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Three things I like are as follows: 1. At the beginning of the games, player progression seems quick and does not require real world money purchases. As the game progresses I'm sure this model will return to something more akin to a traditional exponential progression system. 2. The UI is somewhat familiar even though I've never played this game before. The UI is definitely reminiscent of classic RPGs such as Final Fantasy and Chronotrigger. The inventory system however, leaves much to be desired. 3. Especially in this time that people really shouldn't be going outside, The game is being more than generous in spawning things to interact with around me. I'm unsure if this is a change thats been made because of the C-19 crisis and I am aware that Pokemon Go has already made changes. Although it is worth noting that the area I'm playing in was never a hotpot for Pokemon Go, Ingress, or Minecraft Earth
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All other apps I've looked into seem to have a camera based AR system in place. In Pokemon Go you can see the Pokemon appear on an overlay of the area you're in by utilizing the camera. Minecraft Earth does something similar in that you can create structures out of blocks and you need to reposition yourself in the real world to view the structure from different angles. Ingress did not have any such feature when I last played, though that was years ago. As far as I've been able to explore, ORNA doesn't have any camera based AR features. Something else of note is that the map you are presented cannot be turned, as it can be in the other games I've looked into. Likely this is an artistic decision to keep the game true t5o its retro RPG roots.
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Suggestions for ORNA: The radial menu used for the character information is a lot less intuitive than it could be. On one hand, it does eliminate the need for the user to scroll. Though on the other I find myself searching for things every time I open the menu. I also feel that some of these options could be reorganized.
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Though it may break from the games that inspire this one's style, adding an option to slightly pan the camera, or to zoom out, would be welcome. As far as I can tell , there is no way to search the area nearby you for a point of interest, as there is in similar games. This would help users know which ways they should be traveling. Being stuck in my home as I am, I actually don't have a way of knowing if there actually ARE points of interest without searching on the internet.
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The Unequip button is just in a terrible spot. The UI features an X button to close an equipment screen, as well as a large red button to unequip. The X button is static, and the Unequip button is always at the bottom of the current inventory. This can mean mis-pressing one button or the other. I would suggest to move the Unequip button to right side of the currently equipped item and always have that item at the top of current list of items.
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I think this game is purely that - a game. It would be nice to see them expand the game to feature community events similar to Ingress and Pokemon Go to encourage play together I would give this app a 3.5/5. I think the game itself is nearly perfect in its functionality and play-ability. Most of the points lost come from some strange UI choices and a few on the UX front. Mainly the placement of some buttons are an issue on the UI side. From the UX view, limiting the user in order to maintain an old-school feel may be hurting the app more then the nostaliga is helping.
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