Piece of Wonder downloadable demo

[papillon]

For those who have enough connection NOT to be annoyed by downloading 500MB for a measly 45-minute trial, when even running the installer counts against your trial minutes... it can now be found at

http://www.download.com/Piece-of-Wonder ... ag=lst-0-1

The cost of the downloadable game is cheaper than the box copy, or so I hear.

And yes, there is playable battle mode, although I'd only just started the first battle when my time ran out, and the monsters don't get battle-sprites.

[PyTom]

Well, the 500MB isn't just for a demo, it's for the whole (unlockable) game.

I went ahead and bought PoW today, and have played it through 2 of the three endings, Amane's and Shoko's. I still have one more ending left, but I think I can say some things about the game.

My demo ended where papillon's did... right at the start of the first battle. I suspect that we read faster then most people, so I think most people will not get to see the battle engine at all... That's probably not good for Hirameki.

The game has a somewhat odd structure. The first section is a pure visual novel, where you meet the heroines. You get a set of choices here, and which choices you make determine which heroine you end up with. By the time of the first battle, the ending is already chosen.

The game then intersperses kinetic-novel style story bits with SRPG-style battles. The battles aren't that hard... there was only one that gave me any difficulty, and it was easy the second time through. The battles are fairly confusing, since there is some sort of elemental system going on, but it's never really documented... at least, not in English, there is one untranslated part of the battle screen that might have something to do with that. Most of the monsters are represented as triangles, rather then as sprites... that's really confusing, and makes the game feel somewhat unpolished. It's like the guy who did sprites quit before the game was done.

The battle system is somewhat quirky, as each girl has special abilities that sort of change the gameplay. For example, Raki needs to equip weapons, while none of the other characters do this.

Somewhere between half and 3/4 of the SRPG bits are common to all the endings. The others are specific to the ending you're on.

I like the bulk of the KN aspects of the game. The character art is well-done and the girls are cute, if young-looking. There's a good variety of art. The writing is quite funny at times, and I like the everyday life parts of the game.

The endings aren't done as well as the paths to the endings. Amane's felt kinda abrupt... The game just suddenly ended on me, without really a buildup to the ending. There is a part after the end credits that gives some closure to the story... but it still goes faster. Shoko's ending is a bit better, although some people might be a bit creeped out by a story, involving a 10-year old girl, that straddles the line between sibling love and romantic love.

The story mixes everyday life aspects with scifi-horror-fighting aspects. I think the former works better then the latter, although there are some good aspects to the latter. (The transformation phrases gave me a chuckle.)

I wish the game was a little bit longer, and that time was devoted to improving the game endings, which were fairly abrupt. The game is short for a commercial game, but much longer then all of our games save for Gakuen Redux.

So far, Hirameki has released 3 games in the AnimePlay PC line. Ever17 was an outstanding game, while Ai Yori Aoshi, frankly, wasn't. Piece of wonder falls between them... it never really rises to the point of being a great game, but it kept me interested enough that I want to see what happens next. It's probably worth the lower price point, but I would buy E17 first.

[DaFool]

I really want to play this game, but cannot for technical reasons.
I like reading reviews of it though.

Intriguing, this kinetic novel + battle. Sounds like the kind of game I'm making now. We shall therefore call them 'Kinetic Battle Novels' or 'Visual Battle Novels'.

[Vatina]

meh, I didn't get far enough to try a battle
I like the battle idea as well, although I think I would enjoy the fights iin Gadget Trial more.... but it's so expensive compared to Piece of Wonder ^^;

[Counter Arts]

Wow, after watching so much subbed anime I read at 1.5 lines per tenth of a second. I was kinda conufsed about how the battle system worked. But after I understood it a bit, I just owned the guy royally.

But yeah, improving indivual stats yourself in the level up screen was kinda... well it was simpler than going d20 style.