31 December 2016

Random Reviews Chapter-9.1: Revenge (Mix Ore. Part 1 of 3)

WARNING! THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE GAME MIX ORE. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
DISCLAIMER: THE IMAGES USED IN THIS POST ARE NOT MINE. I FOUND THEM ON THE INTERNET.
After playing through Wadanohara And The Great Blue Sea (awesome game by the way) Mogeko, I was wondering when will he release Carnival Rhythm when I thought "Hey! Charon make RPG Maker games! I'll play some of her games!" Now, I played Charon's games before and although both her and Mogeko use the same software and are probably from the same country, there's one huge difference in their games. While Mogeko's games are each masterpieces and could very easily stand among great games like Doom, Ace Attorney and Castlevania (in my opinion), Charon's games are so bad their good. Mix Ore is game made by her and translated by Terriball.


This is my first 3 part chapter of Random Reviews. Now I didn't split this up into 3 parts because it was long or anything. I split it because this game has 3 routes you can take each with 2 endings, making a total of 6 endings. And unlike 999 which had about 7 endings and various routes, the routes of this game doesn't meet anywhere. You might as well be playing 3 games with 3 stories. That happen to have the same main character.

The game features starts off with the main character Katarou in a hospital. He has amnesia and can't remember anything. He sees a cup and instantly I'm hit with one of the things in video games that annoy me to no end (if executed poorly). I'm hit with a "The whole game hinges on this" decision (as I like to call them). These are those decisions where it doesn't matter how you played the game so far and your choice will determine how the rest of the game plays out for you. An example of this type of decision done poorly is found in various games by Charon. And an example of this done properly can be found throughout 999 and in certain parts of Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together.

Anyway, I see a teacup in the game and I'm asked what's in it. I can chose between Strawberry milk, Honey milk and Cafe au lait. While this game is bad all of her games, what's different here is that there is to be a lot of wasted potential with this game, or at least that's how I felt.

The teacup decision determines the route in which the game goes. Personally I don't think a decision this important be something this irrelevant to the game. I mean the drink itself has nothing to do what so ever with the game. I think I know what Charon was going for. He wanted the game to go differently based on the player's personal preferences. But there are a lot of better ways to do this. I think an easy alternative would've been to make the scene something like this:

There's a girl sitting next to me. She...

1. Has Pink Hair

2. Is Blonde. She's wearing blue ribbons on her hair

3. Is a green-eyed, brown haired girl.

I think that the situation I narrated above would've been much better.

I chose the decision "Cafe Au Lait" and I was paired with Ayano Cafeaulait. Each route continues for "4 Days" and then ends with another "The whole Game Hinges on this" decision that gives you a good or bad end. I get that the Japanese number 4 has something to do with death but that doesn't mean that you're forced to end the game in 4 days. Because of Charon's obsession with the number 4, the game's pacing for this story is insanely awkward. Because I have Amnesia and can't remember anything and each day being too damn short, it was really hard for me to relate with any character. It was also hard for me to process everything that happened.

The music is the best thing I can say about this game. No, the music isn't great. The music is just better than anything else this game has to offer. But personally, I didn't find the music neither good nor bad.

A have one final complaint with this story line. At the end of the game, on Day 4, it's revealed that Ayano was the guy who tried to murder you. You somehow survived but lost your memory. She tried to kill you 'cause you were a batch and bullied and teased and harassed her. She snapped under pressure and tried to kill you. She takes out a knife and tries to kill you again. You are now given the ending deciding option of killing her or letting yourself get killed.

Here's my biggest complaint. There's know reason for me to not chose to kill her. The game never gave me any reason why I should like and/or care about Ayano. Instead of 4 days, if the game stretched on longer it could've given me more details about Ayano's life and personality. It could've also let me slowly discover my past myself instead of just throwing it at my face. It could've at least, attempted to make me feel bad for my actions or feel sympathy toward Ayano. Then this same game changing decision would've had a much grater impact and it would've been much harder to choose. I think Case 4 of Ace Attorney JFA did something like this. Charon could've at least try to do something to that effect. And don't tell me it's because he's using RPG Maker. Mogeko uses the same software and his games are awesome.

Choosing to kill Ayano triggers a bad end. Here I kill Ayano and get away. Later when I'm released from the hospital, I peek into a open room and find Ayano there. She didn't die. She has amnesia. Choosing to let Ayano kill me get's me, well... killed by Ayano. THIS is the true ending of the game. I don't care what anyone says. No matter how I look at it, I think the game would've been better if the "Good" and "Bad" labels were switched between the two endings. Unlike Yanderella and Mikoto Nikki, this game seemed like it had wasted potential. This game could've been SO much better by only adjusting a few things.

Well that's the end of part 1.

Thanks For Reading!
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