Data Hacker Initiation (2014)

"The beginning of the Datastream saga. Set some years in the future, following a global economic and social crash"

I thoroughly enjoyed this game and the story. You basically play as a no good cheating hacker in an online MMORPG that we can only assume is advanced virtual reality. It has a slight cyberpunk vibe to it.


You have boss battles with admins and can delete them and their characters for resources (souls) or capture them and transform their code into a seemingly random high level pokemon. :D The story and setting fits the chief gimmick of the game where you cast JRPG spell its a turn based battle that can twist and alter the stats of your enemies. Some of this is flavor but there are also some unique mechanics in it (and the sequel) that are somewhat untraditional in JRPG battle systems, (or at least I haven't seen them). It borrowed a few elements from pokemon in that you can corrupt and 'catch' enemies and enslave them (making you basically a kind of 'summoner'. You can also choose to sacrifice a corrupted enemy for an item that functions something like a currency token for crafting and has other uses (iirc). Finally you can force the 'evolution' of a captured enemy and it can become something entirely different (This reminded me of MissionNo, and yes there is of course actually an enemy called MissingNo) For the most part I thought these mechanics were functional and the added clever twists of it provided a good context for this game and while it wasnt truly original it worked well story-wise and despite being a somewhat basal game that made it fun to play. The world is also not as it seems and you aren't unique in that you are the only hacker around or that you are moving through a static world or story. the story takes some excellent twist and turns IMO. And the sequel takes it further. The sequel was expanded a bit with the gameplay and is probably arguably a 'better' game but I got stuck in a bug where i couldnt advance in a certain dungeon because i did something in the wrong order. So I can't review that sequel. (I am quite curious where the story goes in it. I'm wanting to pick it up again after writing this review. Perhaps the game got patched a bit as Corruption was new when I played it)

Must be said that this doesn't look like Else.heart break. This is a game to play if you like the underlying themes of the Matrix and standard mechanics of a Phantasy star or Final Fantasy styled party combat JRPGs where you pick from attack or abilities, and your party is captured Pokemon and experiment a bit with the evolution, (which was also expanded in the sequel). You can grind this game like crazy too, due to the transitory party system, evolution and capturing elements, if that's your thing. There are also NG+ mode (didnt try it)and divergent paths (at least your moral alignment) you can take that will change how the second game unfolds, (you import your character into it Mass Effect Style)... I almost played the game over to try alternate playthroughs/twists it but didnt. It's fairly long and just started the sequel.

For a game that costs like next to nothing, This is quite a bit of content and makes for a great time waster alone, and it's just different enough to be interesting to someone who likes JRPGs and looking for something new. The game isnt perfect but I can't recall anything in the design that soured the experience. And it was ultimately way better strung together than the screens would make you think. I have limited RPGMaker XP, but I can't put a game in the 'dont play this junk' just on whether it was made in RPGMaker after having played this game.

The only criticisms i have for the game is visually it is quite homely looking, at times that ONLINE WORLD banner would get on my nerves but other times it seemed appropriate. I also wish there was some incentive to capture more pokemon than you can use (I dont think you actually HAVE a limit to your captured minions, but you can only actually use so many of them in battle) You can sacrifice them as they leveled up for greater rewards but that certainly doesnt make leveling up as a means to an end worth it. Finally it would be nice to have a bit more creative things you could do with the spells than I've found to be the case. (There are spell combos with odd effects that have this 'flavor') but nothing that is like a super powerful ability that is very 'meta' in it's operation (I don't know how that could have been incorporated as a design element and what's present is very well done and balanced)

Going to have to continue one in 2017. Stick of Truth and FFVII are going to have to wait.