Forgive me I played this one a while back but just realized I never reviewed it. (Where is my head?!)
The NPCs this time around I have to agree are much better. I like the random jokes they say and they seem to have more personality (like the kid complaining about getting the water). Though for an extra push you could have them say more than one thing in the same situation. Like after a joke maybe another if you click on them again or something else. That's nit picking though and certainly not a big deal. Oh and the clown saying he's Sparrow... I KNEW it! XD
I can now see a clearer direction you are going with the story. I have a very good idea what you are going to do with Sparrow now but I won't say it here for I'm sure I got your idea on what to do with him. And I must say it's pretty darn good.
The scenes you did with him and Shroud are very nice. It just pludged me right into an action movie and I loved how you added a mini-game to it makeing the player feel right into the action. Great work with the music added in there two. Excellent timeing. That's hard to do.
The other mini game with Stoic underwater was my favorite. I enjoyed it a lot and found it unexpected. I was thinking you'd do a regular battle. What a pleasent surprize.
Fun yet challenging enough. Next time make a retry rather than a game over. It got annoying trying to go back in and seeing the title screen over and over.
Finely's addition I'm really enjoying. He's just the perfect contrast for the two since they tend to be more serious. His mini-games with the guns are pretty fun too. I liked the Ice falling area. Your characterization on your boys are very good. They devoped much further in this arc very nicely.
Though Laurel and Auburn are lacking. The women in your arc I think pale in comparison because your guys are so strong. Laurel to me seemed "Oh and you'll need a white mage, here" :\ I don't hate her or anything... she jsut seemed sorta tossed in. These two girls need to be watched out for cliche since they are slightly slipping into that area. Laurel is too fresh to really harp on but she is falling into "Sweet girl that can heal" area. I feel that she'll be devoloped fine later on but I'd keep that in mind.
Auburn on the other hand is the anti cliche of Laurel. She's the tough girl that has a classic soft side to her. It's difficult to do the tough girl becuase she's been done to death. Though I'd like less of Auburn's "spill" characterization. I think you're trying to deepend her but in doing so she seems kinda shallow. LIke evertime we see her she's spilling her guts to Cade. The first time more odd becuase they didn't really know eachother (and she even remakrs about it). Just seemed kinda sudden and odd to me. And the second time more understandable because she was explaining the situation. If it weren't for the first spill the second one wouldn't have stuck out so much to me. (I did think the second was apropirate). The kiss killed me. I know you needed her to do that to cut off Cade but it jsut seemd really sudden and out of the blue. She seems to be forced into the love intrest rather than letting it slowly devlope more. Love is a very hard thing to portray.
Gabrielle on the other hand is very good in characterization. She's very three dimensional here as compared to her appearence in arc II. I'm very glad you gave her more than just her prejudice side as well as it was hard to make her likeable after her views were so harsh and ridge towards one of the main characters. I think you pulled her off extreamly well. I find that if you had made Gabrielle the healer in the party instead it'd make much more sence and add some more intresting friction in the party. But what you have her do with Andu is very intresting. I'm dying to know what happens to her.
I really enjoyed playing Arc III. Seriously you guys it just gets better and better. :D
