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Ricky\'s Quest Zero

Developed By: AntiDash
Review By: Rodpop
Written on: Sunday, June, 19th, 2005 at 04:47:35 pm
Rating: 68%
Site: here
System: RPG Maker 2000
Download: here

Ricky\'s Quest Zero

Well, to be honest, I can\'t think of a real introduction here. Ricky\'s Quest Zero (NOTE: On the project page the game is called Rickys Quest Zero, not Ricky\'s Quest Zero, so I\'m just assuming that this was a small spelling error and calling it Ricky\'s Quest from now on) is a horror game that is very freaky and has many well done custom systems. However, it fun to play? Read on to find out!

Gameplay
3/10

If you simply look at the systems used in this game, then the gameplay is quite good. Instead of your normal RPG Maker adventure full of random battles, Ricky\'s Quest Zero uses a ABS system, and it\'s pretty impressive. You can tell the author worked hard to make everything in this game, and it really shows when playing it. However, the overall execution of all this coding is very frustrating. One of the first things you\'ll notice is how slow your character\'s walk speed it. If you\'ve ever complained about \"slow\" walking speeds in RPG games (Such as Legion Saga 1), then get ready to weep: the walking speed in this game is ever slower than the normal \"slow\" walking speed. You do have the option of going faster, but you seem to be punished for doing this. To make matters even worse, most of this game involves \"inspect everything\" style gameplay, so it would help if the time took to get from one box to another was reduced as much as possible. Of course, there are still problems outside of the walking speed. Since this game runs on the \"inspect everything\" formula, overlooking the smallest, most seemingly unmeaningful thing could make you walk around in circles for hours. Also, As far as I could see, there was only one save point (and I overlooked it until I looked into the coding). I don\'t care if a low number of save points might make the game \"scarier,\" it simply meant you had more to redo if you died. Overall, the gameplay was coded very well, but the execution was poor.

Graphics
9/10

Graphics set the mood very well! This game is meant to be a horror game like resident evil, and this game captures a scary mood right off the bat. The way the screen is tinted tells you that it is dark, but still manages to let you see what you\'re doing, and you get a odd rush of happyness to see a room with a light on. Also, the sprites seem to have a good deal of animation as well. You actually see Ricky take out his gun, kick down doors, and so on. The only real problem I can think of graphically is some of the chipsets used were ones I\'ve seen in a good deal of games before, but it\'s really no big deal.

NOTE: I tried playing this game on another computer and it was WAY to dark, so you might have to adjust your bightness settings to play.

Sound
8/10

Wonderful use of sound! You hear lightning flash every once and a while, and you hear certain other sounds are used depending on the situation. For example, as you get closer to a certain door, you begin to hear banging sounds, and when you finally get to the door, the banging sounds are quite loud and clear, thus almost scareing you in a way. However, music could have been a little better. The only time you really hear music is in certain rooms and situations, but everywhere else you just hear raindrops. The game could be scarier with some tense music playing in the background in all these moments where you only hear raindrops, but I guess that\'s really a matter of opinion.

Story
6/10

A great or bad story depending on how you look at it. Ricky is a person who is sent to a island called Resight Island to question some people, but what happens ends up being totally different. For the most part, you find out bits of the history of the people who lived at the island by finding notes scatered throughout the mansion and the surrounding areas. The vauge story does make you want to learn more, so in that way, it is a pretty good story. However, it doesn\'t seem too original for a horror game, and perhaps a few more details could have been given (I\'d like to start out at least knowing if Ricky is a detective... a policeman...a circus clown... whatever). Overall, the story is good compared to most other RPG Maker games, but average compared to other horror games.

Unquitity
7/10

It\'s not everyday you see a horror game for RPG maker, so this alone makes this stand out. Also, the shooting system is well made. However, \"inspect everything\" gameplay and \"Get this, go there,\" gameplay isn\'t very original, and makes the game pretty aggravating.

Conclusion

Although presentation is very good, gameplay really suffers here. I admit, I did not finish the demo, but that was because I was so annoyed with the game that I couldn\'t bring myself to finish off the last few rooms or so I had left. If you like horror games, don\'t mind S-L-O-W walking speeds, think few (easily overlooked) save points make a game scary, like to figure out how to get to the next area with almost no clues by inspecting everything while avoiding monsters that can sometimes kill you in a single hit, and can deal with slow downloads (the only download I saw was a 7+ MB one off of freewebs, which took me 2 hours on a DSL computer), then Ricky\'s Quest Zero is a game you should look at by all means. Everyone else can probably find something better to waste their time on. Perhaps I just don\'t get horror games, but this game made me want to throw my keyboard into my computer.

3+9+8+7+7=34/50 = 68%. The Author has a good thing going if he just fixes the gameplay. ;).

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