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Forums → Games → Ge.ne.sis REVIEW: 4/10
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Ge.ne.sis
Overview:
This game has really beautiful artwork, filled with bright colours and an interesting use of horizontal scrolling that put you into the game when your characters move. There is also a very interesting way for all the characters to work together in order to defeat the foes. The idea that you can mold your characters by choice using special abilities is interesting as well. This adds to the replay ability for the game. So it has the potential to be a very interesting game!
Synopsis:
In the beginning of the game, your character wakes up from a dream in this colourful fantasy land. You then do battles against monsters, recruiting the help of ghosts called Tarots, who have special attacking or healing powers. You do this apparently, in order to get back to your home. But there is no real reason why theses things are attacking you, is there ever a reason in these games?
Along your journey in dreamland, you meet up with friends who have their own special powers, and you fight more monsters that get tougher as the game progresses. The actual storyline doesn't appear to have much of a plot, as the battles progress from one schizophrenic scene to the next. However, it's enough to captivate younger children into playing this whenever you have to babysit them, like your little sister whenever your parents are out of town. But that could be a problem, and you'll just have to follow the star* to see why (below).
Criticism:
So the game is described as a strategy and tactics game in its comments section. This is true and it isn't. One true part involves the shared use of the energy pool by magic users, including the Tarot ghosts. The ghosts have extraordinary powers that help the team, but sometimes can't be used because another character coughed up a fireball to win their individual fight, and so you may lose the battle this way. One reason that it's NOT a strategy game involves character building, distributing achievement points into abilities. This should require strategical planning but it doesn't. You have to build the characters according to the walkthrough recipes (Gely's recipes are sniper or endurance builds and the point distributions are given). To describe the actual battle as tactical is kinda false as well. There is no way to know how to win a battle, as they involve solutions that can only be met through trial and error. But trial and error is no fun in a game. Who wants to be stuck losing over and over again? I am at the 24th battle, and there's NO way to solve the situations ahead of time. YOU MUST study the WALKTHROUGH in order to win the game. But if you're like me, then you consider that cheating, so you try not to use it...TRUST ME, you'll just be wasting your time if you don't study it, and studying it is just a waste of time, because, what's the point?
So take a look from the walkthrough for the 19th battle, and just ask yourself how many times you'd have to lose this battle over and over before you understood where to place all the characters and how to NOT TO USE the High Priestess, etc....Walkthrough:
If Gely went for an endurance build, have him and Nera block the choke point. Sisi and the Magician can stand behind them to provide support fire. The High Priestess should stand next to the bow bandits to absorb damage, but she shouldn't attack them. It is best to have her heal herself or other allies. ...If Gely went for a sniper build, have him stand right behind the rock and snipe the bow bandits with Marksmanship Perk. The High Priestess can take his place and block the choke point.
So, uhm, where is the strategy and tactics that those fake users** have been cooing so much about? Well, the tactics and strategy aren't for you to figure out, they are for you to FOLLOW. You MUST follow the walkthrough to build your character, and then you MUST follow the walkthrough to win the battles. How is that any FUN? IT'S NOT ANY FUN.
So I am very critical of the author for creating a game that is unsolvable by the player's own mind. You should be able to solve a puzzle BEFORE you start the fight, just by looking at where the monsters are, knowing how they move, and what their abilities are. In this game, you only know after several tries of "maybe this will work, maybe that will work...oh I better read the solution in the Walkthrough. WHAT? How would I have known that!?"
Conclusion:
This game is a disappointment in that it doesn't live up to its potential. It is rife with FRUSTRATING gameplay that requires a lot of walkthrough study to win. But the artwork and animation is FANTASTIC, so if you like this kind of artwork and you are looking for ideas, then you should definately look at this game!!! Link:
Ge.ne.sis
* WARNING: The language used in Ge.ne.sis may not be suitable for some members in the AG community, or your little sister whom you has to babysit!!!
**PS - There's an online campaign by the developers or friends of the developers to make this game seem less FRUSTRATING than it already is. So please be aware of these users. The game came out in mid October, and you'll see new users with posts around the games' debut saying that they beat it and how cool it was. Or they'll describe the game in Chapters, insta-expert of the unfinished walkthrough, but their profile says that this is the only game they've ever played and the only one they've ever commmented on. So the AG people need to know the possibility that this type of campaign is going on. AG should run their own investigation to censor this type of activity and ban this user, hoping it's not the author herself, as she likes to respond to them! This is not an accusation, so please let AG run its own investigation on the game's comment section, the author's page, and the Ge.ne.sis. walkthrough thread.
Grade: 4/10, pretty to look at, but frustrating to play.
Photos:
The Treasure Room: Beautiful use of color and shading, with foreground scrolling to give depth to the scenery. On the right-hand side you may select the difficulty setting, Easy, Normal, or Insane!
Points: Achievement points determine the nature of a character's strengths and weaknesses in battle.
Perks: Spells that the characters can use require achievement points.
Battle: A scene from the 24th Battle.
- 45 Replies
Hi Genicidix, I'm the OP, and I'm adding to the Review, since the discussion was breaking down. Do you have anything constructive to add, or are you just trolling for the SPAM of it?
Here's something. Maybe it's not a good idea in the sequel to add images that suggest drug-related content. I read that some of the players have complained about Marijuana leaves on the opening screen, indicating that players are concerned about the content of AG sponsored games.
Fairypoet, would you care to explain why you've left them in?
Y'know, the "Ge.nen.sis" game actually reminds me a bit of an old game called "Shining Force". Ge.nen.sis's battle system is very simular to Shining Force's system (although that system was 16-bit. I think) and gameplay is slighty different. Mind you I am speaking of really old games here, but then again I am just saying what on my mind. If you don't know what "Shining Force" is go google it.
Hi Yielee,
To answer your questions, those are actually maple leaves. Since I only used the outline, it looks kinda look like pot leaves.
I have thought about bigger battle field during game development but there was technical issue that I was worrying about such as performance. I also didn't want to make it a full strategy game (since it is a hybrid) so you may have noted some missing features comparing to other strategy games.
On the side note, the latest update now has included a retry button. Thank you for the suggestion and I hope you found it useful.
I will review your ideas and try to add those feature if possible in the sequence without breaking the intention of the gameplay.
Thank you.
Ah...thought of another. In the convos, did you ever consider giving the player a choice of responses when talking to a character, in order to change the course of the game, and to improve exploration?
With the choices you would basically be creating a conversation map to the different episodes, instead of a geographical map, where the different choices act like directions to transport the player to another chapter or destination, so that the player can play the game in any sequence, which would help exploration without making it to strategical. The conversations could also help the player build the character they desire through hints in the dialogue.
By the way, who are the Lovers? I didn't understand that in the Guide. Is it the Magician and Sissy? How do the other characters correspond to the characters in the Tarot?
In the convos, did you ever consider giving the player a choice of responses when talking to a character, in order to change the course of the game, and to improve exploration?Haven't you ever thought that the game might be designed that way? I mean think, this isn't really an alignment game here, but a game that is a story. The story corresponds with the way the creator of the game would have thought it should.
I really don't understand why your dissing this game so much on a thread you made when you could have thought all this up (after you played the game without the guide) leave a very detailed comment explaining you did not like it that much.
This isn't something like Neverwinter Nights or Dragon Age: Origins, it is a frikin flash game.
You've listed your dislikes, but how should the game be improved, Gantic?
Most developers aren't as active as fairypoet. fairypoet is by far the most active developer at the moment. A few come every so often after their game is released. So I usually just wait for a response and the sequel. I don't have time to play through it again though.
Yielee, lot of features that you mentioned was considered at some point during the development of genesis. However, due to limited resource and time (since it is pretty much only me doing all the story,art, animation and code), lot had to be cut off. I will try my best to include new features in the sequel but I really can't promise anything right now.
Hi Godjule.
I am not diss'ing the game, I'm on your side. But the game scores a miserable 6.7 out of 10 with AG users. With such a low score for such a lengthy work there is obviously a problem. I think it's a shame because so much went into its development, and from one person, I just really feel bad for her. So I've turned this thread over to suggestions. Now players can try to help her so this doesn't happen again.
I think the basic problem is that on many levels the game is overly restrictive. You can't win the game unless you study the Guide. And that's no fun. So incorporating more freedom into the sequel's gameplay should help it out all lot. But you criticized my suggestion that the chapters could be linked through conversations...what you aren't aware of, is that this suggestion FOLLOWS the author's storyline!
Her story is about alternative timelines that are developed through nodes. These nodes are formed by choices that you make, splitting the reality into two parts, the consequences of your choice, and the reality of your other choice.
So in the game, the author WANTS the player to talk to all the characters, and I said that when talking to them, you could be given a choice. These choices unlock different sequences of battles which in turn help shape the character build.
Some of the chapters could be linked together so that a player could get through the game in multiple ways, and would have to play the game multiple times before seeing all the battles. This would add more freedom and exploration to the game and would highlight the idea of alternate realities!
If that's too complicated to incorporate into the sequel, one quick fix is the use of side quests. These are nothing more than training stops designed to help you beat the big bosses. Since many players have complained that the game is TOO HARD, in the sequel, she could add more training stops throughout the entire game, and then reward players who use a low number of training stops.
The illustration of Dragon Age above was for its use of "hexagonal" battle grids. The "rectangles" used in the Ge.ne.sis battle grid appear to have an integral problem with diagonally adjacent squares. So if you cast a spell which heals your surrounding friends, the game won't heal your friends on adjacent diagonal squares. Also, some characters can't attack on these squares, but they can be attacked if a monster is on one, which makes it hard to remember in the middle of battle. There are other situations with diagonals that interrupt gameplay as well, they appear to make obstacles hollow. So maybe changing the shapes from 'rectangles' to 'hexagons' might help, since all sides are touching.
So for the sake of completeness, I have just finished the last bits of Ge.ne.sis. In the last scene is a lost soul type character that offers you a choice whether you want to unlock a new battle or follow the evil villain, ending the game.
I havent finished genisis i want to do it without a guide or walkthrough but just one thing about some of the earlier posts about boss battles being hard. I understand that this game is supposed to be tough but every fight feels like a boss battle. eg. im stuck on cerberus cause he regenerates too dang fast for me to kill him. and a lot of people complain about the yetis that are in battle 5 or something. it just seems like this game is excluded to either master tacticians or people who use the guides/walkthroughs.
First, a point of note in response to the unfounded accusations by yielee: I am not a new user, so don't you dare call me a fairypoet alt. (To An: I'm EternalLurker on your forums, though I've been busy the last few days.)
There are certainly a great many flaws in Genesis. Despite greatly enjoying the game I only scored it a 7/10; I've given much simpler games higher scores. At the time this was due partly to numerous glitches, which fairypoet has been correcting with impressive speed. Nonetheless, other issues were present.
The game is certainly designed to be less than forgiving. In some ways this is merely irritating without being rewarding; for example, some fights are triggered inches before reaching a save point, causing the unwary to be forced into a battle without having saved first. However, the game's alleged difficulty does not fall into that category. Chargen is a very versatile element of gameplay; you're flat-out wrong when you claim that you can only follow "certain recipes". Mathematically speaking, any game, especially one with only four stats, will have limitations on character building, but Genesis' are far fewer than any other Flash RPG I know. Mixing and matching perks of different categories can often prove quite effective, and furthermore the real variety in character building comes from combining builds to make a powerful party, which can be done in all sorts of ways. Read the 1manstudio forums to see examples of people (who aren't fake users; I'm quite pissed at your blatantly unfounded accusations) comparing all sorts of party combinations and strategies.
The simple fact of the matter is that skilled gamers have found Genesis to be quite rewarding and offer a myriad of gameplay strategies, to the point that multiple people on the forum have requested higher difficulty settings for the game (which is why there is now an Insane! mode). Relying on the guides is fine if you admit you need the help, but claiming that it's a necessity is merely an amusing attempt to lick your wounds. The difficulty level was designed for a certain niche of gamers and An's recent inclusion of an Easy mode was a swiftly-implemented attempt to expand the game's reach to people more like you. It's understandable that a game of this level of difficulty would've received a low score even without the glitches that were initially present, since only those in its primary niche would score it highly, but when you blindly claim that Genesis doesn't offer variety in strategy both in character building and in gameplay, you need to realize that you believe so only because you aren't in that niche. If you're going to criticize the game for its difficulty, criticize it properly: "it doesn't appeal to a wide enough audience due to its difficulty" is valid, but "it's a puzzle game rather than a strategy game" is not.
Fire Emblem, by the way, is also a strategy game, though one that has far less variety in character building (being more focused on in-battle tactics). Personally I find the series to be pathetically easy and a perfect example of "a puzzle game rather than a strategy game" due to its emphasis on extraordinarily powerful terrain squares and individual godlike units, but anyway, it's an extremely popular series that uses squares rather than hexagons. The system is fine. Hexagonal gameplay is very different from rectangular, but not overall better.
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