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Author Topic: an article about chaosforge on animemanaic web magazine  (Read 6034 times)

Aerton

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an article about chaosforge on animemanaic web magazine
« on: September 05, 2007, 10:41 »

Here follows a somewhat free translation from Russian of the article posted at http://www.animemagazine.ru/52.06/games_01.php by drugon.
To be honest, the translation is not terribly accurate, and some parts may sound wierd. But then some part sound wierd in the original too.
In some parts I do not agree with the author and think he is mistaken, but no attempt was made to correct them.


fist part is a general talk and was skipped


Forge of Chaos

This sound name belongs to a serie of projects developed by comrade Kornel. His name became known among the roguelike developers due to the famous DoomRL. While the idea to create a roleplaying game based on Doom is not new (there is an official DOOM RPG game for mobiles looking more like a turn-based Wolfenstein 3D), it was the first attempt to translate a 3D shooter game into a roguelike. But Kornel tried... and succeeded. The resulting roguelike RPG turned to be rather playable and I can recommend it even to the newbies [in the roguelike genre] as it has a simple UI that does not require to memorize hundreds of commands.
From the Forge of Chaos also emerged DiabloRL and AliensRL. Unfortunately, they are underdeveloped, but still playable. So, here we come to the most interesting part, a roguelike based on the well known manga and anime Berserk.


The crimson bloodiness covers the world before your sight

The first thing I'm going to tell you is that the game has no scenario connections to anime or manga. The gameplay is all that Kornel had offered to us. It reminds of these games where a player kills on left and right while a heart pounds in his chest. The most famous game of the kind is Crimsonland. Although, Berserk is an RPG and while it's a little bit primitivistic, it holds true the name of the genre.
The player assumes a role of berserk, a mighty warrior in possession of multiple deadly things in his arsenal. Semi-automatic crossbow with 12 arrows in its magazine can fire 3 of them at once. Throwing knives. Bombs. A portable cannon (if you hadn't seen Berserk yet, do not take a blank look upon me, you just do not know where it is hidden). Fairy dust that heals the most grave wounds instantly. And, of course, a loyal two-handed sword of immense size. Having such a kit, it is possible to slay dozens, if not hundreds of foes left and right and you will be doing just that.
The game has two modes: endless and massacre. The former provides you with eight points to increase your stats, a choice to learn one of the skills, 48 arrows, 6 throwing knives, 2 cannon loads, 2 bombs and 2 sacks of fairy dust. Your goal is to stay alive through the night and kill all monsters coming to the picnic. Upon completion, you are granted with 1 stat point, ammo resupply and partial healing. Next is a march to the next night raid on one of 3 locations chosen randomly where even more monsters are waiting. Some of them live in all terrains, while some other are unique to one location. And repeat this until the poor berserk is ripped to pieces.
The second mode provides 14 stat points, a choice of location, 3 skills, 72 arrows, 10 knives, 3 cannon balls, 3 bombs and 3 fairy dusts. This time the night never ends, you fight until the end.
Some of the features are very interesting. I personally had never seen them before, but author admits they were borrowed from "Genrogue combat system". In particular, a limit of energy lever. Although, stamina would be a more accurate word. E.g. to run from an enemy it makes sense to switch to run mode that makes your every step consume energy. Something similar could be seen in Revenant. Another feature is a level of pain. When the player get hit, not only he loses HP, but also assumes a level of pain equal to the strength of the strike. When the level is above 2, it is strongly recommended to fall back and wait for the pain to fade because it makes him miss, weakens his blows and fail to defend himself.
It is worth to mention the berserk condition. If there were none, the game would not deserve its name. The red HP bar gradually become filled with purple. As soon it meets the current HP mark, the character falls into berserk rage. Although, sometimes the player himself becomes so excited, that he becomes berserk as well. It lasts as long as purple meets the end or until the player uses fairy dust. In thins state the character is harder to hit, his attacks becomes more accurate and strikes more powerful.
To show that character feels worse the lower he is on health, the vision range starts to decrease at some point. It makes things notably more difficult as it prevents you from knowing what is going on in the close vicinity.
While the game process may appear to be simplistic, Berserk! is still a roguelike and it means every step should be thought and actions weighted or it may turn to be the last step.


What's our life - a war?

Sad, but for now it's a war and a war only. Kornel promises to improve the game and add a campaign mode and that gives live to a hope that there will be a scenario connection [to the movie]. But even if there will be no new version (and to help the cause, ask the author via email and support the man), even now the game is capable to sink an evening or two and provide with a lot of fun to Berserk fans as well as to roguelike lovers. At the very lest to these, who like both.
« Last Edit: September 05, 2007, 12:03 by Aerton »
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Kornel Kisielewicz

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Re: an article about chaosforge on animemanaic web magazine
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2007, 10:54 »

OMG, I'm a thief! I stole ideas from GenRogue :D

Also DoomRL was created before Doom RPG, but not many people know that :).

Two things that I really like in this article however, are the fact that it's not from a gaming magazine, but anime magazine, and the fact that it's the first article to mention our beloved "Forge of Chaos" :D

Anyway, a BIG THANKS Aerton for the translation!
« Last Edit: September 05, 2007, 11:00 by Kornel Kisielewicz »
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Kornel Kisielewicz

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Re: an article about chaosforge on animemanaic web magazine
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2007, 12:14 »

[...]
This sound name belongs to a serie of projects developed by comrade Kornel.
[...]

I loled :D
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Kornel Kisielewicz

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Re: an article about chaosforge on animemanaic web magazine
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2007, 12:21 »

Yeah I noticed "Tavarish Kornel" too :P
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Kornel Kisielewicz

Santiago Zapata

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Re: an article about chaosforge on animemanaic web magazine
« Reply #4 on: September 06, 2007, 21:31 »

Congratulations on the article Comrade!
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Re: an article about chaosforge on animemanaic web magazine
« Reply #5 on: October 28, 2007, 00:14 »

What, no love for Berserk!?

Anyway, belated congratulations on you write-up!
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