Long post to inaugurate a somewhat fun game I just beat. I recently ordered Westone's ARPG, Blood Gear, and have a CDr with the translation of Micro Cabin's Xak III, so I will be looking forward to those two.
Magicoal
Colorful Action-RPG(lite) with a lot of production values but skimpy on enemy AI. The overhead style and sprites call to mind Zelda, but each area or chapter is often a self-contained map (or maps) that usually place you in a dungeon or area that you have to conquer or find the exit. Occasionally interspersed are town segments which allow you to buy healing items and spells for your two heroes. Puzzle areas are usually solved by talking to and examining everything. The spell items are a real annoyance - their function is randomized: they will either heal you, do nothing, or grant a new spell (out of 84) to use. It feels so sloppy to buy a handful of spell scrolls (or gems for the girl, Melvy) and have only a few of those turn out to be worthwhile.
There are a lot of varieties to the maps you explore. Dungeons, Castles, Ghost towns, otherworldly realms, mountains, and more... it's impressive to see the amount of effort put into the locations, along with the vibrant amount of colors used. The game boasts of its 84 spells, but many of them will not be worth your time as you will stick to offensive heavy-hitters with the rare elemental defense boost. Melvy's spells are dependent on what elements are active in that map or room, meaning you have to pay careful attention to what she has equipped (until a late-late-game spell activates all elements for a map). You will ultimately default to a few trusted spells that home in on the enemy and deal consistent damage (E.G.: Rhun's rock spell, or Melvy's water sprite summon) over flashier and more interesting tomes. Dying forces you to roulette-wheel select a random spell if you want to continue without loading the last save - the odds are usually in your favor with so many non-used spells.
With the time spent creating all sorts of different magic attacks, what's less evident is the time they put into programming the enemies. The game has a distinct "Japanese PC" feel to it. Most enemies are content with rushing towards you, and only a few display some trickier AI to contend with (example: an annoying late-game skeleton cleric, fond of teleporting around the room). The most annoying is enemies constantly/periodically random-spawning into the map, being a chore to fight and forcing you to run (hold down I+II to force your partner to follow!) or dispatch them. Bosses for the first half of the game act little differently, and some of the larger bosses become a giant graphical mess of overlapping attacks, as your spells compete with theirs for space. it gives the game a little bit of a sloppy feel which contrasts with the effort on graphics, presentation, and
awesome synth-rock soundtrack.
There are plenty of frustrating moments, and a few niconico walkthrough-necessary moments*, but on the whole I felt the experience's positives outweighed its negatives. The game's linear structure robs it of some of the replay value afforded to a Zelda game, though the random nature of spell pickups might allow for some variation during runs (the game also tallies at the end your spells found as well as lost through continues).
Quality Ranking:
High
Middling
Low
Consider it
just over the threshold of "Middling" into a praiseworthy "High"
*I've written some helpful posts to get through tricky spots, but they are on pcenginefx.com, which has a very helpful menu translation and some general FAQ stuff by user Digi.k. In the interest of sharing the info with people who might play the game, here they are:
his excellent "get me acclimated" mini walkthrough
Digi.k wrote:
small early tips for early on in the game!
Just before you enter the village try and build up the gold dropped by the zombies in the previous map. Once you enter the map with the new town....
Some things to do before it burns.
You will witness a young boy Wiz arguing with a water sprite/spirit and he will turn the water toxic.
Switch to Melvy as she can talk to them and pick the FIRST Option to save the sprite. Take the sprite to any pond that has clear water (there are 3) in the town and you will be rewarded with a new spell for Melvy. If you do not do this in time the sprite will die!
Throughout the game there is about 3 areas where you can buy stuff. This is one of them, a village store.
Select the bottom option and buy as many scrolls as you can while controlling Rhun the wiz boy.
Hopefully one of those scrolls with give Rhun the fly spell.
notice there is an item up there on the roof? Use the fly spell to land up there. It's a jewel give that to Melvy. Jewels are important for Melvy. Just like scrolls the effect is random. Best of all they give Melvy some new spells. You can reset the game and try them again for different stuff!
Notice the item on the tree top? It's a scroll fly up there and grab it for Rhun.
Here are my notes on my playthrough:
In the ghost town, you need to get three things to remove the curse. To do this you essentially need to play hide-and-seek with the resident ghosts. All the monsters are invulnerable until you remove the curse. The lady by the well will hop around to a few different locations (well, basement of the large house, and so on), finally cluing you in to the location of one of the items in one of the town wells itself. Some guy with a hat in another house will tell you his item is in his bedroom filled with zombies. The final is inside the large mansion itself. Afterwards you can head into one of the town wells to continue the game.
===
In the water palace, where you have to set the blue stone into the central chamber, there are lots of teleporters. Two of them lead to mermaid statues who will give you clues. Destroy them to open up two additional teleporters. There will be text-boxes that pop up before you enter these chambers. There are three of these chambers in total: left, middle, and right.
You have to enter into them in the right order: you will know which order is correct because your characters will say something each time (if it's wrong they say nothing). I believe the order is Left, Right, Middle.
===
In the castle area, you need to make some type of medicine but you don't know the ingredients. You have to have Melvy talk to the little punk wizard (and I think you need to have some story-related items in her inventory - doll? Book? Harp? I had them all in there just in case) to get him to tell you the right ingredients. Pay attention to the kanji(?). Of the three ingredients in the middle garden, you only need two of them. I can't be sure but I THINK mixing all three makes a potion. I can't remember (will try to confirm this later). This will be useful for surviving the frustrating boss fights ahead.
Also, you will see a guard fiddle with some statues. Make sure you examine them! One of them will have a switch that deactivates the fire-breathing statues a few floors up.
part 2
When you are at a castle after killing the evil sorcerer, after a scene, all hell will be breaking loose at night. The lower-right corner is where you will need to be to trigger a boss and the next scene.
In this scene, you'll need to make your way up the castle, flipping all the switches you find - make sure you start by going to the right, as at the top of that section, is a flip switch that does... something. I don't know, but it looks important.
After rescuing the green-haired girl going further up will bring you to a chamber where you fight a trio of assassins. If you are good, killing the last one by the crack in the wall will reveal two chests. This is usually too hard to pull off, so don't worry.
The green-haired girl will be outside and tell you something. Go just outside the doorway and examine the torches to open the locked door.
===
In the next scene, in the assault on the castle, examine all of the shields; on two of the shields (opposite sides of the castle), they can be moved to reveal passageways.
After beating the hammer boss, return to the knight towards the beginning of that screen. He will give you a mirror which reveals false walls. There is a false wall right before the hammer boss's room. You can tell because the tiles are different than normal wall tiles.
===
On the mountain leading to the magical realm, a winged guy will blow you away from the gate. You first need to talk to a boy selling stuff (this is your last chance to buy spells and potions, so make it count). Talk to him a few times (maybe having important things in your characters' inventory?) and something will trigger to allow you to approach the winged man, who will release a tiger. Defeat the tiger and confront the winged man on the southern-right corner of the map.
===
In the wind realm, take the teleporters until you see a fairy, and have Melvy catch her. Afterward, cast a green barrier spell on yourself to make it past the green tornado in the center. You will have to do some platforming to reach the boss.
===
In the earth realm, you will need to have the knight midboss be charging at you to hurt him. Use Rhun and fire projectiles as he does so.
===
The Water Dungeon has to be the last selected dungeon (I don't think it will let you select it before the others)
===
The final boss is a real bastard. You can only hurt him as he's standing still, and he only does that when he needs to summon some of his goons after you kill them. Occasionally he starts charging up a screen-filling Armageddon spell, which if you are too occupied with the other distractions (and your partner is brain-dead as usual), it will kill you instantly. It takes a long time to charge though.