January 2023: Alfador Isle
Area of the Month for January 2023 is Alfador Isle!
A template format for your review is below; click 'edit' at the top of the page, copy-pasta from the ---- to the next ----, and fill in the gaps!
(Yes, a wiki account is required to edit the page and therefore post your review, but take heart: The wiki is hosted by the Cleft itself, not a third party!
Player: You!(Class/Level)
Review Date(s):
Descriptions: X/10
How does the area's room descriptions(descs) work for you? Do they give you a good idea of the area? Do things that stand out in the desc and NEED explanation GET that, either from flavor text(extra-descs) or NPCs in the room or anything?
What about mobiles(mobs) and their descriptions? Can you get a decent mental image of who or what this NPC/monster is? Do they respond when you talk or interact with them?
Some areas have interact-able objects like fountains. Do they stack up well also?
Balance: X/10 (OR N/A)
(NOTE: combat will be most accurately gauged when your character is in the area's suggested level range.)
If this area has combat, how does it feel? Does anything jump as horribly overpowered and impossible to deal with? What about the flipside, anything far too easy to beat?
Are purchased or rewarded items at the appropriate strength levels? Is the effort required to obtain rewarded items reflected in their usefulness (or uniqueness and fancifulness)
Attractions: X/10
Why would you suggest someone come to this area? Is it just a good place to grind experience(lots of mobs)? Does the area provide a chunk of good gold and loot?
What about the quests? Does this area's quests feel properly done, or is there some part of it that you feel needs work?
For towns, are the shops good? Any other non-combative attraction for the area?
Connections: X/10
How easily and well does this area connect to its nearby areas? Does it make sense thematically to be connected to the areas it is?
Player: Garant(Ninja/41) -- TOKEN'D!
Review Date(s):1-26-23
Descriptions: 10/10
The room descriptions are creative and informative. Everything is connected via easy to see or figure out room desc. No rubbing your face on walls to figure out how to proceed! Everything is lively and evokes mental visuals in every area. From the forest to the hamlet and in Magus' Castle itself, every tile you walk to will be a pleasure to read and mull over as you proceed to explore.
Balance: 8/10
Majority of the area is fairly balanced. You might have a rather large gathering of enemies stuck behind closed doors, but overall I would say it's balanced. There are a couple of fights where you might need to take caution and proceed carefully. The Big Bats like to form trios and being succ'd to death is a very real possibility. Haunters in the area are also rather strong, and if they are still able to clump up in Ozzie's boss room and their backstab attack (Sucker Punch) doesn't hit like it used to (~200 a punch) but is still a painful occurrence (~50-70 a punch) and there are multiple present in the room, so use AoE with EXTREME caution.
Final Boss himself is sort've on the squishy side, but then again he is a nerdy wizard, no matter how many cool capes he wears. But his spells are nothing to sneeze at, and he uses them a lot during his fights.
Attractions: 10/10
Some of the more used items in the game are found here. The shops, while overpriced, hold some rather powerful equipment for Mid-30s if you can afford it. The only thing lacking in the area is a stable source of food and water for those who may need it. You can buy filled canteens from the shop here, but it's super expensive. If you don't feel like buying equips, the forest and castle proper have some pretty good stuff awaiting procurement from within. XP is good, lots of enemy variety in my opinion if you can safely navigate the entire zone. Would be cool to have a quest where the inhabitants didn't hate you.
Connections: 7/10
It's super easy to get to Alfador Isle. Getting BACK to where you came from might be an issue depending on where you're coming from. It connects nicely to some higher leveled areas, and those areas are certainly worth exploring.
Overall the zone is pretty straightforward and fun to explore and play in.
TOTAL 8/10
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Player: Linn(Priest/100) SHELL'D!
Review Date(s): 1/26/2023
Descriptions: 8/10
When you first enter Alfador through the ferry, you're given a nice little paragraph describing both the ominous forest that awaits you, as well as a good view of the horizon, showing off El Nido. Fans of the Chrono games will likely appreciate the nod, and I personally always like when related areas are in relative proximity.
Taking your first steps forward the southern path turns from a sandy shore to the dark woods that, while not too treacherous, aren't completely straightforward, either. Personally I feel this area is just the right size, given that you're likely here for one of three attractions. Nobody likes getting lost in the woods, and that's unlikely here.
Venturing northwest through the woods, the dark and creepy vibes continue throughout, eventually leading to unnatural stone formations, which can actually be examined for a bit more flavor text! When not used in excess, I do enjoy descriptors like this for things that return more flavor than "nothing unusual". A single apple tree on the farthest northwest section of the forest is a freebie source of food for non-Reploid peoples, a fun little nicety for the adventurer on a tight budget.
Eastward, the gloomy forest straight out of a horror movie gives way to an onyx gate with a crayon-scribbled sign leading to Medina, village of the imps. I've always enjoyed the quaint feeling of this place, and by comparison to the armed soldiers in Magus' employ, these guys seem a lot more mischievous and a lot less murderous. Everything here is comparatively pint-sized, a little detail that drew a grin from me as I was writing this.
On the north side of the island is Magus' castle, and its as dark and spooky as you would expect. With one minor spoiler-y exception there isn't anything to pay attention to in room descriptions within other than the immersion factor, which is done well here. As an aside, the periodic ambient noises such as the distant screeching in the forest and the ghostly horrors in the castle are a nice touch, I always appreciate zones that incorporates those.
Of the mobs in the area, nearly everything on the island feels accurate to the source material, while distinctly remixed in that Cleft sorta way. The Medina citizens themselves are a fun variety of characters. Very colorful they are, its clear a good deal of care was put into the characterization of even the most minor NPCs here. All of the notable, named NPCs that dwell within Magus' castle are the ones you likely expect, with few real surprises.
Balance: 8/10
In general, combat here is pretty simple, even for those on-level. I don't think throughout my two year history with Cleft I've ever struggled with any of the mobs or bosses in this area whatsoever. And that's okay, I think its a good thing to have an accessible area to fall back on, especially if you find yourself struggling in McNeil, a more dangerous area that has a level range overlapping with this zone. A few scattered solo mobs in the forest are ripe for the pickings of those aiming to push level boundaries and grind above their weight class, and the early rooms of the Castle are prime candidates for this too.
There are, however, a small handful of rooms within Magus' Castle where you can find yourself ganged up on by a big number of foes at once. While I never had too much issue with it, good general advice for the entire game applies here: keep your Health/Mana/Move up between fights. No one mob here is particularly nasty, but a small army of them at once can send you home with a hefty Necro bill.
OF NOTE: the one major outlier in difficulty is the Battlefield Rune, it is easily the most dangerous subsection of the entire zone, capable of sending a player packing if they aren't prepped and paying attention. By its nature, you will be facing 3 - 4 things per wave, and they always get the jump on you, and many of them have tricks a low level player may not have seen before. Don't ever get overconfident here, even if above level!
As for quest rewards, the boss drops feel largely middling in terms of power, neither particularly bad or exceptionally good. Given that its mostly a straight-forward run through a few branching rooms, that's not all too unexpected, and I can't claim the modest effort required to clear the castle feels unrewarding given its relative ease. Honestly, the best prize to be had isn't even from the Castle itself, but the forest's Battlefield Rune... 16 remorts in and I still wear two copies of the ring prize for a majority of each run (and it can be enchanted! Just remember, one drop per remort!!)
Attractions: 9/10
Firstly, anyone that's a fan of Chrono Trigger will likely enjoy the sights, I know this is what drew me to the area early in my Cleft career, years ago. Great care has been made to keep the Chrono Trigger vibe in this area, and I really dig it.
Flavor isn't the only reason to check this place out, for such a compact zone there is a good deal to be done here. Trainers on their gym challenge will want to pay a visit to the Medina Pokemon gym to continue that quest line, and the miniquest involved to challenge the gym leader shouldn't put you too far out of your way to solve.
For everyone else, there are two other really good reasons to visit, the less obvious of which being the Battlefield Rune in the northwest part of the forest! I always love encountering these, though this one as mentioned before is decidedly more difficult than Truce Canyon's. The enemy variety in this one is rather diverse, don't expect to just get hit with some lazy DPS, some of the mobs you'll face have some nasty surprises, keep recall scrolls at the ready to dip if it gets dicey! The reward for clearing this rune is well worth it even if you're overleveled, I highly recommend you nab it every remort!
And of course, the main event, Magus' castle. For such a daunting keep, the interior isn't actually all that massive, which I can appreciate. There's a bit to say about the navigation here and the sheer number of keys you have to manage, but its all done in a particular order that isn't too obtuse. The rewards within are potentially worthwhile for first/low remort characters, though nothing absolutely spectacular. still, if you love Chrono Trigger, its worth a run through for the fun of it, and the mob density means on-level players will likely come out a with a heaping helping of EXP.
Grinding area of note: The first few rooms of Magus' castle are very mob dense. Henches are aggro but they have a unique "slow" aggro cycle, oblivious to your presence until you've hung around for several pulses. Generally, it isn't too dangerous of a spot to do some good old fashioned bashin'. There are a few common pieces of loot that include some weapons at this range, and though none of them are particularly noteworthy, Merchants will probably come out with more than an armful of stuff to fence off for some sweet, sweet low-level gold.
There's also a quaint little weapon shop in Medina that has some options for every weapon type, for non-Reploids that have found themselves behind the damage dice curve, which actually seem pretty decent for store-bought options. If you're level 35 and find yourself in dire need of an upgrade, you could do worse.
Connections: 9/10
A simple ticket from Truce will put you on a ferry that will get you to your destination. I never really understood why these ferries needed to force you to wait for the duration of the ride, and why you can't simply be teleported to the location upon handing in the ticket, but immersion isn't a bad thing unless it actively hurts the gameplay experience, and the ride is rather short anyway. Alfador works as a means to get over to Cactuar island, which is a particularly nice leveling zone in its own range, as well as the Seaside town in Shadmire.
Being that its a ferry ride to get here, there's obviously no walking back, and a player would be foolish to spend a ticket on a ferry back where they came from. A shop in Medina itself sells recall scrolls in case you forgot yours, its nice to see care was taken to prevent an underleveled player from getting easily stuck here.
An easily accessible owlite statue is also here that requires no extra obnoxious quest hoops to jump through. Hooray for convenience!
Overall: 8.5/10
One of my favorite areas in the low level range, a place I frequently return to on my remort speedruns. It's definitely worth going through the gauntlet of Magus' castle at least once, especially if you're a fan of the source game. There's no real needless frustration or obtuse builder mind-reading to contend with. All and all, very comfy and enjoyable.