Developer: Dream Within
Publisher: Dream Within
Platforms: PC
Tested on: PC
Endica VII The Dream King – Review
Every once in awhile a title comes by that has a very interesting, original approach, while trying to combine aspects of genres that are often long forgotten by the current generation of gamers, or are simply considered dead because of their ‘retro’ feel. Endica VII: The Dream King does its best to rekindle the Metroidvania genre by including a very active four player mode, in combination with mechanics from the older Mega Man titles. While we weren’t fully convinced (yet) we are sure there is more in this series than what we were able to test so far.
Story
Endica has been a barren and hostile place for the last few centuries. War has been tearing countries apart, making its inhabitants suffer and experience a state of constant pain. For some reason, this is what the world has turned into and it seems that most people are used to what has been going on for so long. Nonetheless, Thomas, a young boy rises to the daunting task of vanquishing evil once and for all. Thomas is determined to become the Dream King, who will make the world prosper once again. Nonetheless, to achieve such a feat he will need allies and friends to aid him along the way, thus he sets out on a journey that might just cost him his very life.
The story itself is presented with rather simple text windows and small, static, cutscenes which are all within the game’s style and atmosphere. While the overall story value might not be that thick, the plot is rather enjoyable and does the trick very well. Sadly, the writing is sometimes a bit too simplistic and some spelling mistakes are still to be found in the dialogues.
Graphics
Graphically Endica VII has a very nice retro aspect, but also some unstable less qualitative portions. While the main characters all look very cute and attractive, the enemies tend to lack the same detail level and quality as the main cast. As the leading characters all have proper movement animations, the enemies lack any sign of proper movement and are comparable with statues that are able to move, thanks to the will of God. Nonetheless, the enemies still look like decent character models, albeit a bit different in style compared to the rest.
It’s clear that the developer is a fan CAPCOM’s well-known robotic hero Mega Man as some character models move exactly the same, especially the protagonist Thomas, has the same movement animations as Mega Man. Some other aspects like certain attack animations and the iconic gunfire from CAPCOM’s franchise can also be spotted, albeit subtly altered.
The environments in the game are properly done but have slightly other color tones, which make them either standing out or subtle, depending on which area and how you look at them. Nonetheless, the areas are properly done and fit the entire retro style.
For some reason, in-town views are switched to a top down perspective, which looks extremely unnatural if you take a look at the rest of the game. Perhaps it would have been better if a style such as Zelda II was implemented, where the original side view would remain intact, even in town(s).
Sound
Even if the visuals aren’t immediately your thing, there’s no denying that the soundtrack of The Dream King is rather amazing. You’ll be treated to a rather ‘classical’ experience, which can be found in many iconic RPG franchises. Thanks to this, Endica VII holds itself very well, even against AAA titles, as you’ll simply be enchanted by the scores that are thrown at you.
The sound quality of all the rest is more retro-ish, which suits the overall setting of the game. Nonetheless, there’s not that much more to be said about the SFX that accompany the overall great soundtrack.
Gameplay
As Endica VII: The Dream King inspires itself heavily on the classic formula of ‘Metroidvania’ games, you’ll be able to roam around in a fairly open world, whilst having to do a reasonable amount of platforming, meanwhile getting rid of all the enemies in your way. Endica VII tries to add a multiplayer play style to the equation in order to spice things up and add a certain sense of originality.
From the beginning of the game, right until the end, things prove to be rather straightforward, as you’ll have to wade your way through different areas, in order to find keys, that unlock new areas, that allow you to reach your end goal. Things might get a bit tricky at times, seeing you’ll have to backtrack quite a bit, in order to find everything you need to progress further. Nonetheless, clever players will be able to finish the game in six(-ish) hours, if you like exploring that is.
Throughout the world you’ll find money, encounter new (unlockable) characters and items, which will all help you on your way. Nonetheless, for most items you will need a fair amount of money in order to actually be able to purchase anything. This means you’ll either have to do a lot of farming, or complete the game with only your favorite character fully upgraded.
As there are about twelve characters to choose from, you’ll have ample choice to see which one suits you the best, if you’re playing in the single player mode that is. If you decide to play the cooperative mode, player one will be forced to play with Thomas, as he is the only character that is not allowed to die. When Thomas dies, it’s game over and you’ll have to start back from the last checkpoint you saved at. When other characters die, they can respawn, by using a portion of Thomas’ life. Multiplayer might be the way this game was intended to play, but things tend to get unclear and messy when all skills are being triggered at once, making certain characters run off the screen more than once, especially those who run a lot faster than Thomas.
You’ll notice there is hardly any balance between the characters, as some get ridiculous knockbacks when hit by enemies (again a subtle Mega Man touch), while characters like Eric can sprint through pretty much everything, without any hassle. This is even more noticeable when you’re playing the versus mode, as characters such as Eric simply wipe every opposition off the table. Perhaps with some tweaks this mode could be outfitted a bit more, but the chances of this ever being a balanced mode, without having to redo every character, are pretty much nonexistent. Nonetheless, the different characters themselves offer a few options to mess around with.
A mechanic that could have been interesting is Thomas’ familiar skill, which grants him the control over a certain minion, which can attack or grab items for him. Unfortunately, for some reason, when playing with the gamepad, you’ll have to use your mouse to control the familiar (which could easily be supported by the second stick on your controller). And sadly, the familiar is overpowered, especially when you have several minions under your command, as you can simply click on enemies which are out of range, slowly killing them.
There aren’t that many different enemies in the game, but surely there is sufficient variety to see a decent amount of different attack patterns. That being said, many of the enemies have moves which are pretty much copied out of Mega Man, which isn’t truly a bad thing, but it makes things a tiny bit unoriginal. Nonetheless, for fans of Mega Man, this might just be a fun trip down memory lane.
While the overall foundation of the game is ‘okay’, there are still sufficient bugs throughout the game that take away a bit of the otherwise reasonably fun gameplay. The first one might as well be the most annoying one, as it’s one that immediately happens when you boot up the game. When you decide to play a round of Endica VII, your PC will freeze for about two to four minutes when booting up the game, which is pretty much just a fault in the programming of the game, something that should be fixed immediately. Other bugs include poor hit detection, and dying when jumping up when you’re at the border of the screen. In multiplayer you can select Eric with different players, which causes a massive nearly game-breaking bug. Other annoyances are the fact that when saving the game, it does not indicate which save slot has an actual save file on it and which doesn’t, and when you press ESC, the game will immediately shut down. If you accidently do this when wanting to go back in the different menus, you’ll have to go through the process of having to boot up the game again, with the annoying startup bug present.
Conclusion
Endica VII: The Dream King is a very amusing concept, especially with the concept of the games going backwards in time, but the end product has a decent amount of flaws to truly stand out in the games-whirlpool we call Steam. Nonetheless, with some bug fixes, more fluent writing and a few graphical updates, this series has the potential of becoming something rather great. We’re curious to see how the rest of the franchise tends to evolve.
Endica VII The Dream King - Review,
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