Opaline

Opaline is a charming, small indie RPGMaker game that has heart despite its flaws. While the game may have received some negative reviews for being unpolished, it offers a nostalgic 16-bit experience filled with adventure, romance, and an engaging story. The dynamic between Gallow and Liza is heartfelt, as their destinies seem to pull them apart while their feelings draw them closer. The split-party mechanic adds a nice layer of strategy, and the secret rooms and side quests offer plenty of content for fans of retro RPGs. It's a hidden gem for those who appreciate small indie RPG efforts.

RPG Maker strikes again!

Opaline is one of hundreds of low effort retro-pixel RPG Maker asset/construction kit flips spamming the Steam catalog, made with the RPG Maker video game construction kit... in their own words, "Our easy to use tools are simple enough for a child." Like all RPG Maker "games", this is essentially a bunch of low quality/canned assets from RPG Maker coupled with a cringeworthy high school anime club fan fiction.

As with all RPG Maker games, the poor quality engine displays badly in fullscreen and doesn't have full HD support or any graphics tweaking options, making this unacceptable for any dedicated modern PC gamer. The point can be made that the intention of RPG Maker is to make demos and small games to pass around friends, and shouldn't be used for "professional" game development.

This time Andorlea/Warfare/SimProse/whatever other shell account this guy uses to try hide his identity has once more stamped out a painfully generic copy + paste RPG Maker asset flip. There's a lame "romance" theme tacked onto this one, but it makes no difference really, the "developer" here just dumps these out every couple of weeks with slightly different RPG Maker stock asset skins on them. It's horribly basic, riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, full of stock copy + pasted RPG Maker assets... no real game development has taken place here, this is just a cash grab, it's shovelware polluting Steam for profit.

This "developer" has dumped OVER ONE HUNDRED copy+pasted RPG Maker asset flips onto Steam, and keeps pumping out minimum viable product RPG Maker asset flips as rapidly as possible to try gouge gamers. Over 100 asset flips. It's obvious there's no sincerity here.

We must ask why this ongoing pollution has any serious value for gamers or the gaming industry. This kind of cash grab construction kit shovelware from bad actors like Andorlea gives amateur developers a bad name. This pollution takes marketing space away from genuine indie developers who are doing the right thing, and making real games instead of copying+pasting premade assets in a children's video game construction kit. It makes it harder for gamers to find genuinely made games. This pollution is harmful to Steam, to gamers and the gaming industry.

Like most RPG Maker shovelware and asset flips, the game features extremely low quality copy + pasted 2D retro pixel art, looks awful, and has even worse gameplay. RPG Maker is an absolutely terrible construction kit, and never results in games of any reasonable quality or value to gamers.

Reviewing SteamDB to check how popular this game was with players reveals a surprise... there's a modest (~300 player) spike in player counts for the game. Why would hundreds of people play a game all on one day when otherwise the game is lucky to get one player per week? Trading cards. People will use card idling software to collect the cards and sell them, but this won't trigger any achievements in-game. That tells us people only really bought this game for trading cards, and that's a damning indictment of the woeful quality. A closer look at the numbers shows the game just has a couple of players every week running up the game and idling it for cards, then deleting it. We must ask how it benefits gamers for there to be so many games like this, with no merit as a serious game, that only generate sales from people idling and selling the trading cards.

Opaline has the laughable, eye-watering price of around $5 USD, it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the sheer number of completely free, much higher quality games on Steam. Gamers who want a good retro JRPG experience would be better off playing the originals, like Final Fantasy, Star Ocean or Chrono Trigger.

Short and sweet. Didn't think I'd enjoy this one nearly as much as I did from the other reviews and far it's not purely developed by Aldorlea - co production with Warfare. But the credits say he handled the gameplay and it shows, it's well balanced and has lots of very cool loot, an aldorlea signature. Also quite a lot of fun hidden areas for such a small game, so they feel pretty frequent.

Didn't really rush it, looked for most side quests but seems many of the ones in this game need a lot of backtracking and obscure seeking around so missed a lot, but i found most secret rooms: Win screen shows: 9/16 side quests done. 24/28 secret rooms. Completed on hard in under 8 hours. Challenge was decent though looking at the game I'm not sure what hard does at all, not really explained/obvious like other aldorlea games.

I've been careful about finding the proper RPGMaker games worth my time for experience. But sometimes the buzzwords and the price gets the best of me and Opaline is one of those that could have been something decent if it has been left to mature some more in terms of writing and combat in the later end of the game.
Opaline is hard to recommend when it's derivative and below average overall. At least I bought it on a sale and should be as that.

Summary notes by positives and negatives.
+ Character growth throughout the story progression.
+ Story splits between two parties and allows you to form your own near the end.
+ Some epic soundtracks stand out well quality-wise.
+ Secret rooms and hidden items encourage exploration...
- ... albeit some make for a grindy searching.
- Forgettable storyline.
- Villains get silly to a childish extent, even though it's done with a wink.
- Final boss fight taking more time than it's bearable (lost twice before I called quits)
- Could have added in achievements to further incentivize the side contents and the overall playthrough.

It's a cute little game.
The Story is an interesting premise. There are some obvious writing errors and it's not a very deep story. But it's one that you can take at surface level and just enjoy, Nothing too emotionally deep to get into so a casual story you can play through.


"Great! So just call me the Janitor, Jerk because I'm about the wipe the floor with you!"
The best line 10/10 made my night.

The maps were pretty and the music was nice.
There were a few glitches I found, mostly just in that one mountain map where I found a way to walk around in the sky.
But otherwise, I really enjoyed it and the secret rooms were a real surprise for me! I didn't get them all but when I found the first one I really tried!

Overall, if you're looking for deep lore, and deep emotion in a grand story. Probably not what you're looking for.
But if you just want something to entertain you for a day or so with a casual story premise then this should do just fine!

What a major disappointment! I bought this game for 0,49 euros while it was on sale, and that is the only good thing I have to say about it.

The story had so much potential but it wasn't developed at all. The characters were poorly written and they were flat. The relationships between them or their backgrounds weren't even a tiny bit explored. They were just there.

The game's visual design just screams 0 effort. The maps and levels were way too simple. There was also a lack of a journal so good luck with knowing what quests you have to do or are in the process of doing. For the majority of the game you just have to blindly go wherever in hopes that you're progressing with your quests.

The gameplay is repetitive and boring. Nothing else to do except fight monsters all the time.


PROS:
- got the game for 0,49 euros

CONS:
- no character development
- badly written dialogue
- no journal
- simple maps and levels
- bad visual design
- repetitive gameplay

I already knew this game will be bad, to be honest the only reason why I brought this game is because I got a 75% discount for it and wanted to play it to review it for anyone looking into this game for whatever reason. At first glance the overall gameplay is terribly bad: the story lacks context so I been mostly confused while playing, the controls feels a bit awkward (wasd doesn't work, you will have to use arrow key), the music and artwork is very lazy for a RPG game, and for whatever reason if you want to take a screenshot using f12 it doesn't work and the games bugs. As if the time of this post I played this game for about 2 hours so I'm probably nowhere near the end of the game. The game might be better as you play thorough it but I doubt it. I don't recommend this game.

Cute story line and game play. The enemies look completely different in the battle screen than in the field. It is a little frustrating to have no save points before final boss mobs of an area especially after doing a lot of exploring. The secret rooms and side quests are difficult to find, so 100%-ing the game on the first try can be daunting. Two separate parties for almost the entire game can make leveling up your final party a bit time consuming towards the end. I liked the game and will most likely try to 100% it from my last save point in the future. Overall this was almost exactly what I was looking for. Thumbs up!

I bought this game because the graphics looked attractive in the preview pictures, but was actually disappointed in some of the graphics after I started playing the game. This is a pretty good quality game with an easy mode to make it easier to play through.

Love love LOVE this game. It's like pokemon meets zelda. A nice game for the price I really enjoy it. Super worth it with the discount code. Has quickly become one of my fave games.

Oh hello there, hope you are having a good day and if not, may it get better. Why is that the first sentence? Because this game is super nice and great. It makes you care and worry about the characters from the beginning... but mostly for the main ones. If you want to know about others? You might get a hint here and there, but let's face it: the main characters are on the cover, it will be 90% about them.

Combat? Fun. I wasn't bored for a second. I liked the flashy animations and yes, there is an option to turn them off too, if needed. Music/SFX work well together! After you get going and adjust, you will actually be split into two groups. Then you follow one and then the either, but you wont be confused, as there isn't that much dialogue, but everything that's said is direct and actually amusing at some points.

You kinda will figure out who the bad guy is... but sometimes you feel good about figuring it out from the beginning. I gotta say though the side quests? ARE THE MOST HIDDEN! There are hidden rooms and stuff... but OMG I found over 25+ of those and only *sigh* 5 side quests... One of them didn't work for me. It is the one with the blue orb for the church. Once you can carry it? The lady in the church disappears. I explored every single tile in that church and nothing. Couldn't find a way to resolve it.

There is one quest where you pick two items and that "mini axe" is adorable!!! I consider it to be a lucky charm!

Eventually you will have to pick what characters you travel with in the end + you do get a boat. None of this is a spoiler, I mean common... you play enough RPGs you kinda need to get that point to get everything that you missed! And off you go to a place that's really wide and yeah... Boss time!

Artwork in this game is really nice. The main characters are sweet and loving towards one another. So I am very happy for them and what happened. *clap clap clap* So thank you for the game which took me 15+ hours to enjoy due to finding all of the secrets.... at least I thought I did... Well played. Thank you for the sweet, kind and fun game!!! =) :) :>

A fun little 16bit rpg game
The story is great but you might find the gameplay boring as it is just clicking the mouse and nothing to do in keyboard,but as I said earlier the story is so great that I ignored all the other parts.
Highly recommended to buy during a sale(as for me I got a 60%off coupon for this while crafting a badge)

I've just finished playing this game (had 18 hours of gameplay) & I honestly enjoyed playing it! Maybe it's a little bias since I grew up playing 2D RPG games in the 1980s & so on but I really had fun playing this. All those 'babies' with their obsession with 3D graphics may not like this but that's their own fault for not being able to appreciate what really makes a game good - the FUN of PLAYING IT. Also, Applejack references!

My only complaint is that I couldn't shove my Deathbringer up [a certain villain who shall not be named]'s ass & feel satisfied doing it.

A very meh game. Nothing particularly appealing but not so terrible you couldn't play it to completion. I for one did not play it to completion i got up to about 3/4 of the way through and decided I don't care about the ending and stopped playing. The story line has potential as do some (NOT all) of the characters but its never realised.
The mission is to seal away a blight much like in the dragon age games. This blight was unleashed when a general destroyed an enemy temple that had kept this blight sealed, again much like in the dragon age games. The generals repented, found a way to overcome the blight, temporarily sealed it and then formed an order knights to keep it sealed forever.

This story has some interesting elements in that this order of knights have to work in former enemy territory and thus have a poor reputation amongst the locals. Another interesting element is that the knights recruit only those who are talented and righteous. These concepts however, though good are never really truly explored. Because as is will be clear when you start playing (which you shouldn't) the authors focus more on light humor, silliness and comic relief then taking mature themes seriously and growing them.

Infact the key flaw with the game is that ends up being flooded with light humor silliness and comic relief. The jokes and jokiness itself was okay but nothing special.

The other main flaw of the game and probably the bigger flaw is the weakness of the two main characters, Gallow and Liza. They are boring, and their dialogue is mundane. (On the plus side however they are not too boring and there dialogue is not too mundane). Furthermore the romance between them is shallow and we never really know what Liza sees in Gallow and vice versa. The romance is never properly explained by the authors and it never develops from the experience shared between the two characters, (which is how it should be). Instead we have the experiences between Gallow and Liza develop from the already existing romance. The emptiness of the romance is compounded by the fact that dialogue between the two amounts to little more than "do you think I'm cute... I think you're cute". Its boring and vomit inducing.

I truly enjoyed this little game. Great old school RPG, little grinding - easily played.

A striking example of a good Japanese RPG. I really liked the unusual story, but the gameplay was sometimes boring.

This game called Opaline is absolutely solid board champion difficulty!
Literally when u get to the end passage and the final boss!

Its like taking three to five cheeses from a variety of milk types
that overgrown you into a stardom fight!

I mean i had so much styles of potions and mana with luscious effort!
Didnt even get far...the closest i ever got to the final battle...was the queen and i had 45 % more sparkling health to go
and the bar didnt deplete as i wanted it too!!!

For the rest its a decent rpg maker game but it is a cleansing that needs to be whispered into good manners
then a bad settling one that makes u frusturated as hell inclined into a bone saw drilling at your golden feet!

The music is roughly chopped and its nice!The sound effects are bare drawn,and the enemies have a nice
variety to them!

The only thing i really had to say NOT RECOMMENDED is the final battle!
Theirs hard like u always have to try again and again,for making the stupid mistake!
But theirs the other hard where its just impossible to beat without leveling up to a higher level that drives players
insane!

I give this game a 6.6/10

This game is for pure enjoyment!Not to configure a temple drainage into your soul!
Sorry but this game is really bad and it should be deleted from the steam store!
And what really is worse that its a very short game love the burrito master

This game even though Aldorlea you make great games, I personally can't recommend this game. The balancing in this game just isn't that well made. And I was playing on normal.

I actually thoroughly enjoyed this game up until the final dungeon. At that point though this game like Moonchild just drug to an absolute crawl. Part of the problem is the final dungeon is split into 3 very big and VERY open areas which makes it feel as if no matter what you do you make very little progress, plus its the only dungeon to have traps that suck your health, and end up dying rather quickly.

But what really put a sword through this was the final boss fight. Did you playtests this at ALL? I was lv 30! With the way this game is designed I doubt that unless you abuse the 2x exp relics that most people would be lv 22-24 by the time they reach Raven III. The problem is that this game does 2 boss fights in a row, and the second unless you are prepared can insta-KO you in a couple of rounds due to one of the good/bad things about this game's combat system. Which is physical attacks do not break confusion. Which means when all 4 of your units are confused guess what you just lost! I spent well over 40 mins widdling its collossal hp pool down, only to get a group confuse and auto-lose.

I do not mind bosses you need a bit of advanced strategy for, but a pure hp sponge for a final boss, does not fit the bill.


Here's the bigger problem is that this game unlike some others truely made me smile, there is some rather good comedy in this. But this is also by far the shortest Aldorlea game I've played.

It's a fun game, but it has really bad writing, so I don't recommend it.

Aldorlea's only the publisher, so I'd recommend checking that out in advance. The good games are usually the ones that Aldorlea developed, not just published. Warfare Games tend to have bad writing in general.

This game reminds me of the Vagrant Hearts duo (now trio). Two souls, with Fates and powers they do not understand called out to find them, separated, and struggling to get back together, while dealing with a great evil (the Blight here). Looks great (for the genre), and the plot is interesting. Should be fun.

I do expect that eventually this game will get the full Aldorlea treatment (meaning a Game Guide eventually and achievements).

Anyway do try it.