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Legends of Astravia Demo Now Available!

  • Jaiden
  • 03/01/2022 01:35 PM
  • 1485 views

Legends of Astravia is now available to download right here on RMN!

Download now: https://rpgmaker.net/games/10245/downloads/

Fight monsters, solve puzzles, and uncover secrets alongside a mystic companion as you explore the twisting pathways of Mordin Swamp in this one hour introduction to the world of Astravia!

It is currently available for both Windows and MacOS. A Linux release will arrive at a later date.

Any bugs or issues can be reported via the Official Discord Server. Please be sure to read the guidelines before making a report. Otherwise, any feedback is more than welcome, and will help make the game the best it can be when Chapter 1 releases, hopefully, later this year!

Thank you for your endless support, I really hope you enjoy the game. After several years of development, I'm beyond excited to finally be able to share something playable with the world.

Posts

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Grats on the demo release! I've just been through a demo release myself, will likely play it now that I have some time.
Thank you so much, and congrats on yours as well :D

Edit: OH GOSH HELLO, I've actually been super interested in Machine that Breathes for a while! Thanks, it means a lot! I actually was looking to do the same soon, your game looks amazing~!
Haha thanks!

RMXP is my most hated engine to play in but this is probably the best game made in it in terms of functionality and graphic style. I like that the proportions of the game don't feel like a zoomed out RTS and the game seemed smooth enough. The controls are my biggest gripe with it but I think the battle system has a lot of potential, I did every single battle and was constantly trying to optimize every fight. The Grandia influence is strong but I wonder if you have played Child of Light since that game also capitiziles on a real time system.

Some demo notes.
-Didn't really understand the control style at the start especially default (was using a keyboard while the controller was plugged in btw don't just assume based on what's connected, ask the player what control setup they're using instead). My friend also didn't know what the difference was.

-Tile issues in the top left of the very first map

-Another tile issue in the top left of the battle tutorial map


-So being a Grandia fan I'm familiar with this system, I really like the hold idea though I wonder if people will get that they could be doing something inbetween turns. The tutorial does explain it but... I didn't quite register it at first. It does seem a little too disadvantagoues to be completely frozen on the timeline though I get that why it is. I'm wondering if there could a less chain of inputs to make defending more simple, like a simple toggle or button to hold down that you let go. It reminds me of Child of Lights "giving you something to do" while the battle was going on to mouse over enemies to slow them down, it was very simple.

-Advancing text in the essence tutorial skips the whole box when I just want it to finish the message. The regular cutscenes don't do this. Seems inconsistent.

-I'm struggling with default style when canceling out of hold or changing my mind, and I feel like AB style is hard to grasp since the cancel button is potentially one of the face keys. I feel like arrow keys would work better just like grandia or golden sun. That way I don't mix confirm/cancel with the same button to activate, this is a problem with both setups. (I tend to use Z and X cause I'm rm2k3 brained).

-Super nitpicky but letting go of diagonal keys has the character turning to one of the directions. It's because the graphic is being changed as soon as you let go of the first key of two direction keys. The dirty easy fix is to detect if the player is moving diagonal and not change graphical direction for 0.05 seconds as soon as one of the keys is let go. The long fix is to actually interpolate the direction of the character rather than setting the graphics to raw inputs but idk what your programming capabilities are.

-Game really picks up during the dungeon, I like the puzzles a lot. Though I expected Azel to be even more consdcending about hints for the block puzzle.

-dittoing a note about holding. I just keep forgetting to Hold a lot I imediatly input the commands and then realize I can't go back out of it. I also keep missing which key is resume in the default style even though I KNOW its telling me right there. Also no idea how to switch another character out of hold when I have the second one on hold duty. I wonder if Holding should be a seperate process where you merely react to being hit but delay your current command as a consequence. SORRY for suggesting too much, idk it's just that I've made a grandia battle system before and studied every game that I have a lot of thoughts. I could also just be misunderstanding holding in general.

-realizing that in AB style resume is done by canceling, not pressing the key associated with. Really think the keys could be more clearer edit: or maybe not? might be getting my wires crossed from switching too much lol

-I like the intent system a lot though it would be nice to know which target the enemy is selecting, just so Holds don't go to waste.

-Ok Azel actually is condescending with the puzzles lol.

-Boss gave me a bit a trouble mainly cause I was struggling to optimize the holds in the fight. I wanted Azel to hold while he was being binded (since hes frozen in time either way) but had no idea how to switch back to Oliver. I won the fight fairly easily but was unable to execute what I intended to do. I think the game design and story is great, just that the UX could be greatly improved.

-I also really suggest using non-xbox icons my friend was using a 1234 controller and also fumbled through it. though I get why it won't look good having 4 copies of 4 buttons everywhere but maybe think of having icons for every controller swappable in the options? it's a lot of work but you just can't predict what controller people will be using (xbox and nintendo are flipped, playstation has shapes)


Thanks for the kind words. I love XP but it's easily aged like milk compared to the other engines, so I put a lot into making it feel good. Glad to hear that worked out!

I haven't played Child of Light, but someone else mentioned it in the past. I'll have to check it out, especially based on your suggestions.

author=Darken
Some demo notes.
Solid, I love detailed feedback like this. I appreciate you taking the time to play through & write this all out!

Just some responses:
- You're not the first person to get tripped up on the controller-already-plugged-in-showing-wrong-prompts thing and I have a note to address it. The prompts do appropriately update when you unplug a controller, but I guess asking makes way more sense!
- Holding was my (clearly needs a bit more work) idea to make a "Defend" command that actually felt useful. The idea was a beefed up defense and recovery at the cost of no advancement on the bar, i.e., similar to how you lose a turn to defend in a turn-based system.
- The essence tutorial thing is a known bug and on the to-do. It drives me absolutely crazy, sorry you ran into it!
- The arrow key suggestion is interesting, I'll play around with it. I had thought about it prior, but the biggest issue with this is you lose the thumb/pinky shift/space configuration for time modulation, and I'm not sure how that'd feel with arrow keys.
- I really like the detailed feedback you gave on holding, and I'll give it some more thought, too. Interesting to hear how you tried to optimize it in the boss battle.
- I don't explain swapping characters nearly well enough. It's much more intuitive on a controller (bumpers), and a little goofy on keyboard (Q/E). Even then, there's some weird logic with the order of how a character is deemed "active" or not that also desperately needs addressing.
- The button prompts updating for a playstation or generic controller is on the to-do as well, mostly a scope / time situation.
author=Jaiden
I'll play around with it. I had thought about it prior, but the biggest issue with this is you lose the thumb/pinky shift/space configuration for time modulation,

I don't understand, can't you just use the left side for shift space? I also forgot shift was a thing and only used space most of the time btw.

author=Jaiden
- Holding was my (clearly needs a bit more work) idea to make a "Defend" command that actually felt useful. The idea was a beefed up defense and recovery at the cost of no advancement on the bar, i.e., similar to how you lose a turn to defend in a turn-based system.

Yeah the way I interpeted it was basically like, if you're nowhere near acting, and the enemy's about to attack, switch to hold then back out of it as soon as their attack is done and go back to advancing. Which mitigates not advancing time since you don't have to go to the act bar to execute it. Don't know if that's as good as holding while acting instead. I almost feel like the direction should be merely about reacting to the attacks when your characters have nothing to do yet rather than an either or thing. Child of Light has an interesting philosphy in that vein worth checking out.

Were there any interrupt mechanics in the demo? Surprised not to see it since Grandia 3 went really hard on that aspect. Though I'm curious to see it if you plan to do something in that regard. Regardless I'm glad someone's doing something with this type of battle system.
author=Darken
I don't understand, can't you just use the left side for shift space? I also forgot shift was a thing and only used space most of the time btw.
I got halfway through typing up an explanation and realized if I swapped WASD and the arrow keys for battle input / navigation, you could still use shift/space as I mentioned. Disregard! That makes sense, and I'm actually more curious to give it a try now.

FWIW, my philosophy with the battle "Default" controls is almost 1:1 with how Super Mario RPG handled it. "AB Style" feels weird, and was an afterthought for folks who said they hated the default scheme. It needs a little more TLC, and getting input from folks like you actually playing it helps a ton, since I'm pretty numb to it.

author=Darken
Yeah the way I interpeted itChild of Light has an interesting philosphy in that vein worth checking out.
Ah ha, very interesting! I will check out Child of Light and see how it handles it.

author=Darken
Were there any interrupt mechanics in the demo? Surprised not to see it since Grandia 3 went really hard on that aspect.
I didn't get a chance to touch on it as much as I'd like to. It's a little unexplained, but electric-type attacks in the demo do "stun", which knocks a character back on the bar. I plan to do some more interesting action cancelling and the like and be true to Grandia, though. Head full, days too short.
YES IT'S HEREEE! CONGRAAAATS!! Can't wait to finally play it!
I think I never left a comment on your page, but yeah, I was always following your progress and couldn't wait to play the demo :)
author=Make_it_MagiK
YES IT'S HEREEE! CONGRAAAATS!! Can't wait to finally play it!
I think I never left a comment on your page, but yeah, I was always following your progress and couldn't wait to play the demo :)

Hey, awesome! Glad to hear you're excited about it. I hope it lives up to your expectations :D
Yessirr it's here~~ congrats! I'll play this as soon as I get some free time. Glad you made it this far :)
author=NoBody13
Yessirr it's here~~ congrats! I'll play this as soon as I get some free time. Glad you made it this far :)

Thank you so much! Hope you enjoy :D
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