Introduction
Today we are going to look at a game that is made in RPG Maker Z, this game is called Fantasy World Souls. It combines many elements and offers plenty of hours to travel around in. You can even make your main character a monster, it is time to roam around as a monster while enjoying a gachapon role-playing game. Will all these elements mesh well together, or is this game going to crash similar to the sphere in the story? We will get to that in a second.
What did I think before playing Fantasy World Souls?
I found this game accidentally, while going through Social Media, I saw a post about this game. Of course, I was intrigued immediately. I contacted the developer and asked for a key, and voilà, here we are. I saw fun teams battling, dungeons to explore, and it also seemed like a game you can enjoy on your own without seeking people to play with. For more information, I check out the Steam page.
The Steam page
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2301370/Fantasy_World_Souls/
There are plenty of screenshots to look at, including a few trailers. The price is not very hefty as well, making it a fine purchase for when it is on sale. If you are looking to gather souls to add to your team while growing stronger as you go through the story, then this game might be for you. It almost sounds like a gachapon game on the mobile, except there are not pay to win elements, but you do need to summon souls with the gachapon, how odd.
Rating
I rated Fantasy World Souls with a 7.2 before playing.
The screenshots and trailers looked decent enough to entice me to ask for a key. It also looked as if this game needs a bit more time for finishing touches, but all in all, it looks like a fun game.
Story
The story is about the spheres whom hold a lot of power. Of course, the protagonist finds a piece of the shattered sphere to inherit its power and start the conflict, as the bad beings want its power as well. This means you will need to gather the sphere before they do, or there might be dire consequences for this world full of collectable souls!
Rating
I rate the story of Fantasy World Souls with a 6.5
While the story is alright, it is the classic, good versus evil fight, and we all know how it ends by now. The bad guys almost win, then the good guys find a new source of power and win with a few seconds to spare.
Gameplay
The first thing I noticed, is that while it is an MMORPG, as that is what it also says on the cover, there are barely any people playing this game. Having checked the charts, the all-time high was eighteen people. With an average of one or two players each day for the last few weeks. While not bad by itself, it does not make this an MMORPG. This could be a hidden gem, and it might pick up the pace later, who knows?
The story is simple, and you will be trudging through the levels while collecting gear to equip. This will make you stronger, but the main focus will be the souls you need to collect. As you play the game, you will gather these gems to summon new souls. There are three soul slots. These will be your party members, like monsters you can collect and train. Then you have the leader slot, there are many leaders and all of them have different benefits. I liked the whole monster team idea.
The battles are turn-based, and each soul has their own unique animation and skills. I wonder if there is a soul that can heal the others. As you wander around on the world map, you will encounter monsters, or if you bump into shadowy figures in dungeons. These battles will earn you experience points to level up. It might be useful to grow stronger for the boss fights that you will encounter.
Rating
I rated the gameplay of Fantasy World Souls with a 5.0
While the game is fun, it seems like it might need a few finishing touches, and perhaps some expensive marketing to get people flowing into this game. Oh, to unlock co-op, you need to progress in the story. I did learn, you need to buy the gems to summon a new soul, this is why I am going to lower the rating.
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics are not bad, you can clearly see it is made in an RPG maker engine, that is not bad by itself, the souls and animations seem like a lot of work to implement them properly. I wonder if the developer made them himself, or if he has an artist, or plundered the internet for free sprites, whatever the case, there are numerous souls to gather and they do look good. The text has a bit of broken English here and there, a lot could be improved with a decent translator or a grammar checker.
Sound
There are plenty of soundtracks to listen to in this game, and numerous sound effects, nothing special to mention here.
Rating
I rated the sound and graphics of Fantasy World Souls with a 7.3
I like the idea of this game, many souls, many players, a fun story, but it needs a little more oomph. And a lot more players.
What did I think after playing Fantasy World Souls?
The story was decent, but occasionally, I had to read a few times to see what the developer tried to convey, a little sprucing up of the text would be a good idea. I did not encounter any major bugs or places where I can walk through the wall. The whole idea of feeding souls was fun, but I could not figure out properly what to do.
The battles were not too tough, but I understand that making a good balance between the souls and the enemies will be hard. Especially with the quantity of souls and skills that are available. It might seem wise to invest in marketing before adding more souls to the game. Perhaps if this game has been tuned up a little, players will come to this fun tactical turn-based game where you can use a monster as your leader!
It feels to me as if the developer wants to earn big bucks which might be the reason people turn around and run. Want more gold and experience points? Pay for a tier to get more loot, going all the way up to 100 dollars a month! Now you also need VIP to walk faster on the map, along with the ability to respawn enemies faster. Oh no, you require more diamonds, now you need to pay 200 dollars for 3k diamonds.
If I can give my opinion here, which I would rather not do in this section, but I will for this time. It might be best to remove all the pay to win tiers. Invest in marketing, make the game free on Steam. No one is going to pay ten dollars to play this game if they need to pay over 100 dollars for this game. The whole game gets dragged into a deep, dark abyss by these decisions.
Rating
I rated Fantasy World Souls with a 4.5 after playing.
The biggest lacking thing in this game was the lack of, well, people, they all ran for the hills when seeing these prices.
What are my personal thoughts about Fantasy World Souls?
I enjoy seeing the souls wander across the over world map, I think there was a bit too many souls to collect for now. In my opinion, I would focus on sprucing up the text, marketing, and balancing, you always need to balance more! Oh, and remove the insane payment options, please!
Rating
My personal Rating of Fantasy World Souls is 6.0
A fun RPG maker game that wants the money you got by selling your kidney.
Last Words
Pros
- The graphics and soundtrack are decent
- There are many souls to collect
- A fun story to follow as you tactically take down monsters
- Kill enemies and level up
- The premise of this game is enticing
- Your leader can be a monster
- Free diamonds can slowly be gained by playing the game
Cons
- There are almost no players for an MMORPG game
- Some text is broken English
- I have heard complaints about the co-op system, but I have not tried it out
- You need to buy diamonds for good souls
- You need to pay to get loads of diamonds
If you are looking for a gachapon game with numerous souls to collect that is made in RPG maker, then look no further, you have found what you are looking for!
Final Rating
6.1
Please let me know what you think of Fantasy World Souls in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
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like it despite its a mobile game 🙂
Not a mobile game, though it might look like that.
Super!
The map is too dull without nice art obstacle / light and shadow effects
Cute game. Old school Pokemon or Final Fantasy vibes.
The developer tried to mix them.
thats an easy pass
Those prices and subscriptions make this game seem awfully scummy, especially for an RPGMaker game…I’d be willing to give the game a go if it weren’t for the gachapon mechanics and the prices.
That is something I am hearing from numerous people, and I think it explains the low number of people that are playing this game.
I have provided this feedback to the developer.
The game seems to be really interesting, but the price is the main factor against it.
Yeah, it scared me shitless.
i don’t quite like the subscription prices
No one seems to like them.
Looks interesting but too old
So are we past the golden age of MMORPGs, especially that the Internet has moved past it’s novelty value and the pandemic lockdowns have long ago been dismantled?
This could be a good MMORPG, remove the initial price tag, make a good way to earn diamonds while playing, remove the high prices, invest in marketing, expensive marketing, and voilà, Bob is your uncle!
such pay for play system in such old game seems strange.
edit: heh sry game isn’t probably that old actually (?) as it was just released on steam but just looks like that anyway 🙂 (maybe because of rpgmaker).
Some RPGmaker games are remarkable! Maybe it is because a lot of initially provided tile sets have been used.
very simple game
doesn’t seem that interesting…
Doesn’t seem like a game I would be interested in, then again I only played like 2 MMO games, and only very briefly! XD
You could rather stick with a few bigger names!