Temple of the Druids
by: DragonShadow
Reviewed by: Paladin
Software: RM95

The first thing you notice when playing Temple of The Druids in the beginning is that DragonShadow has put a lot of time into the beginning itself. Now the intro wasn't something special but it served its purpose to get you involved with the game story. The intro begins with an old guy walking into the temple itself, I beleive that this happened several years before you can play as the real main character Jado. He is running from the guards and escapes to the castle nearby (not to reveal too much of the story). Now the intro gets you into the game pretty well and I liked the effect with playing as an old guy long ago first (not that it is original but it is nice) And you also can't miss that DragonShadow uses Megaman midis that are pretty uncommon to the RPG society, this is good and the music fits in. So i won't give you much lower score for ripoffs (especially when my game has ripoffs from the most knows games by Square :) but there also were some bof3 midis and other commercial RPG sounds. The enemies in the beginning were pretty ok but a tad too easy. I really started to love the Auto Battle button. But when the new character joins (not revealing names so I don't spoil it for you) the invincible option in the Start test menu became quickly my best friend. So a little fixup in the difficulty of the enemies. I liked the trolley ride when you change the tracks and stuff. It was new (to RM95 that is, it has otherwise been done in many games). And the tilesets were good. They were mixed of a lot of different tilesets to look great. But there were some tile misplacements and some bad tile setting. Some houses didn't look right inside, like the Appraisers' shop. Look into it DragonShadow. And the story isn't too well developed in the beginning of the demo, but there are some classic RPG stuff and also new things. Well the story keeps you interested (it could have been done better though) and the little puzzles (too easy, but I'll give you a good score since you have pretty many of them) are also a good contribution to the player involvement. The SFX are frequently used here and it isn't only the original RM95 SFX, but also new ones. And I also liked the little secrets in the caves like the "fake" wall in the beginning. But the meeting with Baron was waaay too thin. He like said... "you aren't who you think you are" and they "really? I could never have guessed" and then he "go get a stone in a tower" and they "sure! glad to be of service. I would never consider why I am doing this and that you are a very weird old man". Please add more dialouge and conversation there. It was too much amateur like. The tower teleport didn't work as it should since I had to press 'confirm' to get inside. The sing in the tower that is beside the locked door is 'below the hero' not 'same level as hero' fix this too. The talk with Baron in the cave was ok, but it was a tad unrealistic. This may sound stupid but he sounded too suprised over that he wasn't human, that kind of stuff take time to be processed, you don't get an answed at once. And when that Tristan kills you then your friend get's teleported away but the boss stays. But I liked the star crest effect that it cures then you step on a save point. Nice done! The cliffs were good and the vines were a new and interesting thing. Adn I liked that talk behind Terrik's house. But the ending isn't something to cheer about... But I liked the pic at the end (even if it wasn't Leonardo da vinci style :). But the whole game was pretty ok. Read the summary below.

Bugs, Glitches & Crashes: Well there are quite a few glitches but no bugs and crashes. 70%
In game music and SFX: There is some great and in-mood music and a frequent use of SFX raises this grade, but since a lot was famous ripoffs then I'll have to lower it a bit. 80%
Character & BG Graphics: The tilesets were great, and the characters too, but that Tristan guy didn't fit in and some other tiles don't match the rest... that is the main problem when you are combining tiles. 85%
Cutscenes: There were a few ones that were ok. 70%
The in game Plot and introduction: The story was a great idea to start with but as the plot goes on the dialouges get a little thin and the story wears off a little. 80%
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Comments to the author:

It is a great game that has a bright future if it only was fixed a little. Well a little more work on this one DragonShadow and it will be one of the best RM95 games there is.

Score of game: 77%
(observe that I use the median of the above percont, and observe also that this is the first time I do this)

- Paladin