Barter Empire
- February 5, 2015
- Mayhem Games USA
- 8h median play time
Get on SteamThe king is dead, the queen is missing. The only known heir to the throne is believed dead, and the fate of an entire kingdom rests in your hands. Enter the land of war-torn Ditherra. A land of pirates, thieves, traders, smugglers, kings, queens, deities and mortals. Wealth and power control Ditherra, and the power struggle has divided the land between the East and West.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game offers a vast amount of content, including crafting, farming, fishing, and questing, providing players with numerous activities to engage in.
- The story has potential and some humorous dialogue, making it enjoyable for players who appreciate quirky narratives.
- For its low price, the game delivers a decent experience with classic RPG elements reminiscent of games like Harvest Moon.
- The combat system is poorly designed and can become tedious, with many battles feeling unbalanced and lacking depth.
- Visuals are inconsistent, with a mix of styles that clash, and significant bugs like the cloud pattern overlay on the map detracting from the experience.
- Character customization is severely limited, leaving players with no control over their character's appearance or development, which undermines the RPG experience.
- story12 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The story is generally viewed as decent but suffers from a generic start involving amnesia and fetch quests, which detracts from its potential. While there are engaging dialogue choices and a mix of main and side quests, the overall execution is hampered by poor graphics and gameplay, leaving players wanting more depth and clarity in the narrative.
“Waking up with amnesia is rarely a good beginning of a story.”
“Many quests have dialogue choices.”
“- The story seems to be pretty decent, especially for an RPG Maker game at this price.”
“Firstly, the story starts off rather generically: you are a girl dropped off by blue people, rescued by an old man and his dog and awake to find you've lost your memories.”
“The story seems to be fairly okay, but the bad overall gameplay makes it difficult to really find value.”
“But retrieving a sword for an NPC still seems like a fetch quest to me.”
- graphics9 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The graphics in this RPG Maker game have been widely criticized for their poor quality, with a mix of generic RPG Maker assets and self-crafted visuals that clash in style. Users noted significant issues with sprite handling and graphical inconsistencies, such as event sprites morphing unexpectedly. Overall, the visuals are deemed subpar, lacking cohesion and requiring updates to improve resolution options.
“The developer has tried to overcome this by mixing more realistic photographic images for some of the character pictures, and for many of the attacking enemies.”
“Generic RM graphics are mixed with some self-crafted ones on small maps, titanic enemy sprites are effortlessly slain by tiny character sprites and so on.”
“Anyhow, I'd say it needs to be updated with an options menu, like most games, even the old SNES ones to some level, and that menu needs a graphic option to allow changing resolution.”
“Though visuals are never a big issue for me, this is an RPG Maker game, and I despise that style.”
“Generic RPG Maker graphics are mixed with some self-crafted ones on small maps; titanic enemy sprites are effortlessly slain by tiny character sprites and so on.”
“Worse though are the graphic mistakes concerning event sprites; if you activate a chest, button, sparkle, or whatever, there's a chance it will morph into a different part of the spriteset from which it came.”
- grinding7 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspects of the game to be overly simplistic and tedious, with a wide range of activities like crafting, farming, and questing that feel underdeveloped. While the game offers a variety of features, many reviewers feel it lacks depth and fails to execute these elements effectively, leading to a repetitive experience. Overall, the grinding can feel more like a chore than an engaging part of gameplay.
“All the crafting is simplistic and tedious.”
“Crafting, farming, economy, adventuring, marriage, adoption, open-world, etc. are a few of the things this game tries to tackle and in my opinion doesn't do very well.”
“I swear I got a free farming game app for my smartphone instead of an $8 game.”
- gameplay5 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
The gameplay is noted for its depth, but users criticize the battle mechanics as poorly designed and unbalanced, which detracts from the overall experience. While the story is considered acceptable, the significant issues with gameplay mechanics hinder players' enjoyment and value of the game.
“The important thing is gameplay, and this game has a lot of depth.”
“The battle mechanics seem to be poorly designed and balanced.”
“The story seems to be fairly okay, but the bad overall gameplay makes it difficult to really find value.”
“This seems like a serious bug and game mechanic issue; I'm not sure of the terminology, I just play and try to report if something seems off.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is highlighted by witty dialogue and intriguing characters, particularly a standout zombie character that adds to the comedic elements. Overall, players find the humor engaging and a positive aspect of the game's narrative.
“Some of the dialogue is funny.”
“I haven't finished the game yet, but so far, the story is good and the characters (there are a lot of them) are intriguing and funny, especially that zombie.”
- music2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally considered bland and often overpowered by repetitive sound effects, leading to frustration among players who find it too loud and unable to be muted.
“The music is a bit bland and is almost drowned out by the looping sound effects.”
“The music is too loud and cannot be turned off; I had to turn off my speakers.”
- replayability1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is rated low, with many users expressing that there is little incentive to play again after completing it once. The lack of varied content or meaningful choices diminishes the desire to revisit the experience.
“The game lacks meaningful choices, making replayability feel pointless.”
“Once you've completed the main story, there's little incentive to play again.”
“The limited variety in gameplay mechanics means that replaying feels more like a chore than a fun experience.”
