Recent reviews by Rycoria

I have been having a wonderful time with this game. Admittedly, my experience so far has been detracted somewhat due to the large amount of bugs, but that is no longer relevant. A week after launch, all the glaring bugs have been hot-fixed, and what's left behind is a stellar puzzle strategy game. I definitely would not consider myself a fan of the candy crush genre, but this game uses the basic match tiles mechanic as a backdrop for some seriously engaging gameplay. The core of the game is that matching a row or column of specific tiles will have two effects. Firstly, the tile effect itself, match bones to hurl them for damage, match poop to create a poop shield, boogers can "gum up" an enemy - draining its action point, pee provides an extra move on the puzzle board, et cetera. These can be achieved by matching four in a row, but are all strengthened by matching 5, 6, or even 7. For instance, more than four bone or booger tiles give you multiple of each to throw at your enemy, but 5 or 6 teeth matched create a single, super-strong tooth. Match 7 poop tiles and you'll unleash a super-♥♥♥♥ in which a 3-stack of poop shields appear on every lane. As a secondary but vital effect of matching tiles, you gain corresponding mana, whether it be poop mana, booger mana, or otherwise, which can then be spent on your spells. Spells can do anything from attack enemies, wipe out a row on the puzzle board, spawn wild tiles, knock enemies back, heal. The unique arsenal of spells you'll have every game is part of what makes the game shine as a rogue-like. Throughout every run you have frequent chances to pick between two spells to acquire. Each time, spells can require different types of tiles to cast, and their costs and effects can be augmented via needles that can be purchased at the casino between areas. Items can also fill these spell slots and tend to take a given number of combats, between 1-3, to recharge. Finally, four trinket slots exist for passive items that might generate free mana, provide a small dodge chance, or make you immune to curses. Some of these are one time use.

There are numerous different enemies and bosses, which are not only interesting visually, but in gameplay as well. Each enemy takes time and repeated encounters to fully learn its behaviours, including how it moves between the lanes of battle, when it will prime to attack, or in which form it is immune to spells, and in which form it is immune to puzzle attacks. All monsters display their health, and amount of moves, 1-2 for most creatures, and up to 6 for certain bosses. This information makes it clear and easy to plan your strategy around. A lot of the bosses, and even some of the regular monsters, have fun and unique methods of being defeated.

The game features six playable characters, each with their own starting stats, spells, and passive ability, which definitely helps the game continue to feel fresh. I have yet to unlock the final character, which requires 10 full game clears, but the 5 I do have access to are all relatively easy to unlock.

The music is absolutely banging. Would not have minded some additional tracks for more variety, but the ones present are damn good. The cardboard aesthetic is charming, well made and very fitting, especially given the game's role as the prequel to The Binding of Isaac.

I initially found the game to be a bit too easy, but I have since found that the latter two chapters of the game, especially once obtaining "Everything is Terrible", which ramps up the difficulty, to reach a fairly optimal difficulty point, except for when I would occasionally steam roll the game due to an excellent combination of spells and stats (but the runs were still fun even in these cases.)

Overall, this game pleasantly surprised me with just how fun it is. If you enjoyed the atmosphere of Isaac, but are looking for a whole new type of gameplay, give it a go.

*Emily visits*
*We hook up*
"I can't believe you took advantage of me!"

*********

*Replay game*
*She visits again*
*We don't hook up*
"Wow, why didn't you hook up with me?"

fml girls are hard 10/10

I LOVE RPG Maker MV. I've started a brand new project with it, and there's just so many moments where I'm like "Wow..." or "Cool!" or "No Way!" It's just designed so much better so your life while using it is that much less of a headache. It's extremely powerful and much more functional then any previous version of RM, even Ace. There's so many things about it that make you feel like, "If only Ace had had this, it would have made my life, and my game, so much better." And that's why it's so good.

PROS

• A brilliant new GUI
  
• A fabulous new Character Editor - includes side view battler, the ability to save your character and come back to it
  
• Interwoven with Javascript - a major improvement over Ruby. The plugin system is a lifesaver. It just presents all of your options and parameters for you
  
• Absolutely gorgeous built-in assets, so you can get straight into making your game and it looks GOOD
  
• Side-view battle!
  
• Event searcher! This will undoubtedly save my life
  
• Craploads of little additions like allowing enemies to appear mid-way through a battle, and other things that would require annoying scripting otherwise
  
• Tons of performance improvements for both the engine and the game itself
  
• Mac Support! Yay Mac users!
  
• iOS and Android export may take some effort, but BUILT-IN TOUCH SUPPORT AND EMULATION IS SO COOL

CONS

• It's crashed on me a couple times already. That is frightening.
  
• It's kind of annoying that I had to install the DLC and full database myself. Was worth it though.
  
• Little extra features like auto-aligining troops for side-view, more built-in battle customization and a NORMAL LOOKING ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ BROWN EYE COLOUR WOULD BE NICE
  
  In all seriousness, though, it's amazing. Sure you gotta do some of the work yourself, but this is GAME DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE people! If you didn't come with the intentions of getting your hands dirty, you're in the wrong place!
  
  I'm SUPER excited for how this software will develop in the coming months both from the development side and the community side, and I'm really looking forward to making incredible games with this baby!
  
  Do you want to make games? Yes: Buy this.
  Do you like previous versions of RPG Maker, but want more? Yes: Buy this.
  Do you want to stop reading this long-ass review and just buy it already? YES!!!!!!! BUY IT!

And you want to make it with RPG Maker VX Ace.
Good choice!

Now, RPG Maker is a phenomenal program, that, despite it's flaws, is absolutely perfect for almost anyone.
Both experienced and inexperienced developers alike, RPG Maker VX Ace offers a wonderful alternative
to the grind of the intimidating scene that is coding.

Not only is it great for giving you the tools you need to get started with creating games, and thus teaching you all of the basics of what it takes to create a game, it's also great for people who have already made some fun games in other programs like Game Maker.

Pros

• A tightly wound and smart core program that gives you all the puzzle pieces to design then puts them together for you
  
• A starting template that removes all the hassle of movement, messages, battle etc. and lets you get straight to creating your game
  
• Very powerful eventing system
  
• A well designed GUI (Graphical User Interface) that makes map making a breeze
  
• A database that allows you to create to your hearts content and is seamlessly tied into the game itself
  
• Free assets such as graphics, music etc. + a character designer (which is amazing)
  
• The capability to expand presentation wise via DLC/custom/internet downloaded assets as well as programming wise via scripts
  
• Kind and helpful community

Cons

• Limited for the non-experienced user (then again, they may not require anything else, and thus is simpler for them)
  
• Database that, while does its job, doesn't have the best design
  
• Occassionally awkward interactions within eventing and scripts
  
• Annoying licensing restrictions (However, you can still go all the way from scratch to a published commerical game)
  
• A few minor bugs

Bottom line: It's certainly very powerful - it feels limited, and, to a certain extent, it is. However, for experienced users, you can really break most, if not all, of those limits through scripting. You can truly expand the potential of your game exponentially. Therefore, I disagree it's only for aspiring developers. It's for anyone who damn well wants to make a game. They can :)

8/10 would make games again

Alright so first of, let me make one thing clear:
You can do amazing things with this collection of scripts.
HOWEVER!
And that's a big HOWEVER:
You need SERIOUS scripting knowledge to make your dream UI happen.
"Little to no programming knowledge" -> NOPE! More accurate: "A ****-load of programming knowledge"

I know what you're thinking:
AW THIS GUY IS SOO STUPID IM SURE ITS EASY

Trust me, it's really not. The fact is, you're gonna have to spend a LOT of time and effort after putting these scripts into your game to make it look the way you want. And they aren't compatiable with a lot of things, and the things they are compatiable with can still have errors. Chances are it's going to be chaos and break everything.

If you know what you're doing, you can fix most of these problems and once everything is back to normal, you can then customize to your hearts content and make magic happen. I did.

But damn I was pulling my hair out for a while. I have a TON of other scripts and when I loaded it up everything was a complete disaster. If you do not have serious scripting knowledge, you will not be able to correct this, nor edit it the way you want to. The description is a quite a bit of a stretch, no-one said its plug and play, but it certainly isn't just changing a few x and y values either.

If you have the abilities and time to put the necessary effort into this, it's worth it, at most any price point. You can make amazing things with it like I did. If not, DO NOT BUY.

Do I recommend? It really depends on who's buying: their scripting abilities, time avaliable, and patience.

Gotta say, despite all the pain it's caused, I like it.

EDIT: There's been some updates, and they've fixed a few things. However, there is something I want to make clear:
The example projects included in the engine ARE NOT what you see in the screenshots, unfortunatley. In addition, some of the examples don't work properly, right out of the box.
So if you want it to be exactly as you see in the pictures, you have to do it manually!

This game is literally full of ♥♥♥♥.














In all seriousness, this game is absolutely...phenomenal.

It's an improvement over the original in every way-and yet, it still FEELS like Isaac - which is the most important thing, The new developers, under Ed's careful watch, did not do what we all feared-butcher the original and create something totally different. Instead, they made a game that has the heart and soul of the original, the same core feel, but yet is a better game in every sense of the word. They did it.

From the new engine, graphics, music, items, features, bug fixes, small details, and spooper secrets, this game is everything the fans asked for-and so much more. It's what the original would and should have been in the perfect world (with all the time and effort and lack of flash). It's everything 'The Binding of Isaac' should have been, and so much more.

It's...dare I say it...perfect. I love it.

For the record I have about 20-30 hours played across mobile and with offlne play.
This game is one of those games that can be frustrating but yet always brings you back for more. It is very difficult but also very fair.
The controls are, vitally, precise.
The music is perfect for reaching that zen level that is required
to excel in the game.
The graphics are simple but do the job and create the retro feel.
The story is nonexsistent but unnecessary.
The gameplay is brilliant. Such a simple concept but executed very well. Incredibly addictive and oddly rewarding. Actual skill is involved and the more you play, the better your reflexes get and the more you are able to recognize and adapt to the various patterns.
It's got a large amount of playability for such a cheap price, and is also got a nice hand-it-to-a-friend-to-watch-them-fail thing going on.
Not for everyone, but certainly it's worth spending very little to see if you are one of the people it is for. And if you are, you're in for a hell of a good time.

Absolutley fantastic. I played it before it was on steam, but now it has signficant improvments and is overall a much better experience. More content (longer games), game reports, rebalancing etc. make it a true gem now more than ever before.

It is literally impossible to explain this game in such a way that will sufficently convey my feelings for it.

It is a game, it is not a game - it doesn't matter. It is art, and deserves its place among the finest of titles.

Play the demo, and if you enjoy it, buy the game.

An absolutely brilliant masterpiece, an absolute must buy if you're not one of those people who will judge this game based on its lack of gaminess.

If you aren't, so help you god, you're in for a mindblowing good time.

gishy gishy goo. check out my review here: http://youtu.be/a8TJuLYMPag