Seliky's Story: The Game- A Review

I bet some of my absence may been noticed as even more, well, absent than usual lately heh.  Well, maybe noticed- bah, anyways I was absent more than usual!  Anyways, over this period of time I was kindly given an opportunity to test the RPG game has been developing for some time now, and during that time I tried to devote myself to testing it as thoroughly as I could heh.  She's put in well over a year in developing this game so I felt it would only be fair to return the same devotion to such a project.  Now upon completing it as far as it stands I've been asked to give a review of it and my impressions of the game so far.  I will attempt to be as honest as I can about them in doing so.

To make this a bit easier to organize I'll break it into categories...

The Story:

As an RPG game, the story stands as the core of the game to make you want to play it and see just how the story develops.  As far as Seliky's Story is concerned with this, I'd say it has done a wonderful job of drawing me into the game and following our characters and wanting them to achieve success.  I honestly was looking forward to taking each step to draw me closer to our goal and see what would happen next as the story unfolded the whole way through. The story starts off with the main villain kidnapping Seliky's best friend Aurora, and it's up to you to go save her.  The adventure will send you across Felarya and even other worlds in your quest to save Aurora and you encounter and make some new friends along the way as well.  While the story is rather dark at times with the hardship Seliky has been through and goes through during the story, there is also an optimistic lining to it all as well that I really enjoyed.  It has a unique charm to it that manages to stay cute and optimistic even during the darkest of times and has some very touching moments as well.  I can just feel some of that good ole classic RPG epic adventure to it as well which helps heh.

The story does take a little getting used to though early on, as our mysterious villain is...well he is mysterious.  All I know at this point is my own perspective (which makes sense) that if I don't do something Aurora is as good as dead.  Myself I kind of labled him as just da bad guy for a long while who I simply couldn't wait to find and beat down for all the trouble he has put Seliky through heh.  His intentions and plans are only hinted at for a signifcantly long time before we learn what is really going on as we progress further and further...even then I still have questions but I haven't reached the end of the game so that's to be expected heh.  I felt a little bit was predictable (mostly early), but on most cases there were twists and turns which I hadn't quite suspected at all  so prepare for quite a wild experience.

Considering how much you travel all over Felarya, yes you WILL meet some of the characters that live there (hey it is a Felarya game, do you expect to NOT see Crisis if you go near the Giant Tree heh?).  There is a fair amount of cameos by other characters in Felarya itself but they are for the most part appropriate and not just sending you out of your way to meet a character- they blend into the story at a decent time and it flows well with it.  The quality of cameos can vary some but for the most part I felt it was fine.  Besides Felarya itself you do visit other worlds- as for what I won't quite say as I feel you're gonna have to figure that out the hard way so haha, tough it out!  Ok, I'll give you one, cause I'll be nice.  You do have a fun little visit to the Crossroads and meet Laurina, it's definitely a memorable moment of the game heh.  Going along that line of the other worlds, you do see events unfolding in the other worlds as well and they aren't solely based entirely on your own quest- they have their own events going on and their own stories which you will experience along your journey.   The friends you make are also complex and filled with their own stories and developments too which you will experience along the way.  If there is one thing to say about all the characters you encounter: Listen to them!  They say important things!

Overall, as far as story is concerned I'd say it did a damn fine job of making me want to experience it all and advance to see it unfold.


Gameplay:

The game follows a standard RPG style system combat- you take turns and decide your actions and then see them get carried out.  Overall balancing is in the right ballpark I'd say with a decent curve at the start and then develops more as the game goes on.  Some fights you may find to be easier than others, but overall expect a decent challenge in difficulty as far as an RPG game goes.  I was pleasantly surprised to find a few bosses employing some rather unique mechanics that required a real change in strategy to develop- that or you would get punished very quickly for doing so the wrong way.  Average monsters are just that, most of them are standard fights that you can safely handle but shouldn't be simply neglected or you will pay for it as they can do some damage.  As far as leveling is concerned it follows a fairly decent curve that doesn't push you to stay in a zone killing things forever just to level up, but you can if you want to in some areas just to make your life easier later...maybe.  It is possible to simply run from a fair amount of the normal monsters...but expect things to get rough later if you do.  Kiki knows what trouble I had around midway due to a result of an underleveled party heh.  I rather liked it though as it sort of artificially let you choose your own difficulty as such.

The game also follows a rather different thing in terms of RPGs that surprised me- your gear is what your gear is, you aren't changing it.  I at first was a little dismayed at the thouht of never upgrading my character's gear as I tend to customize a lot, but this later turns out to work pretty well as it turns out.  It doesn't let you overpower encounters and instead rely on your abilities and choosing the right options with your abilities as opposed to having one guy decked out and just steam rolling the competition.  There is some gear enhancement later at the workbench revealed later in the game, but it is nothing like completely changing all your armor or anything (and besides, the image of Seliky in full plate armor or something just seems wierd heh).  I highly doubt your average shopkeeper is going to keep equipment for sale designed for an eight year old girl wielding plasma rods and a flamethrower anyways XD.

Make no mistake- some of the maps are simply HUGE.  This is what kind of made me want to run a large amount at one point, I simply wanted to get to the next event and not spend my time beating down the same monsters over and over.  However while some maps can quite big there are usually events spaced out to keep it fresh and not tire you out.  I was informed of one chapter being significantly larger than one which I was getting slightly tired of running in, but I honestly found that chapter to be paced very well and if it was larger, I sure didn't feel it with how many events occurred.

The pacing to the game is fairly good too as you can expect not only events giving you more story to give you a break, but also complete breaks in the gameplay itself.  There are sections which just alter the gameplay entirely in the form of mini game challenges giving you entirely new controls and rules to follow.  Even areas where you don't break the standard RPG combat system you can expect puzzles to challenge you, of which some can get very creative.  I usually do consider myself fairly good at puzzles but even then I also had some moments of which a hint was needed heh.  Again, it was a rather refreshing taste to see creative puzzles like this put into a self made game along with some unexpected mechanics on some fights.  Oh and yes, this is Felarya, things will try to eat you.

Music:

Now normally I don't play games for the sound at all but rather getting in there and doing the combat and pushing the story...however I was very pleasantly surprised here.  I can honestly say I have very few games in which I have simply just dropped what I was I doing and sat there to listen to the music for a good bit, and this game is one of them.  A large emphasis of this game is music and it shows- the music really helps draw you in even further into the game and its events and sets the mood for the events that take place.  She has really gone out of her way to choose music meant just for this and it just shows, it will have to be something you experience yourself but I really enjoyed the soundtrack here.  For the gamers, expect to run into some music you may recognize from other games for some nostalgia moments and maybe even a few new ones you aren't familiar with.  Even in battle the music is well picked for the most part and they set the theme of the battle and get you into the combat heh.  As for my favorite...well I certainly am very fond of Aurora's theme heh.  

Scenary and graphics:

I'm not too sure what else to really say here besides everything looks appropriate for what it is- climbing around a giant tree feels like climbing a giant tree (good background choice by the way here), underwater areas feel underwater and caves feel like caves...you get the picture.  Most graphics follow the standard RPGVX designs, but expect a fair amount of other things to be put in as well such as illustrations and some custom made avatars of the characters.  Expect to see a variety of classic Felaryan monsters as well as a quite a few of Kiki's own creations tossed into the mix heh.


Overall I'd give this game an 8.5/10 atm...though I've never really rated anything before but I feel it is fair.  A fairly solid and very enjoyable game.  It had to be to get me playing it for about 55 hours of active logged in gameplay XD.  Definitely something to look forward when it is out, and Felarya fans will defiitely like it heh.