Megara Entertainment's
new app Spirit Slayer goes on sale today. I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but from the look of the screens I think it will appeal to both CRPG players and gamebook fans.
Mikaël Louys had this to say:
"Spirit Slayer is a co-production by Megara Entertainment and game designer and author Paul Blanchot. Art is by Mary Nikol and music by Faiz Nabheebucus. It's a sort of reflexes game mixed with elements of RPG, and is available in both French and English (translated by Paul Gresty)."
If anybody has tried it, why not tell us in the comments what you thought? I bet we all have spirits we'd love to slay.
I'm not normally one to pay for mobile apps, but as this was Megara, I thought I would throw caution to the wind with sixty of my English pennies, but I have to say the app is disappointing. Maybe I haven't played it enough, but the interface is clunky and there is little for the player to do except click through screens of text - no choices, no skill and nothing really to keep me engaged as a player. Gameplay seems to be just about clicking through screens of dialogue (without even being able to choose between different dialogue options) until there's a spirit to kill, kill the spirit and then move on. The whole thing feels 'unfinished', with no way to review your items or spells outside of combat, no choices to make, no way to return to the homescreen (to access the tutorial, for instance) without exiting the application and reloading, some text still in French (despite choosing English as my preferred language - the only choice I made, in fact), etcetera.
ReplyDeleteThe one redeeming feature is that the artwork is exceptional - if it's the same artists that are doing the Way of the Tiger gamebooks, then I think I'm going to be very pleased with my books when they arrive!
If anyone was thinking of spending 60p on this, I'd recommend instead that you buy a stamp, and surprise someone with a handwritten letter. Much more rewarding use of your money.
I should say that I have an Android phone, so it's possible the app plays differently on iOS, but it'd have to be a completely different game before this would be a worthwhile investment.
Ouch - that doesn't sound good. Thanks for taking the time to review it, Lee. I wonder if the game was just designed as an arcade-type battle system, and the story screens were a last-minute addition? Jamie and I have been looking at Paper Sorcerer and Outlast recently, so I guess we'll stick with those for our CRPG fix.
DeleteI wouldn't want to be unfair to the app, and it's possible the game opens up if you persevere and\or plays differently on different platforms, plus it was only 60p, so no great loss! And as neither Paper Sorcerer nor Outlast seem to be available from the Android Store, is far cheaper than buying an Apple device on which to get your CRPG fix from these apps :)
ReplyDeleteThey're not even iOS games, actually. We're back to playing more on PC these days.
Delete[Mikael from Megara] Hello! Spirit Slayer is a special case. It's the first project I run for which I was only the art director. The rest, gameplay and UI, was unfortunately decided by author Paul Blanchot. He gave Megara 10.000 euros to build a prototype for the gameplay he wished. As we managed to finish his game for 5000, I used the remaining 5000 euros to commission many artists for the Way of the Tiger collector's edition and the WotT RPG. Without this help, we could not have produced artworks for WotT one year before the campaign. So that really helped, plus the fact that we pleased a game designer by turning his ideas and script to an app. But indeed, I would have preferred a gamebook than this type of game. But for me what was important was the 5k used for the WotT various artworks :) So I could not refuse!
ReplyDeleteOh, Mikael, I really wish you hadn't made this post. Even if it's not your intention, it makes you and Megara seem unprofessional. Your use of "unfortunately" suggests that any flaw in the app is to be laid at Mr Blanchot's doorstep, for example.
DeletePlease, do consider deleting this comment or asking Mr Morris to do it. You do not need to make that post.
[Mikael] Well, I said "unfortunately" because it's also unfortunate for Paul since the sales figures are showing that his decisions in terms of gameplay were not the good ones.
ReplyDeleteThe recent update has made this app a bit better. The first mini-game was baffling before, now the app tells us what to do, which is nice. It's not the best app ever, but for something to play while your wife is drying her hair, it's fine. King of Dragon Pass, however, is simply awesome... and more than ten times the price :)
ReplyDeleteWell, James, I'd always rather pay ten times the price and have ten times the awesome. Life's too short not to play, read & watch only the best you can.
DeleteIndeed! KoDP is great fun. And apparently contains ten books worth of text! Nice music too.
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