G – Castaway
Hello all, and welcome again to Filthy
Casual Reviews! Sorry for how long it's taken to update this, but
the completist in me desperately wanted to beat Castaway
before I wrote about it. This... did not go well. You see, I have
the attention span and patience of a deficient gnat, and I get
frustrated very easily. For now, here is the review.
Castaway appeared
on the front page of Kongregate.com around the time I joined (I
think). I saw the tags “RPG” and “Pet” and thought “Well,
you only live once”. I clicked, and despite my many, many, MANY
rage-quits, I still love this game.
Title:
Castaway
Developers:
Likwid
Games, Armor Games (I'd do a more in-depth credit, but until I beat
the game, I don't see any way of actually finding this stuff out...)
Gameplay
Styles: role-playing,
pet combat, auto-combat, traditional rpg
Interface:
arrow
keys and mouse.
Art:
Castaway
has a 16-bit style with lots of color and amazing scenery. Whoever
did the spriting on the environments and people is amazing, and I
want to commend them on their wonderful, rich colors and textures.
Enemies seem to come in relatively few shapes – beetles, snakes,
and scorpions in the first two or three zones – and have different
colors to denote their different attacks. Your character actually
wears his armor and wields his weapon, and the pet you start with is
a great design on its own. Who'd have thought I'd get so attached to
a green egg with one eye, a horn, legs and bat-wings that I'd quit
and restart several times just so that he wouldn't die?
The
town, which you come to very early on, is a completely separate area
from the combat zones you enter for quests. When you talk to people,
you are shown portraits, which are quite well done and colorful. In
a way, the style reminds me of One Piece,
the pirate manga, but I don't believe the two are in any way
connected.
The
map appears in two forms – full-page as you choose which zone you
want to enter, and up in the corner for the zone you've chosen. The
onscreen map as you wander the zones can be a little hard to read,
but they're super useful when you're grinding, as your enemies show
up on it in relation to you.
As
a final note, there's also a character portrait attached to your
health-bar which shows you how much damage you've taken. As your
character gets hit, he gets scuffed and bloodied, which promotes a
sense of concern for your poor battered hero.
4
out of 5 Heart Containers.
Story:
You
wake up on a deserted island. You remember nothing. You know
nothing. A green egg-monster is following you with rabid devotion.
A local village takes you in and sends you on quests.
It's
a very simple, linear story. I'm in the third zone, and I haven't
encountered any plot twists yet, so there's that to consider. I
can't say I'm blown over by the storytelling so far, as most of it
has been either in the tutorial at the beginning or in the quest text
in town, and none of it seems... plotted, exactly. I'm sure that
when I finally get to the point where I don't freak out over my pet
(I named him Maurice!) dying, I'll become more invested in the
storyline.
So
far, I can only give the story 3 out of 5 Heart Containers
Characters:
This
part is a little difficult for me to cover. Where I am in the game,
I have only met Malaki, the Village Elder, and all I know about him
is that he looks like a clean, striped-shirted pirate with a deep tan
and a big grin. The only characters I'm really familiar with are the
main character and his first pet.
I
have a tradition of naming the blond protagonist of this game Adam
when I start out. Why? Because that's the first name I thought of.
Besides, it goes well with Maurice, which is what I always name the
pet. Adam has no memories, so he's a cipher. He also doesn't
really talk much except at the beginning of the game where he wonders
why he's on this beautiful island and why the green egg-creature is
stalking him. He's basically your standard blue-eyed, blond-haired
protagonist, and with the exceptions of what you put into him as a
player, he's basically Blandsville.
The
first pet you get in this game is cool enough that I consider him a
character in his own right. I've mentioned many times already that
he basically looks like if you stuck lizard legs and bat wings onto a
green, scaly egg and then stuck an eye in the middle of its face, but
it bears repeating. Also, he follows you around and aggressively
attacks any monsters you click on or which aggro. Be very, very
careful with your first pet. He is literally irreplaceable. There
are no second chances with him. If he dies, he's dead forever.
Snakes, beetles, and scorpions can be rehatched time and again, but
there's only ever one Maurice. And I love him.
For
the lack of characters in the early portion of the game and the
limited characterization, I can only give Castaway
2 out of 5 Heart Containers.
Sound
Design:
At
first, the theme for Castaway
seems promising – a vigorous yet innocent and charming piece
dominated by what sounds like bassoon, violin, and piccolo. Then you
realize that that's the only song outside the village. And it loops.
Forever. After a while, the tune ceases to be wondrous and fun and
becomes piercing and shrill.
The
village theme is also repetitious as heck, but it's so listenable!
It's like the pause theme from Battletoads
(if you've seen that episode of the Angry Videogame Nerd), in that it
gets caught in your head forever once you hear it, but you don't mind
because it's awesome. It's an industrial-sounding piece made up of
banging metal, clinking wood, and great rhythms. I could honestly
listen to it for hours.
The
battle sounds are also interesting to listen to. Every hit makes a
sound, even if it's just the air whiffing by as you miss your
opponent or they miss you. Unfortunately, those sounds are almost
all alike – hitting a snake with a stick sounds the same as hitting
it with a sword, and there's no difference between that and the enemy
attacking you. Shield-bashing makes its own thumping sound, and
elemental attacks do make their own noises, I believe.
On
the whole, I'd give the sound design for Castaway
3 out of 5 Heart Containers
Difficulty:
If,
like me, you are a Casual who hates to lose or fail too often, this
is not
the game for you. Grinding can take hours upon hours of repetitive
hacking and slashing through the same ten or so enemies in an area
over and over again, and if you don't grind, you die and lose your
pet. Poor Maurice... I don't want to lose him, so I just quit and
restart from my last save point.
Saving
is the single most annoying part of this game. You have to go back
to the town to save. Until you can either afford, have been given,
or have found a Castaway Feather (an item), you have to backtrack.
In the first two zones, this isn't too much of a problem, especially
since finishing the first few quests requires grinding really hard,
so you'll probably be a few levels higher than everything. Then you
hit the third zone, and you're screwed. You're utterly and
completely boned. Everything you thought you knew is a lie, and
those goddamn scorpions and Venom Snakes are right up your ass every
time you try to get out. I lost both Maurice and Adam multiple times
in one afternoon right
on the verge of returning to save.
I
have not completed the third zone. I don't know if I ever will. I
don't know if I can.
I'll try, though, so that keeps the difficulty level down.
Because
I have such trouble beating the third zone, I'm giving this a
cautious 3 out of 5 Heart Containers.
Replay
Value:
I
get so easily frustrated by this game, but I keep coming back, so
that's something.
4
out of 5 Heart Containers.
Length:
I
can't accurately judge this, since I started one of my first save
files in 2012 and still haven't finished it.
The
Pros:
Mind-bogglingly
beautiful spriting everywhere you look
Colorful,
soothing setting
Badass
village theme
Maurice
the Egg-Monster
You
can hatch your enemies' young and turn them into pets!
It's
the first in a great series of games
The
Cons:
So.
Hard. To beat!
Zone
theme is grating on the ears (mute button is your friend)
Grindy
grindy grind-times.
When
Maurice dies, he's dead forever.
You
can only keep two or three pets at a time.
It's
very obviously the first game in a series (lower-quality graphics
and gameplay)
Inventory
can feel... restrictive at times.
Overall
Score:
Game
Difficulty: Easy to learn, Hard to beat.
3
out of 5 Heart Containers total.
Final
Comments:
I
really wish I knew the names of the people who worked on this game.
All of them deserve kudos and hugs. I know it seems like I was
really harsh on the game in places, but I still adore the game.
Castaway is a fun RPG.
It is easy to learn, and for the first couple zones, it's pretty
easy to master, but then you hit the wall of poison, and you just
can't have enough healing items. I would still recommend this to any
role-playing gamer out there who wants to spend some time on a
tropical island for a while. Just... mute it after a while, I guess.
That piccolo is damn shrill, and as someone who plays said
instrument, I should know. My pinkies hurt just listening to the way
whoever is playing it plays.
I
guess that about wraps up this review. Next time, I've been ordered
by the powers that buy me Thai food to review a game called “Escape
from the Bathroom”.
Go
enjoy something!
FC
