So I did have time to play today. Got some more Rabi-Ribi done, but I have sadly reached the conclusion that I do not like this game. Why? Well, let me try to sum up my thoughts as best as I can remember.
I must say the the initial impressions for Rabi-Ribi are great. The music's kinda catchy, the art (both the sprites as well as the character art) looks nice and cute. The world seems large, not entirely linear, and there's a lot of skills and stats to level, lots of items to collect, new moves to learn, and it seems like there's so much to do, yet it's not overwhelming. I really wanted to like it.
And then the first thing I notice is that there's a ton of talking. I mean, that's fine for the beginning of the game. Lots of games do that to introduce the setting and story, but the more I play, the more I realize that these characters just can't shut up. The story's not really gripping or exciting or anything, but that'd be fine under normal circumstances.
Yet, sadly, a vast majority of the dialogue is completely useless unless you're reading it to look at the character art and how they act "cute" towards one another. I found myself starting to skip through the stuff being said without realizing it, and that's a clear signal that it was really boring me.
Okay, so, what else is there? Art and music are pretty great, as mentioned, so no complaints there. So, perhaps a look into what should probably be the most important part - combat. And a preemptive note: I may very well be missing some details that are important in high-level play, but I'm pretty sure this applies to any first-timers.
What infuriated me to no end, was the fact that I had to control my fairy and myself at the same time. In most games, you're used to just managing your own attacks, and you can't really do multiple attacks at once. Combos and such feel nice, and perhaps managing your movement while attacking to avoid the enemy and whatnot is also fine. (The latter of which is not in the game, by the way.)
But here I just have two completely unrelated entities whose attacks don't sync up, who I still have to control at the same time. It's incredibly difficult to get the timing of both attacks right, as I only have enough attention for one of the characters. I very much want to delve into a rant, but I'll leave it at comparing the feeling to trying to do quick side-to-side motions with your left arm while doing up-down motions with your right arm. Do give it a try, and then apply that feeling of "I can't quite do it." to a several hour time span.
Another major problem was understanding where my hitbox was. I never really did quite get it, and it didn't help that it seemed to change depending on what I was currently doing.
Overall, trying to mix a bullet hell with an action platformer didn't really work too well in my opinion. In a bullet hell game, I expect to have full control over my position. Here, I only have that control about half of the time, as my jumps need to land, and my dashes and attacks have a short recovery time. So it feels more frustrating when you get hit during falling or otherwise "recovering".
Furthering that point - the fights divided too much into two separate portions: dodging bullets, and attacking. Instead of being a nice mix, it feels like two separate pieces taped together.
Slightly relating to the previous point, having SP and MP also felt like too artificial of a restriction. Most enemies would just stop what they were doing while you were hitting them, so of course you'd need a cap as to how long you could keep doing that, but, again, this feels like a frustrating system, and it could be something better instead. Maybe that instead of being forced to stop attacking due to some arbitrary meter running out, you could be forced to stop because it's dangerous to stay there? Reactive combat perhaps?
That and a lot of things feel like they're just not well enough made. Great systems, but they lack polish. But seeing as this is already by far the longest I've written about a game, I won't delve much more into the other issues I may have had.
I'll just tack on that I didn't enjoy the amount of backtracking, and it felt really silly that it couldn't manage to restrict me from going into certain places but instead had to resort to some character telling me "no, you can't go there", then assuming control of my character and walking back.
Despite the long list of complaints, most of it isn't really game-breaking stuff, and is more or less also a matter of preference. A huge amount of people love this game, and I can't really say it's terrible either. But I, certainly, did not enjoy playing it.
Okay, so, what else is there? Art and music are pretty great, as mentioned, so no complaints there. So, perhaps a look into what should probably be the most important part - combat. And a preemptive note: I may very well be missing some details that are important in high-level play, but I'm pretty sure this applies to any first-timers.
What infuriated me to no end, was the fact that I had to control my fairy and myself at the same time. In most games, you're used to just managing your own attacks, and you can't really do multiple attacks at once. Combos and such feel nice, and perhaps managing your movement while attacking to avoid the enemy and whatnot is also fine. (The latter of which is not in the game, by the way.)
But here I just have two completely unrelated entities whose attacks don't sync up, who I still have to control at the same time. It's incredibly difficult to get the timing of both attacks right, as I only have enough attention for one of the characters. I very much want to delve into a rant, but I'll leave it at comparing the feeling to trying to do quick side-to-side motions with your left arm while doing up-down motions with your right arm. Do give it a try, and then apply that feeling of "I can't quite do it." to a several hour time span.
Another major problem was understanding where my hitbox was. I never really did quite get it, and it didn't help that it seemed to change depending on what I was currently doing.
Overall, trying to mix a bullet hell with an action platformer didn't really work too well in my opinion. In a bullet hell game, I expect to have full control over my position. Here, I only have that control about half of the time, as my jumps need to land, and my dashes and attacks have a short recovery time. So it feels more frustrating when you get hit during falling or otherwise "recovering".
Furthering that point - the fights divided too much into two separate portions: dodging bullets, and attacking. Instead of being a nice mix, it feels like two separate pieces taped together.
Slightly relating to the previous point, having SP and MP also felt like too artificial of a restriction. Most enemies would just stop what they were doing while you were hitting them, so of course you'd need a cap as to how long you could keep doing that, but, again, this feels like a frustrating system, and it could be something better instead. Maybe that instead of being forced to stop attacking due to some arbitrary meter running out, you could be forced to stop because it's dangerous to stay there? Reactive combat perhaps?
That and a lot of things feel like they're just not well enough made. Great systems, but they lack polish. But seeing as this is already by far the longest I've written about a game, I won't delve much more into the other issues I may have had.
I'll just tack on that I didn't enjoy the amount of backtracking, and it felt really silly that it couldn't manage to restrict me from going into certain places but instead had to resort to some character telling me "no, you can't go there", then assuming control of my character and walking back.
Despite the long list of complaints, most of it isn't really game-breaking stuff, and is more or less also a matter of preference. A huge amount of people love this game, and I can't really say it's terrible either. But I, certainly, did not enjoy playing it.
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