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Karuna and Aurelie were friends. Then Aurelie went off and found the infernal armor of Ellicide and became the Evil Overlord Darkloft. Karuna is the only one who can stop her. But Karuna loves Aurelie, even now.

Luxaren Allure is a medium-sized RPG (12-20 hours) that follows Karuna and her allies as they explore the isles of Luxaren and confront a former friend who now wants nothing but destruction. This is a wlw (women who love women, lesbian romance, yuri, etc) game with an all female playable cast.

Also included are:

  • Title Screen Art, Face Portraits and Illustrations by M-3-1 (http://m-3-1.deviantart.com/)
  • Side View CTB Battles, with animated heroes and (semi)animated enemies!
  • New tilesets and battlers, made just for this game!
  • No random encounters. All enemies are visible on screen, and each triggers a different enemy party.
  • No RTP needed! Most resources are custom, and everything's included with the download.
  • A simple crafting system.
  • A short, character driven story that plays with the standard RPG formula.


Characters:


Karuna has been training with the School of the Unwavering Blade for years, and is considered the best choice for defeating the evil of Darkloft. She's serious, strong-headed, and confident, but her reasons for choosing to be a hero might not exactly be selfless...


Chisa is Karuna's self-proclaimed squire. She's timid but very strong, if a little naive. Her loyalty to Karuna is unquestionable.


A mage from the Naga clan, and one of the few of her kind that does not view humans with suspicion. Carefree and laid-back, she quickly finds herself fascinated with Karuna's quest and even more fascinated with Karuna's squire.


The great-granddaughter of the paladin hero Estes, Lynette is a well-balanced warrior from Rezael who has trained for years to master both the physical and magical arts to make up for the fact that she didn't inherit her family's holy magic powers.


Now known as Overlord Darkloft, the evil one who has placed the isles of Luxaren in dire peril. Karuna has so many questions for her. What will happen when they finally meet again?

Scripts used:
  • Yanfly's Ace Core Engine, Message, Menu, Equipment and Battle systems!
  • Kread-EX's Animated Battlers!
  • Fomar0153's Compatible Customisable ATB/Stamina Based Battle System!
  • Coelocanth's Item Crafting system!
  • NeonBlack's No AutoShadows


And a special thanks to Red Nova, LockeZ, Crystalgate, Archeia_Nessiah, GreatRedSpirit, and everyone else in the Rpgmaker.net forums for their fantastic suggestions, advice, and general help!

Latest Blog

Luxaren Allure is Now on Steam!!!



Click here to go to the Steam page! :DDDDDDD

A huge huge thanks to everyone who retweeted, wishlisted and promoted the game! And just a big thanks to everyone who wanted the game on Steam, you're the real heroes XD Given this game's age I was little hesitant to put it up but enough people contacted me about it after W&U's release that I figured why not ^_^

Now, back to Izrand development XD

  • Completed
  • unity
  • Red_Nova
    Marrend
  • Sooz (Hero Battle Sprites)
  • RPG Maker VX Ace
  • RPG
  • 12/27/2013 06:48 PM
  • 09/19/2023 01:13 PM
  • 11/13/2015
  • 843513
  • 148
  • 6280

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Posts

Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Did you draw the faces yourself too? This looks really cool!
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Yep! The faces, the pixel art for the battlers, the enemy art, the backgrounds, and the tilesets are all drawn by me. Thanks so much for the compliments! :D
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I remember looking at this game-page earlier (before the recent Okiku explosion), and not subscribing to it.

This issue has been rectified.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Thanks a lot! :D
Hey, Unity, I checked out the demo--it was pretty meaty, considering the game play times you had listed. Was it like 1/4th, 1/3rd of the game? Anyway, the graphics and mapping were the strong points for me. I found the chipsets to be the most visually impressive thing; everything felt distinct and looked pretty. Some of the battlers were awesome at times (unholy divers (especially when they're hit), the jellyfish), and sometimes they're a little rougher (the slimes). The character sprites and battlers are great, though Karuna and Marel's animations felt like they could be a bit more natural (but animation is a painstaking process, and they look a lot slicker than I'd ever be able to do). The gameplay worked for me; it veered on the easy side, but you know my sensibilities are overly masochistic at times. The skill system felt much more balanced than the magic system to me; I never felt in danger of losing too much mp, but saving up for an impulse to stun the first boss before he could unleash his powerful attack, for instance, felt really great. Here's my advice that actually matters:

The music was a little wonky at times to me. I'm not a big techno fan, so the first song I heard was a little jarring for a medieval country. Once I got used to the techno, the soundtrack was consistent, but some of the tracks--like the forest or the plainsy areas between levels--felt a bit out of place.

The story is a bit fetch-questy, but it's aware of that. I think it begins in the wrong place, though, as you start with a "let's walk up to the king and accept our quest" trope. I obviously don't know the full extent of the story, but from what I've seen so far, I assume that the heart of the story is about Karuna and Aurelie's relationship. It makes the most sense to me to begin with a flashback moment of them--something that's indicative of their relationship dynamic. I'd also consider doing something similar when Karuna professes her feelings at that one rest location; obviously, this should say something different than the first potential scene--round out the relationship somehow. Just confessing a relationship is a bit too showy and not telly enough, so it loses its impact. Of course, if this game is trying to be a self-aware send-up of the genre, then it's starting in the right place.

Scenes in general could be handled a bit more cinematically. So far, they mostly consist of dialogue with stationary characters. That kind of thing can't be avoided all the time, but other times--like Merel's introduction to the party--could have been a bit more nuanced. I like her reasoning for staying with the party later on, but when she originally joins the party it feels a bit forced, and you have a chance to build some pathos with her since she's more or less an outcast. Though the other nagas are quick to remind her about that, the player never really feels for her because it's all handled through dialogue rather than actions, and the dialogue doesn't take itself very seriously. You can still show her reacting to the ostracizing as a strong character, but it still hurts, regardless, no matter how guarded we are. Peeling back that veneer just a little is fine, even if it's in a bit of hesitation before a joke.

I realize that the main villain is going to have depth, but these little evil-for-the-sake-of-it bosses aren't really worth having dialogue--unless the fact that they can speak becomes relevant to the plot. Karuna's line about seeing a monster talk for the first time didn't bring up the potential moral complications of killing sentient monsters, which it should if you're going to mention it and it's part of the game's theme.

You shouldn't force a character that doesn't belong into the mix, but I would heavily consider having a male character that isn't a total douche in the game, or you might isolate some of your audience. Female characters tend to get the short end of the stick in games, but doing the same to male characters is "turnabout is fair play" instead of "let's make something better." I tend to take this kind of stuff at face value, so it didn't bug me, but it might be a barrier to others is all.

Yeesh. I've written a lot. Those are my suggestions, anyway. I found that exploration tended to drive my game play experience more than anything else, and the tidal cave gimmick was a welcome change of pace. This was a fun start!
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I'm not sure how long this demo is, but I played about 40 minutes of it so far. Prepare for glorious stream-of-consciousness feedback.


As is my want, I checked out the Audio/BGM directory. I'm liking "G Battle", "G Dungeon 1", "G Quest", "G Reflective", and "G Town 1" most of all. I really appreciate the credits section in this respect. I'm not to happy with the fact that you changed the names of the songs, though that's just a pet peeve of mine.

I'm totally enjoying the humor value in these NPCs conversations. This is the kind of thing I'd probably want to aim for in respect to Okiku, Star Apprentice, to be honest.

This combat engine is feeling very CTB-ish. Some kind of visual indication of turn order would be nice.

"Stand tall and shake the heavens." Am I smelling a Xenogears reference, or is it just me?

It didn't look like enemies re-spawned. Not the way I'm accustomed to, at any rate. This changes things a little.

Huh. I half-figured I'd have to beat all those dudes the boss summoned. Good thing I didn't have to!

I know Red_Nova already mentioned this, but I really think it would help this game to give players a dream-flashback involving Karuna and Aurelie.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Thanks a lot for the feedback! As expected, you have a lot of great advice about the writing.

author=Housekeeping
Was it like 1/4th, 1/3rd of the game?

It was originally supposed to be, yeah, a full 1/4th of the game. Though the more criticism I'm getting about the writing, I might make the full game slightly longer to develop the characters better.

author=Housekeeping
Anyway, the graphics and mapping were the strong points for me. I found the chipsets to be the most visually impressive thing; everything felt distinct and looked pretty. Some of the battlers were awesome at times (unholy divers (especially when they're hit), the jellyfish), and sometimes they're a little rougher (the slimes). The character sprites and battlers are great, though Karuna and Marel's animations felt like they could be a bit more natural (but animation is a painstaking process, and they look a lot slicker than I'd ever be able to do).

I'm so glad you enjoyed the graphics! The jellyfish and the unholy diver sprites were my favorites as well; they're also the last ones I did, so I had learned from all the other ones (the slimes were the exact opposite, they were the first and they look, imo, the worst. I'll most definitely be redrawing them at some point).

This is all an experiment to see what I can do, as it's my first time doing pixel art. So when it comes to the character sprites looking unpolished, I agree. I'll do my best to improve them, though I must admit it's damn hard to get human sprites to look good in motion (for me, certainly).


author=Housekeeping
The gameplay worked for me; it veered on the easy side, but you know my sensibilities are overly masochistic at times. The skill system felt much more balanced than the magic system to me; I never felt in danger of losing too much mp, but saving up for an impulse to stun the first boss before he could unleash his powerful attack, for instance, felt really great.

Thanks! I need to keep tweaking the MP, they still don't feel right, just as you said. As for the difficulty, I want to start it off real easy and make it scale real fast. I hope later parts of the game will better satisfy your "overly masochistic" side :D

author=Housekeeping
The music was a little wonky at times to me. I'm not a big techno fan, so the first song I heard was a little jarring for a medieval country. Once I got used to the techno, the soundtrack was consistent, but some of the tracks--like the forest or the plainsy areas between levels--felt a bit out of place.

I was a little bit worried about the music alienating some people. I'm still not 100% sure about music choices, and as you know, I'm not a music person, creatively speaking, at all. I'll keep my ears open and I might change a few of those tracks.

author=Housekeeping
The story is a bit fetch-questy, but it's aware of that. I think it begins in the wrong place, though, as you start with a "let's walk up to the king and accept our quest" trope. I obviously don't know the full extent of the story, but from what I've seen so far, I assume that the heart of the story is about Karuna and Aurelie's relationship. It makes the most sense to me to begin with a flashback moment of them--something that's indicative of their relationship dynamic. I'd also consider doing something similar when Karuna professes her feelings at that one rest location; obviously, this should say something different than the first potential scene--round out the relationship somehow. Just confessing a relationship is a bit too showy and not telly enough, so it loses its impact. Of course, if this game is trying to be a self-aware send-up of the genre, then it's starting in the right place.

You make really good points here. I'm really lacking in the "show don't tell" part of my storytelling, and that's becoming more and more apparent to me. I'll take your advice and retool the opening and the rest-location scene in the ways you mentioned. Thanks :D

author=Housekeeping
Scenes in general could be handled a bit more cinematically. So far, they mostly consist of dialogue with stationary characters. That kind of thing can't be avoided all the time, but other times--like Merel's introduction to the party--could have been a bit more nuanced. I like her reasoning for staying with the party later on, but when she originally joins the party it feels a bit forced, and you have a chance to build some pathos with her since she's more or less an outcast. Though the other nagas are quick to remind her about that, the player never really feels for her because it's all handled through dialogue rather than actions, and the dialogue doesn't take itself very seriously. You can still show her reacting to the ostracizing as a strong character, but it still hurts, regardless, no matter how guarded we are. Peeling back that veneer just a little is fine, even if it's in a bit of hesitation before a joke.

Yes, once again, you've hit the nail on the head. I'll work on these areas too. I think character dialog and character action all needs a lot of work.

author=Housekeeping
I realize that the main villain is going to have depth, but these little evil-for-the-sake-of-it bosses aren't really worth having dialogue--unless the fact that they can speak becomes relevant to the plot. Karuna's line about seeing a monster talk for the first time didn't bring up the potential moral complications of killing sentient monsters, which it should if you're going to mention it and it's part of the game's theme.

That part was really supposed to be a silly dismissal of the overly evil boss-type speech. But if you found it jarring for the bosses to speak, then maybe I need to re-examine that.

author=Housekeeping
You shouldn't force a character that doesn't belong into the mix, but I would heavily consider having a male character that isn't a total douche in the game, or you might isolate some of your audience. Female characters tend to get the short end of the stick in games, but doing the same to male characters is "turnabout is fair play" instead of "let's make something better." I tend to take this kind of stuff at face value, so it didn't bug me, but it might be a barrier to others is all.

Point. The point of the king is that he's supposed to be a reckless asshole in a position of power, and his gender is not an important part of the character. It's not supposed to be a preachy thing against men in power. Would changing the king to a queen help that at all?

author=Housekeeping
Yeesh. I've written a lot. Those are my suggestions, anyway. I found that exploration tended to drive my game play experience more than anything else, and the tidal cave gimmick was a welcome change of pace. This was a fun start!

Thanks a lot! Your game taught me that you can really enhance dungeons by making more to them than the standard crawl. I really appreciate your criticism and I'll be working hard to make those weak areas shine brighter. ^_^
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Thanks for the feedback, Marrend! I've been looking forward to hearing what you thought!

author=Marrend
As is my want, I checked out the Audio/BGM directory. I'm liking "G Battle", "G Dungeon 1", "G Quest", "G Reflective", and "G Town 1" most of all. I really appreciate the credits section in this respect. I'm not to happy with the fact that you changed the names of the songs, though that's just a pet peeve of mine.


I used to not do this. Then I completely replaced every single track in an XP game and faced the nightmare of the game constantly crashing because it couldn't find a track and I had forgotten to specify the new one.

Making the game has also been a very organic process, and I've changed my mind several times on what theme a certain location (or scene) should have. It's much easier for me to keep the names simple and just replace them with an identically named track should I find a better song for said scene/location. I think having all the songs actual names in the credits remedies the problems with that.

author=Marrend
I'm totally enjoying the humor value in these NPCs conversations. This is the kind of thing I'd probably want to aim for in respect to Okiku, Star Apprentice, to be honest.


Thank you very much! I can totally see that kind of humor in Okiku, as it's very similar to what you've got going, which is a big part of that game's charm.

author=Marrend
This combat engine is feeling very CTB-ish. Some kind of visual indication of turn order would be nice.


Yeah, it's CTB. A lot of them use the turn-order, and I think that's fine. I don't think it's 100% required, though. I wanted the feel of "It's your turn. You know your HP/MP/Impulse and how many enemies are still alive. Make your choice." Though if enough people would rather have the turn order, I'll probably look into it.


author=Marrend
"Stand tall and shake the heavens." Am I smelling a Xenogears reference, or is it just me?


Hell yes it's a Xenogears reference. :D

author=Marrend
It didn't look like enemies re-spawned. Not the way I'm accustomed to, at any rate. This changes things a little.


Grinding is still possible if anyone wants to, as most of the monsters will respawn if you completely exit the dungeon.

author=Marrend
Huh. I half-figured I'd have to beat all those dudes the boss summoned. Good thing I didn't have to!


Yeah. I like the "minions fall when the boss does" thing, especially when the boss is spawning them ^_^

author=Marrend
I know Red_Nova already mentioned this, but I really think it would help this game to give players a dream-flashback involving Karuna and Aurelie.


Yeah, I'll be adding it.

Thanks for all the great comments! :D
author=Unity
Would changing the king to a queen help that at all?


I don't know if that would really help. It's okay that the king's a jerk, but the issue is that he's the only male presence in the game so far (other than that naga guard, but he was kind of a jerk, too).
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Huh. I guess the King is the only male of any significance so far. That didn't really strike me as odd, though. I dunno.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Yeah, good point. There are two other kings on the isles, tho. Neither of which are assholes. Hmm.
Then we just haven't gotten to them yet, so no need to worry. That was just something I was starting to feel, which could end up being read as a "message," even if unintentional. Don't feel pressured to inject a new character in if it's not going to germinate naturally from the story, though.
I'm gonna try this demo since I'm reading alot of positive things. :)

/Wallie
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Thanks! :D I hope you like it! I'll give your game a play, too ^_^
Should I LT this? I dunno - I can be pretty harsh but... well, it's up to you. Want a Let's Try?
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
*u* That would be amazing! Sure, I don't mind harshness! It stings a little at first but it's good for me XD

I'll try to be gentle~ But some time tomorrow. It's like, 5am and I really should be sleeping (hence brain functions are limited). However I know I won't be sleeping because coffee, but still, limited brain capacity. After I wake (after I sleep) I'll give it a go. ^.^

You'll just have to wait~~~ ;p
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
I can be patient! ^_^ I'm just thrilled to be getting a Let's Try!

Also, in case you, or anyone else, are wondering: The in-game character art doesn't match the title screen art yet, as it's all being redrawn. Just in case anyone was curious ^^;;
I PLAYED A BIT OF THIS and it was really cute! I had a good time!

...like I'm gonna be straight up with you I'm mostly here because I saw "lesbians" and my lesbian senses went "LESBIANS??? LESBIANS IN GAMES???? LESBIAN GAME????" and thus I hit download at a ferociously speedy speed.

But, like, hey, after that? I legitimately enjoyed myself. I really like the quirky, humorous tone the game takes and the cartoony art style! The battles were fun! I liked exploring the dungeons because they were filled with treasure! The only thing I really had to complain about was the 10 minute cutscene that opened everything up -- it was a little strange, and showing what happened 2 years ago was a little weird to me! It didn't exactly feel natural, y'know?
...yeesh that is super unclear. Lemme elaborate: I feel like things woulda been better if we'd revealed the whole "Aurelie is Karuna's BFF AND ALSO THE BAD GUY AAAAH~~" in a different way! I would have started with Karuna's mission to the Naga Territory instead, and given her some different reason to go rather than "YOU ARE THE HERO DO THE THING~"! I feel like having her bump into Aurelie there and then having Karuna become the hero woulda made things more mysterious, y'know?

Anyways, I'm defs gonna play more of this, and I look forward to the final release! Really, if only because party made up entirely of ladies and lesbians. THAT IS MY JAM, MAN.