Juggernaut: Awakening
Here we have an RPG. Everyone likes a RPG right? Especially if it’s been modeled after a classic Final Fantasy game. Whether we love the genre or hate it, there is no denying that we all have our own favorite RPG. However, Juggernaut: Awakening is very unlikely to be on anyone’s must play list any time soon. And for good reasons. THIS IS JUGGERNAUT, BITCH!!!!
Controls
Juggernaut: Awakening has many flaws. You have a total number of 6 keys to work with here. But this game doesn’t have much of a tutorial. The only thing that comes close to a tutorial is at the start of the game where it tells you to press the ‘S’ key. Ok, apparently the ‘s’ key the main action button in this RPG, that wouldn’t be a problem except that is all the game tells you. There will be a point in the game where you can actually move on your own. Oh, I forgot to mention, the first 5 minutes of the game your character is on auto control, yes you heard right, the first 5 minutes of the game is on autopilot. And then you get to move.
As far as the tutorial of the game goes, it doesn’t even tell you how to move. Thankfully, the answer was an obvious one, and that was with the arrow keys. I know it’s pretty obvious about how to move around, but it still bothers me. And that moment, I found another problem with the game you move at a tediously/painfully slow rate, did I mention this was through mazes? *sigh*. Later on however, I had to buy a few things from the shop, after I made my selections I realized that there was no back button. You would think that there would be an exit shop button for you to select, but nope, there isn’t. It wasn’t until I started pressing all the buttons on my keyboard and accidentally buying things by mistake til I found out that the ‘A’ button is the button to use to exit. THAT’S A PRETTY CRUCIAL PIECE OF INFORMATION TO LEAVE OUT DON’T YOU THINK?!
Again, this was never addressed in the tutorials, the only thing it said was press ‘S’. And you what’s ironic, there was a scene, right before your character goes into the monster infested woods, there’s this girl character that tells the player about the elements. And the player’s response was basically: We don’t need any instructions, why do you have to explain everything?! And then the girl shuts up and joins the player’s party. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A GOOD TIME TO GO OVER THE CONTROLS DON’T YOU THINK?! Imagine playing a Tony Hawk video game, where it doesn’t tell you the instructions, but instead says: “Ehhhh… you’re fine.. whatever” and you’re still trying to figure out how to get on your skateboard. But even the info that the girl gave out before being silenced, wasn’t very useful. It was just stuff about the elements and leveling up. It wasn’t until my second play through that I actually did find the instructions. They were right on the title screen. However the instructions blend with the credits. YES THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE NEXT TO THE CREDITS. They could’ve at least highlighted the instructions to where they were more noticeable.
As far as the tutorial of the game goes, it doesn’t even tell you how to move. Thankfully, the answer was an obvious one, and that was with the arrow keys. I know it’s pretty obvious about how to move around, but it still bothers me. And that moment, I found another problem with the game you move at a tediously/painfully slow rate, did I mention this was through mazes? *sigh*. Later on however, I had to buy a few things from the shop, after I made my selections I realized that there was no back button. You would think that there would be an exit shop button for you to select, but nope, there isn’t. It wasn’t until I started pressing all the buttons on my keyboard and accidentally buying things by mistake til I found out that the ‘A’ button is the button to use to exit. THAT’S A PRETTY CRUCIAL PIECE OF INFORMATION TO LEAVE OUT DON’T YOU THINK?!
Again, this was never addressed in the tutorials, the only thing it said was press ‘S’. And you what’s ironic, there was a scene, right before your character goes into the monster infested woods, there’s this girl character that tells the player about the elements. And the player’s response was basically: We don’t need any instructions, why do you have to explain everything?! And then the girl shuts up and joins the player’s party. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A GOOD TIME TO GO OVER THE CONTROLS DON’T YOU THINK?! Imagine playing a Tony Hawk video game, where it doesn’t tell you the instructions, but instead says: “Ehhhh… you’re fine.. whatever” and you’re still trying to figure out how to get on your skateboard. But even the info that the girl gave out before being silenced, wasn’t very useful. It was just stuff about the elements and leveling up. It wasn’t until my second play through that I actually did find the instructions. They were right on the title screen. However the instructions blend with the credits. YES THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE NEXT TO THE CREDITS. They could’ve at least highlighted the instructions to where they were more noticeable.
Graphics
The graphics are okay in some areas, but bland in other areas. It’s like they just ripped the sprites from other RPGs, which wouldn’t surprise me if they did. Then you have the scenery of the environment…….Well….. Yeah, that’s sure is an environment alright…The blandest one you’ll see…. Yeah, obviously they do little for this game.
Difficulty
Again, referring to the tutorial (or lack thereof) has affected this category to where it simply leaves out some useful information. According the person that made this game, they lowered the difficulty setting. I believe them, because literally, I have yet to see a battle where I couldn’t just run away from. The way this whole game was designed is really awkward. Normally, when a game is difficult, you tend to blame yourself more than the game. That’s IF the difficulty was designed well. Here, it’s all over the place. You can run away from any battle and yet you can die easily. Not to mention the non-existing tutorials will not help you at this point. Pokemon for example, gave you a battle tutorial so you can understand the mechanics, but here, there’s no battle tutorial. As soon as you enter the forest you’re on your own. I made the mistake assuming that the first battle of this game was a tutorial, and that the enemy was going to die in 1 or 2 hits, after all, it did occur after I took two steps. But nope. SILLY ME! And as punishment, two thirds of my party members were poisoned. Yeah, the first enemy I fought poisoned me. That’ll be like I if you were playing pokemon yellow; you are given Pikachu by Oak, but as soon as you are about to start your adventure, BOOM! A WILD ONYX APPEARS!!!
Another weird thing that I noticed was that they player’s party don’t start at level 1. Instead they all start at level 6. Why the random number?! Even if the tutorials did exist, there would be no helpful information. For example, let’s say you have a party member that’s been poisoned or dying or both, you want to know how to bring up your inventory. You press every key until you come to the realization the there is no inventory menu. If you need to use an item on a party member, you first have to go into battle and select item. YOU GO INTO BATTLE TO HEAL YOUR CREW!? WHY ISN’T THERE AN INVENTORY MENU?! JUST…WHY?! THAT IS JUST A BAD DESIGN RIGHT THERE! I would go into the game more, but apparently it has problems loading saved game files. Yeah, on top of everything else, it has a flawed save system. I died, I’m back at the menu, I try to load the game, but it just went to the infamous white screen. And yet the music still goes on.
I can’t bring myself to recommend this game. Not even to the biggest fans of RPG’s. Juggernaut: Awakening is a game that was horrible put together. Juggernaut is very much like that LEGO toy set that you had when you were a kid, you’re excited that you’re about to build something amazing, but then you realized that some of the important parts that you need to build with were not included. Overall, save yourself a headache, avoid this game. Who knows, maybe there will be updates for this game that’ll improve it. In the mean time, Avoid the juggernaut….bitch.
Another weird thing that I noticed was that they player’s party don’t start at level 1. Instead they all start at level 6. Why the random number?! Even if the tutorials did exist, there would be no helpful information. For example, let’s say you have a party member that’s been poisoned or dying or both, you want to know how to bring up your inventory. You press every key until you come to the realization the there is no inventory menu. If you need to use an item on a party member, you first have to go into battle and select item. YOU GO INTO BATTLE TO HEAL YOUR CREW!? WHY ISN’T THERE AN INVENTORY MENU?! JUST…WHY?! THAT IS JUST A BAD DESIGN RIGHT THERE! I would go into the game more, but apparently it has problems loading saved game files. Yeah, on top of everything else, it has a flawed save system. I died, I’m back at the menu, I try to load the game, but it just went to the infamous white screen. And yet the music still goes on.
I can’t bring myself to recommend this game. Not even to the biggest fans of RPG’s. Juggernaut: Awakening is a game that was horrible put together. Juggernaut is very much like that LEGO toy set that you had when you were a kid, you’re excited that you’re about to build something amazing, but then you realized that some of the important parts that you need to build with were not included. Overall, save yourself a headache, avoid this game. Who knows, maybe there will be updates for this game that’ll improve it. In the mean time, Avoid the juggernaut….bitch.