A Review by Paul Harrington
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Tightfloss Maiden
was originally released for the 2001 48 Hour Game contest, and while I
know I played that version, my memories of it are distant and hazy at
best. I suppose this is appropriate, given that memory and identity
loss is a running theme in this game. Eight years have passed since the
contest this game was made for, and Pepsi Ranger has at last released
an updated version, and I have to say, I'm impressed. We've got a
solid, quality title here, one that shouldn't be missed.
The story involves a woman who wakes up in a desert, wounded and with no idea who she was or how she got there. Over the course of the game, you'll guide her through a massive maze of sand and rock, discover signs of a dead civilization, and eventually come face to face with some creepy little men. There's not a ton of story presented at this point, but what's there is good, and I'll leave it for the player to discover. While amnesia is pretty commonplace in RPGs post-Final Fantasy VII, it works here, since both the player and character are thrust into an alien, inhospitable environment.
Where most RPGs teach you that random animals are easy slaughter fodder for building experience points, this game made me want to avoid them at all costs. I found myself running away from enemies that attacked in packs, choosing instead to pick off the ones that showed up solo. Building experience points isn't very necessary here, since there's only one inescapable aside from the initial encounter when the game begins, and I never felt like I had to grind to progress.
The story involves a woman who wakes up in a desert, wounded and with no idea who she was or how she got there. Over the course of the game, you'll guide her through a massive maze of sand and rock, discover signs of a dead civilization, and eventually come face to face with some creepy little men. There's not a ton of story presented at this point, but what's there is good, and I'll leave it for the player to discover. While amnesia is pretty commonplace in RPGs post-Final Fantasy VII, it works here, since both the player and character are thrust into an alien, inhospitable environment.
Where most RPGs teach you that random animals are easy slaughter fodder for building experience points, this game made me want to avoid them at all costs. I found myself running away from enemies that attacked in packs, choosing instead to pick off the ones that showed up solo. Building experience points isn't very necessary here, since there's only one inescapable aside from the initial encounter when the game begins, and I never felt like I had to grind to progress.
The game's map and characters graphics
are of a fairly unique style, and although the main desert tiles look
rather grid-like, everything else is fine. The music sounds nice, is
never obtrusive, and sets the mood well. What really makes the game
visually impressive, though, is the amount of animation on our hero. As
she (and NPCs) walk through the desert, footprints are left, which can
be used to retrace steps and to mark where you've already been. My only
complaint here is that they fade when you enter caves, since letting
them persist would make the first maze a lot less intimidating. Aside
from the footprints, we get nice animations when she climbs ladders,
walks along the edges of cliffs,
draws water to drink,
and even shifts platforms with her weight.
walks along the edges of cliffs,
draws water to drink,
and even shifts platforms with her weight.
I was also greatly impressed that her
sprite gets slightly darker as she enters caves. The amount of detail
in this game isn't just limited to our nameless heroine's animations,
though.. Plenty of objects can be examined, which lets us further
inside this alien world than graphics alone could.
In addition to getting a better feel for
this world, this also gives us a better look into our unknown
companion's mind, which is pretty important since she's the only
intelligent being we meet until the end of the demo.
Enemies look decent, with the Wingamabob probably being the best. The best thing about enemy encounters, though, are the animations that you see before a battle starts. Little NPCs, which match the enemy formations you're about to fight, burst our of the sand and air to assault you. This is infinitely more effective than a simple fade to white when a random battle begins. Apparently once you reach a high enough level, you can auto-kill these enemies before they have a chance to engage you, but I never got my level high enough.
I have a few visual nitpicks, but they're fairly minor. There were times when some text was hard for me to read. For example, there's a note at the end of the demo that uses blue text and no text box that I had a bit of trouble with. There are also some pieces of dialogue that are presented in transparent text boxes at the end which were a bit hard to look at because the graphics they were on top of were so bright. Transparent boxes only really work well when there's plenty of contrast; they're fine in the dark, desert caves, less fine in the computer room.
Another issue I had with the visuals is that our heroine's hair and head are too close in color to the sand she first finds herself waking up in, making her sprite look slightly... decapitated. Still, if you take a look at the original, 2001 version of the game (included as an extra with this version), the visuals have improved significantly, especially on our hero herself, and the variety of animations more than make up for any complaints I have.
As I said earlier, I ran from more battles than I fought, mainly to conserve precious life points, but also because the battles are pretty vanilla. This is probably the game's weakest point, but since the encounter rate is very low and enemies only attack within caves and in the final stretch of desert, it's not much of a problem. You can use a basic attack or two skills, one that lowers enemy accuracy and one that lowers defense, but they're expensive and don't seem to make a huge difference. You'll spend every battle mashing the basic fight button until the enemy dies or you need to heal. I'd love to see the battle system revamped, because it's really the only part of the game I wasn't a fan of.
While the battles aren't difficult, I do recommend you let yourself die at least once.
There's more gameplay here than just battles, though. The meat of the game comes from exploring the desert. There's a ton to see, and there's a good chance that you won't see all of it on your first time through. Each cave has a stone carving within that helps the player know where he's been, but the labyrinthine desert is still extremely intimidating, and might turn some players away. Footsteps persisting between maps probably would be the easiest way to solve this, but it would also reduce the game's difficulty considerably.
One of the game's most unique scenarios comes from a wider, more open desert that you encounter shortly before the final areas of the demo. There's no shade or shelter here, and our hero's energy slowly drains as she crosses it. You'll have to pace yourself and collect water from cactuses as you find them, and hope that you've got enough to reach the end, where you'll find a delicious, refreshing oasis.
You'll also encounter an abandoned town, which in spite of being empty, is one of the creepier I've seen in an OHR game. After this, you'll finally encounter other humans, and the game takes a turn for the surreal. I won't spoil anything, but it sets up a very strange world that I'm very interested in seeing more of.
This demo covers the first chapter of the game's story, and I'm very pleased with what we've got. It stands alone reasonably well, and definitely has an end point, but I'm still excited to see the next chapters.
I should also point out that the ZIP file for Tightfloss Maiden contains a rather absurd number of extras. In addition to the 2001 version of the game, we've got artwork, stories, poems, and more here. While none of the extras held my attention in the same way the game did, it does make the overall package pretty interesting.
Was it worth the wait? Well, you'll have to decide for yourself, but I can say that I had more fun with it than I have with most OHR games, and the amount of animation is pretty much unprecedented in an OHR game. The desert maze got pretty frustrating, but I was glad that I kept at it and found my way through, and I'm glad the battles never became an annoyance. I recommend this game heartily, but know going into it that you're going to need a good deal of patience to survive.
Enemies look decent, with the Wingamabob probably being the best. The best thing about enemy encounters, though, are the animations that you see before a battle starts. Little NPCs, which match the enemy formations you're about to fight, burst our of the sand and air to assault you. This is infinitely more effective than a simple fade to white when a random battle begins. Apparently once you reach a high enough level, you can auto-kill these enemies before they have a chance to engage you, but I never got my level high enough.
I have a few visual nitpicks, but they're fairly minor. There were times when some text was hard for me to read. For example, there's a note at the end of the demo that uses blue text and no text box that I had a bit of trouble with. There are also some pieces of dialogue that are presented in transparent text boxes at the end which were a bit hard to look at because the graphics they were on top of were so bright. Transparent boxes only really work well when there's plenty of contrast; they're fine in the dark, desert caves, less fine in the computer room.
Another issue I had with the visuals is that our heroine's hair and head are too close in color to the sand she first finds herself waking up in, making her sprite look slightly... decapitated. Still, if you take a look at the original, 2001 version of the game (included as an extra with this version), the visuals have improved significantly, especially on our hero herself, and the variety of animations more than make up for any complaints I have.
As I said earlier, I ran from more battles than I fought, mainly to conserve precious life points, but also because the battles are pretty vanilla. This is probably the game's weakest point, but since the encounter rate is very low and enemies only attack within caves and in the final stretch of desert, it's not much of a problem. You can use a basic attack or two skills, one that lowers enemy accuracy and one that lowers defense, but they're expensive and don't seem to make a huge difference. You'll spend every battle mashing the basic fight button until the enemy dies or you need to heal. I'd love to see the battle system revamped, because it's really the only part of the game I wasn't a fan of.
While the battles aren't difficult, I do recommend you let yourself die at least once.
There's more gameplay here than just battles, though. The meat of the game comes from exploring the desert. There's a ton to see, and there's a good chance that you won't see all of it on your first time through. Each cave has a stone carving within that helps the player know where he's been, but the labyrinthine desert is still extremely intimidating, and might turn some players away. Footsteps persisting between maps probably would be the easiest way to solve this, but it would also reduce the game's difficulty considerably.
One of the game's most unique scenarios comes from a wider, more open desert that you encounter shortly before the final areas of the demo. There's no shade or shelter here, and our hero's energy slowly drains as she crosses it. You'll have to pace yourself and collect water from cactuses as you find them, and hope that you've got enough to reach the end, where you'll find a delicious, refreshing oasis.
You'll also encounter an abandoned town, which in spite of being empty, is one of the creepier I've seen in an OHR game. After this, you'll finally encounter other humans, and the game takes a turn for the surreal. I won't spoil anything, but it sets up a very strange world that I'm very interested in seeing more of.
This demo covers the first chapter of the game's story, and I'm very pleased with what we've got. It stands alone reasonably well, and definitely has an end point, but I'm still excited to see the next chapters.
I should also point out that the ZIP file for Tightfloss Maiden contains a rather absurd number of extras. In addition to the 2001 version of the game, we've got artwork, stories, poems, and more here. While none of the extras held my attention in the same way the game did, it does make the overall package pretty interesting.
Was it worth the wait? Well, you'll have to decide for yourself, but I can say that I had more fun with it than I have with most OHR games, and the amount of animation is pretty much unprecedented in an OHR game. The desert maze got pretty frustrating, but I was glad that I kept at it and found my way through, and I'm glad the battles never became an annoyance. I recommend this game heartily, but know going into it that you're going to need a good deal of patience to survive.