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In a quiet mountain village lies a legend of young women that rose to beat back the forces of malignant spirits. The local school makes a note of this, and includes field trip to the mountains where the final battle was supposed to have taken place.

However, legends are stooped in varying amounts of truth and fiction. Four students will come face-to-face with this legend, and will come to know much of it is true, or false. Will they rise to the occasion, and in triumph, or could they come upon a truth that is to terrible to bear?

Latest Blog

Project complete!

Edits and fixes have been applied, and rounds of playtesting have been made. I probably should pass it around to other players for feedback to see how this instance of the game goes over. However, at this point, the number of corrections and edits I'm willing to make to this game would likely be limited in scope to small tweaks, and what-not.

Which means? Which means!? Yes! I'm calling this...


COMPLETE!


Though, in so doing, I feel like this game is kinda like Oracle of Askigaga in that it hits me pretty hard, but having others react in the same way to it is... questionable. At best. Which is fine. While it might be nice for the number of people this game can "hit" would be above 1, that number was the value I wanted this game to reach, and always has been. This number was reached before the latest bout of fixes, and what-not, but, having a product where players might actually be able to get to the first boss fight, if not beyond, felt an important enough step.



The question that ultimately comes up when a project is finished is what could be coming up next? It might be a while before whatever next happens, but, I honestly can't say for sure what form it would take. Like, I want to stop making remakes of older games, or doing event-based games and do something new. I've a few very vague ideas here, so, I'll list them under a hide-tag.


Idea: Privateer clone
Every so often, I think about Myriad Cypher, and how I could make it a better 2-D Privateer clone. Like, okay, the battle system would still be turn-based, and very much the default RPG Maker system. So sue me. However, exploring the various sectors of the game would be top-down view. You'd be able to open the nav-map with "n", and select where you want to go with the mouse. The game/system would provide a jump-route, and you'd be able to press "j" while on the field to go from sector-to-sector, just like Privateer 2 - The Darkening. Encounters would likely work as they did in Myriad Cypher in that they would trigger on entering a sector.

To say nothing about where to snag graphics (I would prefer zero rips this time), the underlying system of the nav-map functionality just sounds incredibly difficult/ambitious to pull off. It would certainly challenge my scripting ability! Which isn't a bad thing, but, it's also one of the things that makes me want to nope right out of going forward with this idea.


Idea: Mystic Vale/Resident Evil - The Deckbuilder fusion
These are both card games, and the end result would be (surprise!) a card game! I like the idea in Mystic Vale, where the size of your deck does not change, but abilities on the cards you do have can expand/improve over the course of the game. The fusion of the two ideas would come in the form of the monster deck. The end-game goal would be to deplete that deck before the player takes too much damage from the monsters that are drawn from it.

Though, this idea could be slotted in as a mini-game, it would be developed as a separate project. I'm not sure if I feel comfortable with submitting said project to the site as a gamepage, as I did with Arcomage Ace or if I would just submit it as a utility/plugin/script, as I did the MZ equivalent.


Idea: Wasteland Wanderer
Post-apocalypse setting, similar to Wasteland/Fallout, where the player plays as a scavenger that gets shot for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or something like that. He gets revived by the Sisters of Hope, with questions about what the hell he had picked up (it's obviously missing now) that was worth killing for.

Said Sisters of Hope could be a faction the player could work for, or against, and their quests probably tend towards search-and-rescue missions. Doing missions for factions means rising in rank, leading to sometimes getting missions from higher up on the hierarchy, expanding on the consequences of your actions to the game world, or other nonsense.

Though, to be honest, I think I would rather not turn this idea into a game, but more of a story? Like, I don't think I pull off political/faction intrigue very well in either case, but, hey, maybe this idea might make me a little better at it, if I do it. Though, that "if" is very much the operative term here.

  • Completed
  • Marrend
  • RPG Maker MZ
  • RPG
  • 07/08/2021 06:59 PM
  • 05/05/2023 02:20 PM
  • 05/04/2023
  • 20947
  • 9
  • 279

Posts

Pages: 1
Nice overall game concept but there is A LOT of dialog.
This game is also quite linier in case that matters to some people.

There should be some kind of confirmation at the schools front door.
First few days are missing this note for some reason.
(would you like to leave for the day?) Y/N

"Chat with Mayu", "Chat with Ruri", and "Chat with Kozue" never seem to change day to day before the field trip making interaction with classmates feel unimportant.

"Chat with Mayu", "Chat with Ruri", "Chat with Kozue", and "Talk to Shoko" Rarely seem to change day to day after the field trip as well.
(Why is Shoko "talk to" instead of "chat with"? Is it because she is mute?)

Magic seems to be able to crit? I Critically healed myself with "first aid".
and besides that, the "Chakra" tech seems a bit too strong.

You seem to be able to farm as much as you want by going back and forth between school and Iwayama.

GP gains seem very high compared to the cost of items in the shop.

Beyond all of that, I can't seem to find the trigger to progress the game and enter into the cave.

Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Thanks for giving this game a try! Let me attempt to address some of the issues you're raising.

There should be some kind of confirmation at the schools front door.
First few days are missing this note for some reason.
(would you like to leave for the day?) Y/N

This is mostly because there arguably isn't a whole lot to do in the game during the early game, before the field trip. Also, since leaving for home becomes a propmpt later, it just didn't feel nessessary to do a prompt at the front door.

"Chat with Mayu", "Chat with Ruri", and "Chat with Kozue" never seem to change day to day before the field trip making interaction with classmates feel unimportant.

"Chat with Mayu", "Chat with Ruri", "Chat with Kozue", and "Talk to Shoko" Rarely seem to change day to day after the field trip as well.
(Why is Shoko "talk to" instead of "chat with"? Is it because she is mute?)

I do try to change topics every so often. After the field trip, I think the most a given topic stays around is, like, three maybe four in-game days? I also haven't revised Shoko yet, as I'm still not 100% what all I'm going to do with her.


The general idea with those "Chat with Mayu/Shoko/Izumi/Kozue" choice-boxes is that they build relationship values, and at certain thresholds, would cause cut-scenes to occur. Maybe allow some additional benefits, such as passive buffs? I may have an idea about how to manage passive buffs. On the other hand, I also kinda want to drop that idea.


Beyond all of that, I can't seem to find the trigger to progress the game and enter into the cave.

There should have been a cut-scene on Day 13 that points the player to Iwayama. You should be able to double-check what day it is by using the F9 debug menu. I'm pretty sure I enabled that feature outside of playtest mode. Either way, a boss would, then, appear on Day 14 at the entrance to the cave, and the game's calendar will not progress until he's defeated.

*Edit:
Magic seems to be able to crit? I Critically healed myself with "first aid".
and besides that, the "Chakra" tech seems a bit too strong.

I have zero qualms making magic deal critical damage, but, I can see where you're coming from in regards to healing. Like, it didn't feel powerful enough before, and now it might be a little too good. I'm not sure what the middle ground would even look like, given the mechanics of the game in regards to costs/requirements of skills.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Hey Marrend, I played this on stream Friday because I wanted to see what you would do with a remake of this game. I don't remember much of the original and I didn't go back to read my review since I wanted to go in as blind as possible.

First off, it's great that you want to put emphasis on Ruri's classmates. I think the idea of making them more involved in Ruri's day to day life is a good one. However, in the hour and a half I played, I didn't glean too much insight into their personalities outside of what was already presented in their main dialogue. I'm not sure how much emphasis they will have on the main story (or even which ones will be party members), but the extra bond dialogue doesn't do much to make any of them stand out as distinct characters or make me interested in getting to know them more.

It really doesn't help that Ruri herself, despite being so full of energy and cheerfulness, doesn't do much to bounce off these characters. For example, her initial introduction was a single line and then a light bolt zip to her desk. Her speed is incredibly unusual, and I wish the rest of the cast had at least SOME kind of reaction to it. Without it, her being full of energy feels very mundane and a natural part of the world.

I'm fine with the long, lore-heavy intro because it's relevant to the eventual field trip to Iwayama. What I'm not fine with is that the field trip itself was over in about 5 minutes and there was no real payoff to the lore dump. We just went, got attacked, fought our first battle, then left. It's fine if you just wanted to share trivia on this location (assuming these are real Japanese legends about a real place), but it overpowers the narrative being told. If the classmates (or even Ruri herself) had more of a reaction to the trivia, that would make it more relevant to the player, but I can tell you that I've forgotten 90% of the lessons just because there was so much of it for no apparent reason.

What eventually got me to stop was Ruri going back to the mountains to investigate, and being stopped at the cave entrance. I don't understand the point of even being able to come here other than grinding, which isn't what I want to do since it won't move the story forward. I'm not sure if I'm missing something or if I played everything the current build has to offer, but I'm at a stopping point and there isn't a hook to keep me moving forward.

As for the battles, I like the flow of using basic attacks to power up your TP to cast spells. However, basic attacks usually defeat enemies in one hit, and so battles are over before I can really experiment with Ruri's skills and how they can be used. I think a magical girl RPG should put more emphasis on magic instead of clobbering enemies with your weapon (unless Ruri is meant to be a physical oriented magical girl).

All in all, I feel like the main emphasis of this game is Ruri's relationship with her classmates instead of battles or even the main plot. If that's the case, then the classmates need to be brought out a lot more than what is presented here. There needs to be more unique conversations with more reactions to what is going on in the world and the teacher's lessons, and more back and forth with Ruri herself. There needs to be more immediate rewards for forming and developing bonds with her classmates, and the overall objective of Ruri's investigation into Iwayama needs to be made clear to the player so they have a goal to work towards.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
For starters, thanks for giving this a try!

I think you do bring up some good points about the relevancy of the lore-dumps, and pacing. When I wrote the lore, it was some time either during, or after, listening to a podcast of Romance of the Three Kindgoms. Certainly after listening to the Outlaws of the Marsh podcast. The style in which the podcaster relayed these stories leaked into the lore-dumps, and maybe I went a little crazy with them.

Another user I asked to play this was also confused by the cave entrance, and how to move the game forward. I'm not exactly sure how to best resolve that at the moment. For what it's worth, I was looking into the character interactions. The current build only has Mayu and Izumi's dialogs having been run through a bit, but, it does seem like the biggest barrier to move the game forward is letting the player know when to approach that cave entrance.

That, and retaining overall interest level in the game. I dunno. I went over Kozue's dialogs more recently, and was thinking about eventually getting to Benjiro. However, I'm not 100% sure if these dialogs I'm writing are what this game wants/needs if I don't communicate what I expect of the player, and have them get past the first fortnight of the in-game calendar. Or however long it's going to be.

I might want to take a really really closer look at, say, Persona games, and why they choose to limit player activity to either dungeon-delving, or meeting up with characters. This game attempts to allow players to do both, even going so far as to not end the day if a player does choose to hang out with a character. That was one of my favorite things from the demo of Memories Nerverlasting that I played back in the day, and I kinda wanted it to work here, too. Which might have been a mistake, itself. Either way, I thought about allowing some in-game benefit as relationships grow. Which I've yet to figure out exactly how that would even work! I've largely considered dropping that idea, though, since I have a very low inclination to make this game more complex than it already is.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
To be honest, it wasn't until after I made my initial post that I realized that the game has a calendar text file within the game. Looking through it, there are a surprising number of days that just have no events planned.

You absolutely need to cut out as many of those blank days as you can. Whether that involves filling them out with cutscenes where Ruri's friend circle discuss current events, or maybe just cut the days out entirely to move the main plot forward faster. Or maybe give each classmate unique dialogue every day to justify going through the current structure of the game. The fact is there is not enough content in the game already that the player can do by themselves to justify three consecutive blank days in a row. And this happens twice within the first fourteen days.

it does seem like the biggest barrier to move the game forward is letting the player know when to approach that cave entrance. That, and retaining overall interest level in the game. I dunno.


Well, the first thing you have to do before making any changes to the game is know. If you're not sure how to retain player interest, how is the player going to know? Once you decide what drives your game forward, knowing what changes you need to make will be a lot easier. Like I said before, my impression of the game was that it was character-centric. If that's true, then whatever decision you have to make about the game's plot and pacing needs to have the cast front and center of the player's attention.
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