of the magazine did an editorial about loving the game despite these problems because some could be fixed and one was part of the design decision of the developers....Grimoire was developed like that true to a vision not a focus group thinking that the dovahkin shout systen was "cool"

Oh and btw Infinitron Do you actually play the game or just enjoy playing the wiseass with our comments and reactions because at least most of us actually have an opinion but you seem to lack anything save smartassery

 

[Lady_Error]

In most cases the only pre-buff that makes any difference is Amorplate to buff armor, so that insta-kill attacks are harder to hit & penetrate. And honestly, I'm not really sure the spell actually WORKS - the numbers on character's equipment screen don't change when you cast it. There's also Magic Screen when dealing with those fucking fairies, but that's basically it.

There is also Enchanted Blade, so that the number of pre-combat buffs is exactly the same as in Wizardry 7. But yeah, that's basically it. What a let-down.

 

[Glop_dweller]

The second game flopped because they didn't step out of the Dungeon Master basic design school and ultimately delivered nothing new to the genre (e.g. npcs. dialog system, open world etc.)

That would have been ample reason to have passed on buying the game. The whole point of it is the Dungeonmaster basic design, and they did vastly improve upon the original—both under the hood, and on the modding side.

I worked on a dungeon for over a year, and a big problem with it was that LoG doesn't do occlusion culling. We had to do that ourselves, in script to allow dense maps. LoG2 does this automatically, and the improved scripting engine gives the modder an incredible amount of control; stuff that was impossible, or demanded absurd hoop jumping to manage in LoG1.

 

[grimace]

Teh infamous Two (2) Screenshot Review

Review does not confirm or deny presence of ride-able turtles. FAIL.

There are two ride-able turtles.

Thank you Zed Duke of Banville.

 

[felipepepe]

For all the angst, agendas and wiseassery the game is fucking awesome and ultimately you are doing it a disservice by reviewing it based on your agenda or perception

Yes, writing reviews based on the reviewer's perception is clearly wrong. Why don't you write your own review, with the "correct" perception then?

 

[Viata]

Unless this is a collaborative attempt to ruin the developer's reputation, of course.

Sadly, that is not necessary. It's too late for that.

 

[Zombra]

Can somebody explain their definition of balance in the context of this thread. Because having easy and hard encounters in the same area is not a balance problem. A balance problem is something like a class being completely outclassed by another in the same role that isn't harder to qualify to.

From the review, it sounds like Grimoire quickly gets to the point where, essentially, nothing matters. Instakill attacks on both sides (even when you're not building for them!) so frequently determine outcomes that all the other cool party tweaking stuff you did might as well go right out the window. Hit points don't matter, constitution doesn't matter, damage numbers don't matter, initiative doesn't matter. "Unbalanced but fun anyway" can be

, but this sounds arbitrary to the point of

.

 

[Invictus]

For all the angst, agendas and wiseassery the game is fucking awesome and ultimately you are doing it a disservice by reviewing it based on your agenda or perception

Yes, writing reviews based on the reviewer's perception is clearly wrong. Why don't you write your own review, with the "correct" perception then?

I honestly had a different idea of you Felipepe, at first you sounded like you had good points in your review but now you are coming across as petty and that your review is some sort of agenda against Mr Blakemore rather than the game itself since we have pretty much debunked some of your "main" points

As for making reviews... yeah I dont have the same sort of "connections" as you do especially with Infinitron and in any case I dont believe myself to be the be all end all as to have my opinions be other than what they are
If ypu think your academic knowledge of RPGs somehow makes you the "expert" and all others are less so then sadly my friend you are sorely mistaken...as this thread has proved you have got a lot to learn. Maybe you would be better served playing rather than writing about allll them classics?

 

[Viata]

Are you familiar with Manga? It is a genre of RPG invented by the asian cultures.

This is still the most retarded thing I have read on Codex, after any Mynon post, that is.

 

[Lord Andre]

Did you just describe Pillars of Eternity

I don't think I used the words "boring" and "shit" anywhere, now did I?

Sawyer is the Darkseid of rpg developers and PoE is his anti-game equation.

 

[Tigranes]

Did you just describe Pillars of Eternity

I don't think I used the words "boring" and "shit" anywhere, now did I?

So your idea is the same mechanic Pillars used but magically not boring and shit, got it

 

[felipepepe]

As for making reviews... yeah I dont have the same sort of "connections" as you do especially with Infinitron

Cowardly excuses. The Codex accepts submissions from any members - always had. That's how I began as well.

And you are the one who's so enamored with his own opinions you're declaring mine as false or biased.

 

[Decado]

And by the way guys, the way you react to Felipepe’s review is an indictment of why the genre is dying. You think that players have to figure it our all the mechanics by themselves without any input from the developers, and then expect that new players would be interested in these games. You need to teach a new generation to appreciate these games. If you keep insisting on this delusional attitude that basic things such as manual and good UI are handholding, the genre will die with you. You keep patching yourselves in the back and telling how hardcore you all are, while everyone else ignore your existence. It's your fucking fault.

The retro blobber genre was never meant to be accessible. And no one expects new players to be interested in these games.

That's what I call edgelording.

Okay seriously, this is a dumb way of approaching the creation of any product meant for commercial sale. If you are not trying to get new players interested, you're a terrible game maker, an idiot, a shitty businessman, and an overall dope. You're quite literally saying that the only population of possible customers to go after is the base that already exists, but of course people age out of this cohort, or die, or lose interest. Forget needing new players to grow, you simply need them if you want to survive. If everyone took this attitude, nothing new would get made, no new players would get interested, and the genre (any genre, for that matter) would die a shitposter's death.

This is a bad post and you should feel bad.

 

[Decado]

But did you use the spells and prebuffs? Those tactics are there to give you a chance to win those fights without cheesing and from your screens you rarely used those or specifically used the diplomacy option to get though those areas

In most cases the only pre-buff that makes any difference is Amorplate to buff armor, so that insta-kill attacks are harder to hit & penetrate. And honestly, I'm not really sure the spell actually WORKS - the numbers on character's equipment screen don't change when you cast it. There's also Magic Screen when dealing with those fucking fairies, but that's basically it.

Also, what diplomacy options? lol

But here, I made a cool little video to prove just what a thinking man's game Grimoire truly is. This is me kinda-soloing the game's supposedly most difficult optional boss - the final beast on its own "Hall of Gorrors" - on SuperHero difficulty. With no buffs. At Lv 9.



I say "kinda-soloing" because this wonderful hardcore masterpiece of the olden days apparently doesn't support soloing. Going into battle with just one character led to a Game Over screen - BEFORE THE COMBAT EVEN BEGAN!

What is this pleb tier 720p uploading? Where are we, France?

 

[bataille]

Rigor mortis is more flexible than this discussion.
I guess expecting people to have a somewhat nuanced relationship with such an ambivalent and personal piece of art as Grimoire is asking too much.

 

[felipepepe]

What is this pleb tier 720p uploading? Where are we, France?

Couldn't get FRAPS or the Windows game recording thingie to work on Grimoire, so I quickly downloaded Ezvid... it also cut the audio.

 

[ga♥]

Well, let's hope someone, in light of this clearly biased review containing blatant errors (tooltips, etc), could find the time and put some effort in a genuine one.
Would be nice if it could compare to the classic of the genre as well.
Sadly I never played any blobber, pretty much like the reviewer it seems, or I would gladly do it myself.

 

[Maggot]

Use OBS plebs its free and works for streaming and recording.
https://obsproject.com/

 

[Viata]

Well, Felipepe has barely 4 hours in Elminage Gothic to begin with

BTW, I think you're an okay bro so I'm feeling a bit guilty about giving you crap on Elminage Gothic.

But for the life of me I can't understand what people see in this game.

Maps are just mazes with no theme or internal logic except being mazy, the 3d engine looks like it was made by following a gamedev tutorial, textures look like they were found with google and the interface is just windows upon windows of lists.

Fighting is done in limbo dimension where you whack static images. The combat is basically an excel simulator where bigger number better than smaller number, quests are mmorpg tier, writing is RPG Maker tier...

This is by all signs a vaporware.

I simply cannot fathom what hidden qualities this game may have that elude me so.

Good lord, this thread is all about who can make me rage more.

 

[Lord Andre]

Good lord, this thread is all about who can make me rage more.

Am I wrong though ?

 

[zeitgeist]

And you are the one who's so enamored with his own opinions you're declaring mine as false or biased.

There is a big huge buttony thing near each party member's portrait.

I dare you to post a screenshot of what happens when you hover the cursor over one of those mysterious UI elements, and then post a screenshot of what happens when you click the right mouse button at the same spot.

Then explain to the audience what specific personal brand of objectivity and truth led you to blatantly lie about these wondrous features not being present, since it's by now clear that you won't be doing it in the actual review.

 

[felipepepe]

It's the only place where this fucking works - with no clear indication whatsoever AND NO GODDAMN MANUAL to explain that. Right-clicking doesn't work in 99% of the UI, how I am to guess it specifically works there?

But if that's your biggest issue with the review - the one you pick as undeniable proof of my lies & bias - then I did a damn fine job.

 

[Tigranes]

FP's a dumbass for never realising the right click and the couple other things, but it's pretty weird to repeatedly masturbate over the crushing affront to Reason and Truth that this must be.

I'm reserving judgment on whether he's accurate/in good faith about the second half of the game falling apart, my own playthrough hasn't seen much of that so far but there's a long way to go. Ironically, there's like, what, 5 people who could actually speak from their play experience for or against the claims?

 

[mogwaimon]

For all the angst, agendas and wiseassery the game is fucking awesome and ultimately you are doing it a disservice by reviewing it based on your agenda or perception

Yes, writing reviews based on the reviewer's perception is clearly wrong. Why don't you write your own review, with the "correct" perception then?

I honestly had a different idea of you Felipepe, at first you sounded like you had good points in your review but now you are coming across as petty and that your review is some sort of agenda against Mr Blakemore rather than the game itself since we have pretty much debunked some of your "main" points

As for making reviews... yeah I dont have the same sort of "connections" as you do especially with Infinitron and in any case I dont believe myself to be the be all end all as to have my opinions be other than what they are
If ypu think your academic knowledge of RPGs somehow makes you the "expert" and all others are less so then sadly my friend you are sorely mistaken...as this thread has proved you have got a lot to learn. Maybe you would be better served playing rather than writing about allll them classics?

This just in: a positive-neutral review of Grimoire is to be taken as a character assassination of Cleveland Mark Blakemore and the reviewer should be ignored for daring to have criticisms of the game while also having a separate disagreement with the developer. A disagreement which is alluded to only by Infinitron's introduction and avoided entirely in the body of the review itself, mind you.

Have people forgotten what a review is? A review is meant to be an objective analysis of a product based on the writer's experiences, which by the inherently subjective nature of opinions will always have some form of bias. The beauty of this phenomenon is that literally anyone can write a review, because literally everyone has an opinion, which literally means that if you literally disagree with a literal review, you can literally write your own. Lady Error can literally write her very own review that literally fellates Grimoire, agentorange can literally write his own review that literally shits on Grimoire, and everything in between. They're not meant to be taken as gospel. Just opinion.

People keep pointing out that some of the UI elements have been misused by Felipepepe, and as a result the information in the review is inaccurate. Yes, that is a mistake and should be rectified. But does that not also support one of the criticisms levied at the game, that the UI is unintuitive? If someone has spent 80+ hours in a game and hasn't been able to figure out such a basic element of the game, should we blame the user? Possibly. Sometimes people are just idiots, or even an otherwise intelligent person may overlook something obvious. But considering there have been many complaints about the user interface as well as a lack of any sort of manual documenting the game, should we not also examine the possibility that it may just be easy to miss that these UI elements were in the game in the first place?