Sunken Oculus by Leventhan
Spoiler-Free Review
(Extremely) Brief overview of scoring system
The system is simply an individual score (out of ten) for each following subsection:
Story
Graphics (or, use of RTP vs. Custom)
Use of Third-Party Scripts
Use of Events
Incorporation of Side-Quests
Replayability
Once those scores are tallied, they are averaged for a score out of 10.
Story:
I must say, the stroy for this game was quite intriguing, and handled very well, on Leventhan's part.
I won't write any detail of the story here, other than what you read in the opening of the game.
The Story of Sunken Oculus is reminiscent of an Anti-Hero's Journey. Your character, (Gig) is just an ordinary pirate, who get's called into an extraordinary journey thanks to one simple job. He ends up fighting whole hordes of otherworldly beings. One might look at this as a kind of standard fantasy story. There's nothing wrong with this, and the story manages to keep your interest for the entire game time.
The negatives to the story are also fairly standard, for an RPG maker game.
Without a staff to proof-read scripts, beta test games, and work on bugfixes, the game can have things slip through the cracks.
In terms of story, you end up hitting redundant lines, and grammar errors. These problems are negligible though, thanks to the author's keen storyline.
Story score: 7/10
Graphics:
Long story short, use of RPGVX's RTP is not a feux paux quite yet. Thanks to the relative minority of projects being made in RPGVX. Sunken Oculus is almost completely RTP, (correct me if I'm wrong.) this doesn't take away from the fun of the game though, so it can't be counted against the author.
Graphics Score: 8/10
Use of Third Part Scripts:
Quest Journal and Paragraph formatter by modern algebra
Scene title miria by Moghunter
Fogs!
Catterpillar
Vlad's ABS
(And I think there was a Message System in there too...)
The author did an excellent job taking the best of a fairly open-ended story, and giving players motivation (through the use of the journal, and excellent battle system) to explore the side-quests, and hidden items and areas in the game. The instructions for the controls need to be hammered out, (I didn't know there was a melee attack until I posted a question) but all in all, scripts were great!
Scripts Score: 9/10
Events:
Events seem solid, two playthroughs didn't result in me finding any broken events. More interesting events wouldn't kill the game, but they were definitely good enough.
Events Score: 7/10
Side Quests:
Would have liked to see more side-quests, but it was good. And few RPG Maker users actually incorporate sidequests, so hey! Great job.
Side Quests Score: 9/10
Replayability:
I enjoyed my second playthrough, and about halfway through the third, I got tired of the story repetition.
Couldn't ask for more than that!
Replayability Score: 10/10
Overall Score: 8/10
Simple but excellent story, great use of RTP, incorporation of sidequests, wonderful battle system, and excellent use of scripts, is only marred by several game breaking bugs, and occasional redundant lines by characters. Could only be better with a beta phase, and longer tutorial period of the game.
Great work Levanthan!
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