I've had this game on my wishlist for quite some time, but I have to say that I am a bit disappointed with how it turned out; there are a number of glaring issues that prevent me from giving it a positive rating. Here are my thoughts after a full playthrough:
GAME SUMMARY
Gem Venture is a 2D Action-platformer in which you play as Axel, a pickaxe-wielding miner who goes on an adventure to recover the “Sacred Gems” from the evil Tourmaline. The game is loosely inspired by the Nintendo Wii game “Super Paper Mario” (or SPM), featuring a similar battle system, level-based structure, and general theming; as a certified Paper Mario Junkie (tm), I of course had to play it once I found this out.
THINGS I LIKED
-The protagonist's movement is very fluid and responsive, and the level design often takes advantage of this. The game isn’t particularly difficult, but that doesn’t make running through the stages any less fun. You also learn new moves after reaching certain level milestones (5, 10, 20, 40), which give you additional options to traverse the stages. The “stylish” system where you gain additional EXP for chaining enemy hits is also pretty great.
-The card system is probably the best mechanic in the game (and also one of very few). It works similarly to how it does in SPM; you find cards hidden throughout the stages, and these cards grant unique effects, typically either doubling the damage you deal to a particular enemy or increasing the amount of gems you get per gem collected. There are a total of 32 cards, and a few of them are really hard to find, requiring you to perform precise inputs or notice nondescript fake walls that can be walked or slid through. This mechanic encourages the player to explore each stage fully in order to collect every card, which is very good. My only complaint is that there is no way to tell how many uncollected cards are left in each stage, meaning that you will pretty much have to replay the entire game if you don’t find each card the first time through. It can't be that hard to have a counter that tracks your card progress for each stage, so I am hopeful that the developer will add this in a future update.
-The music is quite good, though nothing to write home about in my opinion. The sound effects do a much better job at establishing the tone of the game.
MAIN ISSUES
-The game suffers from extreme lag spikes almost constantly, often dragging the game down to roughly 20-30 FPS. I do not believe this is a problem with my computer, as I am able to run much higher-end games without issue. The game is still playable in this state, though it certainly makes things a lot more challenging given that you have to specifically plan your actions around the lag. The issue seems to get worse in more enemy-intensive stages, and gradually lessens as more enemies are defeated throughout the stage, so this could simply be a problem with the game's engine (Pixel Game Maker MV) being unable to handle too many enemy objects loaded at once. Whatever the cause, it is the greatest problem with the game by far, and heavily discourages me from replaying it (which also makes collecting all the cards a much bigger headache than it would otherwise be).
-The enemy/boss design is not very creative; on the enemy side, there are only a couple dozen of them in the entire game, over half of which are recolors (who often just have more health and slightly modified attack patterns). I understand that coming up with unique enemies is hard, but fighting the exact same set of enemies over and over again just makes the game feel monotonous. And the boss fights are not much better, since most of them just have 1-2 attacks that they repeat throughout the entire fight.
-The uses for the "gems" you collect are very limited; so limited, in fact, that there is literally only one use, and that is to buy gem medals from the shop in the first hub world. These medals give you some experience and also restore 10HP, making them one of very few ways to recover HP (unlike SPM, there is no item/inventory system). But if this is the only use for gems, then why have them as a currency system at all? Just have them give you EXP upon collection so the player can "skip the middleman" and avoid having to go back to the first world after every boss. I could understand if there were shops other than this one that served other purposes, but this is the only shop in the game!
-There is not a whole lot of gameplay variety in general; SPM at least had a ton of optional areas with stuff to do, such as the Arcade, the Pit of 100 Trials, and so on. Here, you just have the 9 main stages and that’s it. There aren’t even any difficulty options or game modes beyond the main story. Given the short length of the game (roughly 4-6 hours), this is hardly excusable.
MINOR NITPICKS
-There are a number of NPCs in the hub worlds who are seemingly interactable, but strangely aren't. Examples include the ponytailed girl who often appears in these screens, as well as the younger male character (presumably Axel’s siblings). It’s fine if they are only there for “decoration,” but at least explain to the player that not all NPCs can be talked to first, as it is a bit confusing otherwise.
-Only a handful of NPCS have unique character portraits, despite each one having a unique overworld sprite. Instead, most use generic “stickman” portraits, which seems a bit odd.
-If you replay a stage you have already cleared, you can press the Shift key to skip to the next substage. This is nice and all, but it would be better to just have a direct level select (ya know, like SPM had), especially since you can only skip one substage at a time.
-Additionally, there is no way of telling which substage you are on; there isn’t a level indicator anywhere.
-Cutscenes are unskippable.
-I am not sure if this is a bug or not, but landing on an enemy while sliding down a wall does not count as a hit, and instead causes you to take contact damage. This is especially annoying in the seventh stage’s boss fight, as there are two enclosed walls on either side of the arena that you’re supposed to dash up in order to attack him, but the specific timing for this is ridiculous (it also doesn’t help that the boss is faster than you).
-Again, not sure if this is a bug, but the bed in the first hub world only restores 5 HP at a time (which is your starting HP value). This means that you will have to sleep over and over again at higher HP values in order to recover all of your health, which is just needlessly tedious.
CONCLUSION
Ultimately, I give the game a 5/10. If the lag issue is ever fixed then I will raise my rating to 7/10. Given the game's current state, I simply cannot recommend it, especially in comparison to far better games in the genre (and even in the subgenre; Underhero by Paper Castle Games is another SPM-like that is also on Steam) at a similar price.
scattered throughout the land, and they can give you small bonuses whether it's based on friends or foes. If you're a completionist, try collecting them all!