Reroll: Back to the Throne | a Review
originally published on 15/09/2022;
Hello everyone, I am the dethroned G.E.M.Simov, an ex-bourgoise member who’s now part of the proletariat, come to tell you about “Reroll: Back to the Throne” (henceforth RBTripleT).
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Gameplay
This is a 2D side scrolling… Supermario-esque game? I’m saying ‘supermario-esque’, because there’s at least 1 reference to Super Mario in it.
This one is quite simple - it features walking, jumping and attacking. There’s a bunch of platforming and a few timed jumps. Present is also the killing of enemies, which rarely happens with more than 1 hit. Unfortunately, this simplicity is… Problematic, due to a few things.
The attack, mainly. First, when attacking, if the Player Character (PC) is standing on the ground, it stops moving. It stands COMPLETELY still. That’s problematic, due to the fact that everything requires your movement OR you will get hit/die. Second, the attack is wonky, due to the fact it doesn’t arc in front of the PC, even if it looks as though it should - that’s owed up to the fact that the PC holds their weapon pointed upwards (when not attacking) and attacks with it by… turning it at a 90 degree angle towards the enemy. Unfortunately, there’s neither an animation, nor is there an arc or a swing.
It just transitions into a ‘does damage for a period of time in front of the PC’ and then it transitions back to not doing that. There’s a number of enemies that require dealing with them through aerial means, which brings about problems. There are also platforming sections which require the Player’s full ability to move, yet they also feature enemies requiring the Player to attack them, which creates a dilemma - do I take the damage or fall off the platform?
The dilemma itself is not a bad thing, but the reasons it is created in this situation are not that good. Then, there’s also the fact that when the PC gets hit, they’re somewhat staggered, somewhat knocked back, but only somewhat. It’s barely conveyed, and that’s problematic, though what’s worse is that it interrupts jumps, making it so a simple damage dealing encounter actually ends up killing the PC. That’s a bit unpleasant.
THEN there’s the big problem. If the bosses move, and the only means of damaging them is by attacking, then stopping to attack while the boss is moving - which is always - is a very problematic thing.
Even so, these issues aren’t major. They’re also offset by the fact that the Player can just learn to play around them, whilst enjoying the smoothness provided by the game. It’s very smooth, and the controls are quite responsive, though the smoothness comes with a measure of swiftness that makes one feel as though the controls are too responsive… If that makes sense. Everything feels like it’s incredibly shaky, as though every jump could be a very bad jump, as though every attempt at getting onto a platform could be disastrous.
That’s not bad, but it’s not good, either…
In addition to that, this game could have benefited from more checkpoints. In part because of the fact that dying not only sends the Player back to the start of the level, it also takes away a portion of their gold. If the Player doesn’t have a lot of Gold, that’s not a problem, but if the Player has a lot of Gold, then they lose a larger portion of it.
This is done, seemingly, as a means of negating the fact that every time the Player dies and is sent back to the start of the level, the level, itself, resets, including all the coins strewn across the level. If there was no gold penalty to dying, the Player could just collect an incredible number of coins and use them at a shop to buy a silly amount of upgrades, but… Well, that does not feel as though it is the way.
A few more minor complaints - the Player can’t go back to a cleared level and there is no indication when a level is going to end. Sometimes, a level ends by going up or going down - which is a bit problematic - whereas other times the level ends by having the PC go all the way to the left or all the way to the right. The consistency here is a bit lacking.
Not only that, though, but there’s another problem - the level does not end when the PC walks up to the very edge of it, but rather when they cross some threshold. There can be coins beyond that threshold, which means that the Player can not get those coins no matter what they do. That’s not nice.
What is nice is that some enemies can be used as body shields. There are turrets that fire shots - naturally - and then there are enemies who are immune to damage from one side. Regardless of which side is facing the turret, these fellows block the shots, meaning the Player can use them as a means of getting past one of those turrets, which is quite neat!
Overall, a schminky little game that runs quite well and is relatively interesting, though the bothersome factor of it takes away a lot of the fun that could be had. 1/3
Presentation
RBTripleT is a pixel-art based game. Not only that, but the audio is very evocative of the Old School, MIDI sounds of pixel-of-necessity, rather than choice games. Unfortunately, the musical aspect of the game is not very impressive. It’s okay, frankly, but some tracks were straight up grating and almost unpleasant to listen to.
The visuals are very nice, though some information is a bit wonky in the means it is conveyed. An example would be enemies who can only take damage from one side, whilst their other side is immune to damage. There’s almost no visual indication that that is the case, safe for a pair of horns.
With the exception of those little issues, there isn’t really much else that gets in the way. Some of the visual effects that accompany, say, jumping, are really neat, however others are very underwhelming - an example would be attacking. The attack animation is barely an animation at all, with the weapon (spear) of the Player Character just suddenly appearing, rotated at 90 degrees. Juxtaposed with the jumping animation and the obscene effort that appears to have gone into it, this is very weird.
In addition to that, I’d like to say that this game is very smooth. That smoothness is quite good. Not only that, but the tutorial for the game is short and concise - very nice. Unfortunately, then there are the ‘shops’, which are not as informative as I would’ve made them. They either offer you an item for X gold, or they just tell you you need more gold - they don’t tell you how much gold you need, which is… Weird.
Some of the sound effects are quite good. The way things look - design wise - is also very good. It’s competent, but not extraordinary. 2/3
Story
There’s very little in the way of story. In fact, there’s mostly no story. It’s just the Player Character going through three zones and fighting the last boss in an effort to reclaim his throne. In the trailer for the game, a bit of information is shared, but other than that there is not that much to be found, which is a shame, because I found the creatures around the world and the friendly gnomes (as well as the secret fellows) to be quite intriguing.
Alas, there was not much. 1/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? Unfortunately for RBTripleT, NO, it does not get the point, though I must admit the presentation - the smoothness of it and the apparent effort that’s gone into some of the animations - was really close to making me throw a point at it. 0/1
Conclusion
4/10. It’s an almost bad game, but it isn’t actually that bad. It’s closer to average, maybe steeped in mediocrity. I’d definitely avoid recommending it to everyone, but fans of challenging games or sidescrollers might find this one to be quite appealing.
Unfortunately, from what I understand, it was made by a russian developer and none of their games are purchasable on Steam, so that’s… That’s something unpleasant.
I suppose the Wall of Shame is not for this one. Thus, in the bag of mediocrity it goes, to gather some dust. I doubt I’ll ever bring it back out.