Summary: The game's maptiles and walkabouts are decent. I do remember the J.A.C.K.S having a good pose and show their critical details fine, though I can't remember much about other battle graphics since there were hardly any battles. Cutscene backdrops aren't really that good, to be honest. The story has a nice premise and shows promise, but I feel that it gets dulled by the main character himself not being really a part of it and being oblivious to a lot of the critical aspects of the world that not only show what kind of dangers he faces, but also show how important he himself is. There really isn't much game to play, most of it being story, and even that ends very abruptly. The choice of music is brilliant, I might add, very nice to listen to and does nothing but add to the game.

It's funny that I do reviews of both Midorime and Test of Normality, because in beginning to play Test of Normality I find parallels in its story and Midorime's. The difference? Execution of such ideas.

I haven't completed this game, I admit (game crashed while playing), so I don't know everything about it, but I feel I've learned enough to talk about it anyway.
The plot is similar to Midorime's, except backwards. Magic users, called normals, from the "government" are hunting down non-magic users, called unowneds . The game starts out with a scene showing a baby being placed into the ocean to drown, with its parents looking away. After that, the main character, Swarn, explains the messed up events going on himself, putting him in a position where he actually cares about what is going on.


After leaving the tree house, which by the way uses painted graphics (or I think they're painted, or at least not-pixeled), you enter the village and a conversation happens that explains Swarn should visit his aunt to see if her son passed a test, as if he hasn't, he'll be killed. After that, the father joins the party as an exceptionally strong temporary character, and soon upon attempting to leave the village, a cutscene ensues where a fat lady hates on the fact that Swarn is a normal in a village full of unowneds, further enforcing Swarn's relevance to the story.


The battles in this game are actually very balanced. Some you have to run away from (which seems to be intended), but for the most part the author has a very good idea on what he's doing concerning making the game enjoyable from a gameplay perspective. As soon as you enter the next town, a series of cutscenes commence revealing what just happened with your aunt and uncle's son, the child seen in the intro. Soon after, you meet Midora while staying at the inn, who shows frustration over the ordeal. After a couple of cutscenes to cool things down, she joins you.


Eventually there's a boss fight after a significant plot twist, which again shows an attention to balance since he was hard, but is overcome by being good at RPGs, using items to heal, and using Growl to make the fight faster. After that, the game crashes on me and it seems to continue crashing after that boss battle.

Summary: This game executes its storyline very well with quality character involvement in the story, and the story itself is good. This game uses a lot of non-pixeled maptiles and backdrops, and even though it tends to look very messy and not always eye pleasing, I still like them because it shows an untapped potential of painted graphics. Music is decent enough, the battles are great. This game is very promising, and I do encourage many to give it a shot.