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320: Agatha Smallwood's Will Author: Iplaydink Release Date: June 9, 2010
"There is a time in the life of every man when they feel they aren't needed anymore"
This D-Mod is recommended in Dink Smallwood HD.
"Agatha Smallwood's Will" won the Non-combat Contest with two first-place votes and a second-place vote.
Dink is long past his heroic days and lives only for food and booze. Tragically, he finds that he's run out of both as well as money. As luck would have it, that's when he receives a letter. He ignores it and starves to death about a week later.
No! Dink actually embarks upon a noble quest, as you can see.
Wait, no, that's just one of the bad endings, sorry. Once the player gets over their urge to be a smartass, Dink finds out that his aunt Agatha (named in honor of crime novelist Agatha Christie), yet another one of those unknown aunts he always seems to have, has died and left him a lot of money... if he can find it. A treasure hunt ensues with a vague trail of clues, I guess so that she could enjoy imagining his frustration in her final days. While Dink searches, he is pursued by Agatha's son, who is angry at being left out of the will and determined to take the money for himself.
Let's dig for buried treasure!
"Agatha" is a true non combat D-Mod, all about little clues and puzzles, all of which were pretty reasonable. I didn't use a walkthrough, and I only got stuck once, at a spot where you're required to interact with a bush in a non-standard way. There's a timed puzzle near the end with a few separate parts, but you're given plenty of time to work it out.
Courage, Dink! You can figure out this fiendish riddle!
There are a bunch of new graphics in this D-Mod, most of which are made by the author. There are also new sound effects, including a different footsteps sound depending on the surface you're walking on. I like how these details come together in a section where Dink wades through shallow water using a "rubber boots" item. You hear a sloshing and see the ripples left behind in the water. These kinds of details are rare in Dink games.
Yey!
The most important item in "Agatha" is the shovel. In addition to the places where you're required to use it (for example, digging up the final treasure), you can also use it in spots where there's a slight discoloration on the ground to find little piles of extra treasure. This doesn't really have any effect on anything, though. You do receive a count of how many treasures you found at the end, so you can try to get them all if you want, but you'll get nothing other than seeing it say "15 out of 15." It also counts how many chickens you kill for some reason.
This could use an update to fix some typos. At least, I'm pretty sure the author didn't mean to tell us that the antagonist's house was "north af here."
"Agatha Smallwood's Will" is a fun, compact D-Mod that doesn't feel stretched out at any point. I think it won the contest because it presents gameplay that's about as far away from combat as you can get. I think this sort of puzzle-based story was probably what was intended when the non-combat theme was proposed in the first place.
321: Fate of Destiny (Demo) Author: Ex-DeathEvn Release Date: June 9, 2010
"Another summons for me to either complete some petty tasks or save the world."
There have been several releases lately that are the only D-Mod released by a community fixture. You all know Ex-Death, he does those LPs and whatnot.
Now then, time to boot up another D-Mod... ho hum. Ho HUM, y'all. 321 of 'em now, blast off. Let's see what kind of title screen pops up this time:
What? Volcanic... really? Am I really looking at this?
What happened to your other leg there, Robj? Do you need help with that? Or with your cookies?
Okay, THERE we go.
"Fate of Destiny" isn't a contest entry, but I didn't forget to change the date. It really did come out on the same day as the contest entries.
At the start, Dink is summoned by some wizards again. Why does this always happen? Aren't there any other heroes they could abduct without their consent? How come they never catch him in the bath or having some of that sex he's supposedly always having (come to think of it, I think one of these intros very nearly had the latter happen)? I'm not even commenting on anything the D-Mod itself doesn't comment on. Dink's attitude is very much "Oh, this again." He tries to guess which of the common settings he's about to be transported to - a desert? A cave? A forest? The wizards want Dink to deal with yet another Ancient ("Haven't I delt with all of those in some way?"), but this time they want him to resurrect an Ancient instead of killing one. Without explaining why, how, or much of anything really, they poof Dink away. It's implied that they're not being all that straight with him, which is interesting.
The new status bar for this D-Mod isn't bad, but I really don't care for this inventory screen at all.
Dink has no idea what to do, and neither does the player. I wandered around without any purpose at all for several minutes before finding a blind lady who gives Dink his next instructions. He must go to a cave (he called it) and fight a big boss slime to retrieve a potion. The cave is full of slimes, but I doubt anybody but famed fight-em-all enthusiast Ex-DeathEvn himself would fight them all. Anyway, I really disliked the MIDI in there and didn't want to hang around. The boss generates little slimes every time you hit it, but it's really nothing to worry about.
When you beat the slime boss, you get this 8-way fireball spell. Instead of flying until they hit something, however, these fireballs have a limited range.
More worth worrying about from Dink's perspective: when he gets back, the lady betrays him and runs off with the potion (I think?). Dink, angry and hurt, still has no idea what's going on. The trend of unreliable expository characters in this game is an interesting one, but we don't get to see where it goes because the demo ends there. There's a large unfinished section of map for you to explore, but nothing for you to do there.
The interesting thing about this D-Mod is the Quest Log. Several D-Mods now have had this type of feature, but in "Fate of Destiny," each log entry is a full-screen image with text in a book plus an image of the location where the events took place. It's pretty neat-lookin'. The entries tie into the story well as Dink tries to work out what's going on. This would be enough to keep me interested in this game if there were more of it to play.
Is he... singing in his journal? That Dink is an odd fellow.
322: A False Hero Author: Skorn Release Date: June 25, 2010
"What can I say? I'm the best! Of course I survived."
Well, it works, and some of the screens look kinda good until Dink clips in front of or behind things he shouldn't, so I guess it isn't quite DFMAOB bad. But lord, it isn't good.
The description says that "A false hero is killing people who he thinks might be a threat to him. Dink is one of them." That isn't a bad idea for a plot. A villain who has convinced people he's a hero could be interesting. Unfortunately, the only way I know about this plot is by reading the description. There's a murderer in the D-Mod, but no indication of why he kills or that he's a "False Hero."
Fire is so dull!
We join Dink as he discovers everyone has been murdered. He's particularly upset about the death of a woman named Margret - a lover, perhaps? We know nothing about her and have never even seen her alive, so it's not particularly affecting. Dink wanders around the carnage, which is fairly well-crafted. Houses are burning. There are some lovely piles of bodies and a corpse with an axe sticking out of it and blood running down the hill. There's a dude with a skull for a head impaled upon a tree. There's a megapotion or two to find. Unfortunately, depth dot errors mar the majority of the sprites, causing Dink to pop in front of or behind everything in undesirable ways. Furthermore, there are quite a few hardness errors. One of them makes it possible to reach the ending slightly faster by walking across a screen barrier from a house interior to a cave, in case you're itching to speedrun this.
Noooo! Whoever you were!
Eventually I stumbled upon the house with the sole surviving NPC in it. He says that the killer - he goes by the name of "Black Tooth" - is in the basement. This makes no sense, but whatever. The killer is the only enemy you've got to fight, and he doesn't fight back in any way. Once you kill him, Dink congratulates you and then freezes. He's supposed to dispense some good advice ("Now go play some better DMODs."), but the script involved is long dead by that point. "A False Hero" is very short and very pointless, although I've played shorter and more pointless D-Mods. Not recommended at all.
"There is a time in the life of every man when they feel they aren't needed anymore"
This D-Mod is recommended in Dink Smallwood HD.
"Agatha Smallwood's Will" won the Non-combat Contest with two first-place votes and a second-place vote.
Dink is long past his heroic days and lives only for food and booze. Tragically, he finds that he's run out of both as well as money. As luck would have it, that's when he receives a letter. He ignores it and starves to death about a week later.
No! Dink actually embarks upon a noble quest, as you can see.
Wait, no, that's just one of the bad endings, sorry. Once the player gets over their urge to be a smartass, Dink finds out that his aunt Agatha (named in honor of crime novelist Agatha Christie), yet another one of those unknown aunts he always seems to have, has died and left him a lot of money... if he can find it. A treasure hunt ensues with a vague trail of clues, I guess so that she could enjoy imagining his frustration in her final days. While Dink searches, he is pursued by Agatha's son, who is angry at being left out of the will and determined to take the money for himself.
Let's dig for buried treasure!
"Agatha" is a true non combat D-Mod, all about little clues and puzzles, all of which were pretty reasonable. I didn't use a walkthrough, and I only got stuck once, at a spot where you're required to interact with a bush in a non-standard way. There's a timed puzzle near the end with a few separate parts, but you're given plenty of time to work it out.
Courage, Dink! You can figure out this fiendish riddle!
There are a bunch of new graphics in this D-Mod, most of which are made by the author. There are also new sound effects, including a different footsteps sound depending on the surface you're walking on. I like how these details come together in a section where Dink wades through shallow water using a "rubber boots" item. You hear a sloshing and see the ripples left behind in the water. These kinds of details are rare in Dink games.
Yey!
The most important item in "Agatha" is the shovel. In addition to the places where you're required to use it (for example, digging up the final treasure), you can also use it in spots where there's a slight discoloration on the ground to find little piles of extra treasure. This doesn't really have any effect on anything, though. You do receive a count of how many treasures you found at the end, so you can try to get them all if you want, but you'll get nothing other than seeing it say "15 out of 15." It also counts how many chickens you kill for some reason.
This could use an update to fix some typos. At least, I'm pretty sure the author didn't mean to tell us that the antagonist's house was "north af here."
"Agatha Smallwood's Will" is a fun, compact D-Mod that doesn't feel stretched out at any point. I think it won the contest because it presents gameplay that's about as far away from combat as you can get. I think this sort of puzzle-based story was probably what was intended when the non-combat theme was proposed in the first place.
321: Fate of Destiny (Demo) Author: Ex-DeathEvn Release Date: June 9, 2010
"Another summons for me to either complete some petty tasks or save the world."
There have been several releases lately that are the only D-Mod released by a community fixture. You all know Ex-Death, he does those LPs and whatnot.
Now then, time to boot up another D-Mod... ho hum. Ho HUM, y'all. 321 of 'em now, blast off. Let's see what kind of title screen pops up this time:
What? Volcanic... really? Am I really looking at this?
What happened to your other leg there, Robj? Do you need help with that? Or with your cookies?
Okay, THERE we go.
"Fate of Destiny" isn't a contest entry, but I didn't forget to change the date. It really did come out on the same day as the contest entries.
At the start, Dink is summoned by some wizards again. Why does this always happen? Aren't there any other heroes they could abduct without their consent? How come they never catch him in the bath or having some of that sex he's supposedly always having (come to think of it, I think one of these intros very nearly had the latter happen)? I'm not even commenting on anything the D-Mod itself doesn't comment on. Dink's attitude is very much "Oh, this again." He tries to guess which of the common settings he's about to be transported to - a desert? A cave? A forest? The wizards want Dink to deal with yet another Ancient ("Haven't I delt with all of those in some way?"), but this time they want him to resurrect an Ancient instead of killing one. Without explaining why, how, or much of anything really, they poof Dink away. It's implied that they're not being all that straight with him, which is interesting.
The new status bar for this D-Mod isn't bad, but I really don't care for this inventory screen at all.
Dink has no idea what to do, and neither does the player. I wandered around without any purpose at all for several minutes before finding a blind lady who gives Dink his next instructions. He must go to a cave (he called it) and fight a big boss slime to retrieve a potion. The cave is full of slimes, but I doubt anybody but famed fight-em-all enthusiast Ex-DeathEvn himself would fight them all. Anyway, I really disliked the MIDI in there and didn't want to hang around. The boss generates little slimes every time you hit it, but it's really nothing to worry about.
When you beat the slime boss, you get this 8-way fireball spell. Instead of flying until they hit something, however, these fireballs have a limited range.
More worth worrying about from Dink's perspective: when he gets back, the lady betrays him and runs off with the potion (I think?). Dink, angry and hurt, still has no idea what's going on. The trend of unreliable expository characters in this game is an interesting one, but we don't get to see where it goes because the demo ends there. There's a large unfinished section of map for you to explore, but nothing for you to do there.
The interesting thing about this D-Mod is the Quest Log. Several D-Mods now have had this type of feature, but in "Fate of Destiny," each log entry is a full-screen image with text in a book plus an image of the location where the events took place. It's pretty neat-lookin'. The entries tie into the story well as Dink tries to work out what's going on. This would be enough to keep me interested in this game if there were more of it to play.
Is he... singing in his journal? That Dink is an odd fellow.
322: A False Hero Author: Skorn Release Date: June 25, 2010
"What can I say? I'm the best! Of course I survived."
Well, it works, and some of the screens look kinda good until Dink clips in front of or behind things he shouldn't, so I guess it isn't quite DFMAOB bad. But lord, it isn't good.
The description says that "A false hero is killing people who he thinks might be a threat to him. Dink is one of them." That isn't a bad idea for a plot. A villain who has convinced people he's a hero could be interesting. Unfortunately, the only way I know about this plot is by reading the description. There's a murderer in the D-Mod, but no indication of why he kills or that he's a "False Hero."
Fire is so dull!
We join Dink as he discovers everyone has been murdered. He's particularly upset about the death of a woman named Margret - a lover, perhaps? We know nothing about her and have never even seen her alive, so it's not particularly affecting. Dink wanders around the carnage, which is fairly well-crafted. Houses are burning. There are some lovely piles of bodies and a corpse with an axe sticking out of it and blood running down the hill. There's a dude with a skull for a head impaled upon a tree. There's a megapotion or two to find. Unfortunately, depth dot errors mar the majority of the sprites, causing Dink to pop in front of or behind everything in undesirable ways. Furthermore, there are quite a few hardness errors. One of them makes it possible to reach the ending slightly faster by walking across a screen barrier from a house interior to a cave, in case you're itching to speedrun this.
Noooo! Whoever you were!
Eventually I stumbled upon the house with the sole surviving NPC in it. He says that the killer - he goes by the name of "Black Tooth" - is in the basement. This makes no sense, but whatever. The killer is the only enemy you've got to fight, and he doesn't fight back in any way. Once you kill him, Dink congratulates you and then freezes. He's supposed to dispense some good advice ("Now go play some better DMODs."), but the script involved is long dead by that point. "A False Hero" is very short and very pointless, although I've played shorter and more pointless D-Mods. Not recommended at all.
