Origin
A Retrospective by DJ Fenix
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Origin has a special place in my heart. This is the very first game that I've played on the OHRRPGCE. Even before playing Wandering Hamster, I would concider this to be the game that brought me into the OHR world. But I digress.

Origin weaves a tale of political conspiracy, set after a two-year war between two countries: the Aurans and the Terrans. Assuming the role of Covn--a Terran soldier--you are enlisted by Brian, the leader of the Alliance, a faction that believes that secretly, the war is still being fought. And as the plot unravels, Covn discovers the truth behind the war that killed so many, and of the Dynasty, the villains behind all that is broken.

The narrative written by Vidual is very well thought out and interesting. Characters had purpose, personality, even some backstory to boot. While in a lot of other OHR games there is a lack of story and depth, I found that Origins had too much detail. However, this would not have been a problem if the information was presented at a much slower pace. Random bits of information were presented everywhere. Every dungeon, every town, and about practically every single character involved with the story, save for the NPCs that roam the towns.

But don't get me wrong. This is but a minor flaw in the overall well written story. OHRers should look into putting this much effort on developing a story.

The graphics and the music for the game are pretty much on equal levels with eachother. There's nothing outstanding about it, nor is anything out of place or unbearable. Simply put, it's bland. But it's enough to do it's part in the presentation, and it's always a plus to have both original graphics and original music.

Graphics in the game seem very... "geometric". The hero graphics feel very "square", so to speak, as do most of the monsters, tiles--even the map designs are pretty geometric, in that sense. Trees were blocky, shapes of the lands were blocky, and there was very little done with textures. The only thing that didn't have this feel were the walkabouts (which, incidently, are the best looking pieces of graphics in the game). But regardless of the lack of texture and (most of) the blocky-looking tiles, the drawings were generally well done. Definately above the average OHR game, but, again, nothing outstanding. As I said above, they do their part in the presentation without distracting too much.

All of the music in Origins is original. It's not Mozart, but it's not crap either. However, they were rather boring. Most of the tunes had only 2 instruments and possibly drums as accompanyment, and most were also very slow in tempo. However, although the music itself is rather boring to listen too, it does set a level of ambience and doesn't distract from the story. And, again, it's a plus for having an all original soundtrack.

Gameplay was the weakest aspect for me, I'm afraid. Like most of the game, the battles were bland and boring. All monsters roaming the field were way too easy, and all the bosses were only slightly harder, and it felt a lot longer than it was. The map designs were also pretty simplistic, as most of the dungeons were just one path with most rooms looking exactly the same without much variety, and towns were larger and empty, making trips to shops or inns a long tedious task.

Now, I can understand why Origins was a great game for it's time. It boasted a well thought-out story, graphics that were above the OHR standard at its time, and original music--something seldom seen even in todays OHR games. When I first played this game, I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread; it even gave me a large push away from RpgMaker towards the OHR. But upon playing it again, it made me realize how much the OHRRPGCE and the OHR community has grown and developed. It's undeniable that Origins is a good game, but time has worn it out and now I can only see it as slightly above average.