♦ Livestream of the ZZT world "PARTIDO" by COCONUTMONKY (2002) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/partido/]. ♦
Exploring an RPG that starts off strong, and then the game begins.
In Partido, the world is held in balance by the usual elemental orbs: fire, water, earth, life, and death. When the death orb goes missing and the life orb vanishes as well, it's up to three kids Jake, Greg, and Beth to restore all the orbs and save the world.
The beginning seems solid enough. The main menu has such nice presentation that it's worth pointing out. The starting board of gameplay is a bit muddy, as are much of the visuals, but the touch-based combat has a novel feature of all three characters providing random comments as you attack. It does a good job of making the player feel like they're controlling an entire group, and not just the leader of team.
But as with all good things, it eventually just stops happening, leaving the combat feeling rather uninteresting.
There's an RPG engine as well. The pacing is slow, but it has some decent effects. Shame that it's only used for a single fight and it's one players are scripted to lose, making the whole thing go to waste.
The castle is at least nice looking! Some boards, the game's art style works out nicely. Others not so much.
As the game goes on, the quality drops off with repetitive boards of fighting the same enemies and grabbing the same food off the ground for health. Occasionally an orb is found and restored.
A second file has a bizarre boss battle in the mountains against an entire band of warriors. Eventually, you meet the actual villain leading to the obligatory cliffhanger without a follow-up game.
Overall, a well-meaning fantasy adventure that doesn't give players much to get excited for. While there's some fun to be had, there's just not enough that actually happens to leave a lasting impression.
♦ Play this world directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/partido/
♦ Originally streamed on July 12th, 2024 ♦
