FALLEN-GRIEVER'S REVIEW THREAD

1) Make a new title screen. Your game is clearly not very futuristic, yet the title shows a modern skyscraper, and the userbar is also ugly.

lol, I was waiting for someone to mention my crappy title screen, I've comissoned someone to make a decent one but they kept stalling on me so I decided to cobble somthing ugly togather for the demo and replace it with the good one for the full version

2) Go back through your game and use proper grammar, or something near it. Capital letters at the start of your sentences would be a good idea.

in order to get a demo out in a timely matter I had to be lazy somewhere, I figured that it'd be better to do so in grammer instead of mapping/eventing/what have you. I guess this is because I've never been the type of person who cares about grammer to the point that punctuation can prevent me from playing (basically if I can read it and understand it it doesn't bother me) I also can't understand how somthing that seems so insignificant to me can actually hinder play, but it WILL be fixed before the full version. Like the first point, this is somthing I knew was a problem, knew it'd get mentioned, and already intended to fix. What I didn't know was that it was a BIG problem

3) Until you can think of a better encounter system just use random encounters. The "select when to fight" idea worked in The World Ends With You because of how it was implemented, but your idea just doesn't work.

there is a reason that the encounter system is that way and it is explained in the story. Since this system is so deeply tied with the game and its story, it will not be changed. It is not a standard RPG system and I do relaize that it might seem very strange to some. I've got mixed reaction to the monsters not attacking until they get your permission, but I considered other systems and none of them really fit the way monsters are represented in this game, I will admit it takes some getting used to, its very wierd, and apprently its not everyone's cup of tea but the whole game is built around it so...yeah

4) Your enemies have too much HP and the hero doesn't start with any skills/weapons/anything to make battles more exciting. Change this.
5) The enemies don't do anything but attack, and paired with the high HP this becomes very boring.

the entire first portion you played and the first boss especially is pretty much 50/50. By that I mean 50% of people I have gotten feedback from have had no problems with the section/boss and the other 50% are begging me to tell them how to beat it (the key is to backtrack often, get to level 2 before the boss, and have at least 2 cherries and be at full health when you face him, basically never face anyone at less then 75% HP or else you'll probably die. The game expects you to go back to the store as many times as you want) I was mostly waiting to see what someone who I think has a good sense of when a game is challenging or just too damn hard (you)thought of the first section. Now I will say that the HP's of the Mole and Solider WILL be tuned down (though it pains me to weaken the solider, he seems like such a pathetically easy and basic boss to me already) I didn't give the hero any skills and weapons for that section because it'd make no sense for him to have any. He will get them later though. I was hoping that the monster's personalities would make up for the very basic early fights and for some people they do but not for everyone

I can't help but say that I'm disappointed that I did not get a proper review since you went as far as to adjust the datatabase in that Light of somthing game so you could give it a review, and mostly that the game really opens up after that section is beaten (in terms of maps, writing, charecters, story, well...everything) I guess I should at least thank you for not giving a real review based on that section as it does not nearly represent the whole game

I guess its just the price of making somthing that's very different, I've gotten people who really love the game and people who just give up on it. Its an acquired taste and hopefully adjustments to that first section will help fix that but I may just have to accept that it will just be a "you either really love it or really hate it" type of game. I actually find it funny that the game is so strongly against your personal preferences, it certainly wasn't what I was expecting since I find it to be sorta similar to Sore Losers.

edit: and so concludes my "being all defensive" portion of my reaction. To see the "had time to sit back and take it all in and think about how it can improve my game" portion, I made a new blog entry

Bad grammar, or at least constant bad grammar, is very off-putting for a lot of people. Roleplaying games are not just a gaming medium, they are also a storytelling medium, and so use of language becomes very important.

You got me to go back and take a look at the grammar, and what I found was a few very minor punctuation errors. I was actually shocked by how little I needed to correct. I'm not making excuses though because I agree that the grammar in the finished game should have NO errors at all. Basically I was lazy but am now going through the process of correcting it

I don't have much of a problem with being able to choose when to fight, but I do think you need to find a better way of implementing the system you're using. I understand that you are using the crystals to develop a method of showing the player how difficult a fight will be (again, similar to TWEWY), but it just looks cheesy. The monster "dialogues" also get old, fast. It comes across as very childish.

ah, I misunderstood your complaint then. The monsters are not really supposed to be intimidating. The dialogue is the way it is because of the tone that I am trying to set for the game. If you prefer more mature fare then I understand how the dialogue can seem that way but it is my intention for the monsters to be a bit goofy and silly, since this is a light hearted, kinda happy go lucky game. I feel then that this is a matter of personal preference. There are more serious enemies later in the game and more serious moments, but for the most part, the monsters in the game are friendly, goofy, and incompetent. Again I feel this is central to the type of game I want this to be.

Well, first off, a game shouldn't be so difficult at the start that one enemy can just stomp you in two turns. At least not when you don't have the ability to do the same back. Also, the ease of all the other fights makes the fight against the Soldier particularly irking since it is a massive spike in difficulty. You need to be consistent with the difficulty in a game, or at least have a decent learning curve present.

What you saw there was me being defensive, which is my first reaction to critcism. After having time to think about the intro honestly, I realised that you are absolutely right about it and I have made changes to it in an attmept to make it less difficult and tedious. I felt the solider should be more difficult then the other enemies since he is a boss, and I come from a school of thinking that says bosses are supposed to be hard and basic enemies are supposed to be very easy. That being said, I have reduced both his HP and attack stats in an attempt to make that fight less difficult. My biggest mistake was not realizing just how weak Jayson is, his low attack made those fights too long so a reduction in the HP of the enmies was very neccessary, likewise, his low HP required me to reduce the solider's attack a bit.
The intro was quite frankly a bit broken. The game should not be that difficult so early and it was quite honestly a very dull section of the game, it reflects my inexperience and I am happy to say that the later areas of the game are much better. Therefore it is obvious that I must take steps to ensure that the intro does not force players to quit the game due to its tediousness and difficulty, I really do want everyone to be able to see beyond it.

I would love to hear how you can validate a comparison between your game and Sore Losers...

What I meant was that both my game and Sore Losers put alot of effort into the game's world and especially the NPCs (as in the basic villagers) Sore Losers biggest strengths was its lively unique world which had lots of charecter and its NPCs which had alot of personality and actually had interesting and sometimes humorous things to say beyond the basic "hello" type talk that is in alot of games. I also feel that these are the strengths of my game but of course this is only apparent after the game's early dungeons are beaten (all the more reason to fix the intro) also both games have gotten complaints that the battles are too basic/boring/long/hard and each has a section that have gotten complaints, caused some players to quit the game, and could use some fixes (for me the intro, for you, that one puzzle) In terms of tone, however, they are polar opposites. What I mean is that I see similarities in thier strengths and weaknesses, the main difference between the two is that your game does not start off with an unbalanced dungeon. Basically I saw similarities and also noticed that my game followed advice you had given in other reviews so your reaction, quite honestly, really surprised me. I was expecting a review of 2.5 or 3 stars. Obviously I wasn't aware of just how awful my intro dungeon was.

Since you have said that you still need more games to play then I offer you to play my demo again as I have gone in and fixed the intro based on your feedback and I want to know if I need to tweek those early monsters even more. I feel that I am in need of some more truly honest feedback as I can't help but feel that others have had a similar experience with the intro but kept it to themselves. So if you can stomach the game's non serious, happy go luckyness, I can send you a copy of the demo with the adjustments I have made to the intro. (I'm fixing the grammar little by little now. I did make sure to keep everything readable)

exactly, I had the same problem with my intro dungeon

it is (hopefully) all fixed now

...Yeah, I would really appreciate it if your topic didn't have the same name as mine...

http://www.rpgmaker.net/games/886/

Gio Adventures: Eternity War?

If you review demos, I really need to know if I'm going in the right direction so far.