The Forgotten Power 2 The Restoration
by Daniel Eriksson
Half ASCII art, half action packed grahics, this RPG has some interesting flash to it!
| Emperor Blueslime has stolen the powerball while the guards were on break! Laia, Tanky, and Pipmust must stop him and get it back! | |
| The game basically changes between the overhead ASCII map and the side view interactions. You move and enter areas that are designated by squiggles or houses on the map which takes you into the area. There you can talk to people, who mostly lost their things. Sometimes a random encounter with a blue slime occurs.
What is interesting to note is that each battle, your health will be restored to 2000HP and your uses of special attacks are also restored. Battles tend to get redundant since the same HP are started, and you never have to worry about healing if you use the same strong attacks. The strategy of the game is then lost. One problem I had was the fact that you could lose without knowing you would. I walked into one of the areas and immediately was told that the game was over because I didn't find the powerball. I felt it was unfair since I simply walked into an area and there was no reason for me to die. Also, exploration is limited. I thought that I was going to walk into a cave, but the game simply told you that you had gone in and found a mirror. If the game would have let you go into the cave yourself, I think there would have been more depth. Another problem is that I can't simply exit the game. This is fine if I am using Windows, but if I am using DOS, then I will have to find a way to quickly die or walk into the above mentioned area in order to exit the program. |
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| Something was strangely amazing about the animation in this game. Aside from the ASCII map, the other scenes looked pretty good. It wasn't until I looked under the hood that I found this game made good use of animated GIFs! Well, it made the battles more amazing to look at, but I also found it limited the complexity of the game. Even the text-boxes were part of the GIFs used in the game. The animation is pretty good compared to previous works by Eriksson. The explosions and attacks reminded me of the movement in Final Fantasy 3 but at the same time, the actual battle sequences were full screen GIFs. Each attack option had its own GIF. What this means is that besides limiting the kinds of attacks possible, the enemies had to be limited to the blue slimes. There is not a lot of variation. | |
| Using the number pad, you move around and also pick your battle options. If you have the right keyboard, it is very comfortable, which is better than some games manage. Excellent work! In battles, the number keys are used to make choices. | |
| None. | |
| The challenge in this game comes from exploring and fighting the blue slimes. As for exploring, you simply move and try to talk to people in a trading-game reminiscent of Zelda . When fighting, the challenge isn't great once you find out how to fight and once you realize that your HP are restored after every battle. Still, you can't simply press one key and hope to get through a battle. | |
| I had more fun with this game than Eriksson's previous works if only because the story was well done and there was some variations put into the game to make it more interesting. I am quite impressed with the progress he made in this game. While it still isn't going to top other games like Shadow of Power , this game has made better of use of its potential than other games have. | |
| While still not the best, it does allow you to enjoy a good story. It is a better job than previous works, and the innovative use of animated GIFs, while limiting, makes for a more enjoyable experience. | |
| .zip file: 500 KB download |