Reputation proceeds it.

Lotta stinkers lately...

Way back in the before times, when the world made sense, life was good, and the biggest political scandal was two bags of sentient grapes upset they didn't receive oral sex, I once rented a video game. That's how long ago this was... That game had a neat title and gave off a dark aura in the screenshots. It looked like a grittier FFVII. It was something that called to my preteen edginess. I got it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I ended up getting the flu during those five days, but I remember really wanting to play it while I was dying. Despite that, I couldn't beat it and never rented it again. Ten years later, before college, I remembered it existed and tried again. I overwhelmed myself with emulatable games, so I moved on to something else. Fifteen more years later, and I'm giving it a third go. I'm also tapping out. 

Shadow Madness sucks. 

The worst part of the game is the graphics. It came out two years after FF VII, and it's an imitation of that style. And it's a terrible homage to that! Characters are even uglier, room transitions are just wherever with zero indication of their existence, interactable stuff blends in with the dull pre rendered backgrounds, and even the CGI is outdated. FF VII was stunning. Legend of Dragoon was released the same year, and its CGI was rad. I didn't like Grandia, but its graphics were charming. Shadow Madness was trying for dark and gritty, and, in a way, it hit it. But then again, so does a closing grave. Valkyrie Profile hit the brooding atmosphere. Parasite Eve nailed it. Even Vandal Heatts II looks better than this. And the spell animations... But at least there are plenty of models. 5/10

The story is one dimensional. Evil guy is evil because he's evil. Perhaps there's a twist somewhere, but I didn't see one when I spoiled the final boss. Even the characters are flat. They want revenge and have no plans for the next phase in their life. They barely even have a background. Again, there is no change in any of them. At least as far as I played. Harv-V might have something going on, but there are only hints. And the pacing is terrible. The writers had a field day and wrote so much for the game. They made the world and its history massive. And the characters, no matter how unimportant, love to yap. It gets jarring after a few hours. I can't care anymore. 4/10

The gameplay is straight from 1989. Physical characters can only attack with nothing special about them. Magic characters have too many spells, and I don't know what they do. They're also expensive. Besides that, the basics are turn based and a combination of Grandia, Chrono Cross, and Super Mario RPG. Battles play out on a field where you'll need to move close to melee them. It's akin to CC because there are three attack types: weak, normal, and aggressive. No matter what you choose, though, you're gonna miss at a fifty percent chance rate. Super Mario RPG is referenced because melee attacks can have their damage doubled with a properly timed button press. I played on easy, and all the battles were just long and monotonous. There is a way to avoid random battles, but it didn't work for me. I was also told you could do a "twitch attack," but that, too, didn't work, or I didn't understand it. Either way, I'm bored... And that's all you can do in Shadow Madness. Besides all the fetch quests... 5/10

The soundtrack is strange. It's half ambient sounds and half John Williams orchestral score. However, it's eight CDs long... Every area, almost no matter how small, has its own theme. Nothing lasts long enough to get stuck in your brain. Turns out there is such a thing as too much variety. It's all pretty good, though. 7/10

The game is too long, lacks side quests, important NPCs, and exploring is tedious because the battles suck. The world building and history are massive, though, and the writing has its moments. Seeing as Working Designs worked on the game, it falls apart from time to time, though. Pop culture references are plentiful, but at least it's funny. 4/10

The encounter dodge bugged out on me. -2

The accuracy of all attacks slows the game down, and SM has one of the worst item inventory limits I've ever played. -4

In total, kid me was stupid. Why did he like a game that got 19 out of 50 points? 

I thought it was fun at first, and I wanted to keep playing. But the party was split up for too long, and one side is a fetch quest nesting doll. I think I'm about eighty percent through Shadow Madness, but I hate this and want to do something more rewarding with my already miserable life. I can't believe they ported this to Steam two years ago...