Hoo boy, here we are.
As I mentioned in recent reviews, I am currently going
through RPG Maker games I own. I have some that are free, available for all to play, and others that aren’t free, but
included in bundles or sold cheaply on Steam. As an example, there's The Chosen RPG and its sequel,
Chosen 2.
This guy's in full armor... |
...while the ladies aren't even wearing anything that could look like the Zero Suit. Nah, just make it bras. And while we're there, imply they wear no bottoms either. |
The Chosen ended in a cliffhanger, with the three
allies escaping while Edge, the “Chosen” (urgh…), remained trapped in the Underworld,
Land of the Dead, world of Akuma the final boss. Let’s see where it goes from there.
Hopefully this one is an improvement over the original.
"But I'm still dead, even though I can still die from getting hurt by enemies. Don't think about it too much." |
A dead girl with an equally dead, and very much anachronistic, highschool-teenage-girl cotton long-sleeved shirt. In a universe of magic and fantasy. |
Venturing deeper into the castle’s secret areas, Edge,
Ayaka and Sakae encounter a fearful stuttering demon who claims that Akuma had
three siblings, all of whom might try to take on their brother’s legacy and conquer the world in his place. Thankfully and conveniently, they can
all be reached through the three doors in that room, in the last moments of their lives. One at a time. And so, the
party starts by the leftmost door…
Are those monsters too powerful, or just unbalanced for this part of the game? I would say "You make the call!", but... you really don't need to play this game. |
Design-wise, Little Big Lee seemed to learn from the
first game. The monsters are still their normal size, but the party is no
longer represented by small sprites on the right. Instead, you get a full bust
shot of the character you’re currently picking an action for. This is so much
better! It also allowed the dev to feature bust shots where clothing
suffers wear and tear as the characters get hurt in battle – leading to
fanservice even more gratuitous and unjustifiable than in the first. Because yes,
that includes the incredibly form-fitting armor and cotton shirt of Ayaka and
Sakae respectively, tearing to become little more than bras that seem to stay in place by
the sole power of their will. Moooooooom, put on something better, I don’t want
to see your boobs! You’re putting me to shame in front of the Darklord!
For added creepiness, here’s a reminder that not only
are Ayaka and Sakae Edge’s mother and servant respectively, they’re also dead.
So yeah, enjoy these barely-covered breasts on spirits of dead people.
This is... you know what? Fuck it. I'm grossed out by this. The fanservice here is gross. I'm disgusted. THIS WOMAN IS DEAD, FOR GOD'S SAKE. |
Someone has a soul in this game? I just thought they were dessicated corpses following a bad script, including every single "living" character... |
Good thing Tim Langdell’s no longer around! Ooh, that’s a video
game industry history deep cut right there.
From there on, the game’s pretty simple – go through
the left door, complete the dungeon, beat the boss…
…save your father? Wasn’t he dead? Wasn’t he dead in this
underworld no less? Yeah, you actually do save Edge’s dad Kenshi. And oh boy,
he joins the party! Now, in all fairness, his clothes are torn as he gets hurt
too, but he is decidedly much less fanservice’d than his wife and servant are
when in the same situation. Kenshi doesn’t have magic attacks, but can use
TP-based moves like his son.
Yep. He keeps all his clothes on. Not even goes shirtless with bits of torn clothing around him. Meanwhile, the ladies almost end up breasts out in the open. Where's the fairness in that?? |
With only one sibling of Akuma left – and the most
powerful no less – the team decides to go back to the magic flame at the start,
so they can summon Akuma and ask him how to defeat the last sibling.
Surprisingly, he cooperates and even tells them how to finish her off. Why?
Because these three apparently considered him a weakling, a tool to use, and because of that, he’s happy to see them
die now. Or something. What a happy family.
Speaking of which, the set-up doesn’t make a ton of
sense. Apparently the three doors in Akuma’s castle take the heroes… each just
before Akuma’s siblings died. So wait, are we traveling back in time? And
space? Or… um… This makes no sense! No sense at all.
So,, center door it is, and it takes the heroes
to a greener version of the path to the Sacred Tower from the first game. Once
again, monsters on the way include wasps, scorpions, spiders, earth elementals,
rats… You notice quite quickly how few different enemies are in this game. Not
even 12. Excluding bosses, that is.
Yeah, it's all green instead of desert-y. Still deserted though. |
I think what insults me more is that the base price
for this one is over 4 dollars while having less content (about 90 minutes of
gameplay), while the fuller Chosen 1 is only a dollar and has more to do (2 to 4 hours of gameplay if you try to get everything).
"I'll miss seeing your boo-I mean, your faces so much!" |
Reaching the village, Edge sees it burning, with his
friends Trinity, Serenity and Myste threatened by Akuma’s last-living sister.
He joins in for the final battle and learns a special move called “Family
Trinity”, which deals thrice the damage of any other move he can use. It does
require 30 Technique Points, however. The first fight isn’t that tough, but
then the sister (named Azion) takes on the form of a lamia and the true final fight
starts.
What’s wrong with this fight? Oh, so much is wrong
with this fight. And hey, if I need bullet points to express how bad something is, then you know it's bad.
Oh no, the filter is still on! And also I'm stuck with useless moves, against a boss that I can only beat through luck! |
- First off, the boss is way too powerful for the party. Uber-Azion hits hard and uses a lot of attacks that target the entire team;
- The party members you haven’t been using all game are down to Level 11 with a layout of special and magical attacks different from what they could use in The Chosen 1. Even if you brought Edge a couple levels above (like 15 or 16), it’s still not enough to let yourself or your temmates survive;
- Most of the attacks your party has are either useless or require too many Technique Points. All elemental-based attacks are barely effective, and the girls’ regular physical attacks do laughable damage too;
- The boss is fairly resistant against any magical attacks that could either put it to sleep or stun it, and if it gets hit by those it recovers fast;
- You get TP by attacking, and also by getting hurt – but since she’s so powerful, every attack that hits you could be the end of you – not to mention that Revives in this game still give you only one HP when bringing someone back from death, so your only chance is to waste another character’s move to heal the character you just revived;
- Oh, and the healer of the team no longer has a team-healing move, so you can’t heal the group easily.
I eventually found a strategy – try to stun the
monster or put it to sleep as often as possible to prevent it from attacking, build up TP and use the Family
Trinity attack twice or thrice, which is enough to take it down. Even then, you
need more luck than skill once you’ve figured it out. Then there’s a third
phase where the incapacitated monster can’t fight back against Edge, and then
he kills it by stabbing its heart.
CLICHÉ ALERT
Ahhh! The world is still on fire! Oh wait, no, i's just an orange-hued filter. Dumbass game. |
END CLICHÉ ALERT
Oh, this game is bad. This game is so bad.
So bad. |
The new weaknesses: No bonus material to seek out;
very horrible balancing issues making for a game difficult for all the wrong
reasons, in the wrong places; a much shorter playtime of 90 minutes for a game
that costs 3 to 4 times the price of the previous game; a story that somehow
makes less sense and employs more clichés than Chosen 1; and a very crappy
final boss fight in which you rely more on luck than strategy to win.
And problems that haven’t changed: No attempt to
change the look of the basic system used by RPG Maker; so many clichés that, if
I pointed them all out, you’d still be reading this two days from now; revive
items are still BS; few attempts at using any tiles and character sprites
outside of those in the RPG Maker free library; oh, and have I mentioned the
stupid fanservice, made even creepier now as it’s applied to the
protagonist’s dead mother AND servant?
Long story short, I don’t recommend this game, much
like I don’t recommend the one that came before it. Good on Little Big Lee to
have released another one of those, they’re improving when it comes to using
RPG Maker, but this is still rather weak. You can skip The Chosen and Chosen 2.
Even if they’re sold in a bundle, don’t bother.
There are way better RPG Maker games out there.
There are way better RPG Maker games out there.
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