Maintaining objectivity is probably one of the more difficult aspects of writing about games. To analyze a game on its own merits rather than those of its peers or predecessors is, perhaps, the most common example faced. Penny Arcade: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 3 (known from this point forward as Rain Slick 3) presents a different sort of challenge, though. How do I critique a flawed game that was made by only two people? Do I hold it to the same standards as any other game I write about?

I hit a similar conundrum when discussing I Am Alive. Most of my critiques were those the developers likely had themselves, and were simply making do with what they could.

There are also arguments of price and value. “You get what you pay for,” so to speak. Yet I’ve paid low prices for plenty of games that simply had greater polish than this. Castle Crashers and Dishwasher: Dead Samurai are cheap games made with only a handful of developers, and in the end they provide a much better experience than Rain Slick 3.

I imagine by now you’ve guessed that I wasn’t exactly pleased with the game.

I was originally upset to hear that Hothead would not retake the mantle of developing the series. I found Rain Slick 1&2 to be absolutely delightful titles with a nifty twist on turn-based combat. A natural evolution found in the likes of Super Mario RPG on the Super Nintendo. With the news that Zeboyd would take over, I became a bit skeptical. I liked the game being an evolution of those familiar games of my childhood, not an attempt to recreate them.

Even so, I decided I would give the game a fair shake. I wanted to see where the story went, and after playing it at PAX East 2012 I became a bit more optimistic.

The game is certainly creative in its design. The artistic style of the game is certainly influenced by the Final Fantasy series, but the combat takes it into a new direction. On each character’s turn they gain a point of magic, which they can either use immediately or store up for more powerful spells or abilities. If a character defends, then their next turn will come more quickly.

This is the core of combat. When facing more difficult foes, do you use a weaker ability immediately, deal a regular attack, or save up magic? That the enemies increase in power each round puts an emphasis on whittling down enemy health as quickly as possible. It makes combat more interesting and boss combat a greater challenge.

The game then implements a job system inspired by Final Fantasy V, but with its own twist. The character does not gain levels themselves, just the jobs assigned to them. While all jobs will level up, those equipped to characters will gain more experience and thus increase in level faster.

The different jobs are introduced early on and provide a large variety of different abilities, but most of them are so opaque that the player can spend a large portion of the game trying to figure how to appropriately make use of the different jobs without ever putting them to their best use. Or the player will simply stick to some of the more basic classes that they start with. These seem to be the most well-rounded, and in truth most useful. Some of them are much better in the passive abilities and statistics they provide, such as Crabomancer, and very few prove themselves as regularly useful, like Dinosorceror.

Being unable to wrap one’s head around such an obtuse job system featuring abilities such as Masochist, where many of the abilities inflict negative effects to the player, can lead to the entire center portion of the game being more difficult than it ought to be.

Difficult or no, the game certainly becomes a grind. The levels are simply designed poorly. The original Final Fantasy on the NES had some more interesting dungeons than those on display here. The folks at Zeboyd need to sit down, replay games like Final Fantasy VI and EarthBound, and figure out how the different dungeons were put together. Or better yet, play Wild Arms 3 and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Wild Arms 3 designed dungeons that were short and littered with puzzles, making each one fun and providing more obstacles than just combat.

Instead, the dungeons in Rain Slick 3 arbitrarily go in random directions, none suggesting which are primary roads and which may hold hidden treasures, with monsters placed in locations that the player cannot avoid. This is where the limited budget really stands out. The dungeons become way too long, none of them truly stand out for any reason, and pushing from one combat scenario to the next turns into a grind.

Yet all there is to really do in Rain Slick 3 are dungeons. There are no towns full of people to speak with, no mini-games to distract, just a series of dungeons and encounters. Eventually the player will be led into dungeons of dungeons, and they are all so identical in the layout that the final dungeon doesn’t even feel significant. There’s no sense of nearing a major conclusion.

Which is a real shame, because Jerry Holkins (known on the comic as Tycho Brahe) knows how to write and craft an interesting story. In the first two episodes it was mostly comedy, but in this third episode things take a major and dark turn. The impact is still great, but it is also heavily reduced by the presentation.

Rain Slick 4 will be releasing soon, but instead of being fired up again I am only curious if the game has been improved. I’ve been told I would love Zeboyd’s previous games, Breath of Death VII and Cthulu Saves the World. I had considered playing them after finishing Rain Slick 3. But if this most recent endeavor is the best that they have to offer, then I’m afraid I may have had my fill.

It’s a nice portfolio piece. It’s a nice senior thesis or project. But Zeboyd either needs to take more time developing the game or find a way to get more people on board, because their efforts are not enough to make a truly good, worthwhile game. Honestly, Jerry’s story deserves better.