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A Home Far Away Review
Far and away the most entertaining fare in a long time
Review by TwilightApostle
A Home Far Away takes a fairly cliche idea and breathes new life into it. Was it worth the effort? Read on to find out!
The game starts with a young boy who's been consigned to gather birthday presents for his friend. Of course, being an RPG, nothing is that simple. What follows is a string of events, both exciting and mundane, that lead to the boy being far, far away from home (hence the title).
The story is fleshed out quite well. Nearly everything that happens is believable without being commonplace, which is very difficult. It's also plotted out nicely, though it does suffer from a slow middle section. Actually, the player may become lost due to this slow-moving portion.
The gameplay, however, is anything but slow. From the very start of the game the player is immersed in minigames and fetch quests that are done at a professional level. In fact, the whole thing is vaguely reminiscent of Illusion of Gaia, but not so much that it's distracting. The battles are fairly straightforward, though there are a few surprises. Also, the swimming minigame deserves a nod. It is, in a word, fantastic. In another word, it's hard as all get out.
A Home Far Away has a very uniform presentation that adds greatly to its appeal as a professional game. All of the chipsets look like they've been taken from the same place, and the music is both soothing and interesting. The player may actually stop battling just to hear a song to the end; it's THAT good. The only thing that seems to be missing are sound effects. There aren't as many as there should be, but that really doesn't detract from the experience.
Speaking of the experience, this game presents a rather strange phenomenon: characters get WAY more experience than they probably should. A level 1 character needs about 2000 EXP. to level up; it seems strange that a game with so much customization did little to change the default values on this.
All in all, A Home Far Away is a very competently made game. It has obviously taken a lot of effort, and that effort shows in all the right places. Definitely give this game a try.
Reviewer's Score: 9 / 10, Posted Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:00:40 -0700
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