Gauntlet V: Charas Edition

[fruckert]

I shall put up my review of this later, once I actually play it, and possibly beat it

[Dominicy]

Graphics: The mapping is sub-par, to say the least.  The better half of the game I was just following a fairly non-linear path, hoping I didn’t leave anything behind.  Hell, I didn’t even realize there was a world map until I took a look into the game’s database to refresh myself for this review.  It was fairly easy to lose yourself on the map, unless you were paying close attention to where you came in and out of, there was a painfully good chance that you’d forget there’s even a doorway there, at times.  This is particularly a problem at the very beginning and the very end, when you are leaving and returning to the Forest of Heroes.
2/5

Sound: There’s a lack of it.  Well, more like any variety to it.  Off the top of my head, there’s the lightning, fire, water and wind magic sounds, healing, attacking, swimming, and haste.   The voice-over intro was a nice touch, but if you read too quickly and skipped to the next, you were stuck with the voice overlapping itself with its next line.  Not much fun, listening to upwards of four different voices at once because you read too quickly.  The music was good enough, wholly from the Gauntlet 2 soundtrack, if I’m not mistaken.  I have no problem with that, other than the same problem I had with the music when it was from Gauntlet 2, and the same problem I have with the sound in this game.  There’s no variety.  It gets tiring after awhile – notably when you’re humming the songs to yourself while you play.
2.5/5

Gameplay: The meat of the experience, despite the bland flavor it might be.  Every time an enemy dies, a message informing you of how much damage you took interrupts the game.  That might be bearable if the entire messages would appear at once, rather than scrolling the text.  I’ve always hated that you can’t just skip messages with a keystroke – but I digress, as that’s more a problem I have with RPGmaker, not the game.  Regardless, I’ll heal when needed; I don’t need to be told how much damage I’m dealt, just to be sure I remember.  Almost feels like the game is babying me, but that just might be a symptom of my cryptic way of thinking.
Speaking of healing, I played with a gamepad, which the glitch spell-casting might be credited to in this case.  I’d say I have a justifiable distaste for the spell system, though, when healing costs thrice it’s alleged cost of magic, because the first two times the coding didn’t pick up on my incrementally more frantic button-pressing.
2/5

Difficulty: The game is a cakewalk, as long as the semi-inept user interface decides to have mercy on you and register your frivolous “I NEED HEALING NOW” punching of your keys.  Really that’s all you’ll need to beat the game – a just-right-timing button finger and a bit of luck.  The rest is smooth sailing – and I don’t like it when my victory depends on the game’s random-number-generator damage calculators.
1/5

In closing: It was fun, albeit increasingly confusing experience.  Best played side-by-side with a friend, seeing who can finish first, but even then it could have survived a good polish.  A good enough, thankfully short arcade-sort of game, weighted down by glitchy spell-casting and and a cumbersome battle-system.
2/5

[Legacy of Elecrusher]

...

The Just: It's presented fairly nicely, though it's lacking... I love the outdoors army smashing.

The Me: I swear... That mountain range at the end was just to make whatever playable experience was left in the game unbearable... Honestly. Oh, and that Knight's cave place, one key... So much as touch the wrong door and it's game over due to inability to leave or open the right door.

The Jerk: If I wanted to play a game about running into things, I would've picked up something fun.