The Dink Network

So, about this dmod... obviously...

-The Story-

For the sake of avoiding spoilers this dmod had a really good story. Basic cliche concept of defeating something evil is still present, but it is really well executed and combined with some good plot twists, and some stuff that are hard to write and present in a proper way.
Humor is classic Dink style, and there are a few places that really got me laughing (lady of the lake especially). There was also one morally ambivalent moment which is always a nice touch in a dmod.
So storywise, I liked it a lot.

-Gameplay & feel-

This is a 'linear' dmod so to speak, and player will visit many interesting places, each unique in it's own way, both in design, and enemies that player encounters, so there is a good sense of progress. None of the areas player visits are too big, so there are no pointless long walks. Every screen has something in it (a secret here and there), so exploration doesn't become a chore. Though I still wish that I can simply buy a pair of herb boots at the beginning of every dmod.

I remember only one spot with hardness error, so it's forgettable.

Tasks are clear here, I always knew what I'm supposed to do, and were to go. That doesn't mean that you have clear instructions what to do right away, but rather a good hints and clues, which is the best (this is not a puzzle solving dmod).

Fighting was hard though, I died many times, and finally resorted to cheats. But I'm not the brightest example of a good fighter so...
Bosses were also nice. They aren't just an endless punching fest, and describing the methods to defeat them will ruin the fun.

-Conclusion-

A good dmod, with an interesting story (and it's presentation), good mapping, and some nice funny (and also very inventive) moments.

Calculating score: 8.9 + 0.3 (for the ending extras):
Final score = 9.2

As one may have guessed it from the title, I really enjoyed this D-mod and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to invest a couple of hours in a quality D-mod.

What makes it so good? I'd say a combination of everything.
The map/screens are nicely detailed, the story might be a bit confusing at time but I got the hang of it rather quickly and I'm sure that you will too. When it comes to the gameplay itself, there are several interesting boss fights that make things fresh and exciting (the "secret" boss behind the the door that opens with the fractured key was a nice challenge).
Also, not to forget about the humor which is also done quite nicely (as in, there is plenty of it yet it doesn't feel forced).
The music is completely spot on. The main theme of the ruined alternate universe couldn't have been better. Wandering through the ravaged, ruined land with the music playing really does give you mixed feelings of despair, confusion and hopelessness. Just as it should.

My only con (and even this is kinda stretching it) is when it comes to the map in the alternate universe at the Kingdom before heading to the Darklands. I don't know what it is exactly, but I found that area to be a bit... lacking and bland. At least when compared to other zones. But, this could just be me...
Also the bare pine trees that serve as borders there looked a bit wrong. I guess it's because there are too many gaps. My suggestion would be to throw in thorny vines among those trees to remove the weird gaps in order to (in my opinion) make it look better.

Since it's the initial version,I have stumbled upon some bugs and other annoyances (all are really minor except one)
The only bigger bug that I've encountered, I have already explained in the comments below ( http://www.dinknetwork.com/forum.cgi?MID=197074&Posts=1 ). The minor ones are where in some interiors, you can just walk through walls and go to places you're not supposed to, at least by that way. Such as in the church at the portal to the Darklands, and I think it also happened in the tower in the alterante Darklands village. Like I said, this is really minor, so I haven't payed too much attention to it.
The annoyance happened with the mountain passages where the cannibalistic Goblins are. I think that the passages are a wee bit too narrow, since I managed to, when switching screens, on multiple occasion "walk off" the passage and get stuck into the mountain cliff itself. Getting back to the road is definitely possible, but it could be a bit annoying.

So, that's basically it.
All in all, it was an enjoyable little adventure

*****SPOILERS****

-The Story-
The story was very engaging, It kept me immersed and chasing what was next. There were only a few minor instances where I sought help for clues but as soon as I asked for help both time I instantly found out what I was doing and progressed. The story is very in depth. It plays off of the original Dink: Smallwood story and uses many of the same characters. Dink is once again tasked by the king to save the world and takes on a member of the "royal court" during his adventure. Along the way there are many different locales and tasks. I dont want to completely spoil it for you so ill leave it at that. Overall it was a very well thought out story line with a creative plot.


-Gameplay & feel-

This Dmod wasnt too linear, by that I mean it gives you some freedom to explore. Just not so much freedom that you end up spending 2 hours grinding and forgetting what your doing or get lost.
Many twist and turns keep you feeling the immersion and chasing the next tile. Cool actions such as the ice swords animations. Great dialogue humor and funny dialogue options.
I noticed that there were some areas with Tiles that didn't really feel necessary where I was just running through halls, but this was few and far between. The puzzles were alright, creative but not my thing. Good Dmod for beginners.

-The Bad-

Sometimes the story drags on a bit, each island is a bit of rinse and repeat. Arrive here, fetch this so I can make this and allow you to progress.
Too many twists, at the end I couldn't help but wonder if they just kept flip flopping with the end or what.
The ending was full of "dodge and run" tiles where you're continuously finding yourself dodging all the falling acid or flames that are falling from the sky or shooting around you.
**In all honesty I had to stop playing right at the end, For some reason we end up having to run back through the ENTIRE map to "go back in time" in the story. Where you run through it again to catch up with the baddies and attempt to stop them again.

I'm sorry but after investing all that time to be told to run through the whole map again..... after I made it half way back through the map I just couldn't take anymore. Sadly I had to stop right at the very end.

-Conclusion-

All around its a good Dmod with decent length and depth. Good looking tiles and animations. Creative story-line and adult humor bring the classic Dink back to life. The ending kinds drags on for quite awhile, and IMO no boss fight is worth running back through the entire game all over again.

Calculating score: 9.0 - 1.0 (for the ending): 8.0
Final score = 8.0

"The Disciple"- dmod review.
<no spoiler contents>

Biased viewpoint,("MY" analysis):

This could be the best dmod I've ever played and finished! (as of now, because other dmods are too difficult).

It was a dmod of variety, sensation, and insanity that I made fun memories with.
The dmod itself isn't the average "kill-to-win" types, it's a variety of adventures which are brilliantly sequenced by the genius to bring out the wonderful formula of transitions of the events in it's story.

It begins from doing very simple tasks, yet during those tasks, some may become more complicated, then the exciting story makes it's grand entrance, emerging in form of a mind blowing twist. Much more of the adventure awaits...

If you are much more of an explorer, and you don't fear venturing far places, then this fits for you. Very puzzling. There is a labyrinthine part where you may find it difficult to locate the way out. (I won't spoil of it!)

Humor, well then, that's self-explanatory. For me, it seems like it's difficult to figure out the humor/dialogue construction and vocabulary of the author because different characters have different manners of joking. What a flexible genius!

Action! There's a part where you really need to act fast, dodge this and that, run here and there. I'm pretty sure you'll love the boss battles,(but you'll hate the very difficult final boss). So it's not the kind of dmod that makes you kill a lot of enemies, which is not very sensational.

Neutral viewpoint, (what you really need to know)

Graphics:

Pretty nice, most new tiles were hue-modified and recolored, most enemy sprites don't surpass the 3D quality of the original DS graphics.

Level design:

Well polished, not rushed, ornamented with background materials so it doesn't look plain.

Sounds/midis:

Matches every situation, a few soundtracks are good, the SFX are fine.

Total/Overall:

Exceptional work.
Fitted for variety adventurers.

Truly EPIC dmod. The story was nice. I played Dink Smallwood first in 98... Been a fan ever since. I have played many dmods. But this one is really good because it brings back SETH and we get to know the story behind Seth. Kind of nostalgic.

The story for the getting delayed part was truly innovative.

The final boss was very difficult as it should be. I almost gave up after 15 attempts over 3 days. Would have been better if there was a save point after the cut-scene with final boss.

I am writing this review to encourage more developers to create exciting dmods.

After playing this one can realise the amount of work that has been put up in developing the dmod. Overall this is a well balanced game.

After lots of romps it was great to be faced with a possible epic and I was not to be disappointed.

What a great game, excellent graphics a number of times I thought that I was nearing the end but a new twist or plot arrived.

The way of travelling to different locations was neat and tidy as was going through the rifts.

A couple of minor problems on the way but these did not distract from the enjoyment.

Some of the enemies were very easy to kill and some very hard maybe a more middle of the road approach needed, but that could detract from some of the enjoyment.

A couple of the cut scenes seemed to go on a bit too long but these did the full details of what was required.

I considered writing this without spoilers, but that would really limit what I can say. So instead I'll put a warning here at the start: If you haven't played it yet, I recommend that you do that before reading this review. I've shown my partial scores and the weight I give those categories; those weights are just how important I consider that part and has nothing to do with this D-Mod.

Story:
Very well designed. It was an interesting and unpredictable story. Most of the unpredictability was just that I didn't know where the story would go, but the main turn of events was also a complete surprise to me. Also when Seth remarks at the end that Dink will come back, I had already forgotten that he would, so it felt completely natural for me that he did indeed forget.

All the details were done right, which was impressive. For example, the boatman is missing after you leave the church the first time; I thought that was a bug, but it turned out to be part of the story. Also how the timeline is explained, with the delay for getting to Goodheart is also something that could easily have been forgotten.

Score: 9 (weight: 8)

Map:
Impressive. There is a lot of it. And to me it all looked good, but that doesn't mean much, as my standards are low in that regard. When I entered the gods place, I thought I was about to finish the game. But there was still a large part to come. Lots of maps, some duplicate with the Other Plane, made the game larger than I expected. Lots of variation, too.

The fact that I had to fight every monster I killed at the start a second time made me think twice about killing all the monsters, which was a nice effect. I did kill them all anyway, though.

There were several nice puzzles in the game, which were more involved than just fetch quests. They weren't too hard, perhaps a little too easy.

Score: 10 (weight: 5)

Sprites:
Several non-standard sprites are used, which gave the game more variation. It's also nice to see awesome sprites like shady stranger get some use.

Score: 8 (weight: 2)

Sound:
I generally liked the music. I don't usually care that much about it, so I easily like it. But anyway, not much repetition, that kept it good.

Score: 8 (weight: 1)

Secrets:
Other than the fractured key, I did not find any. But that doesn't mean they don't exist, of course. The fractured key thing is a bit weird, because you need to use it long before the end; I had expected to be able to use it after the game was over, but that wasn't possible.

I didn't kill the god behind that door yet, so I may have missed the extra-awesome ending. The ending that I saw was pretty good though.

Score: 7 (weight: 3)

Bugs:
Nothing major. Most things I thought were bugs, were actually part of the plot. I think I saw a misspelling somewhere, and at one point the rift should have existed but didn't. In other words, nothing major, and that made sure the story wasn't interrupted by them, so that's very good.

Score: 10 (weight: 5)

Overall:
Excellent game, very impressive work.

Score: 9.0