Adventure Forward 3: Crown of Shadows

'''Note: This article isn't meant to be a hate page towards Rovers and/or the game itself. This page is just criticizing the demo as well, not the full game. If it was a hate page, then pointers such as W2-W9 not being available would be there. The previous games would also be on this wiki as well if this was a hate page, and there would be no redeeming qualities at all if this was a hate page as well. This game couldn't go on Perfection Roblox Games Wiki, otherwise the rules and guidelines would be broken, since bad qualities can't outnumber good qualities. This article is meant to discuss the flaws of the game as well. If the rest of the worlds of the new game manage to improve, then a page for Stars Align will be made on Perfection Roblox Games Wiki as well. The main reason as to why this page is on this wiki is because that other users who went in-depth about the game mostly said that the game was average or negative. If the opinion on this game was more rare and not 50/50, then this game wouldn't be on either wiki. I hope that I've made it clear now, and thanks.'''

'''Note 2: This article was made before the game was cancelled, so please do not consider this article as beating on a dead game, and attempting to vandalize this article will get your account terminated off Miraheze. Read the Rules and Guidelines of this wiki first if you want more information on this.'''

'''Note 3: This article is based on an earlier version of Stars Align, back when the game was once an Adventure Forward game, meaning that no content from the game's post-Adventure Forward status will be added to this article. This article's staying up for preservation purposes.'''

Adventure Forward 3: Crown of Shadows was a Roblox adventure game created by SirRovers and multiple other developers. It would have been the third main entry in the Adventure Forward series, and it would have been the first main Adventure Forward game to not be made by Explode1 as well, however, the game was cancelled by SirRovers, along with Adventure Forward 2: Repainted, due to being attacked by people who had previously been with Explode1. The game is currently being rebranded into a different game called Stars Align.

Story
The game would have taken place after the first two games, mh:perfectionrobloxgames:Adventure Forward 1: Star Savior and mh:perfectionrobloxgames:Adventure Forward 2: Points of Conflict, where three years after Celesteal's defeat and Stratosfear's freedom, all of a sudden, Voixer would have randomly returned after a permanent death from the previous game as Anshine and Stratosfear walked down the Hall of Memories, and Voixer would have attempted to take over the world, and it was up to the player to stop Voixer and his diabolical schemes.

Why It Was a Crown of a Mess

 * 1) The thumbnail was very bland, as all that it shows is the main game title, Adventure Forward 3: Crown of Shadows, with a purple and broken version of Voixer's symbol behind the main game title, along with a crown that looks more like spikes above the 3. To make matters worse, unlike the previous two games where it shows some activity like a few characters making movements such as Mayor Maynot posing and Anshine running towards a Star, this game on the other hand has nothing special happening on the thumbnail.
 * 2) In the demo of the game, there was a plot hole (and while this would later be fixed, this was after the demo closed). In the previous game, Voixer permanently died in the post-game mission, Ascension, in 5 Parts, yet in this game, he returned randomly without any explanation as to why he came back.
 * 3) The plot was once again your generic "Oh no, an evil guy has taken over your home, now you must stop him", and while this isn't that bad at first, there was barely anything interesting added into the plot to make it more unique, and to make matters worse, the previous two games were seven and three years old by the time that the demo of this game released, with both games sharing identical plots as well, and to make things even worse, plenty of other Roblox adventure series from multiple years ago shared identical plots as well, with some of them making the idea of the plot more unique as well.
 * 4) The animation was very strange, as sometimes, the limbs for a few of the characters detached from their bodies, and the limbs also moved awkwardly and unrealistically.
 * 5) There were loading screens throughout the game, and sometimes, they could take around one minute to get through, which damaged the pacing of the game, and Adventure Forward 2: Points of Conflict might have had loading screens as well, but that game's loading screens only took around 2-5 seconds to finish.
 * 6) The gameplay was considered to be even worse than the first game's gameplay, and was cluttered with walking and the same exact and identical jumps as well, which got boring after a little while, and a few mechanics such as the Boost Bomb damaged the pacing of the game more than improving the game itself, and it didn't help that some other bad qualities listed later made this flaw even worse.
 * 7) The music had trouble playing normally sometimes, since the music randomly cut off and looped back to the beginning of the song sometimes, and the music just completely stopped sometimes.
 * 8) The game was extremely laggy and was even laggy on some more newer devices such as a Windows 10 too, and unlike the first and second games where sometimes, the player might need to lower their graphics level down by around two bars, this game on the other hand sometimes required players to lower their graphics level down to as far as graphics levels 6 or 5 instead, which is the point of where more details start to noticeably go missing (excluding lowering the graphics level from ten to nine, which is mostly just shadows and brightness being less visible).
 * 9) The camera wasn't allowed to be zoomed out far enough to see a majority of the first world, Tick Tock Garden, which could have often led to some very confusing navigation.
 * 10) The control scheme felt useless, since unlike Adventure Forward 3: Vain Revival where there were multiple moves that the player could pull off such as a dive and a long jump and how the move set was designed around the level design of that game, this game however only had a roll that was mainly only used around three times throughout Tick Tock Garden, and it didn't even feel like the game was designed around the rolling mechanic either, since there was only around three moments where the player was forced to use the roll in order to get closer to a Star.
 * 11) This game used a poor grasp of the source material, with two examples being that every Point from worlds 1-9 in the previous game, aside from Anshine, were seemingly only used to fill up certain areas in the Sky Emporium, and the Bugs were also not present in Tick Tock Garden as well, which was really odd considering that the player was in a garden, and that bugs are often found in certain objects like trees and grassy areas such as yards and gardens as well.
 * 12) This game tried extremely hard to be edgy, and it also tried to be the edgiest game in the series, since that the edginess started as early as the introduction sequence with how it tried to come off with a very dark tone, and it didn't have a good buildup either, making it feel a bit out of place and somewhat random, along with making it look like an attempt to be cool as well, rather than an attempt to build up the story. Some of the dialogue in the introduction came off as a bit cheesy as well.
 * 13) Tick Tock Garden was way too big, especially for a first world, and the camera wasn't allowed to be zoomed out enough to help see where the player was in the world as stated earlier, and there wasn't even a map to indicate where the player was, but even if there was a better camera or a map to help the player find their way throughout the world, the world was still way too big, especially for a first world once again.
 * 14) The game suffered from enemy starvation, since that there was only one type of an enemy present in Tick Tock Garden, with these enemies being called Grandling's, and they didn't even feel like enemies. The Bugs weren't present either as stated earlier, and the Bully Bots didn't appear either, although they'd appear later in the game. Even other adventure games that released earlier than this game such as A ROBLOX Quest: Bloxxy-Tooie and Roblox Adventure 3: The Rise of Nobeesi had a few enemies that not only felt like enemies, but actually tried to attack the player in some sort of way, such as by walking up to the player to reduce their health or firing objects to hit the player.
 * 15) As stated earlier, the Grandling's didn't even feel like enemies, since that all that they did was just stand in one spot trying to spot the player, and if the player was in their sight, the player would have died instantly.
 * 16) Speaking of enemies, at some point during Tick Tock Garden, there was a section where multiple Grandling's were spammed throughout a castle in one of the Star paths. Scripting might not be the easiest thing on Roblox, but if they could script an entire giant world, along with fixing the boss fights from Adventure Forward 2: Points of Conflict, then they could have most certainly added at least one more enemy in Tick Tock Garden as well, so what was wrong with just making/adding a new enemy? There was also plenty of space in other sections throughout the world to add other enemies, and it felt like a proper moment to bring in new enemies or even bring back the Bugs from the first game as well.
 * 17) The first boss fight in Tick Tock Garden, King Chronos, was a very poor boss fight, since that he was not only broken in earlier versions of the game since that he didn't properly teleport the player to his boss fight, but the game didn't tell the player what to do in order to defeat King Chronos either, and most players claimed that it left them stuck on the boss fight figuring out how to hurt him for around 10 minutes, and to make matters even worse, once the player did figure out how to damage him, the fight was extremely boring, since that the player only dodged two different attacks, and the boss fight was cluttered with waiting to press the button in the middle of the arena to damage King Chronos when one of the hands of the clock that the player stood on landed on the lighted spot required to damage the boss.
 * 18) The game tried way too hard to appeal to a modern audience for no other reason than to appeal to Roblox itself rather than the original fans of the series, since that it just kept on stepping in older tracks instead.
 * 19) The game overall didn't really fit the theme of a regular Adventure Forward game, and it felt more like a fangame of a different and more official series instead. It's hard to describe why, but it just didn't feel right to have it as an Adventure Forward game.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) When the introduction cutscene got redesigned after the demo of this game closed, the plot hole was fixed, since that Voixer explained how he returned to life instead. Also, while the demo was still up, the developers fixed King Chronos, which allowed the player to teleport to his fight properly.
 * 2) The graphics were a great step up from the other Adventure Forward games, especially the first game, and had a lot of details put into them, such as having branches and leaves scattered across Tick Tock Garden.
 * 3) Despite the music having trouble playing as stated earlier, the soundtrack itself was pretty neat and catchy, and had a ton of Kirby songs put in throughout the soundtrack, and the songs themselves fit with the themes of the places where they were played at as well.
 * 4) The idea of the first world being a clock-themed garden, the concept of the Boost Bomb along with the concept of King Chronos' fight in Tick Tock Garden, was a bit unique and creative, despite being poorly executed, and they felt like they were mostly original ideas and concepts as well.
 * 5) A few of the mechanics from the previous two games such as the Dash Pepper were brought back for a few of the sections in the game such as the Dash Pepper segment halfway through one of the Star paths in Tick Tock Garden, despite being poorly executed like the ideas and concepts mentioned earlier.
 * 6) As stated earlier, the game is currently being rebranded into a different game, which means that the theme of the game will most likely fit better than how it was previously supposed to fit before.
 * 7) * Speaking of which, one of the game's reasons for being rebranded was because the game was considered as continuing Explode1's legacy by the game's developers, which was something that they didn't want to do.

Reception
Adventure Forward 3: Crown of Shadows was met with mixed reception when the demo of the game released (despite what some people say). While most fans of the Adventure Forward series praised the game (mainly because of how the game simply attempted to revive the series by being another official game in the series), other users that went in-depth about the game mostly said that the game was average or worse.

Trivia

 * There was a demo of the game that released during late December of 2020 that closed in March of 2021.
 * There was an area in Tick Tock Garden where some fanart could have been seen in a café.
 * As stated earlier, the game was cancelled by SirRovers due to being attacked by people who had previously been with Explode1 and for the game being considered as continuing his legacy, with the cancellation occuring on October 14th of 2021, along with Adventure Forward 2: Repainted, and this game is currently being rebranded into a different game called Stars Align.

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