C9 Review C9 Review IGMC 2015 Submission: Rootbound
Cloud Rating:
There are bad RM games that make you cringe. Usually developed by first time game makers, projects that are supposed to be for friends and family only but for one reason or another see the light of the internet, or games that have such bad taste and "humor" that only the creator would think they are worthy of play.
Then there are good RM games that you can tell the developer put a lot of heart and time into developing. These are the games that you remember when you reminisce about game playing times of old. These break the mold of what people think RM is capable of or leave such a large impact on you that it gives you great inspiration in your own projects and ideas.
Then there is Rootbound.......
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one that I'll have in mind for a long time to come. Out of the RPG genre, this has been one of the most fun games I've played so far. I really loved the whimsical nature and setting of the whole thing. There were minimal problems with it (Other than those tables with the vases on them that you could literally stand on top of. I suppose table dancing was a feature that was started but never finished?) and only a couple of grammar errors that I noticed. Even though the post-credit rant mentioned that there wasn't much polish done, the author did a very nice job, nevertheless.
So, we start up the game:
Great title screen and even the title command text matches the theme of the game. How cute.
The protagonist, Accha (whose name sounds like someone half sneezed), seems... colorful. Yeah, that's a good word for her.
Anyhow, after some decently long back story intro dialog (Which I like to read so I wasn't really faltered by it), we begin our epic journey of dipping some seeds in water and planting them! Doesn't sound very epic... but take my word for it, it is very fun. First you gotta kill the baddies guarding the magical water, then you gotta kill the baddies that are summoned by planting your magical seeds that grow the magical trees that protect the lands! Very simple premise, but made very well. Words just don't do it justice. It's a lot like me trying to describe the taste of my Grandma's surprise ingredient blackberry cobbler (As mentioned in a previous review). I can only use so many words to tell you about it, but you'll never know the joy, or sorrow, your taste buds will experience until you try it for yourself.
One thing that really threw me for a loop, the whole family, cousins, brothers, dads, uncles, nieces, dogs, milkman, whatevers family relation thing. I don't know who's related to who and at one point I thought that Loa was attracted to her cousin which actually was Accha's brother. Even though he didn't have a beard... I think...
Anyway, the graphics were great. They did a great job of picking out tilesets and creating the characters and even though the battlers were of, obviously, a different style it still seemed to all come together somehow. And music selection was spot on as well. I loved the idea of making the world map character just a marker showing where Accha and her band of merry greenthumbs were at in the world. It made the very small island seem much larger than it actually was.
The battle system was very well put together also. Not very difficult but not too easy either. And I'm a huge fan of minimalistic approaches. I liked the small numbers and the few skill selections to start off with. With some games I've played lately, you begin with a whole arsenal of spells and skill galore. It can get very overwhelming and confusing when you very first start a game and have 5 different direct damage spells, 3 recovery type spells, 7 buff spells, and 4 debuff spells. I liked the way it started off small and slowly worked the amount of skills up and they actually made sense. No seeing a spelled named Agarthouzima and having no idea what it actually does.
The cast of the game was put together decently enough. I didn't get that much of an emotional attachment or bond, but that's to be expected of most games that are supposed to be around an hour of gameplay length. Although Rootbound is obviously taking stabs at satirical humor, I wish there were something more that I could relate to with the characters. That is one of the very few things that I was disappointed with on this project. Although, one character in particular struck me as vaguely familiar.
The ending was definitely anti-climatic, but not horrible. And stick around after the credits. Trust me. Surprise ending! ;) Did I mention that there will be spoilers in my reviews?
So, in conclusion, I had a blast playing this one. I stuck this one out, even though my actual play time was a little over an hour which is where I normally stop, just to see the ending. May have been a little too much on the easy side (Sleep Bomb and seemingly no enemies resistant to sleep, for example.) but it was still fun to use different tactics in battle against different baddies. The storyline kept me driven to complete the game, as well.
Originality was decent. I mean, I've played games dealing with magical seeds before (Secret of Mana) and magical trees (Ocarina of Time), but the different game play mechanics I've never even really considered before (skills and items that were insta-use during battle) were very neat ideas. I, personally, haven't came across an RPG that had stuff like that in it.
Creativity, well, that needs no explanation. Very creative use of the RPG Maker engine. The currency system I loved. The different skills and stat boosts you obtain by having certain accessories equipped was a good one. The world map, as stated before, also a big plus in my book. That amongst other things definitely earned it a spot in my list of favorites.
As for replayability, that just isn't happening. I loved the game, don't get me wrong. But I don't see any reason to play through it more than once. There's not much to be missed or much in ways of options to change game play any at all and the storyline is very linear.
For those reason, Rootbound has earned 3 clouds!
