J.A Restoration Mod

Description
Before you get excited, the title's misleading. Doesn't restore any "cut" content, in fact, restoration is completely the wrong word to use - replacement would be more accurate. So now you're thinking "If this isn't restoring any cut content, what is it going to do?". Simple terms, it's a skin pack, which overwrites the textures used by the baseJA models. The author thought baseJA's skins were dull, and so sought to replace them.

Before I start, I'd just like to mention that the skins are well-made by a certain standard. Much of the technique used is simplistic technique which it's hard to give credit for, but there are bits and bobs that would have been more complex to do, and those were done well.

However, moving on to the subject matter at hand, I'm not sure how these could be considered less 'dull' than the baseJA skins. The primary colors used are gray, black, and white, with other colors only being used rarely. The term 'monotone' springs to mind, as does 'grayscale'. Imagine an old 50s TV - from before they invented color TVs - and you're not far off. If anything, I'd personally say they're [i]more[/i] dull because of the general lack of color. Maybe the baseJA textures weren't particularly vivid, but they did blend well with the environment and weren't exactly monotonous. I'm hoping I didn't get too impolite there, really, but that's the score from where I'm standing - and after the author's claim that it'd make the game "tremendously interesting", I really felt a sudden irresistible urge to drive the point. They just feel.... well, bland. Sorry.

Aside from the skin pack, there are some tweaks to NPC files, which do actually improve the NPCs (albeit slightly, but any improvement over JA's ridiculously easy enemies is a good improvement). Can't quite put my finger on how or why, was too busy shooting and kiting to monitor and compare closely, but there's a difference, especially with the saber users. There's apparently changes to the menu, but I can't remark on those as they didn't apply for me - strange as I have no other pk3s installed, and the game prioritises pk3s over resource folders, so I don't know why it didn't show - but looking inside the file itself, everything is in order so it should work fine for you guys.

On the whole it's a good effort, and xia_Lan's heart is in the right place, but it falls short. As nice as the skins are despite their simplicity, they're just too.... well.... un-interesting for my tastes. The comparison between black-and-white TV and color TV springs to mind. If you like black, gray, and white, this pack might just be for you, though. Some of the skins do, as I say, look very nice in defiance of the fact they're comprised of so few elements.

Give it a try, by all means. It's definitely worth trying, just to experience something different, and you may like it better than the original if you're in to this style. Just.... feels like there's a little less depth in the game's design like this, and less variation in style compared to the base skins due to them all being styled more uniformly in this pack. The term "double-edged sword" applies.

Good effort xia_Lan, keep at it and better luck next time.

~ Kouen