I avoided CogDis for the longest time because it didn't have much to entice me. "Ew, an RPG Maker fangame? And you don't even have the iconic scrolling HP?"
Recently, I've decided to give RPG Maker games more of chance and not just let the bias most people have against them keep me from giving them a go. So, what better one to start with than a fangame from one of my favorite video game series of all time?
Make no mistake, the beginning does not help give a good first impression. This game opens up very slow. You only get basic PSI for a while and you're gonna be bouncing around the main characters a lot early on. The main party doesn't really end up coming together until chapter 4, and it doesn't help that a lot of the early game feels like Padding with how much the bow-ban sub-plot factors into the plot.
Once you finally get off Saturn though, the game gets a lot better. The battles feel a lot more dynamic and the amount of freedom you have starting from that point is surprising. The story also picks up considerably.
Make no mistake; there are some parts of the story that are clunky and come off as Fan Fic-y (Niiue's design being a major point of contention for me, even though it does get explained later on), but it absolutely manages to stick its endings. And the entire arc Giegue builds to, not just from EarthBound Beginnings, ends up making the Golden Ending all that more powerful. I did find Niiue getting to exist separately from Giegue in the golden ending despite the fact that they're basically the same person and the entire arc in Giegue's Magicant being trying to help them come together and restore their sanity as a bit unneeded/a bit too positive of an ending, but being able to save Giegue from his ultimate fate definitely helped drown that part out for me.
You can tell it was very much an 'as they went' kind of game design though. The quality of everything, from the original sprites, writing, and enemy design improves drastically from early to late game. I really would have liked them to use the remake to try and better balance this out. I understand it may be daunting, but it would definitely fix my main criticism when it comes to the early game.
Overall I have it a 7/10. If it weren't for Saturn being such a drag, it likely would have been an 8/10.
It gets better once you get off Saturn.
I avoided CogDis for the longest time because it didn't have much to entice me. "Ew, an RPG Maker fangame? And you don't even have the iconic scrolling HP?"
Recently, I've decided to give RPG Maker games more of chance and not just let the bias most people have against them keep me from giving them a go. So, what better one to start with than a fangame from one of my favorite video game series of all time?
Make no mistake, the beginning does not help give a good first impression. This game opens up very slow. You only get basic PSI for a while and you're gonna be bouncing around the main characters a lot early on. The main party doesn't really end up coming together until chapter 4, and it doesn't help that a lot of the early game feels like Padding with how much the bow-ban sub-plot factors into the plot.
Once you finally get off Saturn though, the game gets a lot better. The battles feel a lot more dynamic and the amount of freedom you have starting from that point is surprising. The story also picks up considerably.
Make no mistake; there are some parts of the story that are clunky and come off as Fan Fic-y (Niiue's design being a major point of contention for me, even though it does get explained later on), but it absolutely manages to stick its endings. And the entire arc Giegue builds to, not just from EarthBound Beginnings, ends up making the Golden Ending all that more powerful. I did find Niiue getting to exist separately from Giegue in the golden ending despite the fact that they're basically the same person and the entire arc in Giegue's Magicant being trying to help them come together and restore their sanity as a bit unneeded/a bit too positive of an ending, but being able to save Giegue from his ultimate fate definitely helped drown that part out for me.
You can tell it was very much an 'as they went' kind of game design though. The quality of everything, from the original sprites, writing, and enemy design improves drastically from early to late game. I really would have liked them to use the remake to try and better balance this out. I understand it may be daunting, but it would definitely fix my main criticism when it comes to the early game.
Overall I have it a 7/10. If it weren't for Saturn being such a drag, it likely would have been an 8/10.