When I got my GPD XD+ last year, one of the goals I set for myself was to start completing games. There are still a lot of games I started playing without ever finishing them. Alongside my spreadsheet to keep track of my lengthy backlog, I started using HowLongToBeat. I used the site in the past, but only to see how long a game was. One day I clicked on the forum tab out of curiosity and noticed the blog section. At the time there were probably around seven different blogs; all made for the purpose of reviewing the games in that user's backlog. One I would read a lot was a blog by someone named letstalkaboutdune. I'm not really sure what about it caught my eye (maybe the name?), but his blog was a big inspiration for me to start mine. I even ripped him off in a lot of ways. Just put one of my reviews next to his and you'll see the resemblance. Especially with the older ones... Anyway, I found out that he made a game demo and thought why not review it?
Adventure Story is a short RPG demo by letstalkaboutdune. The first time I played it back in December, it took me around 16 minutes to beat and 26 minutes this time. You play as Tim in the world of Green Woods. After Suzy tells you that there's a dragon in the cave, your goal becomes clear: defeat the dragon. It isn't doing anything menacing, but Suzy wants us to kill it. Plus Tim loves fighting dragons! Along with Tim are Woody and Sleepy. Something I noticed this time around was that there are two more party members: Bari and Fari. I didn't use them, but Bari is immune to freeze attacks and is weak to heat, while Fari is the opposite. Nothing can really be said for the NPCs.
The first thing you'll notice about the overworld is that it's similar to Mario. You have places you have to walk to and click on in order to enter them. There's even a box that says "World 1". The references don't stop there, though, since the trees look like they're taken from a Zelda game! Everything else is similar to Final Fantasy I. All the way down to the battle system and random encounters. Though, the encounter rate is way too high! I want to excuse it and think of it as being a way to raise your level high enough to defeat the dragon, but even walking to the damned dragon is a chore! On the bright side, the enemies aren't very hard. Only a few hits will bring them down.
When the characters get to certain levels, they learn different abilities. The ones I saw were: heat, freeze, and virus. If there are more, I wouldn't know unless I keep playing. The characters don't have a lot of SP, so weapons and other items are a necessity. Luckily the items are pretty cheap and your HP and SP reset every time you level up. Other than the items in the store, there are two hidden items in the town.
Pros:
+ Good-looking sprites.
+ The music is good.
+ Cheap items and weapons.
+ Simple and familiar combat.
Cons:
- The encounter rate is really high.
- There isn't much to do aside from grind away in the cave.
Final Thoughts:
Adventure Story is a good attempt at an old-school RPG. Even though it's just a demo, I can see potential in it. Unfortunately, there's not much to do and there isn't much of a plot either. 99% of the game will be spent in the cave, which only has one floor. The encounter rate is my biggest gripe since you can barely take a few steps without engaging in a battle. Even then, the enemies don't offer much of a challenge, including the dragon. I wasn't expecting a battle with Chaos for the dragon, but I also wasn't expecting him to go down after a few hits from level 5 characters. I talked to letstalkaboutdune a few months ago to let him know I had the review planned, and he has mostly moved on from this project. I would've liked to have seen the finished product, but it's okay. Do I recommend Adventure Story? Ehhh... kind of, though I'm leaning more towards a no. It isn't a terrible game whatsoever! I just don't feel like there's much to do at all. Which, yeah this is a demo, but there's nothing to do but grind in the cave and fight the dragon. It isn't really worth playing as is. Instead, I'd probably recommend Evoland Classic: a short demo to Evoland that offers a lot to do.
Rating: 6/10
I hope I wasn't too hard on the game in this review. As I said, it isn't terrible, just kind of boring. When I last talked to letstalkaboutdune, he was working on a card game RPG. I'll be sure to play the demo for that when he releases it! Check out letstalkaboutdune's blog and check out Adventure Story if you want to play it! Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next review.
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