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Review by Elron Sylver
(Overall Score: 9.7/10 -
 )
"A wonderful, chilling, funny,
thought provoking, fun and original game that I will replay again and
again!"
Storyline (9/10) - The Mysteries of Nepris game has a
wonderfull storyline, beginning in the village of Nepris this story is
good from the beginning (except personally I don't like the misleading
part of not getting to go to the main part of Nepris itself after being
told so much by characters in the game, minus point here) with a request
from a friend to look into 'odd magical usages in Nepris'. Yet this soon
becomes the least of your troubles... - And the end will catch you by
complete surprise!
Puzzles (9/10)
- The game has puzzles from pulling levers to
escaping an apparently inescapable tower. Some are just levers or buttons
that make you wonder when done why it took you so long to complete an
apparently easy puzzle. And others are intricate puzzles that may boggle
you until a sudden flash inside your mind clicks the last piece into
place.
Fighting (10/10) -
Nepris has wonderfull battles with various enemies from small rats to
well.. 'bigger foes', the battles are tough but your enemies aren't
invincible, with storyline battles and bonus skirmishes Nepris has a good
array of foes each with its own skills. And with a various choice of
armour, weapons, skills you can make your character exactly who you want
it to be.
Graphics (9/10) - The graphics
of Nepris in my opinion are wonderful with pictures designed for the game
and edited to fit. From spectres to flowers everything is wonderfully
painted so that the world seems alive. The only thing hindering its
perfection is because they are pictures instead of the general movie type
game graphics. Still thumbs up!
Sound (10/10) - From the relief
of fields of flowers to the horror of battles, nepris contains wonderful
sound effects. If you (no when you) play I urge you to leave your
speakers on or you will miss the soaring sounds of a victory after the
sounds of a hard battle.
Replayability (9/10) - The replayabillity on this
game is wonderful. I constantly wanted to go back and use a different
strategy, weapon or answer at dialogue options. The only problem being
that you only have 5 save games and have to (if you want to) replay before
using them all up.
Difficulty (8/10)
- The battles are wonderfully balanced, with
your set up changing (much or little) your chance to win. The only problem
being you can't pick your own difficulty.
Conclusion (9.7/10) - Not comparable
to other scores, but my feelings overall! I believe it is a wonderful,
chilling, funny, thought provoking, fun and original game that I will
replay again and again!
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Review by Talia Sturmwind
(Overall Score: 10/10 -
)
"I would give twelve points for the
storyline, the puzzles and the balance and creativity of the fights
(each!) instead of a maximum of just ten!"
Of course I‘m biased. I wrote
some stuff about the area in which this plays. A few pictures I did are
integrated, I‘m a member of the Dream.
On the other side - I was very skeptical because I contributed to those
failed attempts of past years and did not really think, that Artimidor
would pull it off this time. I play one of these MMORPGs and pay for this,
a world of a great design with interesting, partly emotional quests,
challenging instances, flying mounts, cool dresses and lore! Why should a
round-based little game with some small pictures, a cumbersome way to move
forward draw my interest? And keep me away from my night-elf huntress,
gnome warrior or troll shamaness?
Well, it did. This time Artimidor had the help of the mysterious Grinch
who balanced the fights so geniously (you can win, but just so...) and
Shabakuk Zeborius Anfang, who planned the second part in the swamps. Mr
Anfang claims to be a gobbleswap.
Better don‘t follow the link and read that entry on the site, otherwise
you might not dare to enter Santhworld at all. No, I did not encounter one
of those, but this "gobbleswap" invented the second part, so be aware!
First I walked through Nepris on already known paths, looking out for my
pictures, entered the underground and finally freed my future companion.
(That‘s were Nepris II starts.) I don‘t know, when it happened, that I
stopped playing the MMORPG until I had finished Nepris II. Suddenly it
didn‘t matter, that there was a lot of reading to do instead of moving
forward, my fingers knew without thinking how to find the directions keys
S, W, N, E or I (to bring up my inventory) as they do when using them to
fight and run as a night-elf. The tension in the breast appeared when I
feared the next encounter with an enemy - that sensation I had missed for
a long time, for it had occurred only when I leveled up my very first
character years ago. And how proud was I when I had beaten that extra
monster down in the depths! The weaknesses of the game some may find here
and there, I did not perceive anymore. And I learned once more to read all
texts I came across very carefully. I did manage the fights well, though I
died some times and I solved the biggest puzzle myself. But there were
small things which escaped my attention and where I needed a small hint -
and felt a little silly.
This game is very new at the moment this review is written, so there are
still some flaws in it which the creators try to eliminate, e.g. giving
some more in-game hints to be able to solve the puzzles a bit faster. Some
picture-sequences could be improved, some conversations with Jeremy added,
but those are all minor things. I personally would like to be able to use
the mouse instead of the keyboard to walk, or to pick up things with the
mouse instead of having to type "take longbow".
However, if I would give points, these things would never be able to lower
the maximum number of points I would give that game, for I would freely
give twelve points for the storyline, the puzzles and the balance and
creativity of the fights (each!) instead of a maximum of just ten! :)
That said I will tell you now only how I experienced the main three
elements: Storyline, puzzles, fights.
Storyline - I know Artimidor now for a
long time, read his narrations, creation myths and more. But I did not
expect such a deep, exiting and moving story with elements of surprise! It
carries the whole game. My knowledge about the places and history of
Santharia may have added to my pleasure, so reading some entries on the
site may deepen your experience also! When I finally managed to leave the
depths of the dungeons I thought, what else major should now come! That
story can‘t be topped. I was wrong! I won‘t tell more, though. Only - the
end, it was so unexpected!
Fights. Now, going a second time
through the game with another character (and different weapons) many
fights seem easy to me. But that comes from my practise. And because I
know that they can be won! When I went through the first time, I made
screenshots to show the creators, that "this" fight is impossible to win!
How did Oni do that? He must have cheated! But then, suddenly, I did it.
With a new strategy, or that unexpected surprise which is so often
announced before the fights ("Expect the unexpected"). And though I knew
it, I went in the last fight again with the thought, that it is impossible
to beat this foe. Well I did that one as well.
Puzzles. Don‘t look for the already
published cheats! These puzzles are great, the smaller ones as the bigger
ones. I needed two days for the "ToD". But I finally did it, out of a
sudden flash of insight while reading again some instructions. When you
have solved the puzzle, everything seems so obvious!
Summary. Go and play! This game is so
well rounded, puzzles, fights and storyline are so well thought out and
balance each other, that you will forget the annoying things like having
to type in your commands. They are mere little irritations in a great
world which will open up for you if you have just a little imagination.
The pictures, perfect or not, help a great deal to find your way into this
world, as does the music.
No, I‘m not biased, this game is just as great as I described it!
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Review by Oni the Beautiful aka An Chor
(Overall Score: 8/10 -
 )
"A fascinating story full of
flabby to furious characters, fun puzzles
and fierce battle with formidable foes."
Set in the
village of Nepris, lying at the easternmost corner of eastern Santharia,
the game tells the story of an adventurer, striding through this village
and even beyond by puzzling out baffling riddles, killing off from
minuscule to mammoth enemies and helping the good ones (or not-so-good
ones sometimes) serving their purposes, set out to accomplish a task given
by the Ximaxian Academy of magic. And accomplishing so, as in most other
games of the same genre, he in his journey finds loot usable in his favour,
gains experience, becomes more powerful and skilled to face some formidable
foes throughout the game.
Storyline (8.5/10) -
"The gist of the game is its storyline…"- quite
rightly claimed by one of its creator. The game actually will make you
roleplay the character just to know the "next" line of the script; "What’s
gonna happen next?" is at the back of your mind while playing it. And who
isn’t fancier of some unexpected "twisting-turn" at the end after all??
Gameplay -
Naturally the gameplay mainly consists of two parts: puzzle
solving and fighting which is totally turn-based.
Puzzles (7.5/10) - Well, the puzzles were thoughtfully created to make them
look ingenious and were placed fairly properly throughout the game. A few
of them are common, some of them will make you feel tricky (the
bird-related one!), while at least one intellectual (yes, the Death
Tower!).
Exclusion of some of the common puzzles and replacing them with the more
complex, diverse and/or logic-based ones would surely make the gameplay
stronger.
Fighting (8/10) -
The fighting is considerably improved in the
latest (second) edition of the game. As the enemies grow stronger with
time, the player will actually have to strategize his next few moves while
facing some unnerving ones if he doesn’t want to be wasting time through
successive dying and eventually winning once by chance.
The story-lovers will find the battles challenging or even tough although
surely the ones at least reasonably adroit in playing turn-based/real-time
action games will find them easygoing after a certain point of the game and
fortunately the point is not too far from where the game starts. The
choice of difficulty level at the start or within the game would have
solved the problem.
Graphics (7/10) - With the severe limitation of being a browser-based
online game, the developers do a sleek job by embedding the artworks and
paintings (drawn before or for the game) of the existing fantasy world of
Caelereth continuously and relevantly as the story progresses.
Specifically the Santharian veterans might be quite charmed from time to time
to see the places, people and things they have created over the years
coming into action through the story and the drawings. But the graphics is
for viewing purpose only and cannot be interacted with directly (i.e. one
cannot go from one place to another arbitrarily for example in a spacious
green field but can only go to the specified places described in the game map).
That costs points in this respect.
Sound (9/10) - Great job done! The sound is well.. mellifluent in a word.
From serene countryside to intense battles, extensive landscape to
underground cavern, you will find the accompanying music germane and
engaging. Sound effects related to specific objects were not without
relevance either. Nothing more to say about it, just savour while playing!
Replayability (8/10) - One would surely feel like facing some foes with
different strategies or playing some parts of the game again to finish off additional quests. But the problem is the game doesn’t have different
checkpoints from where the player can start playing and rather has an
autosave option serving the purpose of a single checkpoint. (For example
a player faces a cool fight and wants to revisit it later. If he keeps
playing for a few hours continuously he will very likely find that all of
his five savegames are saved after that fight and the autosave is pointing to
some later checkpoint too). That specific issue decreases the
replayability value to great extent which could be solved by giving
multiple autosave/checkpoint options and/or more than five savegames.
Difficulty (7/10) - Fun to learn, challenging to go through and finish and
unbeatable nowhere; the game does hit the right spot between easiness and
invincibility and is great as an online browser-based game driven through an
enticing story and maybe ‘fair’ for a hardcore gamer of either action or
puzzle genre as they might find lack of stiffness at some point.
The puzzles analogous to "task/group of small tasks which is easy but
time-consuming" should have been kept at the beginning of the game and as
the story progresses similar type of puzzles could be swapped for more
complex and logic-based ingenious ones (for example but not necessarily
like the one in the Tower of Death). The choice of difficulty at the start
of the game should be a must which would surely make the game far more
enticing to story-lovers, hardcore gamers and anyone in between. These two
glitches (especially the second one) cut off points.
Conclusion -
Framed in the fishing village of a fantasy world with a fascinating story
full of flabby to furious characters, fun puzzles and fierce battles with
formidable foes - the game deserves to be tried by any gamer of the
role-playing genre and probably by not those of the said genre alone. |
