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 the new game 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.'''

Adventure Forward 3: Crown of Shadows was a Roblox adventure game created by SirRovers and a few 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, Adventure Forward 1: Star Savior and Adventure Forward 2: Points of Conflict, where after a few years after Celesteal's defeat and Stratosfear's freedom, all of a sudden, Voixer would have randomly returned after a permanent death from Adventure Forward 2: Points of Conflict 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 from 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 Celesteal's symbol behind the main game title, along with a crown that looks more like spikes above the 3. To make matters even worse, unlike Adventure Forward 1: Star Savior and Adventure Forward 2: Points of Conflict where it shows a few characters such as the Mayor and Anshine, this game on the other hand has nothing special happening on the thumbnail.
 * 2) In earlier versions of the game, there was a plot hole. In Adventure Forward 2: Points of Conflict, Voixer permanently died in the post-game mission, 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 to make matters even worse, Adventure Forward 1: Star Savior game was not only seven years old before the demo of this game even released, but Adventure Forward 2: Points of Conflict was three years old by the time that the demo that the demo of this game released, with both games sharing identical plots, and to make things worse, plenty of other Roblox adventure series from multiple years ago shared identical plots as well.
 * 4) The animation was very strange, and 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 now, which is something that the first game lacked, 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 2-10 seconds to finish.
 * 6) The gameplay somehow managed to be even worse than the first game's gameplay, and was cluttered with walking, and the same exact and identical jumping as well, and it got boring after a little while, and a few mechanics such as the bomb mechanic actually damaged the pacing of the game, and it didn't help that some other bad qualities listed later made this flaw even worse.
 * 7) The music had trouble to just play normally sometimes, since the music might have randomly cut off and loop back to the beginning of the song sometimes, and the music might just completely stop sometimes.
 * 8) The game was extremely laggy and even on some more newer devices such as a Windows 10 suffered from lag too, and unlike the first and second games where sometimes, the player might need to lower their graphics level down to 9 or 8, this game on the other hand might have required some players to lower their graphics level down to as far as levels 6 or 5 instead, which did slightly damage the pacing of the game a bit, along with the visuals as well of course.
 * 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 the first world, Tick Tock Garden, and it didn't even feel like the game was designed around the rolling mechanic, 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 the previous game, aside from Anshine and Stratosfear, were seemingly only used to fill up certain areas in the Sky Emporium, and the Bugs were also not present in the first world of the game, Tick Tock Garden, as well, which was really odd considering that the player was in a garden, and that bugs are often found in forests and grassy areas such as gardens as well.
 * 12) This game tried extremely hard to be edgy, and it also tried to be the edgiest game in the Adventure Forward series, since that the edginess started as early as the introduction sequence with the darker colors, darker character details, and the slightly edgier story.
 * 13) The first world, 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 in WIWACOAM #9, 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 named a Grandling present in the first world, Tick Tock Garden, and the Bully Bots and even the Bugs weren't present either as stated earlier. 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) 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 and giant world, along with reviving 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 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 King Chronos for around 10 minutes, and to make matters even worse, once the player did figure out how to damage King Chronos, the fight was extremely boring, since that the player only dodged 2 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 rather than the original fans, 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 an A Hat In Time fangame 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 being redesigned, along with a few other updates coming by earlier, the plot hole and the first boss fight in Tick Tock Garden were fixed, since that Voixer explained on how he returned to life instead, and the player was able to teleport to the boss fight properly.
 * 2) The graphics were a great step up from the other Adventure Forward games, especially Adventure Forward 1: Star Savior, and had a lot of details put into them, such as having branches and leaves scattered across the first world, Tick Tock Garden.
 * 3) Despite the music having trouble playing as stated earlier in WIWACOAM #8, the soundtrack itself was pretty neat and catchy, and had a ton of Kirby songs put in throughout the soundtrack, and the soundtrack itself didn't really try too hard to be as edgy as Adventure Forward 2: Points of Conflict's soundtrack.
 * 4) The idea of the first world being a clock-themed garden, along with the concept of the first boss fight in Tick Tock Garden, was a bit unique and creative, despite being poorly executed like the Dash Pepper segments, and it didn't feel like it was ripped from other games such as Super Mario 64.
 * 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.
 * 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.

Reception
Adventure Forward 3: Crown of Shadows met with mixed reception when the demo of the game released. While most fans that scratched the surface praised the game, other users that went in-depth about the game mostly said that the game was average or negative.

Trivia

 * There was a demo of the game that released during late December of 2020 that is now closed.
 * 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, with the cancellation occuring on 10/14/21, along with Adventure Forward 2: Repainted, and this game is currently being rebranded into a different game called Stars Align.

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