Now this is a well-made game rpg game! I was initially leery of this game when I bought it off of Amazon recently, but I can say I'm so glad I picked this little gem up!
Smoothed out hi-res graphics done in the retro style with some amazing HD animations are real easy on the eyes. The music, my god, this game has one of the best soundtracks I've heard in years and also has my new favorite battle theme as well. Gameplay is solid and nicely-paced, what I really liked was the implementation of a modified ATB battle system that kept combat nice and fresh rather than boring and tedious. What really elevates this game though, is the story, characters, and the writing. The story is absolutely phenomenal, with some plot twists that you'll never see coming. The characters are memorable and the writing is just amazing. I'm definitely hooked on this new series, and I'm looking forward to the sequel!
Just got this game a few days ago to see what the hubbub was about. Epic story, great retro graphics, awesome soundtrack, solid battle system, and smooth gameplay all brought together to make this game one of my new favorites.
This game is getting a lot of praise lately, and I was hesitant to try it out until I saw the really low price for it on Gamersgate. So seeing that, it was an easy buy for me, since I'm really into the classics of the SNES era. I'm not going to go in-depth about the game, as I would urge everyone to buy it and play it for themselves, but after trying it out and playing it all day, I feel like I've been playing a jewel that I can't put down. The story and the writing is out of this world awesome! Haven't played an engrossing game like this in a loooong time! The music is so epic, so adrenaline-pumping, you'll be playing this for hours just to listen to the normal battle theme nevermind the boss battle themes! You'll also notice quite a few nods to other RPGs that inspired this game's creation, I caught a few Final Fantasy, Lunar, and Chrono Trigger influences already. Polished, well-written, beautiful scores, great retro graphics, smooth and classic turn-based battle system, this game is a required buy for any rpg gamer out there.
I was very disappointed with this game. I've read good reviews about it but the game quite doesn't live up to them. The story is okay at best and the rest isn't quite up to the standards of other games in the same style.
It's a shame because I think 2D RPG deserve a spot of their own but this game is just not so good.
Chronicles of a Dark Lord is a story of (as the bulk of this is right from the intro, there are no real spoilers in this review) a guy who gets mad, kills his father in front of his army, has a sister who wants to flee his parents' empire for some reason, and... then he kind of softens up, yet he still kills townspeople anyway if they do as much as look at him funny. The game's characters and motives don't add up, and furthermore, there's a contemporary nihilistic teenage angst vibe flowing through both their designs and dialog.
You'll spend a lot of time traveling from kingdom to kingdom, warning their empresses that an evil empire is set to invade everybody else on the planet. This makes for heavily redundant gameplay, and the maps don't help--even if the overworld implements Mode 7 somewhat well, the graphics are overly blocky and the towns lack detail. Also, the visuals are really, really dark (perhaps the developers took the name of their game a little too literally), to the point that it will likely bother your eyes.
The game uses a unique combination of scripts to establish its battle menu, which is Chronicles of a Dark Lord Episode I's biggest plus. Problem is that there is much lag in this game, and not natural lag from simply waiting for ATB meters to fill up, but the RPGMaker engine gets overloaded, and you'll be waiting to do things like select an attack, open the main party menu when on the overworld, and wait for parallax fog effects to load (when you enter one town, the parallax effect loads first, so you're seeing sky before you see the town... strange stuff.)
As for the exact moment I gave up on CoaDL: I got two cheap game overs in a row. One was for incorrectly guessing a password to a treasury, and the other was upon completion of a side quest. Both events triggered battles that sure seemed impossible to beat, so I was expecting the game to continue after I lost. ... It didn't.
There are some good ideas in CoaDL part one (most of them battle system related, but I also enjoyed the high rate of items searchable in pots, clocks, wells, and other pieces of scenery), but I do believe the reason this game has gotten so many ratings is because of how many free keys, and cheap keys in Steam bundles, were distributed. I want to stress that I do not write negative reviews to diss any creator and his/her hard work, but to encourage re-examination of flaws so that improvement can be fostered. Perhaps a remake of this game is in order.
Well, I started this game expecting good stories because that's pretty much the main thing you would expect from an indie game, since indie games tend to have lackluster graphics, battles, and etc.
The intro's narrative is meh at best. You, an heir of a kingdom, and your unloving parents(for unexplained reason) have some fallout, and you decide to go to a battle against your father's order to lead troops;
In the battlefield, you have an argument with your father right in front of soldiers a moment before battle. Your father gets mad, and you have an outburst at which point some evil god makes you his enforcer and you slaughter everyone, becoming a dark lord. Over next 10 years you conquer neighbor states and spread fear... except when you actually play next chapter you act like a normal ruler with some hint of cruelty.
I mean, read what I just wrote. Does it make any sense? The whole situation feels like a cheap skit. Why you have fallout with your parents are not explained. Why your sister wants to flee with you is not explained. Why you want to lead troops and then leave kingdom afterwards is not explained. Berating king in front of his own troops make me facepalm, and DEM god makes me faceroll.
I've continued to play for a few hours, but the narrative didn't get any stronger and I don't want to play a main character granted some god-power by DEM. I am not playing this game for mediocre story, so I quit at that point. A war breaks out in the early chapter, I'm probably gonna locate the culprit who is some kind of ancient and great evil and vanquish it. Heard that, been there, done that, no thanks.
I've honestly seen better free RPG maker games in both story and quality-wise. This game's not horrible, but I advise you not to play it unless you are early teens who enjoy this kind of 'badass' flexing his power story. Me? I will pass.
SummaryEnter a world of shadowy intrigue where stained pasts collide with the present in an explosive confrontation that will define one young man's dark destiny, as he attempts to thwart the machinations of a true evil beyond all imagining...
Features
- Immerse yourself into a dark and complex world of intrigue with over 15 hours of Gamep...