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This article was originally published in eZine issue 9.
I've been in the RM world for five years now and following the launch of an RMXP.net based forum theme, I felt it was time to delve back in the past. The first RPG Maker game I ever played, and indeed probably the first independant game I played, was Ahriman's Prophecy. Little known nowadays, but in it's time it was huge. Perhaps more famous is it's sequel, the Aveyond series; Ahriman's Prophecy was made in RPG Maker 2003 and features Looseleaf graphics (usually referred to as "Mack & Blue".
As I download the file for the first time in half a decade it suddenly reminds me how much simpler things were then. The whole game is 9.9 megabytes!
The first thing that strikes you as you play this game is the amount of detail in the maps, which are uncluttered and easy to roam. As Talia walks through the village she is met by chickens roaming the place, butterflies fluttering around, animated smoke and doors, often neglected in games today. The battle system is my favourite part of this game. It is essentially an ABS, but it doesn't try to be flashy and overcomplicated. Spacebar attacks; in the bottom-right corner we see our health bar. The thing to remember is this is RPG Maker 2003 - all of these features were made with events!
Aveyond has become somewhat of a hated game in the RM world, for various reasons, but if my memory serves me correctly Ahriman's Prophecy was a great game and fun to play. I ended up completing it! The storyline may be cliched and leave little to the imagination but the game itself was fun, the systems unique and imaginative, and I could tell a lot of work and effort had been put into it's "50+ hours of gameplay" (which by the way is not a made-up figure, this game really is that huge).
It just goes to show how the RM world has changed over the years. Maybe I'm just a deluded nostalgic, but people seemed to churn out a lot better games back then... mainly because the games were made for fun, and not for glory and/or profit. I have yet to play any of the Aveyond franchise (I got bored at the start of the first and never went any further), but it's turned too commercial in my opinion. Just an opinion! All the games are released with the next deadline in mind, and the next paycheck. I have no problem with someone making money from a game and it's petty to think a game is bad just for the commercial aspect, but I say let me be petty. :kiss:
But... as I play it now... it's shit.
It's absolutely awful. It's... really quite bad. It's nothing like I remembered it and now, frankly, I am sad. I used to remember this as a fantastic game, a brilliant game, a timeless game, but in reality it is a godawful game. What happened? What happened to the good times? Are the great games we remember that aren't churned out any more just exactly the same as the awful games that are around today, but our memories are twisted to make them sound better? The glorious days of yonder filled with amazing games...
I'm going to post a download link and let you decide.
http://www.amaranthia.com/modules/oledrion/product.php?product_id=5
VERDICT: Let the past stay in the past.
--
Perhaps that's the thing. Back five years ago when I first played Ahriman's Prophecy it was an outstanting game because I wanted it to be. I wasn't making games then, I didn't have obsurd standards, I played AP because I wanted to play a good game all the way through. We all talk about how good RMXP.net was, when in reality it had low postage (~30 posts a day compared to our ~400), had a relatively poor userbase (a few gems, among thousands of tossers) and well, ultimately, it died after only being active for a year and a half. The admin proved to be unable to run the site and... I'm going on a major tangent here, but you get what I mean I hope.
In short, because we are all developers, we will find RM* games shit. We will laugh at their inferior mapping and their shoddy storylines. We will tear our eyes out at the RTP or overused graphics, and the pretentious advertising. We will tut and turn away in shame at their use of graphical overlays for lighting and whatnot. But we will never enjoy the games we used to enjoy... that is our curse. Ahriman's Prophecy was a good game and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't become plagued by the elitist mindset which making games gives you.
And that's why Aveyond is so popular. People play Aveyond as a game, not as a critical analysis of our game making inferiors.
Have we really... lost out... way...
...
Discuss!
Commercial gaming is a subject which comes up a lot on the forums by the way. At current an active thread is RPG Maker games companies. Don't agree with my opinions? Have your say on the forums!
Tags:
Posted under: Game Reviews
Read this blog post »
This article was originally published in eZine issue 9.
I've been in the RM world for five years now and following the launch of an RMXP.net based forum theme, I felt it was time to delve back in the past. The first RPG Maker game I ever played, and indeed probably the first independant game I played, was Ahriman's Prophecy. Little known nowadays, but in it's time it was huge. Perhaps more famous is it's sequel, the Aveyond series; Ahriman's Prophecy was made in RPG Maker 2003 and features Looseleaf graphics (usually referred to as "Mack & Blue".
As I download the file for the first time in half a decade it suddenly reminds me how much simpler things were then. The whole game is 9.9 megabytes!
The first thing that strikes you as you play this game is the amount of detail in the maps, which are uncluttered and easy to roam. As Talia walks through the village she is met by chickens roaming the place, butterflies fluttering around, animated smoke and doors, often neglected in games today. The battle system is my favourite part of this game. It is essentially an ABS, but it doesn't try to be flashy and overcomplicated. Spacebar attacks; in the bottom-right corner we see our health bar. The thing to remember is this is RPG Maker 2003 - all of these features were made with events!
Aveyond has become somewhat of a hated game in the RM world, for various reasons, but if my memory serves me correctly Ahriman's Prophecy was a great game and fun to play. I ended up completing it! The storyline may be cliched and leave little to the imagination but the game itself was fun, the systems unique and imaginative, and I could tell a lot of work and effort had been put into it's "50+ hours of gameplay" (which by the way is not a made-up figure, this game really is that huge).
It just goes to show how the RM world has changed over the years. Maybe I'm just a deluded nostalgic, but people seemed to churn out a lot better games back then... mainly because the games were made for fun, and not for glory and/or profit. I have yet to play any of the Aveyond franchise (I got bored at the start of the first and never went any further), but it's turned too commercial in my opinion. Just an opinion! All the games are released with the next deadline in mind, and the next paycheck. I have no problem with someone making money from a game and it's petty to think a game is bad just for the commercial aspect, but I say let me be petty. :kiss:
But... as I play it now... it's shit.
It's absolutely awful. It's... really quite bad. It's nothing like I remembered it and now, frankly, I am sad. I used to remember this as a fantastic game, a brilliant game, a timeless game, but in reality it is a godawful game. What happened? What happened to the good times? Are the great games we remember that aren't churned out any more just exactly the same as the awful games that are around today, but our memories are twisted to make them sound better? The glorious days of yonder filled with amazing games...
I'm going to post a download link and let you decide.
http://www.amaranthia.com/modules/oledrion/product.php?product_id=5
VERDICT: Let the past stay in the past.
--
Perhaps that's the thing. Back five years ago when I first played Ahriman's Prophecy it was an outstanting game because I wanted it to be. I wasn't making games then, I didn't have obsurd standards, I played AP because I wanted to play a good game all the way through. We all talk about how good RMXP.net was, when in reality it had low postage (~30 posts a day compared to our ~400), had a relatively poor userbase (a few gems, among thousands of tossers) and well, ultimately, it died after only being active for a year and a half. The admin proved to be unable to run the site and... I'm going on a major tangent here, but you get what I mean I hope.
In short, because we are all developers, we will find RM* games shit. We will laugh at their inferior mapping and their shoddy storylines. We will tear our eyes out at the RTP or overused graphics, and the pretentious advertising. We will tut and turn away in shame at their use of graphical overlays for lighting and whatnot. But we will never enjoy the games we used to enjoy... that is our curse. Ahriman's Prophecy was a good game and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't become plagued by the elitist mindset which making games gives you.
And that's why Aveyond is so popular. People play Aveyond as a game, not as a critical analysis of our game making inferiors.
Have we really... lost out... way...
...
Discuss!
Commercial gaming is a subject which comes up a lot on the forums by the way. At current an active thread is RPG Maker games companies. Don't agree with my opinions? Have your say on the forums!
Tags:
Posted under: Game Reviews
Read this blog post »