Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Ib, an RPG Maker masterpiece

A screen shot from the beginning of the game.
Before I created this blog and was only sitting on the idea, I knew that I had to write about Ib. I fell in so much love with the game that I had to share its existence with other gaming friends; it's that kind of game. I wasn't sure how long I should hold off on posting about it, but this game is fantastic, and everyone ought to know about it.

Ib is a free (yes, free!) RPG maker horror game by Kouri that was released February of this year. I think it would be fair to categorize it as a puzzle game as well since puzzles are a necessary component to progressing in the game. If you're not a puzzle person, don't allow that to deter you. The puzzles aren't too difficult, and the game itself is a lot of fun.

Ib is about a young girl, named Ib (pronounced "Eve"), who visits an art museum that is holding a special exhibit for a lesser known artist, Guertena. After looking at a particular, large painting, Ib finds herself alone in the museum and soon finds herself in another world after descending into a painting. When she goes to turn back, the exit has disappeared, and Ib traverses the new world in hopes of escape, along the way meeting allies and enemies.

As I mentioned, the game isn't that difficult. Most of the puzzles can be figured out with logic, or, even, trial and error. There was only one puzzle in the entire game that I had trouble with. I felt so embarrassed afterwards because the solution was so simple and logical. The puzzles are unique and interesting, and often require interacting with the paintings of the "fabricated" world. One of my favorite puzzles was "The Liar's Room" which requires Ib to find out which portrait is lying to her. Once you pick the right one, something decidedly eerie happens...

With regard to gameplay, it's pretty straight forward. You play primarily as Ib. The arrow keys allow the player to navigate, pressing enter/space allows the player to examine things or speak to other characters. Ib's health is represented by the red rose found in the fabricated world. She has 5 HP, then it's game over. As the game says: "When the rose wilts, so too will you wilt away." While there is no fighting in the game, which may make you curious about the need for HP, there are many enemies. Much in the vein of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, you'll need to run away from enemies since there is no way to fight them.

The graphics of Ib are interesting. Perhaps not groundbreaking, but good all the same. The designs of the enemies are cool, the portraits (while artwork sometimes repeats itself, there are many different paintings to look at) are lovely, and the design of certain rooms is just plain awesome, especially if you revisit the same room as a different character. The graphics change dramatically at the end of the game, when Ib proceeds from the alternate museum to a new area called the Sketchbook which, as you might guess, looks like a child's sketchbook. The dramatic shift in graphics compliments the change in atmosphere by that point in the game.

The music is wonderfully and artfully done. The theme for the Sketchbook suits the game's change in atmospheres. Hide and Seek is arguably the game's most beautiful and saddest-sounding song. Another claim to fame for this game is the characters. While Ib herself is more a silent protagonist (think Link from The Legend of Zelda series, though you can sometimes choose Ib's responses during cut scenes) and most of her emotions are shown through the other characters, Garry and Mary are three-dimensional characters. They are interesting, and they both have very clear personalities. An all important factor in the game is Ib's relationships with other characters. It is especially vital to the plot.

A fun mechanic of the game is seeing how the player's actions cause things to happen. As I mentioned, choosing the correct portrait in "The Liars Room" puzzle causes things to change. You'll find this often happens as you work on puzzles and progress through the game. It's very interactive in that way.

This game can be replayed again and again because of it's sheer number of endings; there are six in all. In order to get certain ones, you have to do certain things (things one might not consider while playing the game), not do certain things, or, even, do nothing specific at all. There are also unique events that you may miss out on the first time playing. (For example, I played at the same time as a friend, I got an extra scene that she did not, likely because I spoke to a particular character more, or what have you.)

Ib isn't so short that it leaves the player longing for more (though, depending on how invested you are in the characters, you may feel this way nonetheless), nor is it so long that it just seems to drag. It has a nice, solid length that will keep you interested while playing.

Don't forget that this game is a horror game. There are some very dark moments (e.g. "The Liars Room" puzzle), some very violent (albeit cartoon violence) moments, and there can also be some genuinely frightening moments (though it depends on the player) during chases and more.

I could go on and on about my views of Ib and how much I adore it. For a free game made on RPG Maker, it's breath-taking, and it has spurred quite a following. As clichéd as it sounds, Ib is an experience, one I would almost definitely pay an obscene amount of money for.

Over all, I would probably rate Ib a four, broken down as such:
Plot: Easily five stars. Great characters, great endings, great story.
Graphics: Four. Nothing to get too excited about, but still great.
Sound/music: Four. Again, nothing amazing, though there are some very great themes.
Difficulty: It's not that difficult, so I would rate it a three in terms of difficult. Don't let that turn you away. The game's mediocre difficulty level means that gamers (and non-gamers) of all walks of life can play it.
Ability to replay: 4 for the number of endings alone.

Here is the original website. It's in Japanese, so I doubt most of my readers can read it, but I feel that the creator should get credit. There's also an image gallery on here, which is pretty cool.

Here is the translated website. It has the download link for Ib, so you should definitely play it. There's no reason not to, as I already mentioned, it's free! The translator was kind enough to include a guide for the endings.

If you have a PC, go ahead and download the game! It's a great experience, no matter what and, most of all, it's free, so if you don't like it, you don't have to pay for it. If you don't have a PC, there are plenty of Let's Plays on Youtube. Certainly, if you do play it or have already played it, be sure to let me know in the comments.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Let's discuss: Kya

I'm  in the midst of writing a review for the Playstation 2 platformer Kya: Dark Lineage, but I wanted to look at some aspects of the game before publishing it, so I'm putting it on hold for now. One of my (many) goals of this blog is to look at characters (and/or video games) to determine if they're "female-friendly," since that is something that has always been important to me as a gamer and as a woman. As such, I thought I would give a little preview of Kya, the protagonist of Kya: Dark Lineage, before publishing the game's review.

At one point in my adolescence, I decided that fully developed female characters were important to me. I suppose this came about after playing games and seeing games with many cool male characters/protagonists and female characters that... left more to be desired. When my best friend first showed me Kya: Dark Lineage, I think Kya being female really added to my love of the game.

Kya is an admirable character. She is a young woman (her age is never stated, though she is probably in her mid-to-late teens) who is strong and determined, if not a little stubborn. She lives with her half-brother, Frank, and, presumably, a mother the audience never sees. The game starts off with Kya investigating a strange noise in her house, only to find Frank messing around in a secret room neither of them knew about. While exploring the mysterious room, Frank accidentally knocks over something that causes Kya and Frank to be launched into another world. Upon waking, Kya finds herself surrounded by strange creatures and no Frank. The creatures, Nativs, take her back to their city, teach her about the antagonist of the world, Brazul, and teach her how to fight Brazul's minions so she can rescue Frank.

First, it might serve as a good idea to discuss Kya's design. Kya is not, exactly, oversexualized in the way that many female characters tend to be, but she wears attire that would probably not be acceptable for a male. 
Kya in the Roots (image from IGN)

Kya wears a midriff shirt, which is pretty forgivable considering how sexualized female characters normally are though, it is worth mentioning, Frank would not be wearing such a thing if he were the protagonist. The only reason it's all that forgivable on the part of the designers is because she's female. Midriff aside, Kya's design is pretty-okay. Her body size is a little too small, her waist is certainly too small to be healthy or realistic, but, it's something I can more or less overlook because Kya has a strong personality.

I feel the need to mention this, because I've noticed it too many times in video games, anime, and other media forms: fan service. I can't recall any clear fan service moments, certainly nothing outrageous like having her take a dip in a spring while she's on her mission (I'm looking at you, Final Fantasy X-2). It seems a silly thing to mention but it's important (to me) because so many character designers decide to throw in fan service when female characters are involved.

Kya is a strong character who doesn't allow the fact that she's human stop her from braving dangerous wastelands, volcanic islands, or monsterous dogs that devour everything whole. While her reasoning for going after Brazul is, at first, to help the Nativs and personal in that she wants to rescue her brother, by the end of the game, it becomes personal on a much closer level: she wants to go after Brazul to stop his plans and get her revenge. Her revenge for what, you ask? That would be too much of a spoiler, so you'll have to play the game yourself.

I enjoyed the fact that Kya is a character with her own goals and a real personality. She is, at first, upset about what has happened to her and her brother and worries about Frank's life, but then she "toughens up." She learns how to fight and she braves the strange new world in order to accomplish her goals. I also enjoyed the fact that they added more to her personality than "concerned about brother, must save brother." While that is by no means a bad goal, it doesn't make much of a character. There are times where Kya is downright stubborn, determined to fight the Wolfen and destroy Brazul even though she's only a weak human, and times where she is downright human: when she is afraid for Frank's life, when she loses trust in an ally, etc.,

It's worth mentioning that Kya is also the only female character in the entire game. All of the Nativs that speak are male and, since all of the Nativs have a similar body shape, presumably every Nativ is male. How they procreate now and how they did in the past is a mystery to fans, though I have heard many... interesting theories.

All in all, Kya is a bad ass character who also happens to be female. More female characters could learn a thing or two from her. While Kya isn't my favorite female character, or the strongest, she deserves to be mentioned as a solid female character. There is more to be desired from her in terms of design and character development though, perhaps, if Kya fans had gotten the sequel to the game, there could have been all of that and more.

(Be on the look out for that Kya: Dark Lineage review. It will probably be finished by the end of the week.)