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The rope winds from the clouds like the long-dried trail of a giant's tear. It whips in the arid wind, down the birdless sky, and into the open mouth of the ravine that splits the dead land. Down and down it goes, the sky darkening to a pinpoint of light above it. This is the sky that Ivy knows.

Ivy and her sister, Mint, peer further into the ravine. It has been one day since their father stopped moving. A dandelion sprouts from the parched earth like hands clasped together in prayer. It is the only living thing they've seen in this dead world. A growl echoes off the cliff walls. Maybe not the only thing.

Sometimes Ivy dreams of a sky that covers everything. When she awakes, she hates herself for still having the dreams of a child. She's fourteen, now, her sister twelve. The rope stretches up above them, up, up, up, further than young eyes can see.

Features:
-Character-centric storyline
-50+ hours of gameplay
-Challenging boss battles
-Original music
-Different equipment sets that modify the ways characters play
-A crafting system featuring over 100 pieces of unique equipment
-LOTS of side quests
-Puzzles that spice up dungeon design
-Recruit an odd assortment of townspeople and pass legislation to develop your own village
-Raise a pig to compete in the Pig Arena and win prizes
-New game+ feature that includes multiple bonus endings--a mechanic I blatantly stole from Chrono Trigger

Latest Blog

Major Update

I've been hinting here and there about wanting to update A Very Long Rope, and I finally got off my ass and did it. I made quite a few changes, and I'll list them below, but I want to talk about the most major one in depth. When I made A Very Long Rope, my goal was to make a game with a strong story, and a lot of the other aspects got brushed aside. This was going to be my way to segue into the community and hopefully find some other people interested in working together. Since then, I've shifted my perspective and focused more on things like design and aesthetics, which this game doesn't really care much about, unfortunately.

So, the update. The chief annoyance I've been hearing about A Very Long Rope is the dungeon design--mainly, levels are way too big, and the random encounters serve to make things worse. So, this update adds an item to your inventory that toggles enemy encounters. This item was available in the game before, but the only way to get it was to beat the game (players who have done this know I'm talking about the saecelium shield). Now, this item is given to the player at the very beginning, meaning you don't have to fight a single random encounter anymore.

Of course, since bosses exist, you'll still need to gain experience. In order to incentivize getting a good amount of experience before each boss, I've made several treasure chests need a currency called "victory points" in order to open them. Basically, you get a single victory point for every enemy you defeat in a battle (other than bosses). Victory points are dependent based on the dungeon, so the ones you earn in the first dungeon will only work in that dungeon. The cost of opening chests is higher depending on what's inside the chest, so you might need to spend between 2-6 points in order to open each of these special chests.

I've also doubled the experience, gold, and item drops from monsters. The net effect here is that if you open every single locked chest, you'll end up fighting about half of the encounters that you would have if you just left random encounters on. I did a full playthrough and felt that these locked chests provided short-term goals that kept me more interested while exploring; I hope they do that for you, too!

Here's the full list of changes:

-Reduced crit damage from triple to double
-Stat cap increased to 9999 (will mainly affect buff stacking)
-Berserk no longer sucks
-One-touch Sprint
-First agricultural upgrade requires three people instead of five.
-Escape rate now a flat 60%
-Added a way to get out of the Goddess Tower if you don't have a portable transceiver
-Fixed a few typos/graphical glitches/small things I don't remember
-Rare drop rates have been increased significantly
-Gold/XP/Drop Rates doubled
-Findable equipment that could be used in recipes is now sold as recipes in your town along with the regular recipes.
-Saecelium Shield now added at the beginning of the game. Players can use their old data and find a Saeclium Shield in a number of places within a blue chest (such as the entrance to your town, on the world map, or next to the save point in Old Town); the blue chests will disappear upon opening one.
-Most chests are now "locked." Gain Victory Points from defeating random mobs in a dungeon to open locked chests. Victory Points are specific to each dungeon.
-Locked chests are weighted based on how good the item is. 2 VP is a potion, 3 VP is gold, a good potion, or monster mats, 4 VP are great potions and large sums of gold, 5 VP are stat-boosting items or rare monster mats, 6 VP are equipment.
-Chests that aren't near easy grinding spots (e.g. chests in certain puzzles, chests in towns) will never be locked. Several other random chests in dungeons will also not be locked.
-Arena fights now give experience
-Can now use saecelium shield during soul tear scenes
-Only need to find the wolf four times instead of nine (what was I thinking?!) in Marina's soul tear scene.


That's it! Oh, and make sure to subscribe to my new project: Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass.
  • Completed
  • Housekeeping
  • RPG Maker VX
  • RPG
  • 11/26/2013 04:56 PM
  • 05/29/2023 03:05 PM
  • 12/01/2013
  • 525422
  • 48
  • 5071

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Posts

unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Another one climbs the rope! :D
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
That is one freaking long rope. It half-reminds me of that one mountain in Grandia that the characters take forever-and-a-half to climb only to have bots, or whatever, pick them up at/near the summit, and drop them from that "legendary" height.
I will gladly take any comparison to Grandia.

Unless you mention the voice acting.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
After climbing the rope, the girls meet Gadwin and he teaches Ivy "Dragon King Slice."

Ah, Grandia.
This game makes me way too emotional for me to play it anymore. Man, I just want to stab Coragliano 100 times just for being who he is!
I think most of the characters that interact with him during the game would probably take your position in the "Should I stab Corigliano one-hundred times" argument.
Housekeeping, apologies for making the video so slow. Want to say that i had the same problem as another player that having difficulties on facing Rutger and friends (LoL). I already red all of your tips/comments regarding on how to defeat them but it seems that, that technique doesn't work on mine. I also figured out about making the Elite Soldiers to make them confuse, sleep, or stun before reading your comment. So i was planning to level up and make my current party stronger til lvl 25 i guess. (current lvl is 21). Please tell me if im doing great or not or about my plan. (also about the thumbnails of the video :D) Apologies again for making a lets play so slow, been very busy. :(
Hey, don't worry about that! You don't owe it to me to get the videos done or anything--I'm just happy whenever I spot a new one! 21 should be fine to beat Rutger using the strategy I posted, but if you level to 25, Mint gets a skill that will make that fight a cakewalk, so it's up to you if you want to put yourself through the grind. I think the thing to remember for that fight is to keep Mint on healing duty and basically keep Leif on it (though attack buffing Ivy at the start is a plus) and then just keep doing group attacks with Cyril and Ivy.
Professor_Q
"Life is a riddle I wish I had the answer for..."
3237
Housekeeping, this is an awesome game so far.

And I say this as someone who is awful at puzzles. I'm in it because the characters are great, as is the writing and music.

Also: Mint is adorable! (And "Ask Mint" is fun, fun, fun!) Can we all start a Mint fan club here? =)

Right now, I've just met Yvette and Raccoon, and we've headed for the ruined city and are exploring it. Unfortunately, I keep getting waxed to death by the yellow bats. We're all at level 17 or so. Do I just need to grind a bit, or am I missing a trick?

Once again, a big thumbs up on making something of this scope. It truly looks like a labour of love.
Thanks, Doc! Man, the yellow bats. I was going to say to buy topaz rings in Beriall Brymme, but for some reason I didn't put those in the shop. I'll remedy that in the next update, but for the current build, head to the northeast of those ruins and down the stairs. You'll get a nice accessory there that will make one character a bat's worst nightmare. If you manage to hit 20, Yvette will get her first group attack, but that shouldn't be necessary. The game is designed to be beatable without grinding (assuming you're not a serial runner, which, at 17, you're not).
Professor_Q
"Life is a riddle I wish I had the answer for..."
3237
author=Housekeeping
Thanks, Doc! Man, the yellow bats. I was going to say to buy topaz rings in Beriall Brymme, but for some reason I didn't put those in the shop. I'll remedy that in the next update, but for the current build, head to the northeast of those ruins and down the stairs. You'll get a nice accessory there that will make one character a bat's worst nightmare.


Got it! Begone, yellow bats! =)

If you manage to hit 20, Yvette will get her first group attack, but that shouldn't be necessary. The game is designed to be beatable without grinding (assuming you're not a serial runner, which, at 17, you're not).


I ended up finishing that section at level 18 or so. I got to 20 a few zones later. I really like the way things are
effortlessly shifting from a seemingly classic fantasy to a dark science-fiction tale: this is something even Asimov or Clarke could have easily written.
Rutger was one heck of a boss, though.

It's also interesting to see issues such as religion and economics (particularly capitalist / oligarchical economics play a prominent role. Though,
given the fact that the "god" they are worshipping is probably a creature from another dimension
, is there something more sinister to the whole Winged / Wingless scenario.

I must also say that there were two literal tear-jerker scenes so far (okay, I wasn't really crying, but I did come close):
the girls' all-too-brief reunion with Rose, and Mint's death. Rest in peace, Mint.


So far, this game has got an excellent plot, and I'm looking forward to finding out more about this world as I play on! And the theme naming's a nice touch (Ivy / Mint, Gainer / Rutger / Oliver). What will happen next? =)

Great work, really. This is easily one of the top 5 RPG Maker games I've ever played.
Thank you so much for the compliments! I've seen a number of your reviews, so putting this in your top five is more than an honor. I'm glad you're liking the direction it's heading:

After saying how much you liked Mint, I was just thinking, "This guy's about to hate my guts."


Anyway, thanks again for saying such sweet things; I hope you enjoy it till the end!
Professor_Q
"Life is a riddle I wish I had the answer for..."
3237
author=Housekeeping
Thank you so much for the compliments! I've seen a number of your reviews, so putting this in your top five is more than an honor. I'm glad you're liking the direction it's heading:

After saying how much you liked Mint, I was just thinking, "This guy's about to hate my guts."

Well, to be fair,

that was pretty much foreshadowed by Mint's near-death scare during the previous quest, and we knew right at the beginning that it would happen some day. Besides, I think Mint had a premonition that she didn't have much time left; she was about to say something to Ivy when recovering from said scare.


Besides, I'm a firm believer in authors' rights - you've created your characters and your world, and you know what they stand for and how they related to each other. While it would be tempting to

write a fan-fic where an angel from another dimension saves Mint using magical modern technology =)


I think I'll stick to the original story.

Anyway, thanks again for saying such sweet things; I hope you enjoy it till the end!

De nada! Right now, I'm having fun getting access to the teleporter. Darn rats! =)
I have been playing this game a while now and am TOTALLY stuck, oliver told me to go and find a spring (if it exists) and I have no idea where it is ,have looked everywhere so please tell me where it is
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
To the east of the first town (Solomon's Furrow, was it?) there is a forest. In the northern part of this forest, there is a grotto where illusions come to life. Try there.
not exactly sure where u mean unity is it where the cat is that takes u to the cabin?
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Yeah, behind the cabin is the grotto, but you'll have to use an alternate entrance.

To get to the depths of it, you have to go a little south and east from the cabin and climb a tall cliff.
author=unity
Yeah, behind the cabin is the grotto, but you'll have to use an alternate entrance.

To get to the depths of it, you have to go a little south and east from the cabin and climb a tall cliff.
author=unity
Yeah, behind the cabin is the grotto, but you'll have to use an alternate entrance.

To get to the depths of it, you have to go a little south and east from the cabin and climb a tall cliff.


ok will try that thanks
I sent "housekeeping" a pm with other things i have problems with but dont know when he will be on could i send u a copy of the msg to see if u can help please?