Legends: King Arthur

just played the full version and i have to say that its amazing!) it was very nice to go back to this wonderful, magical world heavily inspired by the Arthurian cycle of legends and see all of the cool new changes along with some bugs fixed and problems adressed!) all of the positives from my previous essay/comment stay true, and all of the bugs have been fixed - especially that nasty bug inside of the Lady of the Lake's being - so glad that now it all works and you can reach the fight with the Black Knight without worrying about getting lost inside the Lady for all eternity, jajaja!)

just like in my previous review, i'll go over some of the small, but, as always, cool details that make the full experience all the more worthwhile!) firstly, the new NPC's in the starting village are a welcome addition - their presence makes the world a lot more lively and they're just all around fun to interact with!) the new battler graphics (especially the updated bats - now they look a lot more scary and down-to-earth!) are great, too! i don't remember Mr. Hobbkins' place being in the previous versions, so, its addition is pretty great, too!) just a neat little location with a cool sidequest in it as a bonus) also, now that i've played through the demo for Elemental i can see where the name for the labyrinth came and from where the two gals in it are - such a nice shoutout finally explained, jajaja!) and, even more so, after examining the ancient tablet in the elemental labyrinth once again and remembering that the world Ezekiel (the game!) takes place is said to be the world of Elementals, i think that all of the games by Mutliversal are connected with each other!) this is awesome! the alien colors of the magic realm really drive home the feeling that you're in a fantastical, esoteric plane of existence, and considering the fact that the base game is already set in a fantasy world this is even better, since you managed to make a fantasy world inside of a fantasy world and make it feel believable, too!) the fact that the crime boss was a giant and later you get to meet other members of her kin the magical world is great storytelling and worldbuilding. the fairy houses being already known objects with holes in them simulating real houses is a great and creative use of pre-existing assets!) the shadow demons are a very creative use use of MV's enemy graphics - most other "humanoid" enemies are represented with sprites that look similar to our party, but the bulky complexion of the default humanoid enemies fits the demons very well!) the dojo, just like Hobbkins' place, is a great addition - all of the new moves expand Arthur's arsenal and are a great reward for people who like to explore!) the game over screen saying "Your legend is OVER!" is very fitting for the game and overall looks a lot better than your standard RPG Maker game over screen!) and, finally, the cutscene where Arthur pulls the seal sword, Excalibur, from the stone is the game's peak moment - from start the game builds up to this legendary moment and the conversation between Arthur and Guinevere before the boy pulls the sword was very emotional and really drove home that the game has gotten serious now! if i could describe this scene as shortly as possible, i'd say "pure awesomeness", jajaja!)

but, there are some bugs and problem in the final version, too - no more in the previous locations but some left over from the beta/demo days and yet another softlocking one - i'll get to that one later. firstly, to the right of Morgana's castle there is a mountain path that leads to nowhere, with the message ": THIS IS NOT AVAILABLE YET:" being displayed if you try to enter it. if you go to Lancelot's castle before you need to do so as to progress the main story you can trigger the cutscene with Galahad and later see our main characters (except Arthur) at the table with Lancelot! you can go to the cave right to Elyan's castle even before you actually visit the castle and trigger the scene with Elyan's dialogue even if you don't have him in the party yet. and, finally, in the part where Guinevere and Merlin are staying at Lancelot's place, in the night part, the game doesn't seem to be able to progress further - you're locked into playing Guinevere during night time, and there is also an impassable tile in the night version of Lancelot's castle, right beneath the room our two party members are staying at - maybe it's an event that is supposed to be triggered by walking over it but for some reason i can't interact with it by any means and it just stands there like an invisible, one-tile barrier. huh.

because of the last bug i, sadly, wasn't able to finish the game - i still have my saves (in two folders, no less!) at the ready for the moment when a fixed version will be released. but, for what i've seen, the game is awesome!) all of the locations, bosses and the characters were great, and the story that ties them all together is even better!) good job, Multiversal!)

the premise and general idea behind the game sounds amazing!) i love the celtish folklore, and the tale of the knights of the round and king arthur is awesome and opens up many possibilities for cool twists with an already well-known story!) also, morgan being arthur's sister is pretty cool - and she's a great character for the role of antagonist, too!)

but, in the game-teaser there's some bugs here and there that I hope get fixed later - firstly, it's great that the player has 8-directional movement, but whenever you try to move in a direction other than the normal ones arthur's sprite changes to another one where he has long hair instead of his short one... and there's also a pretty nasty bug that makes the game freeze - using the "insta win" ability that arthur has makes an error message pop up saying "Loading Error - Failed to load: img/animations/StateDown1.png" - it's a pretty common bug with games made on RPG Maker MV - you can solve it by manually inserting into the game's files all of the missing ones!)

alas, Multiversal Productions, i wish you best of luck, lots of inspiration and nerves of steel while developing the game - i hope that we'll see some familiar faces in future demos, like lancelot, merlin or even galahad!) take care!