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"Though he'll probably contradict that now, just to bug me."
I'm so predictable, aren't I?
The thing about Stone of Balance and Pilgrim's Quest is that they're bone fide RPGs where the vast majority of dmods are action-adventures. There's a tremendous amount of scope to them, so much room to do things a little differently or to just plain do them wrong where other modules don't give you the choice. And it's nice to have modules where your actions have those kind of consequences. This kind of thing isn't for everybody though, and you can't dismiss the problem of having an overly difficult beginning. Stone of Balance really cheesed me off from the get-go with its tendency to dish out death by cutscene, and I'm afraid I never made it past the third world after a freeze bug caused by my inventory being full (I don't know if I was just playing an old version though). Pilgrim's quest's opening brick wall is the way it unceremoniously dumps you into a cave full of relatively tough, screenlocking enemies who are just kind of repetitious to bash your way through. It gets better from there, although I'm not sure I ever got around to enjoying the combat. And then you've got the quests that revolve entirely around boosting your stats to a certain level, which is kind of the worst kind of RPG gameplay. I'd never claim that these two were bad dmods, but they seem to me to put much more stock in what you can do in the game than in making it all fun.
The thing with Legend of Tenjin, a module that I would defend to the death despite all its flaws, is that it's not just big but it knows what to do with its size. The opening is languid but wonderful for it. It creates a real sense of place and an associated mood. To a lesser extent this happens throughout the first half of the game, with the most memorable tasks not being fighting (most monsters are readily avoided) but fruit mixing and shopkeeping. And this is turned upside down in the second half of the game, where SPOILERS KINDA you end up revisiting these places and they've all changed and suddenly become more dangerous. I know the first thing I did when I figured out how to use the warp system was head straight for the plateau, only to be confronted by a monster tougher than anything in the game up to that point. For all its bugs, mazes and direct lifts from squaresoft games, LOT did really well at crafting mood and creating a sense of place.
(I'll also defend Branches of Destiny, which is one of those games that you can return to years later and still manage to find something new in, but that was much more heavily flawed than Tenjin so I won't try too hard)
I wouldn't overemphasise size at all - as previously mentioned, Legend of Tenjin is probably the only module that really knows what to do with it (admittedly I haven't finished Stone of Balance). As much as I like FIAT and Prophecy of the Ancients, they're more notable for remaining high quality over their large size than for using their size to any special effect. Well, maybe FIAT does a bit. Lyna's Story and Initiation are really good examples of great dmods that use their compact size to their advantage. I'd say Initiation is probably the best module around. I'd also say that they demonstrate how a few new graphics, intelligently used, can be as good if not better than a whole raft of them.
(I have no perspective whatsoever on either of the Cloud Castle games, but I'd never try and argue that the first one was better than Legend of Tenjin. That's crazy talk)
Er, I'll shut up now.
I'm so predictable, aren't I?
The thing about Stone of Balance and Pilgrim's Quest is that they're bone fide RPGs where the vast majority of dmods are action-adventures. There's a tremendous amount of scope to them, so much room to do things a little differently or to just plain do them wrong where other modules don't give you the choice. And it's nice to have modules where your actions have those kind of consequences. This kind of thing isn't for everybody though, and you can't dismiss the problem of having an overly difficult beginning. Stone of Balance really cheesed me off from the get-go with its tendency to dish out death by cutscene, and I'm afraid I never made it past the third world after a freeze bug caused by my inventory being full (I don't know if I was just playing an old version though). Pilgrim's quest's opening brick wall is the way it unceremoniously dumps you into a cave full of relatively tough, screenlocking enemies who are just kind of repetitious to bash your way through. It gets better from there, although I'm not sure I ever got around to enjoying the combat. And then you've got the quests that revolve entirely around boosting your stats to a certain level, which is kind of the worst kind of RPG gameplay. I'd never claim that these two were bad dmods, but they seem to me to put much more stock in what you can do in the game than in making it all fun.
The thing with Legend of Tenjin, a module that I would defend to the death despite all its flaws, is that it's not just big but it knows what to do with its size. The opening is languid but wonderful for it. It creates a real sense of place and an associated mood. To a lesser extent this happens throughout the first half of the game, with the most memorable tasks not being fighting (most monsters are readily avoided) but fruit mixing and shopkeeping. And this is turned upside down in the second half of the game, where SPOILERS KINDA you end up revisiting these places and they've all changed and suddenly become more dangerous. I know the first thing I did when I figured out how to use the warp system was head straight for the plateau, only to be confronted by a monster tougher than anything in the game up to that point. For all its bugs, mazes and direct lifts from squaresoft games, LOT did really well at crafting mood and creating a sense of place.
(I'll also defend Branches of Destiny, which is one of those games that you can return to years later and still manage to find something new in, but that was much more heavily flawed than Tenjin so I won't try too hard)
I wouldn't overemphasise size at all - as previously mentioned, Legend of Tenjin is probably the only module that really knows what to do with it (admittedly I haven't finished Stone of Balance). As much as I like FIAT and Prophecy of the Ancients, they're more notable for remaining high quality over their large size than for using their size to any special effect. Well, maybe FIAT does a bit. Lyna's Story and Initiation are really good examples of great dmods that use their compact size to their advantage. I'd say Initiation is probably the best module around. I'd also say that they demonstrate how a few new graphics, intelligently used, can be as good if not better than a whole raft of them.
(I have no perspective whatsoever on either of the Cloud Castle games, but I'd never try and argue that the first one was better than Legend of Tenjin. That's crazy talk)
Er, I'll shut up now.
