Steel & Steam: Episode 1

This is very much my style of game, so I was excited about it. Overall so far I think it is well done, but it does have its downsides too. I'm enjoying the story, the battle system is straightforward and more or less as expected. There are plenty of side quests available that don't particularly drag you away from the main story but provide enough xp that so far I haven't had to grind out any levels in classic RPG style.

I do have a few complaints, but nothing so serious that it has kept me from enjoying the game. The first is that there doesn't seem to be a world map, which can leave you floundering for town if you wandered too far from a road and aren't exactly sure where you are. The second is that the towns simply seem way too big, about 3 times as big as they need to be. The number of houses that have nothing in them is mind-blowing, yet for those of us familiar with RPG style games we know that we MUST check every one because the one missed have a unique item or quest. This can lead to frustration if you have a few quests you do at once because unless you've got an astounding memory you may not remember exactly where you need to go to turn it in.

The music isn't particularly riveting, and gets old with time. I don't mind this at all since I tend to turn game music off in favor of streaming anyway. The story seems to be unfolding at a good pace so far. There are occasional pop culture references that are fun. (Dr. Who, Eric Clapton) If you're an absolute fan of the genre, I definitely recommend the game. If not, I can't recommend getting it outside of a sale, but it is still worth trying.

So this game is a fairly standard stab at a JRPG.

PROs, the game flows fairly well, the quest system is fairly well developed and easy to follow, the storyline is actually kind of interesting, fairly standard, reminds me of Wild Arms 3 a bit honestly. The gameplay is what can be expected and the kickstarter homes in the game don't all feel like a giant waste of time since there are actually items in a few of them that make them worth going inside of.

CONs, The game is far too short. This is because it was a kickstarter game and with 8500 dollars being raised for this section and whatnot, this is what was finished. I get that, that being said, this game is still a bit too short. If it someday hopes to be in 5 parts or something and offer a plethora of side quests this could have something. Straight storyline play in this game would be less than an hour or two, sidequests included this game can be completed in under 4 hours. I have so many hours on record because I leave my computer on and get up and go do things. Like clean my house, teach classes, or whatever. My playtime is not terribly reflective of time spent in game. Also this game has some very underdeveloped character interactions between party members. There are hints of actual life there but no substance. So if you are looking to fall in love with the characters you are playing with currently this game does not deliver there. The feel and everything is fine but the graphics could have been more polished.

All in all for a kickstarter effort it is good, which is why I will recommend it, but I would wait for a sale, I certainly wouldn't pay more than 5 dollars or so for the title. It is a good first effort and if you wish to support the people making it to hopefully add to it, then by all means, but if you are looking for something to fill up hours in an olde tyme JRPG style, get a FF game or something along those lines.

Before purchasing the game I had watched a first look that was done on the game that claimed the game had high levels of difficulty when reaching the mine setting. I found this report to be very false. I had no trouble killing any and all creatures I was presented with, but I am a completionist and had taken all of the side quests and completed them.

Good first effort. Needs more substance. The early chapters don't feel finished, and they should when you are making an episodic game. Anways, hope that helps!

First try on Steel&Steam: Episode 1

Updates will be posted boldly in the respective part of the review

Here is an update video concerning comments and questions about the review:
http://youtu.be/UURusg9pYc8
The video is available here:
http://youtu.be/aiQW71D1ggA


First impressions on RPGs are always difficult, but I'll give it a try nonetheless.

First off, the user defined tag "RPG Maker" is as accurate as a single tag can be. That does not necessesarily mean, you can't do great things with it as well. But first things first:

The options are not accessible via the main menu, but you can access them while playing the game. 3 different sliders for audio options are available, which is a plus. Other than that you can change the default walking speed, the text speed from scrolling to instant and you can toggle battle animations on or off. Graphical options are not available, but this is not bothering in this case.

Into the game we go and we start off with a little tutorial in which movement, interaction, inventory manangement, as well as comat are shown to you. You move around using the arrow keys and interaction works via the spacebar or the enter button. You don't really need any more than that controlwise, since the combat is turnbased.
But the combat is not your typical run of the mill turnbased combat. Apart from critical hits, evasion and normal hits, there are different status conditions in which you can be set by the enemy or vice versa. For example, some hits or special abilities have the potential to knock you off balance which skips your turn until you regain balance.

So, after beating the first encounter you will be teleported into the first town. I didn't count each house and every npc individually, but I have to say that for a game of this format this has been one of the largest towns I've ever seen. The same applies to the second town as well.
In the town you can do what you can do in RPGs: Walk into some people's house, steal their stuff and talk to the people like nothing's ever happened. Sometimes it might occur that they give you some items or even quests as well.
And when you think that you have to listen(well, actually read) every dialogue, which by the way is recommended, because the dialogue is rather well written, you are mistaken. You can find the quests and their description in your controll panel.
In terms of the quest system I have to say the quests(side quests included) so far were rather enjoyable and I didn't expect to gain xp and gold from doing quests in a rpg like that, so I was positively surprised.

The control panel also includes your inventory and character information. Equipping your characters is relatively simple, since you have an autoequip button, which selects the best gear in terms of stats for you. Otherwise you can also equip the items yourself one by one. Other than that the inventory system is simple, but it fits its purpose.


So far there has been nothing negative to say, but as we progress through the main storyline we come to the point on which I start to scratch my head so hard that my scalp is coming off. By simply doing the necessary steps and encounters in the game, you gain 2-3 levels until that point, so you have your special ability. The game also gives you a healer, but not that it would matter in any way, because when you take on the 3rd quest(if I counted correctly) in the main storyline and venture towards the zone, the game suddenly turns around and gives you the finger.
From enemies which you killed in 2 to a maximum of 5 turns, the encounters suddenly take 10+ turns for no apparent reason. There are even some enemies which only take an average of 15-25 damage each turn while having 300-350 hp and not being the only enemy in an encounter. What spices things up even more is the fact that their attacks deal about 33-60% of your maximum hp. I've only done one encounter which took me 10 minutes and turned off the game, because I thought it was bs.


Either I am missing something, which is obvious to other people who are playing this game, or the balancing is completely off.

So, the tl:dr.... I cannot recommend it, I am sorry. The last point completely killed it for me.
If you can forgive the game for that, it might be right for you, but I can't be bothered. I might re-review it, if there is a solution to that, but at the current state, as much as it hurts, I have to give it a thumbs down.

Update: Even after doing all the sidequests in order to see if there are balance issues, I can't recommend this game. The problem with the trashmobs before the first boss is cleared that way, but even with best in slot geared characters the boss twoshots two characters within the first 2 turns and giving me no chance to heal at all.
I certainly hope not that the game expects you to reach an excact level before being able to kill the boss, because that would be crappy design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXzE1JZtTCY

Big backer on kickstarter and played through alpha and Beta. Has a unique sountrack,characters and it's very own style.
Though it does use the rpg maker engine it is pretty fleshed out. The only really downside of this game is the combat is repetitve as the old school rpg's so if your not in to that you might want to skip. I already own this game but bought it to show my support for a pretty solid rpg and I'm not just saying that because I'm in it lol.
Check out my video for the first 15 minutes or so of gameplay.