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"Would you stake your life on a world that cannot be saved?"

Version 1.07 - Released May 4th, 2012

-Strategic turn-based battles reward careful positioning and smart actions over brute force.
-No typical HP/MP drudgery - Instead, battlers have Body, Mind, and Soul ratings that serve as both health and fuel for special abilities. Knocking any of them to zero means defeat, so heroes beware!
-No level grinding or money hoarding!
-Diverse elemental and weapon-versus-armor system for all sorts of exploitative goodness.
-Structured mission-based gameplay means you'll never have to wander around figuring out where to go next.
-Oh, and no random encounters either, because, seriously.
-Over a dozen colorful characters to recruit and train.
-20+ hours of adventure - multiple secrets, sidequests, and endings!

TV Tropes Page available here! Here be spoilers!

Unofficial Official Wiki available here! Here be spoilers too!

Fanfiction here! Spoilers?! You better believe it!

A play-by-play commentary at Dragon Quill! - Spoilers, slowly but surely!

Text of the entire in-game glossary! Note: Link is working again as of 4/11/14.

Latest Blog

Featured in the RPG Maker Bundle #1!

~RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE~

The Reconstruction was featured alongside a few really great games on the RPG Maker Web main site! Here is the link: http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/23772-rpg-maker-free-game-bundle/

If you're reading this, you probably already played it ages ago, but I want to express my gratitude regardless! So, thanks for the positive buzz and whatnot that made this possible!
  • Completed
  • Deltree
  • RPG Maker XP
  • Tactics Strategy RPG
  • 09/02/2009 05:06 PM
  • 06/07/2015 01:39 PM
  • 09/03/2009
  • 409663
  • 70
  • 10605

Posts

Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
Aww, I liked the coin thing!

Maybe something from Big T's little revelation speech in the closing cutscene? What little I remember of it seemed optimistic.
Since I noticed the game was rather lacking in reviews, I finally bit the bullet and made my own, even though I'm a horrible writer and am very nervous as to what people will think of it. The game deserves as many reviews as it can get, though. Give it a look once the queue finishes digesting it if you so desire, fellow RMNers.
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
Very well done! Thanks a lot for taking the time!

(Also, the way you structured it is exceedingly clever.)
I have to admit I kind of borrowed the format from this. It is especially fitting for this game, though.

Glad you like the review, I was worried it would be horrible and amateurish.

Edit: Oh yeah, also: I know you probably won't bother at this point, and I'm sorry I didn't notice it earlier, but I believe that I mentioned the skill point costs for passive skills were too high a while back? You said you fixed them, and the rank I skills are indeed a 200/200 split now, but it doesn't look like they were fixed beyond that. Rank V skills still require 2500/2000 points, for example, which makes them virtually impossible to get in normal gameplay. :/ Is this intentional...?
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
This may sound crazy, but I think the max levels were originally 5000+ points. You're not supposed to be able to max every skill without some serious savant level grinding, so it's more of picking and choosing to match your playstyle.
5000+ points


Holy-! O_O That's...gah. Glad you toned it down.

Anyway, though, I understand what you mean about not being able to get everything, but my complaint wasn't about the cost so much as the imbalance -- it gives skill points much more weight than they should. I often have an absurd amount of stockpiled mana points by the endgame, but a dearth of skill points because I spent them all on passive skills. :( What I meant was: It seems like your intention was to make them an even split, but unfortunately only the Rank I skills were fixed.
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
Ah, I see what you're saying. I don't remember wanting them even, though - each skill has a bias of "magic" versus "non-magic" (with some in the middle) which also determines how many points of each you get every time it's invoked in battle. It's very likely I ended up favoring one over the other though (or maybe your preferred party was all casters with few non-magic skills, I dunno!)
Huh? No no, I understand that, I meant the passive skills specifically. All of them are weighted towards the skill side (like I said, the rank V upgrade costs 2500/2000, while the Rank I upgrade costs an even 200/200). The fact that the Rank I costs are even after the fix seems to imply you wanted the other passives to follow the same pattern...
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
Peculiar! Especially if it's every one of them. I think passives should have been one way or the other too. Some day I should reinstall XP and look at that.
Indeed. Passives having a bias makes a bit less sense, though, since they already cost more than active skills, and don't give you any skill points for using them... But eh, your decision of course.

By the way, sorry if this sounds like it came out of left field, but I have a question about the plot that's been bugging me (spoilers for interlude 3, all those who read this):


So, after Rehm has his breakdown in interlude 3 and tells the crew to leave so he can commit suicide, Taru tries to convince him otherwise, then suddenly gets angry, flips out at him, and runs off. Okay, fair enough, but, a) why did that suddenly make him decide to hate all shra when he seemed like a nice accepting guy beforehand, and, b) why does he still hold that grudge and bigotry half a century later? Most people move on with their lives after such an extended length of time. Is the moral supposed to be that he was always a selfish shra-hating jerk and only put on an act so he'd be accepted into the crew? Occam's razor says that makes zero sense, so I assume you had some other reason in mind...?
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
Yeah, just another grand experiment that needs fine tuning.

As for part B:

He's still kind of a kid at that point, and just flew off the racially-charged handle. Also, keep in mind the sort of lineage he came from - he joined the crew in an attempt to escape it, and ended up having to return to it anyway, so it was a moment of frustration that stuck with him.
Also, I just found what I think is a bug: the modifier stats for Rehm's skills contradict each other. In battle, it says that Shock Burn is modified by Spirit, Storm Surge by Strength, and Fiery Raid by Intelligence, but the menu screen says that the first two are both modified by Spirit, and the training screen agrees with the battle modifiers, except that it says Fiery Raid is modified by Spirit, not Intelligence.

Anyway, erm...do you remember which one is correct? Even if you don't want to do a bugfix at this point, it would be nice to at least record the information somewhere. I would assume the training screen is correct, since otherwise Rehm would use all three offensive stats, something that no other character does.
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
I broke down and downloaded the XP trial so I don't say anything without being entirely sure. I also wrote them about retrieving my activation code so maybe there is a chance of a patch coming two years late!

Someone else pointed this out a short time ago too. It's definitely a bug (although more like a discrepancy between my design doc and my actual implementation). Here are the actual ability modifiers:

Shock Burn: Spirit
Storm Surge: Strength
Fiery Raid: Intelligence

So, the battle screen is correct; he does use all three.
I...see. Interesting. That would explain why Fiery Raid does such paltry damage, even after I've been upgrading his spirit.

If you're planning on making a patch, I'll try to point out other bugs I come across, then. There are a number of typos, but I've forgotten where most of them are. I do know there's one in the prologue, though, during the ending cutscene where Sara is talking to the freed slaves.

While you're at it, here's weird battle bug I found: If an enemy rush empties the meter and causes a shift, if there's already at least one rush stage lit up for the player, the "damage up/damage down" messages don't appear, the zone-of-control bar doesn't shift, and the characters aren't pushed back if they're on the front line. (Characters who weren't on the front line can't advance further, though; it's merely a cosmetic bug.) Don't know what's causing it or if it's even worth fixing, though.

Also, not sure if it's a bug or not, but I seem to be able to trigger the effects of Growth of Hope when Falitza uses Press Fortune (+/- Rush, advance/break chain), even though she hasn't learned it yet. Do you know what's up with this?
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
Both definitely worth exploring! I will see if I get a chance to work on it today. Thanks!

(Magical edit powers) Version 1.06 is in the works and should be uploaded tomorrow evening, barring any major changes coming up. It'll fix that Rush bug as well as make Fiery Raid SPI-based. It will also display Wait values in battle, which is a feature I've had requested a couple times now. It'll also fix the issue where characters weren't getting essence when supporting someone. And a bunch of other little things. So, big update!
Wow, awesome! It's great that you're still willing to make bugfixes after all this time. Does it tweak the passive skill costs too? (There are some characters who don't even get the Rank I balancing -- I think everyone except the starting cast still has the 300/200 split, actually.)

I'll report any more bugs/typos I come across, I guess?
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
The problem there is the cost amounts are preset variables, so I'll have to find a way to set them all for every character when a save is loaded and then turn off a switch so it only does it once. I'll definitely see what I can do, though!
Hm...in reference to your latest blog post: You say that mind/soul damage on a melee attack is a secondary effect to the physical damage it inflicts. However, wouldn't this mean that all melee weapons should deal body damage? Or are the people who use those weapons so wimpy that their physical strike doesn't inflict any significant damage? Really, I suppose the only way to make it work is to say they're literally attacking their opponent's mind/soul, but that raises questions of its own... :x
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
That was just me (as an example) trying to rationalize (which is a crippling obsession I have), when it's just a mechanic otherwise. Hence "imagination required."
By the way, everyone who's still here: I have written a fanfic. Reviews would be appreciated. Try writing your own if you think you can!