| Them's Fightin'
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One rule of reviewing OHR games is to never compare them to professional games, it’s unfair to the author and to the readers. Neverless, if you’ve played Kingdom Hearts, you’ll instantly know where Fenix was inspired for Monolith of Spirits. Everything from the opening lines and main character’s clothing, down to the basic theme behind the story screams Kingdom Hearts. So now that most of you know what to expect, lets really break this never to be finished demo down.
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| Graphics |
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There’s some good use of shading, but the majority of the graphics are from another one of Fenix’s unfinished games, Ethro Blue. This being said, you’ll notice some graphics that are completely out of place in the snowy landscape, and now you know why. Battles are particularly bland, with small, ugly enemies, and backgrounds that simply lack effort. Walkabouts are carefully drawn, so it’s too bad that there’s only four of them in the entire demo. There’s effort here, but the graphics barely comes off as decent in the end.
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| Storyline |
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You’re a young boy named Rave who is completely under-dressed for the wintery hills of a new and strange world. After wandering around and fighting enemies, you come upon a ghostly abandoned cabin, and further on, to the Monolith of Spirits itself. There you meet a young girl who is being harassed by snowmen, and...well, I think you can already see that Monolith of Spirits is a very strange game. The dialogue is well written, but unfortunately there simply isn’t enough gameplay to turn the interesting intro into an interesting adventure. When you’ve only got 35 minutes of playtime, and most of that is engaged in battles, it’s hard for the story to take center stage, even as gripping as Monolith of the Spirit’s story tries to be.
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| Gameplay |
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Ehehe. Suddenly it becomes clear that like so many other game creators, Felix had such a great idea for a game he couldn't be bothered with making the gameplay fun. Oh well...
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Battle |
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Urgh. Put a brick on the spacebar, and run if you see snowmen. I wish I could dig deeper into what makes up the majority of this game, but I can’t, because that’s all there is to it.
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Map Design |
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If the battles weren’t so completely bad, the maps would have been the saving grace for Monolith of Spirits. Even though they’re relatively sparse, good use of detail make the cabin feel homey, the Monolith of Spirits imposing, and the tundra really damn cold. It’s interesting to see Fenix’s nature aptitude to design maps, which looks to be taken to new heights in his newest game Requiem.
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Balance |
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Pretty bad, actually. If you’re unlucky, the first battle you get in could be your last. Even with plenty of well placed heal and save points, Monolith of Spirits needs a lot more effort before its battles become fun. On the other hand, the battles never seem overly long, and even though both the enemies and the hero’s speed is too low, it never becomes annoying. Frankly, balance is just another aspect of Monolith of Spirits that needed to be polished before Fenix pushed it out the door.
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| Music |
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Well, you’ve got your main song, your battle song, and uh...hold on a minute...yeah, that’s pretty much what you’ll be listening to for the whole 35 minutes. Still, neither are annoying enough to turn off the volume.
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| Enjoyment |
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It’s not painful to play through, which is saying something in the OHR community, which also says something depressing about most games for the engine. I was never bored with Monolith of Spirits, though the battles did drag down the game to an almost unacceptable pace. The game is clearly unfinished, which gave it a refreshing twist for me, a bit like looking into a game’s custom file and seeing all the bits and pieces before it becomes a real game. Too bad it was supposed to be a real game, eh?
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| Final Blows |
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The story made me play, the battles made me yawn, and the abrupt ending made me grumble. Give it a go if you want to play a stepping stone in Fenix’s way to becoming a better game designer.
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Dude, just walk away. Don't beat up the rare horned turtle of the tundra for a couple of measly exp points. |
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Final Scores
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Graphics: 5/10.0 |
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Not bad, not great, but they are blah.
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Storyline: 4/10.0
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Too thin to keep your attention, but could have been redeemed if the game was longer. |
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Gameplay: 3/10.0 |
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Battles will make your cringe, and not even good map design can make up for them.
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Music: 4/10.0
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Not a lot here, but at least it won’t make you plug your ears. |
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Enjoyment: 5/10.0
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For a half hour, it staves off boredom decently.
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Overall Grade:
D- |
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| Final Thoughts |
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I can see why Fenix let this game go. Inspired by a popular professional game mixed with his own twist, in the end there wasn’t enough interest to keep Monolith of Spirits from an early grave.
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