The Out Casts Review: Unpolished, Unbalanced, and Nonsensical

 The following review was something I wrote during RMN's post-NaGaDeMo review drive back in July 2012, which I've already talked about here.  The game this review was attached to has since been taken down from the site, rendering the review unviewable to anybody except myself.  As such, I have decided to preserve the content of the review here on my own blog.  The text of the review itself is unchanged except for reformatting it for my blog; I'll discuss some of the out-of-date information at the end of the post.

The Out Casts: Unpolished, Unbalanced, and Nonsensical

The Out Casts is an RPGMaker VX game created by redwall10.  This appears to be redwall's first (and, as of this post, his only) game on this site; as such it could be expected that the game would not be a masterpiece.  Unfortunately, The Out Casts has many more issues than would be considered acceptable even for a first game, featuring unbalanced gameplay, a barely-sensical plot, and spelling errors galore.





Summary:
At this time, the game page for summarizes The Out Casts as such: "The Outcast follows the journey of Chris and Ashley, two siblings who have become outcasts for practicing magic, as they fight against the forces of Zio and attempt to reclaim their place in society. Throughout their journey, Chris and Ashley will be aided by Sakura, a woman from Japan, and a powerful fighter known as Alex 'The Guard'. "

In actuality, The Out Casts follows Chris and Ashley, two siblings who became outcasts after Zio attacked their village out of a sense of racism.  After defeating Zio, they then go on to fight his master, the Earth King, who kidnapped their mother.

Fire Emblem: The Amazon Challenge I

In which Muninn embarks on a quest for revenge against an evil uncle, armed with naught but the power of teenage girls.  Confused?  Then why not start from the beginning?

Chapter 1: Footsteps of Fate

A remarkably easy chapter, what with everybody on the enemy side being armed with an axe and Lyn having a sword.  Even taking into account the few enemies towards the beginning where the game forces the use of Kent and Sain, Lyn was able to grow from level 2 up to 4.

Level-Ups	Level	HP	STR MAG	SKILL	SPD	LUCK	DEF	RES	Weapon
Lyn	4	19	7	9	11	7	2	1	Sword D

Chapter 2: Sword of Spirits

Another easy chapter.  The boss, Glass, had a sword instead of an axe, but even so he was quite the pushover.  Didn't even bother breaking the west wall of the temple, because I had to send Lyn south to take care of the bandits in that direction anyway.  Lyn grew two more levels (to Lv6) and attained her C-rank sword ability.

See that 67 Hit rating (78.22%)?  That's the only attack Lyn was hit with in this chapter.

Level-Ups	Level	HP	STR MAG	SKILL	SPD	LUCK	DEF	RES	Weapon
Lyn	6	20	8	9	13	7	3	1	Sword C

Fire Emblem: The Amazon Challenge Introduction

I've recently held the desire to go back and re-play Fire Emblem.  Back in 2004, shortly after the game came out, I was quite into it (as can be seen from many of my game design documents that I have from back then which very much ripped it off took inspiration from this wonderful game).  I beat the game several times back when I was a frequent player of it and have only played it sporadically in the time since then, but in coming back to it, I've decided to spice my experience up just a little bit.

I intend to restrict myself to only using the female characters.

The Incomplete Guide to 2012 Anime (Referencing Cows)

The year is over, and what a year it has been.  In celebration of the end of a year, I invite people to join in reminiscence of the many anime series that we've seen come out this past year.  Anime can get a little weird sometimes, though, so it may help to relate things in a more mundane manner...

Ano Natsu de Matteru: You have two cows.  Aliens come to Earth and steal one of them.
Another: You have two cows.  Nobody acknowledges that they exist.
Chitose Get You: You have two cows.  They compete for your affection, unaware that you are not attracted to bovines.
Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai: You have two cows.  They pretend to fight demons.
Fate/Zero: You have two cows.  You place them in the care of a butcher, sit back, and watch the money roll in.