I've never been a fan of these RPGmaker to flash converts, but I gotta make an exception here. I know this "free version" doesn't get any art so that puts a big hit on the adult content, but the story and gameplay alone put this way up on my list. Honestly even if you exclude every bit of adult content the solid gameplay and writing are more than enough. I was worried the lack of leveling up would ruin the sense of getting stronger that I enjoy in RPG's, but it was an unfounded concern. This is really well done.
Reviews for "Ouroboros"
Simply wonderful!
I'd expound on the perfection of the story-telling and atmosphere, for it's genre, or the fact that it's of an enjoyable complexity while not quite violating the time-frame or difficulty of a "casual" game; but others have done that.
The execution and mouse-friendly refinements of the interface are proof that you can make a fine story-drive RPG with RPGmaker, use standard assets and all, yet provide a damn fine playing experience! It's the difference between diddling on a keyboard and listening to a concert pianist, and you certainly set the high bar for RPGmaker craftsmanship.
The glitches remaining are minor, and I wouldn't complain about them except that it might actually help you, so here goes:
- The worst glitch is that the game progressively gets slower over hours of play, and eventually crashes on an out-of-memory error or some sort of missing pointer reference (probably to an asset that failed to load, due to memory exceptions, as it _always crashes while loading a battle, a scene transition, or a "top-level" map.)
I suspect you have a memory leak in the combat screens, assets you don't dispose of properly after the battle or some such thing. It's a fairly common error. The leak might also be in the round-robin menu and it's sub-menu screens, but my sense of the noticeable slow-downs would send me to the battle code, first.
- You disable the relationship score menu, to hide the X-rated aspect of the game, except that it appears once in the tutorial texts, and all the relationship changes are announced, and gifting is still enabled. I'd leave the relationship menu and dialogs in there, and just have a "curtain" graphic where the sexy cut-scenes should be, that way you don't have to seek out and pull the dating sim mechanics out of the game.
- The "shift" key battle speed-up is interesting, but I'd appreciate it be homologued to the centre-mouse-button for mouse-only play. Same for the jump button. Same for the only scroll-down menu, the fight options in the battle routine.
Yours is quality work, and I salute you!
SierraLee responds:
Glad you liked it! I appreciate all feedback, but wanted to respond mainly to clarify regarding the relationship system. No adult content was removed, and the relationship system is operating as intended without modification - there are no dating sim mechanics in this game. Once you have all characters awakened, take them to the gift selling clown to get their feelings on the subject.
Amazing.
I found this to have all the good things about an rpg and none of the bad things.
The fact that you didn't level up means no grinding. Getting stronger felt more satisfying since you actually have to think about your equipment and what to do next and at some point break the cycle.
The plot is great, I love the fact the first cycle felt like it was the end of the game, when it really just started. I also liked how the character got all cynical when he was able to keep his memory.
The only thing that felt a bit off was the difficulty of the final boss fight (which I saw coming since I finished the first cycle), Teira's multiple hit skill attack makes it so the fight is over in about 3 turns. I feel like the final boss should require more tactic, since all characters are so powerful at that point.
Amazing game. The sudden shift in the characters personalities between cycles is the best deconstruction of formulaic character designs I've ever seen in a medium such as this. This was an honestly refreshing surprise to find something as simple as a flash game.
Chrome users. Do yourselves a favor and download firefox and play this game. You'll only be denying yourself a great experience otherwise.
very intresting concept for an rpg maker game don't let the default rpg assets fool ya it's very cool
would be nice to see more type of games like this or perhaps a sequal
nonetheless it's cool