I've unlocked all the kings, and I would say this game feels very shallow and lacks depth. It seems designed for the mobile market, but as a PC game, it falls flat.
This game sort of reminds me of Dystopian Battle Simulator, a lot of similar aspects of it, especially rolling the same thing to get an update, and using a very rudimentary figure for an auto battler. But that game actually has some interesting and funny random events and some actually strategy to pivot your build, and this "nine kings" has none of it.
This also brings to mind a mobile game called Polytopia. I’ve never understood why that game received a higher rating than civ6, especially since civ6 has addressed many bugs since first launch, yet its score remains low. I theorize that some mobile devices may not have the computational power needed to handle the intense CPU demands in the late game.
But anyway, I digress. This "9 Kings" game appears to be aimed at the mobile market, and I’m not convinced that it qualifies as a good game, even by mobile standards.
Maybe ok-ish for the first 20 minutes but that's all you get. If you skip this game, you do not miss anything.
great review. I didn't play these games you mention it( only CIV). So, by my perspective this game is ok. It is shallow, i got bored once i reach the main goals. but i took more than 20 minutes LOL. i think the previous games experience you had, you figured it out quickly how the game would be. I think the game will not be improved that much cause the dev team is working hard on an other game (one of the devs makes youtube videos and say that). thx
Out of EA, it would still be rated a 2/5. In fact, it becomes a more solid 2/5 because there are no longer any imaginative elements or promises.
A team of three is a standard size in the indie world. Most indie teams typically consist of no more than 4-5 members, and I can name plenty of 3-4 guy teams that made games that are rated 5/5 (VA-11 only 2 guys, Touhou project just 1 guy, warrior-of-the-nile-2, 4 guys team, etc. The point is 3 guys are perfectly normal).
Maybe this team's next project will be much better and worth a 5/5. But for this one, 2/5 is fit. You expect me to give a five fifths because it only has three guys and it is their first game. That's unrealistic.
Mainly only savants can handle doing everything themselves, like ZUN and Toby Fox. I myself have tried making a game, but you have to be good at every single facet of development if you can't afford help - coding, graphics creation AND editing, intimate knowledge of your game engine of choice, music, writing... the list goes on, and most are single skills meant to be developed throughout a lifetime on their own rather than as a set like that. It's incredibly stressful to be solo, I can offer nothing but my highest respects to those who've succeeded.
~3-5 team members is probably the average manageable level for normal people. Each person with a couple things on that list they're good at, rather than the whole suite - ones that differ from the other crew. But it can still be difficult if bases aren't covered by someone or not effectively, such is the life of indie developers.
As for the game, I'd give it a 3/5. It's a pretty average game in most respects and it's fairly inexpensive at a humble $10, which I think is sensible for their first game. I imagine more people would be happy with it for $5, but it's a bit unreasonable for the devs if they ever want to make that 5/5 game.
Agreed, developing a game is definitely hard for sure. It's just, I do not take how many developers is in the team in consideration when rating games. And I have a fairly high standard, most GOOD games stop at 4/5, only Really good game+one of a one-of-a-kind factor, can bump it up to 5/5.
There are many hentai games that were made by 1-2 people, with Godot has extraordinarily high quality. Regulus' SpunkStock Music Festival or Rock Candy's Zu & Johanna's Zoological Zone, The amount of talented single-person "savants" makes the game and make it available on new ground for free are just too many. It was definitely a feat, maybe 1 in 10 thousand. But the world has eight billion people. I wish both you and the devs who made this game a great success in the future.
I agree that Newgrounds and a few other free game sites are/were full of said talent. I personally don't think I've ever encountered a porn/hentai game that I considered to be 5/5 though... maybe a few 4/5s. (I doubt you're counting games that have hentai as a byproduct rather than the main attraction, such as Fate/Stay Night or Saya no Uta.)
I do understand how most people rate things without taking into account external factors, though I think the majority are too harsh even not counting those. Let's say we don't know anything about the devs - 9 Kings is maybe not a great game, but I also don't think it's necessarily bad. If a game is worth a handful of plays but has flaws, I will generally call it a 3 or 2.5/5 (average score).
On the other hand, I would say all the Poppy's Playtime and Garten of Banban games are 2/5s. Maybe the Banban games are 1.5s, since the gameplay is intentionally tedious to increase playtime (for preventing refunds) sometimes. There is clearly a high production value to those two series, but they are also soulless and their existence is unashamedly intended solely to sell merchandise to children who beg their parents for it - the games are not exactly meant to be 'fun' like this is. A 1 or less would be... probably the billions of shovelware games and copypasted/creativity-less 3D porn games that somehow appear on the Steam frontpage every single day.
But anyway, tl;dr, that's just my take. I do hope the devs take their lessons learned from this game and make something even better, like you said.
There is English support via the English interface and English subtitles.
I've unlocked all the kings, and I would say this game feels very shallow and lacks depth. It seems designed for the mobile market, but as a PC game, it falls flat.
This game sort of reminds me of Dystopian Battle Simulator, a lot of similar aspects of it, especially rolling the same thing to get an update, and using a very rudimentary figure for an auto battler. But that game actually has some interesting and funny random events and some actually strategy to pivot your build, and this "nine kings" has none of it.
This also brings to mind a mobile game called Polytopia. I’ve never understood why that game received a higher rating than civ6, especially since civ6 has addressed many bugs since first launch, yet its score remains low. I theorize that some mobile devices may not have the computational power needed to handle the intense CPU demands in the late game.
But anyway, I digress. This "9 Kings" game appears to be aimed at the mobile market, and I’m not convinced that it qualifies as a good game, even by mobile standards.
Maybe ok-ish for the first 20 minutes but that's all you get. If you skip this game, you do not miss anything.
A team of three is a standard size in the indie world. Most indie teams typically consist of no more than 4-5 members, and I can name plenty of 3-4 guy teams that made games that are rated 5/5 (VA-11 only 2 guys, Touhou project just 1 guy, warrior-of-the-nile-2, 4 guys team, etc. The point is 3 guys are perfectly normal).
Maybe this team's next project will be much better and worth a 5/5. But for this one, 2/5 is fit. You expect me to give a five fifths because it only has three guys and it is their first game. That's unrealistic.
~3-5 team members is probably the average manageable level for normal people. Each person with a couple things on that list they're good at, rather than the whole suite - ones that differ from the other crew. But it can still be difficult if bases aren't covered by someone or not effectively, such is the life of indie developers.
As for the game, I'd give it a 3/5. It's a pretty average game in most respects and it's fairly inexpensive at a humble $10, which I think is sensible for their first game. I imagine more people would be happy with it for $5, but it's a bit unreasonable for the devs if they ever want to make that 5/5 game.
There are many hentai games that were made by 1-2 people, with Godot has extraordinarily high quality. Regulus' SpunkStock Music Festival or Rock Candy's Zu & Johanna's Zoological Zone, The amount of talented single-person "savants" makes the game and make it available on new ground for free are just too many. It was definitely a feat, maybe 1 in 10 thousand. But the world has eight billion people. I wish both you and the devs who made this game a great success in the future.
I do understand how most people rate things without taking into account external factors, though I think the majority are too harsh even not counting those. Let's say we don't know anything about the devs - 9 Kings is maybe not a great game, but I also don't think it's necessarily bad. If a game is worth a handful of plays but has flaws, I will generally call it a 3 or 2.5/5 (average score).
On the other hand, I would say all the Poppy's Playtime and Garten of Banban games are 2/5s. Maybe the Banban games are 1.5s, since the gameplay is intentionally tedious to increase playtime (for preventing refunds) sometimes. There is clearly a high production value to those two series, but they are also soulless and their existence is unashamedly intended solely to sell merchandise to children who beg their parents for it - the games are not exactly meant to be 'fun' like this is. A 1 or less would be... probably the billions of shovelware games and copypasted/creativity-less 3D porn games that somehow appear on the Steam frontpage every single day.
But anyway, tl;dr, that's just my take. I do hope the devs take their lessons learned from this game and make something even better, like you said.