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Traverse a world of magic in this classic role-playing game full of exciting battles, dungeons, and secrets. Lost within the turmoil of Astravia's past, you and your companions must find a way to unite its people before the Cataclysm brings forth another age of ruin.

This game is in active development. The demo has been released to allow players to get an idea of the game before launching the first chapter.

Features
  • Exciting, timer-based battle system that relies on quick decision making. The twist: you control the timer; no more waiting for a bar to fill up or for turns to pass.
  • A varied cast of playable characters, each with unique combat styles and unique abilities to help you craft the perfect team.
  • Vast, explorable world filled with dungeons, caves, and towns. There are challenging puzzles to solve and treasures to find in every corner of Astravia.
  • No random encounters. Choose your own playstyle instead of being at the mercy of grindy, boring battles.
  • Unique skill system that allows you to swap abilities between characters, so you never feel locked in to a particular “build”.
  • An engaging story supported by varied side-quests. Alongside a fulfilling main quest, meet characters all over the world with their own side-quests and special rewards.


Story
The world of Astravia is in conflict; severed by unrest between mysticians and humans who fear their magic. Once seen as heroes, the flow of time eroded mysticians’ feats into myth, and so anyone who shares their likeness in the present day must instead hide from the ruling country of Valica and its brutal knights.

Thus, the wandering mystician Oliver must tread with caution as he escapes the woods of a Valican territory. Spared by a mysterious assassin and at a loss as to how he got there, the stakes are raised even higher when Oliver realizes he must pass through Valica's capitol in order to find answers about his own origins.



"Legends of Astravia", and its story, characters, and themes within © 2023 Studio Alemni LLC

Latest Blog

New Graphics! (Developer's Log November 2022)

New Graphics! (November 2022 Devlog)



Hello everyone,

I am very excited to announce that Legends of Astravia will be taking on a new 16-bit pixel art look, reminiscent of the Super Nintendo / Game Boy Advance games that inspired it!

As some of you might have noticed, the past couple of months of developer's logs have been thin on progress--and that was for good reason. I've been quietly working on this change to the game's graphics.

With it comes a lot of progress, too, and I will explain the reasoning for such a drastic change after having released the demo within this developer's log.

Examples & Reasoning



This is definitely a big change, and I was worried whether or not folks who are excited for the game would be disappointed. While the graphics are a lower detail than what was in the demo, I think this is a visual upgrade and a much more appropriate direction.

First, I think it's important to go over what did and didn't change, to address any concerns.

What Changed

The overworld (map) tiles, character graphics, and character art (as discussed in the last devlog) have changed.



Future updates will all showcase the new design.

What Didn't Change

The engine, battle system, and underlying mechanics are completely the same.

The game still plays and feels exactly as it does in the demo--so think of it as a "reskin" of sorts. The user interface will also remain "HD". While this doesn't give the game a fully retro feel, I think it's worth taking advantage of the higher quality text for accessibility reasons.


Why the Change?

First and foremost: development scope. The game is currently already too big, and a lot of work for a solo developer such as myself. The new tiles and character sprites are exactly half as big as the other ones--and the time saved creating new tiles and characters and sprites for later areas is effectively halved as well. In fact, I was able to already replace all of the graphics for the areas featured in the demo.

Additionally, because the original tiles were so challenging to work with, creating later areas was beginning to become disheartening. It felt like no matter what I did, any "unique" graphics just didn't fit right. I found myself spending a very long time on something that, visually, was not acceptable to me.



Lastly, one of the aspects of the game that's been challenging to deal with is the "RPG Maker" look. The original tilesets that the game utilized were from RPG Maker XP, and they were just a bit too similar in pallet and design to the newer RPG Maker default assets. As a result, even the prettiest areas still invoked this "cookie cutter" look that I wasn't satisfied with.

These new tilesets are still technically RPG Maker. But because they're (mostly) 16-bit, and much closer to the SNES/GBA era, I think they invoke a greater sense of nostalgia than the other tiles did. It will also make changing to unique custom tiles a more viable possibility in the future.


New Matching 2.5D Battlebacks

As for the battle system, there was some concerns about it clashing with the changes to the overworld. After all, the battler sprites were even higher resolution than the original overworld sprites. However, a special change was made to accommodate this issue...



The battle scene now looks 2.5D, with battle backgrounds that match the overworld! This change would have been beneficial regardless of whether or not the overworld graphics changed, since the original backgrounds always looked a bit flat.

This is achieved using Crocotile3D. It's been an incredibly helpful tool for recreating the world in 3D and feigning the 2.5D effect:



Alas, it isn't truly 3D, so there won't be any fancy camera effects in battle. But this is something that I'd really like to do for a future game... or later Chapter if feasible.

Comparison Screenshots & Ch 1 Teasers

Here are some more screenshots showcasing the change, from the existing demo and including some finally-not-forest areas:













Mordin village in particular feels a lot more “homey” in the new style:




Creating new tiles for later areas is much less stressful, and as a result I was able to create some maps to preview:




Updated Schedule & Plans

From a development standpoint, I am actually "caught up" to where I was before I started changing the graphics. And because it is going much faster, I feel confident about Chapter 1's progress.

I plan to continue creating the new areas of the game, and now with these new graphics, developer's logs will be much more robust with many more updates to share.

What about the demo?

The demo will remain up on Steam as-is with the "old" graphics, until Chapter 1 is closer to its release. At that time, the old demo will be replaced with a special revised demo using the new graphics and more content--including the entire Mordin Village arc for a limited time! No formal release date has been decided for Chapter 1 yet though, so keep an eye on future developer's logs for news on that.

---

Please be sure to let me know your thoughts about this change! You can share them on Steam or in the official Discord server.

I really hope that folks see it as a positive as I have. Because of the new graphics, I feel both more confident in the project and about development as a whole.

I am looking forward to sharing more progress soon!

-Jaiden
  • Production
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  • Jaiden
  • RPG Maker XP
  • Action Adventure Puzzle RPG
  • 12/20/2017 09:00 PM
  • 05/03/2023 02:29 PM
  • 12/31/2022
  • 103632
  • 54
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Posts

Pages: 1
Looks good, can't wait to try out the demo. I'll let you know if I find any kind of bugs or spelling mistakes.
OzzyTheOne
Future Ruler of Gam Mak
4557
So, this is finally on RMN as well, looking forward to what you manage to cook up Jaiden!
short demo. 1 dungeon and 1 town. XP tileset mapping looks really good, was this XP or VXA?

The beginning battles could be quite difficult if I didnt get the better sword, especially if I stumble into one of those 3 mushroom groups. In fact I died once to one of those. Where was teh escape option? Also big thing, defend is literally useless. It doesnt seem to decrease damage at all whatsoever.

Anyway the demo is pretty good but there's a moderate heaping of cliches. I really like all the secrets and stuff, they can be easy to miss but dedicated secret hunters will get a good challenge. Pays off too, the better sword in particular is EXTREMELY useful.
author=bicfarmer
...

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, demo is quite short right now, the game is still heavily in progress, so I can't wait to release more.

I have received feedback that those battles are too tough. The troop of 3 is definitely not supposed to be there, so I'm going to fix this next update for sure.

The escape option was touched upon in the battle tutorial, but I think I need to make it more clear to the player.

Well, dang, defend is indeed useless. Thank you for pointing this out, that's definitely a bug that will be addressed next update as well.

I'm glad you liked the mapping and the secrets. This is a sort of weird XP/VXA hybrid, but the mapping is all done in XP.
I have tried out the demo and wow! I really am enthralled with how atmospheric everything was! The mapping was very nicely made and I noticed it is using the XP tile-sets, and I've always loved the XP tile graphics. xD

The battles were fast-paced and fun (though I did quite a few times with the shrooms >.< ).

Still, I know it is in demo phase, but I can already tell that this is going to be a great game! :D
Will be looking forward to trying the update, the game is fun, but find the earlier demo too short.
the game looks very nice, downloaing demo atm ^^
author=jayfeather
the game looks very nice, downloaing demo atm ^^

Thank you! I hope you enjoy it :)
Nice to see progress happening. Keep up the work!
OzzyTheOne
Future Ruler of Gam Mak
4557
Only now I have realized that I was not subbed to this gamepage yet. I fixed up that mistake!
author=OzzyTheOne
Only now I have realized that I was not subbed to this gamepage yet. I fixed up that mistake!
OZZY HOW COULD YOU

I'll be sure to be better about updates here for you and all the lovely subscribers.
How come I've never seen this? Looks so good!
author=NoBody13
How come I've never seen this? Looks so good!

Thank you so much! I've been neglecting updating the RM page I admit--I have monthly devlogs, but never get to posting them here.
author=Jaiden
author=NoBody13
How come I've never seen this? Looks so good!
Thank you so much! I've been neglecting updating the RM page I admit--I have monthly devlogs, but never get to posting them here.

I will definitely be here for all the updates :)
ok i just realized one thing and now i have to ask HOW DID YOU MAKE RPG MAKER XP FEEL SO FRESH AND MODERN AND RESPONSIVE AND CLICKY
i REALLY thought it was MV like omg
no compatibility issues, no weird lags and hangups, no RGSS crashes or whining, nothing. Just pure unbothered bliss. I'm shocked
author=JosephSeraph
ok i just realized one thing and now i have to ask HOW DID YOU MAKE RPG MAKER XP FEEL SO FRESH AND MODERN AND RESPONSIVE AND CLICKY
i REALLY thought it was MV like omg
no compatibility issues, no weird lags and hangups, no RGSS crashes or whining, nothing. Just pure unbothered bliss. I'm shocked

Golly thanks! Well, the secret sauce to making XP buttery smooth & MacOS compatible was mkxp (same sauce that To The Moon & other Freebird games used).
As for the lack of RGSS crashes, hopefully that's just because I've gotten good enough at writing Ruby code!
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