Undertale(Demo)

It's nice when you find a demo that not only shows you some neat gameplay, but ends on a good note.

Undertale is a roleplaying game about a little girl/boy that falls down into the Underworld, but it's not exactly as evil as everyone thinks. This is about as much as I can give away without giving everything away that's in the demo.

The main character lying facedown after falling a few miles down.

First of all, the writing is wonderful. both the player, the supporting cast, and the villain are written brilliantly. I found myself truly caring about Toriel, a monster that acts as a protective surrogate mother to the player. She was just so kind, generous, and caring that I felt terrible disobeying her. It was like picking a puppy.

Toriel leading you through a dangerous puzzle.

The gameplay is also completely different from most RPGs as, unlike most games, you can be kind to enemies, and spare them rather then just attacking or retreating, while all three are still being an option. I found a pacifist run actually more rewarding then a normal one, as it was much more hilarious and sometimes are really sweet.

Napstablook is probably one of my favorite characters.

Personally, I can't wait for this game. The wonderful writing and the unique gameplay will probably make for an awesome world to explore.

The Demo.

Fanpro

Normally I wouldn't post things like this, but recently I discovered this thing on Tumblr.

This woman called Nikka really needs to pass Social Science for the career she wants, but isn't really all that social, so she was afraid she might do poorly. So, she approached her future college professor and they talked. He decided to give her an exclusive homework assignment over the summer so she'll be able to pass his class.

Her assignment was to create a large social movement(a.k.a a fandom) over the summer.

The trouble was she wasn't an artist, writer, or game developer, so she was stuck. Until, of course, her friend  gave her an idea. You see, many people on Tumblr love to to obsess over things. They'll write fiction and songs, draw pictures, and even develop games about things as small as a 6 minute 16 episodes long web cartoon.

And thus Fanpro was born.

Fanpro is a project to create 1000 designs. These designs will only have a number, and nothing else. It is the job of the audience to create the character itself. Their backstories, their personalities, everything. You don't even need to be able to write or draw! You just have to have a small idea of how they behave and that's it!

Personally, I think this is awesome! This will let so many talented people be able to put themselves out there without being afraid of being criticized. And it's not like there's an ulterior motive behind this. This is just to help a college student get through college to pursue her career.

I encourage everyone reading to try to contribute to this project. Who knows, maybe you'll find out you're good at something that you never considered otherwise.

The Original BlogPost
The Current Fanpro Blog

#0008 By Nikka

Review: Yume Nikki

Before I begin, I will say that I love Yume Nikki and its many fan sequels. (Even though some are better than others)

So,

Lets start this review!

"Yume Nikki" is a surreal horror game by Kikiyama. The game is about a young(?) girl named Madotsuki, who seemed to have locked herself up in her room in her apartment. Now, her bedroom is pretty bare for for her age(?). All that's in the room is a bed, a carpet with an Aztec like design, a bookshelf, a few pillows thrown about, a bed, and TV with no form of cable and only having a video game system (a Nintendo) plugged in with a small mini-game called "NASU" to put it to use.

For some reason she never leaves her room throughout her entire adventure. The closest she gets to going outside is standing on her balcony. Now this probably sounds pretty boring. And in hindsight, the room is pretty boring in and of itself. But the game isn't about the physical world, it's about exploring the dream world.

So basically, the entire time you're playing, you're just snoozing the day away in bed.

The first thing I discovered while playing, is that the little girl(?) I'm playing as is anything but a normal kid.(?) If you noticed, I put a question mark between brackets every time I mentioned Madotsuki's age. There's a reason for this.

You see,

Madotsuki's dreams are so messed up, that even the people who tear at every bit of symbolism in this game provides have trouble defining the main character's age.

She certainly looks young, but if your hero dreams of stabbing her dream creatures, and some of said dream creatures becoming bloodthirsty monsters upon being stabbed, implies a whole slew of problems that normally you wouldn't associate with children.

 Other then that, three is no story in the game. There's not even any dialogue. Just you, and Madotsuki as your quirky little guide.

Now design-wise, I love the how the worlds are designed. Everything feels so desolate and empty,n including the soundtrack, but that's how it's supposed to feel. With most of worlds being so empty of life, it's so satisfying to find a small sign of  life, or a tiny event that showcases how creepy the game is.

... What even are those things? And why is a little girl dreaming of grabby monsters?

I won't spoil the surprise of discovering things while playing,but I would describe the creepy discoveries as similar to walking in a desert for days without even seeing a cactus, and then finding a buzzard. Naturally you're going to be happy so see something other then sand, but on the other hand, seeing a buzzard while you're running out of supplies during your trek feels like a bad omen of things to come.

Some worlds don't need to have events to keep you creeped out too.

Gameplay-wise, this game is pretty basic. The main objective is to find these dream powers called "effects." Effects will change the appearance of Madotsuki, and sometimes do odd things. Like the cat effect will give her cat ears, and will meow when you press the action button, which attracts all the creatures on the screen, or the bike effect, which will give Madotsuki a bike a bike to ride on and go faster.

Or give you blonde hair. that's cool too I guess... 

The biggest flaw I see is how unbearably slow Madotsuki is.  There's so many cool effects, but her walking speed is so frustratingly slow, I only used the bike most of the time. It's like she's underwater or something, and can only go so fast. The only saving grace when I started was that the bike effect was in one of the beginning areas, and was (relativity) easy to find.

I could have been a weirdly cute frog girl, but even that's too slow.

Now to close this review, I will discuss the fandom  (Fandom: A large group of people that discuss, and create fan works of their favorite work)

The fandom is one of the more productive groups, but you should never look into these groups until you're relatively far into the game. The reasons for this is that there are spoilers everywhere in the fan art for the game.

Other then that, they are a very creative group that has created hundreds of Yume Nikki fan games centered around different kinds of games(like this platformer), to games with similar game mechanics as the original, but centered around entirely different dreamers.Big name titles include; .Flow, Yume 2kki, and Lcd Dem. I really like this, since different dreamers mean different life experiences, which mean different dreams in general.

My final thoughts are that I really recommend this game to those that like surreal horror or just weird Japanese things. There are flaws, but those can be overlooked by the hours of fun this game has to offer.As an added bonus, there's plenty of fan works to keep you entertained after you're done playing.

For the downloading game and help finding the harder effects.

A good place to start if you'rte interested in the many fan games.

Pokemon LeafGreen Nuzlocke Challenge: The Prologue

Before I begin this play through of this game, I will give an explanation. As the Pokemon franchise grows,  the Pokemon fan groups have created self imposed challenges for themselves as a way to enjoy the game more. The Nuzlocke Challenge is one of those challenges. To play there are two rules:

1. You can only catch the first pokemon you find in a route, no exceptions. 
2. If that pokemon faints in a fight, that pokemon is considered "dead" and will be either be released or put in the Pokemon Storage Box permanently. 

Over time the Nuzlocke Challenge allowed for good practice in art and storytelling for the people who document their gameplay. A good example being the original comic that started the challenge in the first place.

To the left is the first comic. To the right is the most recent chapter.

So I decided to try my hand at this. I will be playing though the game "Pokemon LeafGreen" under a nuzlocke, and will, hopefully, beat it. Wish me luck!

Source:

Ruby: Pokemon Hardmode episode page 1 and White: Hard-Mode episode 6 page 1 by Nozlocke

Dear future readers,

          Thank you for checking out my blog. I really appreciate it. Now for the content, it's currently pretty scarce if you can't tell. Since I'm just starting out, I guess I should explain what my plans are for content. Well, as an amateur indie game developer, I'm planning on posting progress on my games. Generally I enjoy making 2D games, like the Pokemon and most Castlevania series. Expect to see a lot of concept art, pixel art, and plot drafts in the future. Another thing is that I'll probably post is small reviews and overviews of other indie games. I absolutely love the genre and the amount of creativity put into these games, so it'll be fun to share my ideas. Well, thank you for reading this awkward little intro! Have a nice day.

Sincerely,

CatClone