Plaster

text
#+title: James' Kandria 0.2.6 review * Preface As a play-test run based on a development version of the game, my commentary will refrain from any bug-induced judgment, as that's one of the main reasons for me to test the game. * Gameplay ** Platforming The platforming is by far the most fun aspect of the game. Sure, I was invested in the game's setting and characters, but the core gameplay loop of traversing well-designed maps with a simple set of fun movement mechanics is what you play for. Obviously, this is a big win for a platformer game, so congratulations! I liked not having everything told to me so I had to find out how I could pilot the android in creative ways to get passed certain obstacles. There was just enough difficulty for it to be challenging but not too tough to kill my motivation. It was a good choice to make the whole world traversable without upgrades and stuff. To explore you need only improve your ability to navigate the terrain. Bouncing off springs and/or collecting lantern light and resetting the dash is just fantastic. It feels smooth and the maps are designed to push the limits of these mechanics. ** Combat The combat is fairly weak in Kandria. I found myself using the same attack against all the enemies to the same effect and I found no reason to ever deviate. The best part about combat was that I could incorporate some moves into my platforming, which felt like fun, skill-based cheating, in the best way possible. There was no meaningful variety of enemies. The most fun encounter was of course the first mech fight, though some audio queues would turn it up a notch experientially. ** Mercantile/Items Buying/selling things in games is tough to get right. It tends to either cheapen the experience by letting you buy everything you need, or be a total non-factor by having little impact on the main aspects of the game. Kandria leans toward the latter. I would almost never buy anything, and would only use traders to sell all the items which are exactly as useful as their scrap value. This leads to tedious minutes-long shop visits where you identify the items which aren't upgrade components and sell them all one by one. * Story The overarching story is simple (not necesarrily a bad thing) and cohesive. The characters are fun and the dialogue flows well enough to keep me reading, despite some clunky Scottish/Japanese interjections. Some characters felt underdeveloped, for example I wanted to do more quests for Jack and learn about him in the process. In fact, to encourage exploration and show off the game's great platforming and develop the world/characters a bit more, I think there should be more side quests in general. I know there are at least 2 ways to end the game. One of them I stumbled across by accident. I was fetching materials for a quest and killing the NPCs in my way when suddenly the screen turned black and said I defeated the big bad guy. This was before his first cutscene/dialogue and he didn't look different enough for me to notice his importance. Maybe he should talk to the player with an evil villain speech before engaging in a nice boss fight if you enter his domain. The second way I finished the game felt extremely abrupt. I can't help but be honest and say I wasn't satisfied with coming back home after the explosive charges and not knowing for sure their effect. Perhaps we get back and the big bad guy made it through with his vanguard, but the rest of his army got cut off. Here we could conclude with a final fight, maybe a character tragically dies, or you give the player to align with the enemy in a betrayal. Anyway, those are probably shit ideas but the point is it doesn't feel right to end it without a little something extra. Just a note: important characters are not always visually distinct from regular NPCs. I had to talk to every single NPC to see if they had anything interesting to say. I agree with having dialogue that regular folks say because it's useful for getting a sense of the world. But after I get the idea, I'd like to find the quests more quickly. * Music/Audio The music felt like it belonged and is good on all accounts. But I can't say it does what the Pirate's of the Carribean theme does for its eponymous movie. In other words, it's perfectly good but not a masterpiece, which is not criticism. The only criticism of the audio in the game is that it doesn't feel like anything when striking enemies. Some sounds to indicate we are hitting flesh or metal would go a long way to improve the cobat experience.