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A regular trip to a lake with his mother becomes a large-scale adventure after he's attacked by a mysterious man who tries to kill him and kidnaps his mother!
Throughout his journey, he will meet a little girl in search of someone close to her, meet two friends(?) united by a shared cause to save the world, fight against a large army and their four elite generals, and battle against a mysterious hidden organization with foul plans for the world.
Note:
*This game is a bit long and can be a little difficult

Please Read:
Greeting! This game, "The Child of Fire", is the first game I have ever made using RPG Maker MZ. This isn't my first time using RPG Maker in general, but it is still my first game on this platform nonetheless.
As this is my first game, I decided not to use plugins (except for the sideview one) just so I could try and figure this engine out first. However, I did try to do the best I could without them.
With that said, if you choose to download this game, I hope you enjoy it, and please rate the game, or maybe leave a review. Thank you!


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  • Completed
  • happy_myrrh
  • RPG Maker MZ
  • Adventure RPG
  • 08/02/2021 09:06 AM
  • 12/26/2023 05:52 PM
  • 08/02/2021
  • 21522
  • 5
  • 607

Posts

Pages: first 123 next last
The download still hasn't been approved? Or has it been taken down already?
The site says my game has been approved and is currently available...
Do I need to place the download link myself or is something wrong here?
Edit: Okay, I added one now. I hope I did that right...
Edit 2: I did not. Trying to figure this out sorry.
Thanks for the download, but assuming I'm not just too stupid, I'm afraid the folder doesn't contain any sort of .exe file that would enable players that don't own RPG Maker MZ to play the game.
People who don't have MZ can't play the game?
How do I fix that?
Edit: Does it have anything to do with the Deployment or Workshop tab in the RPG Maker?
Edit 2: I think I figured it out. Changing the download link in a moment...
Edit 3: Changed the download link. Hopefully it works...
Thanks, the current download contains an .exe file that makes the game playable. I'll try it out as soon as an opportunity arises.
I just started my playthrough and there is already a huge issue. After fighting a few battles with Eric alone in South Forest, I noticed (way too late) that I - despite the battle screens showing that I should gain EXP - don't gain any EXP. It still says "50 to next level" in the menu no matter how many enemies I slay. Judging by the screenshots, this can't be intended. Do I have to reach a certain point until I can gain experience or are just the enemies in South Forest bugged? Unfortunately, as matters stand now, the game is unplayable because of this issue. Or rather, I don't dare to venture forth, since I can't survive more that one random encounter in a row right now.

Furthermore, I'm wondering if it will be possible to reach the treasure chest in Southtown (plateau on southern part) later. Right now, I'm out of ideas how to reach said treasure chest.

By the way, I liked how there are multiple ways to get killed in the opening sequence (engaging the Death Knight or engaging its summoner). It might be a good idea to place a save statue here so that the player doesn't have to click through the opening again after failing (also, this would be a good opportunity for the player to learn about save statues, as the game doesn't tell the player about them). Especially trying to escape north (one-tile wide passage with no map exit), which some players might try on instinct, results in a surprising death sentence.
Thanks for the review, Spermidine!
I didn't really think about the whole opening sequence there, so I may go back in and add a save statue at the start. As for the EXP gain, you're not supposed to gain EXP yet. There's a cutscene that you can trigger by progressing through the game that will change Eric's class, and thus enable EXP gain.
As for the treasure chest in Southtown, you're not able to reach it yet. You'll gain access to it later in the game.
Thanks for the explanation, then I'll keep at it. It wouldn't have made sense for me to continue if I hadn't been able to gain EXP at all during the entire playthrough, but if not being able to gain EXP is only a temporary matter, I'll probably be able to manage.
I'm enjoying the game so far, especially the party members' banter, the interesting and balanced battles and the well-hidden treasures (including, but not limited to the "mysterious merchants").

Unfortunately, there are a few game-breaking bugs (at least nothing unavoidable so far). You probably want to inspect the following issues:

- Riverside Port (when Eric and Lily wait for the ferry and try to leave the city): The cutscene freezes the game (game-breaking) when triggered by talking to Aiden. It works fine when triggered by talking to Raime, though.

- When the party is complete and the player leaves Yulia Port, a cutscene plays. Unfortunately, it's perfectly possible at this point not to leave Yulia Port and instead to return to Riverside Port, but when the player leaves Riverside Port, the same cutscene tries to play out, yet freezes the game instead (game-breaking).

- Shrine of Light, fourth floor: The mandatory battle on the eastern side can't be triggered if saved for last (i.e. if the player defeats both enemy troops on the western side first) (game-breaking). Surprisingly, the mandatory battle on the eastern side can at least be triggered first, so I wasn't stuck here (but still lost a lot of progress due to this issue).
Yikes... thanks for bringing those bugs to my attention.
I believe I fixed the problems and I'll change the download link soon (I assume that's how one would fix bugs... if not, just let me know).
The fixes are as followed:
The Riverside Port bug (triggered by talking to Aiden instead of Raime) was simple enough. Aiden's trigger didn't work the same as Raime's but it should work fine now after the changes are applied.
The Yulia Port bug was also a simple fix. I simply blocked off access to Riverside Port until the Light Shrine is completed.
The Light Shrine bug was dumb on my part, and I apologize. I used the wrong switch and as a result, one of the battles on the western side of the room disabled the only battle on the eastern side. That should be fixed soon, so sorry about that.
=enemies are healing at full hp
=you fight the same enemies even after being upgraded, probably switch depending on what you have in party
=l knew the retaliation skill was broken so l broke the game by winning against the 5 knights*but l die sometimes anyways due to rng stun + random crits rend crit for 170 holy shit
=300% crits are just too much damage, with the crit debuff+ 100 tp skill l can have 100% crit and just spam slash for 400 crit until the magic automaton die
=went from way too easy to so hard even mobs are draining my mana*probably because those fights are meant for 2 actors and not 1
=aiden house not obvious l would have skipped it if l didnt checked every single house
=cant move character at 1h 19m 30sec*seems like if you talk to them in a certain position it gets stuck
=game started to be annoying for me at 4 actors, too many encounters and have to heal nonstop with water magic against poison ground
= ok l did one step at silent forest and went into another random encounter, this shit is way too high
=mobs can defend randomly making the fight even longer than it needs to be
=return to the enterance(dark shrine teleport)
=use an item to see what states is not very good since you have to remember it in the fight, just use dreamx plugin to be able to mouseover states for details because at this point l dont even know whats going on with all the states
=spamming the 100tp skills to win is not fun
=skills with 60% chance to do something but do nothing else are total failure, should always be 100%
=using riposte before my attacks so l cant even strategize against it* yeah another random riposte almost 1 shotted my whole party this should be a charge so l can prepare and not attack
=will do part2 later, not sure how much left there is of the game but if its 25% im probably going to call it quits, the more it goes the less the battle system interest me due to a lot of random encounters, long animations, skills only working half the time, some skills and heroes like dark mage doing 0 damage and imbalanced skills

https://youtu.be/xSEZ5KtVTBQ
Thanks for the review, lolshtar!
First of all, I'd like to say thank you for recording your playthrough, as it allowed me to completely see what you were talking about for most of these issues.
I already have made a few changes to the game and an update should be up soon.
Responses to your reports are as followed:
-------------------------------------
Enemies healing at full HP: They do that sometimes. The healing move is supposed to target allies, but sometimes they just target themselves instead.
Fighting the same enemies after upgrading: The enemies you fight are based on region IDs, so yes, you do fight the same enemies after learning skills. They DO learn new skills, but that's about it.
The funny Retaliation special: Nerfed it. The counter attack chance is reduced to 50%. The knights fought in the port town have also been buffed (You're no longer able to just beat them).
Critical damage: As said in the description, I didn't want to dive into plugins just yet, so critical damage is what it is. So yes, critical cheese IS a thing, but eventually it'll end up being more useful than it is cheap. Mostly.
Sudden difficulty spike: Yeah, the enemies in Raime's introduction level are supposed to be fought with four party members. I forgot to turn off the encounter rate for that part. Will be changed soon!
Aiden's house being hard to find: Sorry about that. I'll add a small cutscene upon entering the town that tells you where to go.
Aiden breaking a cutscene at the port: That issue was brought up to me before. I thought I had already changed that, but I suppose I placed the wrong download link...
The poisonous ground: That CAN get a little annoying. Fortunately, there are only two levels where walking through damaging tile is unavoidable, and by the second one, that shouldn't even be too much of an issue as you'll have more health at that point.
Encounter rates: In my test play of the game, I too found the encounter rates to be a little high, so believe it or not, the encounter rates have actually already been nerfed. Not only are there more steps in between battles, every dungeon actually contains several "deadzones" where enemy encounters physically cannot happen. Though, random encounters at the end of the day are still exactly that. Random. Sorry about that.
Mobs defending randomly: Yeah they do that. Best way to get around that is either by burning them, poisoning them, or inflicting a status on them where they can't move, as that removes the defend status.
Return to the Entrance: I'm not too sure what your issue with this is, so I assumed you were pointing out that I spelled the word wrong. If that's the case, yeah I did. Oh well. Typos happen.
States not being displayed: Again, I said in the description that I wasn't gonna use plugins for my first ever RPG Maker game on this software since I just wanted to figure out the base engine first. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Spamming TP Skills to win: You ARE able to win through other means just so you know. Special Skills just make doing so easier. As you get further in the game, more tools will be available to you to make beating enemies with your usual kit much easier to do (especially if you find the merchants).
Chance skills: They exist in nearly every RPG. However, I DID decide to buff most of the chance skills so they trigger more frequently. I do not plan to make any of them guaranteed though (there is one status in the game that is guaranteed, but you need to land a prerequisite state first).
Goddammit, riposte skills: That's another mistake on my part. I meant to put a state in the game that locks all counter skills for 4-7 turns after using one, but I forgot to place it. Should be added in soon.
-------------------------------------
Again, thanks for the review, and sorry for the inconveniences.
I mostly had a great time with this game so far, so thanks for your efforts, happy_myrrh. Admittedly, the random encounters are HP sponges and can drag on, but at least the player knows early on it's in his best interest to use the best available skills. Also, battles get a bit easier if the player finds the Ultimate Element Gems (it's a pity there isn't any hint related to them; I simply stumbled upon them by chance because the game didn't let me explore the Shrine of Water's final area at first). Two combos that work very well throughout the game (as soon as available) are Ultimate Water Gem + Lily's Winter Sword (high chance that random mobs lose their turns by being frozen) and Eric's Undying Flame + Firestorm (four guaranteed critical hits) against boss monsters after all party buffs and enemy party debuffs have been applied.

Since I'm nearing what I believe to be the end of the game (Shrine of Death), I would like to tie up some loose ends. Edit: I just found new clues in the settlements and subsequently all Mystery Merchants. Took a lot of legwork, though, especially for the ones in the Light and Fire Shrines.

Furthermore, I was wondering if at some point it will be possible to enter the building (plateau) at Holy Summit. Out of all the inaccessible buildings, this one looks the most like it could serve another purpose.

Edit: Finally, I would like to provide you with a list of (minor) bugs:

- Obstruction mapping:
-- Surtrian Airship: The pots in the southern area aren't solid.
-- Lava Caverns, area 2: The second switch isn't solid anymore after activating it.
-- Lava Caverns, area 2: The small bridge (one tile) that leads to the southeastern corner of the map is solid, thus making it impossible to reach the treasure chest in that area.

- Contrary to what the skill description states, Eric's passive skill "Lucky Child" seems to increase only his luck.

- Does Lily's skill "Impenetrable Bubble" work as intended? At least King Tovin's "Meteor Calamity" skill (during both boss fights) was able to damage me nonetheless.

- Upon the first visit at Riverside Port's inn: If the player doesn't talk to the innkeeper and simply enters the room on the far-right side, he doesn't need to pay 60 Gold.

- Riverside Port: If the player engages the soldiers with Eric alone (instead of returning to the inn) and wins the fight, nothing happens afterwards and the soldiers are still alive (it seems you might have fixed that one already). Also, when engaging the soldiers with Eric and Lily, the soldiers don't disappear upon defeat (might or might not be intentional), thus trapping the player in an endless loop of the same fight, even though it would have been possible otherwise to overpower all enemy soldier parties. Furthermore, when the player is supposed to avoid the soldiers and at this point reenters and leaves the inn (through the front entrance), Riverside Port's outside map is reset to the status when Eric was alone, while the player is still able to advance by returning to the inn and leaving through the window (an easy fix would be to lock the inn during the chase segment). This oversight provides an excellent opportunity for some early-game power-leveling (and the enemy drops aren't bad, either).

- Eclipse Village: When opening the treasure chest on the plateau that contains a Life Charm, it's mistakenly called Health Charm in the pop-up window.

- Eclipse Village: When Raime is supposed to place her hand on the crystal, the Sage's sprite isn't solid (can be walked over), but can still be talked to.

- Shrine of Darkness: When opening the treasure chest that contains the Book of Statuses, it's mistakenly called Book of Ancient Magic Power (or something like that) in the pop-up window.

- Frozen Riverside Town: Every time when leaving and reentering the inn, the player can pay the fee for staying the night by talking to the innkeeper, even though there isn't any need for that (the room that contains the save/heal statue is open regardless of whether the player pays the fee for staying the night, whereas said room in Emberia's inn later remains locked until the player pays up).

- Winter Woods: The boss fight against Lurker Mother can be skipped, since the trigger isn't present in the bottom row of the two tiles wide passage leading to the exit.

- The Explosive Barrel isn't removed from the inventory after using it (story cutscene). Even worse, it can be used in battle; I noticed this too late, so I don't know if using it (up) in battle before clearing the way inside the Emberia Caverns halts progression.

- Ancient Crypt, floor 4: Fire, water, light and dark spheres (one of each) can be seen in the bottom left corner of the map (probably some event that shouldn't be visible).
Oh wow, I didn't think someone would play the game THAT far, so thank you Nasciturus!
First of all, sorry about not hinting at the Ultimate Gems being a thing. They WERE supposed to be drops from the secret bosses, but I suppose I should've at least hinted that going back to a completed shrine could prove useful...
----------
Eric's Passive Skill "Lucky Child" increases his Luck and misc parameters by 7% (misc parameters in this case are stats like critical rate, magic evasion, etc). I should've just said so, so sorry about that.
----------
I ran into issues regarding Lily's Impenetrable Bubble skill as well, but I think I know the reason why it fails against some skills. Some bosses' super skills (King Tovin's Meteor Calamity and Saigg's Annihilating Nebula) use your Max HP to deal damage, AND they are "Certain Hits" instead of physical or magical hits, so Lily's bubble skill can't block ALL of the attack.
----------
The reason that winning against the knights in the Riverside Inn cutscene doesn't remove the knights is cuz you're technically not supposed to be able to beat them. I thought I fixed that with the most recent patch though.
I will make sure you can't just run back into the Inn though.
And I'll make sure you can't just avoid pay walls.
----------
Some items are mistakenly called something else because I changed their names at some point while editing the game. I shall go back and change their names to match the actual item's name.
----------
I'll make sure that boss in the Winter Woods can't just be skipped.
----------
I'll make the Explosive Barrel disappear from the inventory. Sorry.
----------
The doors you found in the Ancient Crypt were ones I pre-made to copy and paste from. It seems I forgot to delete them though...
----------
Lastly, just because I want to, there are some other combos in the game that can prove to be useful, and/or funny.
Eric and Lily: After using Lily's super "Frigid Rain" enemies become wet for 7 turns, but unlike the regular wet status, this one doesn't go away upon freezing the target, so you can infinitely loop "Winter Sword" and "Flare Burst" or "Radiant Flame". Just make sure Eric is faster than Lily.

Lily and Raime: Lily's skill "Suffocation" says "Acts as a magic attack" in its description, and that's for a reason. If Suffocation is used on an enemy who is cursed, instead of dealing 50% of their current HP in damage, it outright destroys them. Very useful against annoying enemies with too much HP.

Eric and Aiden: Eric eventually learns the skill "Counterflare" which greatly increases his attack and guarantees critical hits, but it ends his turn and makes him counter physical attacks during the next turn. If Eric is affected by Aiden's skill "Godspeed", then Eric will be able to use Counterflare, then attack in the same turn, causing his next attack to do stupid amounts of damage, while always being a critical hit. The attack skill used must be a physical attack though. This can also be done without Aiden if you have an Action Charm.
----------
Anyway, thanks for the review! I'll be sure to apply those changes soon enough.
Thanks for the useful explanations.

It shows how much effort you put into the battles/skills, the story dialogue and the dungeons with their excellent "switch pathfinding puzzles" and their overall interesting designs. Unfortunately, the final dungeon is plagued by a few issues, including the final boss fight, because of which I wasn't able to complete the game yet:

-
Simon's
skill "Spin Slash" (which, by the way, lacks a skill description) shouldn't be usable outside of battle from the menu.

-
Shrine of Morteous
, area 7 (second party part): I think Eric's skill set (fire) has been mistakenly bestowed upon
Katherine (ice/water)
.

-
Shrine of Morteous
, area 7 (second party part): In the central upper area, there are two clusters of three flames grouped together that don't move (there's probably something wrong with the eventing here).

-
Shrine of Morteous
, area 8 (second party part): It seems something's wrong here. There is an exit to another area, which I didn't take, because I hadn't fully explored area 8 yet. When I defeated the monster that guarded the treasure chest, the game suddenly told me that my work here was done and warped me out, with no way of coming back and opening the treasure chest. I think defeating said monster mistakenly activates the trigger for clearing the area.

- During the last phase in the final boss battle against
Saigg: God of Destruction
, things don't seem to work as intended. All attacks from both parties (also items and counters), no matter if buffed to the limit, deal 0 damage (with the exception of
Susan's
"Luminous Judgement" skill that deals 700+ HP damage, but only occurs randomly), all of the final boss's attacks miss and he can't be afflicted with debuffs and status ailments. Furthermore, skills don't cost MP anymore. Since I can't check the final boss's HP and have no way of knowing if he can even be defeated under these circumstances, I didn't want to wait for further "Luminous Judgements" until the final boss might or might not fall.
Literally just mentally punched myself just now lol.
Sorry, the issue with Katherine and the final phase of the final boss are both massive mistakes on my part.
I somehow accidentally switched Katherine's class to Eric's before publishing the game, and during the final phase, (btw the final boss IS immune to most things, but this is supposed to be a playable cutscene of sorts where you wail on the boss for free, hence the zero MP costs and auto dodging). During this phase though, just for dramatic effect, the boss was supposed to halve most damage. But while typing in 50%, it would seem I forgot the five...
So super sorry about that, it will be fixed immediately.
Don't beat yourself up, sh*t happens. :)

I'll complete the game as soon as possible, but I'm afraid the game.exe is missing again in version 1.3.
The download link should be changed now. Sorry.
Excellent, this time everything worked without a hitch and I could complete the game. Thanks again for an entertaining game. I clocked out at 45+ hours and beat the final boss at level 88. While I was probably overleveled, the game is - nevertheless - fairly challenging when the players don't use everything at their disposal, but I'm sure it can be finished faster and at lower levels.

That being said, maybe the game's description could mention that this is a behemoth of a game. Initially, I thought I could just save the world quickly, but then I was positively surprised at this game unfolding into an epic adventure on a whole larger scale. Keep up the great work, I'm looking forward to and wish you success for your future endeavors.
Enjoying your game so far looks like you put a lot of time and effort into it.
However I have hit a snag,the last dialogue mentioned going to the `Snowy Area` ...South of Riverside, but I cannot enter this area!
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