Webcomic Book Club Full Reviews of RPG World by Ian Jones-Quartey

To me, this is an example of a excellent 'niche' or 'parody' comic. If you've never played any RPG games, you're not going to appreciate a lot of this comic. There's a ton of jokes that only make sense from that perspective. However, if you have played any RPG games - particularly those by Squaresoft - I think you'll find it amusing. It pokes fun at a variety of RPG standards, such as one-line NPCs and after-battle posing. Cherry's confusion with the absurdities of the world she's is the perfect way to express the whole idea. In addition, I think the art and storytelling are excellent. There are no muddy or unclear images, and the plot moves along swiftly enough to prevent boredom, but with enough detail to develop the various characters. The plot has become even stronger in recent strips as Cherry's background is revealed, giving hints as to why she sees the world the way she does. If you're a fan of RPG games, I strongly urge you to check this strip out. If you're not, you may still enjoy it but you're going to miss a lot of jokes too. I'd suggest looking for a less specialized strip. Review by Karol Luis Tue May 25 2004 02:35 PM

Art: This starts off crude, but there's a gradual and steady evolution through the years. It's hard to compare the first comic with its latest incarnation. Throughout, though, there is a 'loose' interpretation of anatomy-sleek lines seem to take precedence. This felt like a stylistic choice rather than a shortcoming in skill-but at times it irritated me. Story: This also took some time to evolve. At first, the story was simple parody-no real depth to it, and no shame about it either. Recently it's become more important, though, and we're starting to see inklings of the villain's plans. The heroes have only recently gained a good reason to travel, though we've heard a good deal about their origins-some of that was parody too, but it usually had serious elements. Characters: Again, an evolution took place. We started off with some crude development, which went in stops and starts-characters would have no known motivation, then suddenly get a backstory. It became smoother as time went on, though the Hero-Cherry-Diane love triangle has always felt forced to me. Visually, they've also gone through redesigns...however, I welcomed those. They always worked from the original designs, rather than sudden turn-arounds. The best change was probably in Galgarion....he went from a bad joke to a respectable adversary. We still don't know where his power comes from, but we know he's willing to kill, especially after his last encounter with the heroes. Writing: A little bumpier than the rest. In the beginning, this was very stop and start-jokes about RPG cliches were easy to pick out, and it could have fallen into a pit. Fortunately, the creator managed to pull things out, and we got to see more subtle things-such as where the summoned monsters come from, and how characters could actually exploit the strange 'rules' they had to cope with. The serious aspect has also been a welcome change, as it has slowly gained prominence in the story; it's taken time, but now I'm interested in what will happen next, as well as looking forward to the gags. Overall: If we had reviewed this comic earlier, even a year ago, I would have probably given it a lower grade. But it's still getting better over time-not through leaps and bounds, but simple, steady change. 8 out of 10. Review by Benor Fri May 21 2004 08:47 PM

"Welcome to another week of Salen's Comic Review. This week, we fight our way through hordes of monsters, in the hopes of EXP, GIL, and ITEMS! Yes, this week is RPG World Comic!" "So, what is it about this comic that makes it what it is? Well, like a LOT of webcomics, RPG World is all about taking roleplaying games you might have played on the Playstation or other console systems, and decided to parody those games in the form of a web comic. Because a LOT of comics do this, some of them are good, and a lot of them aren't so good. So what about RPG World? Lets take a look." Artwork: "Like I've said before, art can make or break a comic. In RPG World, the art is somewhat influenced by anime. The art is very clean, with very distinct lines, and while perhaps not the most technically minded artwork seen in the comic, the fact it remains fairly consistant is a bonus. It does evolve somewhat from the beginning, but mostly these changes seem to only improve the look of the comic, while still looking 'correct' to the style." "But, that doesn't explain everything about the comic. The comic plays up the fact that its a 'video game' RPG called "RPG World", and so it comes with its own menus, damage counters, save crystals, Save Point messages, and all of these really help to make you feel your watching a video game being played and not really reading a comic per say. Either way, you get a distinct video game feel while reading the comic." Characters: "Whats an RPG game without characters? And here, you have quite a few. All the characters in the comic seem to be well developed and while you might not see it to begin with, they all do. Some are following along for various reasons, just as are the bad guys and even some of the NPCs (Non-Player Characters). No real worry here about confusing character X with character Y either. The characters all have their own appearance and never seem to conflict with any others." "Ok, not all the characters are developed. Like some RPGs, a few characters are just around to say one or two things and thats about it. Like the "Sigh. Times are tough." bar-goer. Suprisingly, the humor seems to flow pretty easily between characters. And thats probably what makes this comic enjoyable is the interactions, along with the humor." Writing & Plot: "The plot, well, is based on your typical RPG game. Therefore its not exactly the most logical of plots but since this is a comic based on making the reader thing someone is playing a game called 'RPG World', it makes sense that it does the same as other RPGs." "As for the Writing, its pretty good. Its got a good sense of humor, and while not bust out laughing every day, it is quite humorous. Combine that with Real Life breaks taken by the 'player' of the game, and you get even more humor. Humorous, hell yeah." Overall: "I really like this comic, since its one of my 67 web comics I always read. You really can't go wrong with this, if you like Roleplaying games, or just video game humor. If you like Adventurers!, you'll most definantly like this comic. And if you like this comic, you'll probably like Adventurers! as well. Plus the artists have done an occasional cross-over comic between the two, so you may want to read both just to enjoy it even more." "So, if your looking for a good comic that mocks roleplaying video games, while still being funny, and true to its source, you should read this comic! If nothing else, there are some really cool filler comics at times, such as the Halloween comics, where the cast of RPGWorld dress up like different video game characters. The only way this comic could really be more enjoyable is if it was more than 3 days a week." Score: 9.5 out of 10 Review by Salen Stormwing Fri May 21 2004 04:14 PM

Cutting right to it this time, my review of RPG world: Overview RPG World is, as its name suggests, a parody of console Role-Playing Games everywhere. All in all, it's quite well-done, and one that I'd read before it came up for review. The game features a fairly stereotypical cast, a Hero-Without-A-Name-or-Background, an Elven thief, bad rogue turned good, brazen hussie, mechanic (and pirate! Bonus!), as well as a pair of "cute things that would be good but you need so many side-quests to get them that you never use the them". The plot's fairly typical for an RPG, and features the Hero making up his own ideas of what's supposed to be going on at every turn; often by-passing the real plotline. Indeed, it seems that every character in the game knows that it's a game aside from the hero, right down to the door guard that says "I have to say something every time you press 'x'" when asked why he's revealing so much information. Now, for some more detailed commentary: Art It's not a masterpiece in this respect, but the artwork fits in quite well with the comic. The artwork reminds me of the sprite era of RPGs without actually being sprites, and at the same time harkens to the modern 3D era. Crisp and clean, it has style without consuming too much of the artist's time. I'm fond of it, myself. Story The story is hard to follow at times, but in being a spoof of RPGs that's expected. Often the fourth wall is sorta mangled, like in the instance of save points being put in just ahead of the party, but again it's appropriate for the style being put forth. Characters The characters and interaction between them is wonderful, with Eikre occasionally putting off his "superficial pervert" mode in favor of deeper character. Similarly, I enjoyed Harold's recent comment "And here I thought you switched class from 'Harlot' a long time ago." The interaction between them is a thing to behold. "Real World" There's a few cutscenes, which break a fourth wall for the RPG characters, but at the same time it remains as part of the comic, adding to the suspense of disbelief. In these, you follow the player as he reacts to the game, posts to messageboards, and other amusing side-plots while dealing with his friend and posters who have already completed the game. Final thoughts RPG world has a long, well-thought-out plotline that's far from finished, but keeps enough one-shot jokes in it so people can keep up and stay amused. Recently, there's been a few "readers' notes", probably signaling that things are coming to a major turning point. It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here on out. I consider this comic to rate 4 out of 5 tails. Review by Krinele Fullin Wed May 19 2004 02:03 PM

Offsite Review Summaries

"Most of the story, characters and jokes are based on clichés in the console RPG and anime genres. For example, the main character, Hero, has large, blond, spiky hair; amnesia; and wields an oversized sword—traits that are shared with that most preeminent of RPG protagonists, Final Fantasy 7's Cloud Strife. The other characters fit into similar molds. The villains, too, fit a number of archetypes, such as the huge and faceless corporation, the insane and effeminate individual, and the enigmatic man. Other cliches include the tendency of every major character (and often minor ones as well) to have some sort of buried history with one another." more... Read Full Review by Wikipedia contributors at Wikipedia Sun Oct 03 2004

Visitor Reviews & Comments

I must admit, i was addicted to RPG world as soon as i began reading. It's absolutley amazing how much the artwork and plot have progressed, and reading it up to it's current day comic, you can really see the difference. I have always been partial to the characters, and the the recent love stories have had me reading avidly. I'm a die-hard Cherry fan, and i was always rooting for her eachtime conflict with diane came up. The most recent comic, of Diane and Cherry's resolve truely touched me, as did it when (spolier) diane kissed hero behind Cherry's back. It has to be said, my heart broke with sympathey for Cherry then, even though i knew subconsiously that Diane had rights to it, my heart broke as Cherry's anger and hurt was portrayed so vividly. The comic is always based around a game, and that's where many of the humourous elements come into it. I prefer the serious scenes to the humourous ones, as the creator just captures emotion so perfectly. I give this comic 9.5/10 Review by huzzah Sun Oct 10 2004 02:07 PM

This comic just died on me. Good jokes in the 1st couple of months. Then, with poor exposition, repeat gags, and a meandering plotline we've dropped into a purgatory of irrelevant side quests (We get it, they have nothing to do with the main plot). Reviewed 1 year ago: 8 of 10 Reviewed in 2003: 4 of 10 Review by YeaRR Thu May 27 2004 05:38 AM

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