• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS
"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
  • 409689
  • 70
  • 10605

Posts

Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
Thanks for playing! And sorry about the trouble! Yikes. If it's only 1kb, it sounds like the save process got interrupted somehow. It basically serializes all the game data into a single chunk, so since your file is so small, it's definitely missing most of the data. I'm not sure how that happened, and I hope it doesn't happen again. I would start alternating save slots just to be sure. If it does happen again, feel free to send me your save file and I will try to tweak it so you can get back to where you should be.

The investigation bug is probably a switch that didn't get toggled, since I had to go back and add those by hand after someone pointed out that you could pull up the swap menu while a dialog box was open and cause all sorts of chaos. You should be able to reset the switch by inspecting something on the map or getting into a battle. I'll go back and fix that in the event that I ever do another update.

Thanks again!
Thanks for the response, now to play through all of Chapter two again...I don't suppose there anyway to just take a save file from the beginning of Chapter 3 from somewhere?

Either way, time for a few general mechanical issues before I talk about what I like. The idea of upgrading the amount of 'HP' causing every other upgrade to increase by 1k instead of 100 causes me to only want to upgrade 'defense' so to speak. It seems fairly unbalanced to make willpower increases cost more after increasing soul, especially as time goes on and you have more and more points. It's more efficient to just upgrade defense, except perhaps at the very end of the game when you're putting in your final amount of points. Also, it means that if everybody's getting equal essence, then people who are 'weak' in certain areas eventually have a much higher defense than others strong on that, since they won't be breaking up their points between attack and defense.

Also assigning the entire group manually every time I want to update the party's pretty darn annoying. However, both of these issues are either not existent or fixed in IMTS, so I assume you already know all of that. XD

I only really have one issue with the story so far. In Nal, you say that Dehl would have been kidnapped and forced into slavery if he didn't have his sword...and on the same screen there's a free Shra that doesn't seem to have any weapons and is tending his own garden. How...does that even work? Is it just because Dehl's an outsider?

And now onto the good stuff. Man that world's great. The way you have depth to everything going on in world that clearly stands on its own is really refreshing. Did you make your own languages? I notice the patterns and reoccurring words seem to indicate that. Also, I know people have already said this but man Dehl is awesome. The defining moment to me was when the person almost beat him for running into him, and he even went off to heal him after being fire blasted...even if it was likely the guy would still be angry and try to beat him for it. The fact that we never saw exactly what happened (a good thing mind you) makes me wonder if that really did happen. Also the way he (And the captain) casually mention being enslaved is...unnerving.

What I've really enjoyed, aside from the storytelling (holy crap the final mission to chapter 2, man I wasn't expecting that ;-;) is just the humor. This wasn't really in IMTS, and I don't blame you for that, I think it was better for it. However, it fits in just so well here and has made me laugh quite often. My favorite so far was the stealth mission in the interlude before chapter 2 (the only reason I had an extra save file actually - I did it to replay that part and see everything)

The overall style of game-play is also different enough from IMTS to feel new and yet still similar to have your own style.

Question - For IMTS and this game, how much of the music did you do yourself? The way the ending theme was used during the final battle in IMTS was... heart wrenching to say the least.
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
I can hack your save file to bring you back to Chapter 3, with the first quest done. If you know what guild rank you had or if you recruited anyone in chapter 2, I can make it as accurate as I can (I'll have to guess on the favor scores). Mail the save file to spacelizard at tilde-one dot com and I'll get on it once I get off work.

The reason health is so expensive is that it's MP too. That extra cast can make the difference for characters with poor regen. I'm glad you are pointing these things out, though! It is a learning process after all, which is why I played it to safe in IMTS. As for your party, you can save your lineup as a favorite and restore it any time (unless you mean out on the map itself).

And as for plot stuff, things will change/come to light in a hurry! Especially once you pass chapter 3!

I did all the music in IMTS (or "did" as far as composing samples can count). A few tracks in TR are original, but most of them are included with RMVX.
Thank you thank you thank you! :) I'll give all relevant information in the e-mail

Ah, that does make more sense with it being MP too. I do perfectly understand it being more expensive, I just don't like how it makes stuff like defense and attack be a lot more expensive afterwards as well. For instance, buying one defense and then one health is a LOT cheaper than being one health and then one defense. Maybe it would have been better at just being a raw 1k higher than your current cost, but only increase it by 2-300?

Also, I feel like I should comment on the command chain system. At first I really hated it, since it's much more efficient to just use attack ones to kill enemies quickly, and how one wrong move can reset it all, not to mention it all being so darn random. However, the fact that it makes attacking vs having future attacks be stronger such a hard decision is actually a good thing in the end, so nice job with that. The machines starting to carry it over is also really helpful. I do wish I had some white skills that could to damage, though. I also wish I had some sort of clue on exactly how much it increased your power, but that's something probably best left discovered by the player.
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
Check your inbox!

And you bring up a good point about the cost thing; I'll probably never attempt anything like that again, if it's any condolence.

I think you'll get a character with a white-chain damage skill. Just the one, though, if I'm remembering right. Fortunately, you'll get another character who's very proficient at making the number go up, if you want to focus on it.
Wow. I just finished the game last night. I uh...I think my head's spinning a bit. I started writing a few notes about what to say and it got to a page and half just from an outline. I hope you don't mind long comments and lots and lots of questions. ^^; I'll try and split things up so I don't say everything in one gigantic post.

I don't think I'm ever going to forget this experience.

Hahaha wow I feel silly now for saying how the humor was the best part. Perhaps then, and I did love it but maaaaan. Big things, deep themes, so much character development. Anyway, let's start with the most important things.

First off, I can't find the fourth hunter in Fero's sidequest for the life of me. I got one from every main city but Wadassia (and of course Do'sShaa) I searched everywhere and even the recurring side-quests in Wadassia, but nothing...

Also, I hope I got every sidequest. I feel like Zargos, Ques, Lani, and Rehm could have gotten one, but I didn't see it.

Next some story questions. First, why does everybody on TVtropes assume Mahk is dead? He could have survived, and Tez seems pretty certain he's ok from what I could gather in the end.

Also, did you purposefully leave it open to guess if the guys really meant to kidnap Xobi? I know they said they just wanted to protect him, but...it still seems suspicious.

Finally, why was the Voice Himself, aka probably Willis and co. so concerned with our heroes fulfilling emotional requirements and life lessons? I thought he was only concerned with latent energy use, and lots of people had that in spades. Am I just forgetting something from IMTS? There was a lot to take in with both games and I admit I kind of sped through them a bit. But I just...don't quite get the connection between games there. What would doing another cycle even accomplish?



Whew. Next post I'll analyze characters. But I gotta say that I just loved the way you foreshadowed so much. I'm glad I looked over TVTropes because there's a fair amount I would have missed (I'm not good at remembering all the names >_>) The way such small details all over the place connect makes the world feel so alive. I'll need to go through this game a second time at a later date. The way there's so many characters will let my be able to do that and still keep things fresh.

The ending was just so darn satisfying. Your story telling is so good it makes me rather sad that The Drop won't have a lot of writing to be honest. But consider yourself has having a new fan.

...speaking of which is there anyway to comment on your articles? Your ideas and discussion are always interesting.
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
I'm glad you made it to the end without further issue! I'll try to answer what I can!

The last hunter is in the Wadassia hunting grounds, all the way to the east. He's hiding behind some dead tree branches.

Yeah, I didn't have the time/energy to give a sidequest to everybody. Typically the ones that do not either get a star upgrade as part of their normal training, or from a storyline event.

Since Xopi is presumed orphaned in the ending sequence, it's safe to say Mahk didn't make it. He was pretty old by that time anyway. Tez probably doesn't know himself yet, since he's been pretty much focused on re-establishing communication first and foremost.

It's ambiguous! For all we know, they could have been sheltering him just long enough to kidnap him later. Xopi wouldn't know any better, so he would just see the "protective" side of things.

The Eros folk didn't define any emotional parameters as such; the Watchers took it upon themselves to do that instead, since they saw themselves as on a sort of "mission from the gods." For what we know, if they were told the goal was finding those who had "mastery over the power," that could really mean anything to them. Really, both games are so thematically different that the connection is basically just for completeness' sake anyway.


I'm not done with the world yet! I still have one last game planned for after The Drop, which is more of a break for me for now.

No comment functionality, unfortunately. I wrote the entire site from scratch, and I am usually too preoccupied to add/moderate any sort of comment system (plus the spambots are already coming in droves in my contact form and on the wiki). But maybe some day! And I'm glad you like it, too!
...I walked past that guy like 5 times before. Wow.

I understand, I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss something.

Hrm. I realize that a lot of character deaths happened off-screen, but it just seemed a bit odd for a character like Mahk to leave it open like that. Granted, though, his character's story had been pretty much finished.

Ah, good. That kind of ambiguity is very well done.

Makes sense.


I'm very glad to hear that you're not done yet. I cannot wait one bit to see what you have planned to finish up this amazing world you've made.

And now for some character discussion.



I think I'll get started by saying that Qualisto is the perfect foil for Dehl. It starts off appearing to be just a simple cold vs hot style personality, but quickly shows to be much deeper. We have lawful vs chaotic, handling of stress, attitude and morals all contrasting with each other so well and developing together. They both clearly make each other better.

What really made me happy, I think, was how well the whole story was resolved for everybody in the end. Man that was just a really good ending. Seeing the status of the world and everything being rebuilt made for a very satisfying ending. I felt like I understood what was going on more than I did in the ending to IMTS, which while still very good, left a few things a bit too open for me. I didn't quite understand the final status of that world, or the timing of a couple of things, but I'll get to that in another post.

So anyway, Santes and Zargo. Not much to say here. They were strong characters, and while Santes almost got a little too excitable, I liked her idealism and how it contrasted with Dehl's. At times during the story it was easy to forget they were married, but their perspectives were always helpful. And might I say a perfect ending with both of them as parents.

Siriush taking off his hat at the end...a very nice touch to finish him off. You have a talent for showing a lot of emotion without telling it directly.

Kulkumatz also had a perfect ending, even if it changed to happy music a bit too quickly when he died...talk about a mood swing. He was a really interesting character for sure.

I really liked Tehogan's character and how he developed over the course of the game. Although I totally missed his dad being Taru, though. Did we ever get to see his dad grown up? Also, I don’t get why his middle name’s a spoiler on tvtropes. Did I miss something again?

Now to go a bit more in depth with Dehl and Rehm.

I was a bit surprised Rehm was an optional character after all the tons of buildup you did for him. I mean man those interludes were good. But I'm also a bit confused about what happened to him after them. Did the events on the ship we investigated right before his character quest pertain to him? I thought it did for a while, until I thought I realized it was talking about Skint...until I realized Skint got stabbed in the back right after he first met Dehl during the rebellion? (didn't catch that guy being Skint either, actually)

So uh...yeah maybe the ship was its own story, but I didn't catch how that related if it did. Nor did I understand why the Shra burst into the room with drugs and had some of them...was he already drunk enough to do that? Was he confiscating them? Was it just a completely separate story then? The Shar's experience with ships indicated Rehm, but he also seemed to die in the end so...yeah. Maybe I missed crucial evidence - my final score for the evidence portion was 350 after all, and it probably should have gone up to 500?

Also I don't feel like I understood what happened to him when he was in prison. It seems to be that he was constantly tortured and drank all the pain away, but then I got the impression that it was all in his head and was treated fine...although I don't think that's where you're going with it. The humans said they were purposefully torturing him to give him motivation to live? I'm sorry? I understand that you want to show everybody's motivation and how they believe what they are doing is right. You're really good at that in every single other case but this just made no sense to me. I get the feeling that I just missed a lot here.

I loved his chat with his dad in the epilogue. So in the end, I did really like his character. Those interludes, especially the last two, were very powerful. The scene where Dehl gave him the white coat was one of my favorites in the game. Man talk about symbolism! The amount of forgiveness shown after Rehm had messed up so badly in so many ways was just heart wrenching. That kind of scene is why Dehl is such a good main character, and why Rehm was as well. However, I'm just plain confused about what happened to him between Interlude 3 and when our party saw him. For such amazing character development up until the point we saw him, the fact that I didn't see nearly as much afterwards felt a bit odd. Unless, over course, I just missed a lot. Still, super good job overall with him. Man, seeing a years-long suicide attempt just breaking down all alone at sea, I just...I wasn't expecting that. Not in the slightest. It really took me off guard. And then practically loosing yourself completely in alcohol to try and forget?

And now Dehl. Oh man Dehl. You did a heck of a good job of showing all the audience his emotion and feelings without having to really show it to us at all. Case in point - the scene where Mahk rejects him after the Xobi instance. I can't even begin to imagine how much that must have hurt him. And I know it did. Also, very nice touch with him trying to walk towards Xobi in the end. Perfect example of using small touches of the sprites movement to show emotion. But anyway, even though I might have liked seeing his reaction, we didn't, and in a way that made it all the more effective. Dehl is a very closed character and doesn't reveal things often. When Xobi came back in the very end calling him Brother Dehl it nearly brought me to tears. Once again, we didn't really see Dehl emotionally react, but still know it must have deeply affected him.

However...one thing left me unsatisfied. That moment after killing Skint when he broke down. He finally, finally, finally was honest with himself and admitted his own guilt for what he'd done. So many things led up to that, and it was handled well. But...it wasn't followed up on. I mean seriously! Nobody overhears him and comforts him, or just...anything. That's such a big admission, but to see it not addressed directly and see how he's dealing with the guilt in the future really hurts me. Maybe we didn't need it addressed directly, because his final scene was a very nice way to tie up everything, but...man it just hurts me to see all that. You even left the question of Dehl's overall reaction to the events when compared with Skint left open in your spill of secrets! Did you really mean to leave it that open? If so are we going to see him in the future? Because my gosh I really darn hope so.

But still, everybody has said it already, but he was such a refreshing main character. His personality and beliefs made him such a likable character, and really showed his amazing strength. The fact that he still talked to the final boss so much in the end instead of just rushing forward, and talking calmly to the people in the end just shows how, even after snapping, he controlled himself to an extent. An extent. In a way, I envy him. He's such a good role model.

Overall you made a great world. If anything, there was a bit too much information and foreshadowing for me to grab all of it in one go. But that’s a good thing.



And one final thing, questions and comments about the sequel!



Is Marie really the main character of it? I heard it mentioned in TVtropes, but couldn't find where you confirmed it. If so that means if it happens on the same planet that everybody from the Reconstruction is dead by the time she finds it unless they stumble upon that final emitter. Not sure what to say other than that - she's a strong character and could handle it well, even though it seems a bit odd for a reason I can't seem to place.

Speaking of which, I have a list of story points that, if this is the final entry, will probably be resolved. Let me know if they already have been and I missed it.

The location of the final emitter. This one isn't quite necessary since it seems to be just a way of leaving things open. Heck, in the game you left the identity of the third Shikolon as sequel bait, even though you revealed later it was Skint. How had died. Might I mention that I clutched my heart when Dehl killed him? You sure do get us involved with the story well…

Those grey dragon extra bosses. Flat what and all. Now sure what’s going on there but it’s reoccurring.

The Black one's identity, and what he was going for. It seemed to be that he was trying to stop Tez's cell donation since right after that he said it was 'already done'. But there's still alot more going on, clearly.

Everything going on with Moke. I don't know why tvtropes says the theory of him being the Black One is jossed. It would make sense - he lost his memory, and Tez has apparently forgotten some things as well. The Black one could have switched bodies with Moke being what’s left, but I think Moke being the Black One still fits pretty darn well actually. If I remember, the scene of him killing Tez showed the Black one as being in appearance similar enough to Moke to work. Shra scales can change color anyway.

Tez, of course, and why on earth him touching things causes so much crap to happen. Gosh golly gee whiz what he did to the final boss was creepy as all get out.

Perhaps Ouranos’ ultimate mission success? Although in this case it feels well enough wrapped up for me. That final scene with the Rouges nailed it. The only thing that really need to be wrapped up perhaps it Daszk and Kara’s search for another solution. That scene seemed left open a lot more than the rest, which leads to…

This is just a personal thing, but I hope beyond every possible hope we see Daszk more. I fell in love with him like you couldn't possibly believe. He's the kind of character you just want to constantly reach out and hug. Dehl came close at times, as well, but man. Daszk.


WOW this was a long post. Like over 3 pages. I think I might be obsessing about all of this a bit much. >_> I hope you don't mind. Let me know if I’m being too overbearing. ^^;

Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
Oh man, I hope I can answer all this before I have to leave for work. I'm working from memory since I haven't touched the plot in about 3 years, so bear with me!


We never saw Taru grown up, but it's implied he's off-screen at at least one point. And I think Tehgonan's middle name is spoilered as a joke, as his mother uses it as a threat in exactly one scene.

Rehm's pre-game story is simpler than that. He wasn't imprisoned so much as enslaved. Like Dehl, he tried to serve the human world, but as soon as he showed a moment of weakness, they took advantage of him. Of course, he was so despondent by this point anyway that he didn't try to fight back. The ship mission ties in because he had originally been hired to scout it after escaping from his captors, but he got scared and backed out. Then, when Dehl's guild was hired instead, he confronted them afterwards. His own confrontation with Asarik (junior) was just there to show he had been mostly forgotten, and was technically free already. He still had the teeth to try to get revenge, however, even though it was against the wrong guy (as the previous high officer who ordered his detainment was dead/retired by this point).

Like I said, it's been a few years.

The thing about Dehl is, he is pretty broken, and almost selfish. He does all of these good things because, in his mind, it's making up for all the death/chaos that the Blue Plague brought. Bringing down the final boss is just another continuation of this. His final scene with Xopi is sort of a purging of himself and his past, for whatever good that would do for him.

Part 2:

I'm not sure who told - maybe it was me in one of my posts - but I am intending Marie to be among the playable characters for the finale. Since the cycle never reset, the planet is safe for now, but time will jump a few hundred years forward before she arrives, so it will be an almost modernized setting. And, yes, I'm planning for Daszk to be there, too. Someone's got to be the muscle, after all.

The final emitter's location is not important yet, but it will be eventually. There are one, maybe two lines of dialog in TR that hint at it, but nothing substantial yet.

The Tatzylvurm started out as a running joke sort of boss, and we haven't seen the last of him.

We haven't seen the last of The Black One either. And his cryptic threats are far more important than some science experiment. Moke is still just Moke, but there is at least one obvious connection. Tez's resonating with the magic/energy is not incidental, either.

Ros' story is, fan fiction notwithstanding, essentially done. Since he/she has so many potential appearances/personalities, it would be kind of difficult to carry that into a whole separate game.


Please, continue obsessing! It helps me pick out strengths and weak points in my own writing. (Although I will admit I get a better result when I let a story slow-cook like TR's for 3 years rather than try to rush it out episodically like in IMTS.)

Ah. I guess considering your typical amount of interconnectivity and foreshadowing I thought the story from the ship mission wasn’t self-contained. My mistake.

So in the end…Rehm’s pretty similar to Dehl. Even though Dehl wasn’t as enslaved due to his position as a guard (at least as far as we know), he seemed fully subservient and willing to take punishment when somebody wanted to beat him, due to his guilt. I guess the main difference was the city they lived in. If Dehl was in Nal he might have ended up just the same.

One thing interests me, though. Rehm tried to kill himself after Sara and the other guy died, but Dehl…as far as I know, of course, didn’t try to do that, or at least failed and doesn’t seem to consider it at all. He doesn’t drink either from what I can tell. So what was it like when he first realized what he’d done with the Blue Plague? How did he realize it, and how did he react? He was pretty naïve when he first arrived. The fact that he’s gone through far worse than Rehm did without as extreme a reaction (Although again, we don’t know how he initially reacted) is pretty impressive. Knowing you’re responsible for the death of 60% of the world’s…pretty harsh. You could argue that it could go out anyway via those humans or something, but…it’s rather unlikely. Kind of ironic that his father almost stopped it from spreading completely by killing everybody in an attempt to make a cure. (I think) Moke seems to be taking it just fine, comparatively speaking, to the point where I’m not even completely sure that he knows what he did…although if memory serves correctly his final scene did indicate that.

Broken is the perfect word for it. The one thing that I didn’t understand, though, was exactly how his final scene with Xopi was that sort of purging that you mention? His mission is still the exact same – to help people. I have to guess that his motivation’s still the same as well. So it seems to me that he’s still dealing with all that guilt. I think that was my biggest issue, the rest is just some fun character speculation.

One more question about the plot that bothered me – what was up with the old lady using telepathy at the end of Chapter 2 to talk to Dehl? How’d she do that? Also why on earth was she so bothered with time so that we couldn’t even grab a reward really quickly, only to tell us to wait until tomorrow to do the mission she wanted?


Part 2!


Ah, that’s…very interesting. Makes perfect sense. A playable character not necessarily the same as the protagonist, though. Should I edit it out or make a mention on TVTropes about what you said? I don’t want people to get the wrong idea. It was on the WMG page, fyi.

So, more postulating based on that info. A few hundred years is still within the life cycle of every living Shra we know, so it’s possible they’ll all be there. Even though I’d understand Dehl’s, Rehm’s, and Yac’s story being over it would be great to see Xobi there and how being taught by Dehl affected him. And I know there's more coming with Moke. Speaking of Yac, how does…the kids of a Shra and human look, though? Completely one way or the other, or like…is a half breed even possible? Anyway, Tehogan’s offspring could very well be tied in with development of technology. I'll be sure to actually look out for last names when it comes out. And oh my gosh you have no idea how happy I am to know Daszk will be there. <3

If I had to guess right now on the lines indicating the location of the final emitter, I’d have to say it relates to the mysterious Shra that Moke met with. They seemed to indicate they were from the time when the first one came along, and thus very old, and that Moke would out-live his friends. Not quite sure how Moke could do this unless he went with these guys to the emitter at some point before he died, but anyway…I’d say that Moke and those five were trained by the Black One, then, since he would seem to them as being the First One, perhaps. We did see some Shra congregate around him in the end of IMTS. So my guess as to the location is the Shra Capital, which we’ll probably get to finally see the inside of in the sequel. It’s one of the only places left for there to be an emitter anyway… (Btw, those baby lizards were absolutely adorable.)

Some science experiment? You make it sound almost trivial even though it involved the creation and subsequent annihilation and recycling of millions or billions of lives. Although considering his understanding of the end of the universe given your bad end choice in IMTS…I understand, at least somewhat.

So yeah, the Black One and Tez have a close connection with magic…as to what end I have no idea, of course. I didn’t realize his Stardraw cannon always used latent energy, though, even before he fully discovered it. Reading every single darn article you ever posted ftw! Speaking of which, it seems to be magic which fuels the Black One’s own body switching thing if I had to guess…

Ah, yes. I seemed to forget that Ros could change so much. XD


Great! I will be most glad to continue obsessing. As you can tell.
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
I know I said "oh man" last time, but, oh man.

Dehl's initial reaction is indeed a mystery. He's been conditioned his whole life to be unflappable, and considering the last time he got really stressed out he ended up blasting his own father, so he is pretty determined to bottle it all up. Moke doesn't really have any sense of the greater world, and the plague further messed with his head, so he's remained blissfully unaware. If I implied otherwise in his last scene, it was unintentionally!

I like to think Dehl's final resolution is him coming to terms that he'll never be able to both make up for himself and promote his family's message. He can't be the hero, and the world keeps turning without him, for better or worse. After all, he is technically indirectly responsible for most of civilization ending twice now. When he meets Xopi again, he's decided to scale things back a bit and set the kid on the right path. Whether he actually learned anything, or is just repeating the cycle, remains to be seen.

And to be honest, I completely forgot about that scene with Fell. Chalk it up to nanomachinessomething with her augmentations and a well-placed microphone.


Part 2:


Other than Ros, I've never really had a central protagonist in mind per specific game. I will say there is one specific one over the entire series, and it's not who you'd think. Marie will definitely be one of your first playable characters, but I am not discounting the chance that Xopi will show up!

Gross. I never considered interbreeding to be an option and gyahhhhh. Yacatec's kids are adopted, and he's cool with that. Or they were, anyway.

Lips are zipped for that entire paragraph!

The science slant has some subtext about how life isn't considered sacred any more and, to a lesser extent, a speculation on how creators would view their creations. They wouldn't go to all the trouble if they didn't want something out of the deal, after all. Of course, by the ending of IMTS, it very likely that since time is a limiting factor again, this view will change.

I hate throwing around "magic" as malleable plot fuel, but it's just so darn convenient! I will say that it will be addressed in both The Drop and the final game. Also, you have officially read more of my posts than I have.


Sorry if any of this comes across as stilted. I have been fighting a cold all week and I just had my doubleshot of NyQuil before bed.
Definitely an RM masterpiece.
i really appreciate the effort in making the intro but why would you make it so long that i lose interest in the story and just keep on pressing enter or the space bar..
Deltree
doesn't live here anymore
4556
I've never been happy with the intro, to be honest. I'd lop it off entirely if it weren't for my obsession with foreshadowing. But, I wrote the thing like 5 years ago, so I'm not keen on revisiting it.

(Also, you can hold CTRL to fast forward cutscenes!)
Hi can anyone please help me with the Scientific Method Part 2 quest? I am trying to calibrate the 'chilly' stone. I have calibrated the other two stones. I have looked all over the Nal hunting area multiple times and cannot find the source.
The final stone isn't calibrated in the hunting area, but in one of the repeatable quests where you hunt down escaped slaves. They have a fire at one of the camps that you can use to calibrate the stone.
Got it. Thank you! This game is awesome!
Good news, everybody! I have an early Christmas gift for you all: this ultra-depressing fanfic! Go read it so you can tell me how terrible my writing skills are and how OOC everyone is! :D
Slightly disappointed Yfus and Lani didn't get together, since some description in Sanctifel indicated that Yfus had a crush on her. XD (Although they didn't even get a partnership bonus, so how far that goes is debatable)

Somewhat confused about Clappian abandoning his research, since I just...I dunno get the idea that Clappian's going to be a big name in technology down the line in the next game, considering how much technological development happens.

"The world I cam from was...cold?" (spelling error)

Every other character had a good ending, though. The only slightly odd thing is that literally nobody got married, which...for many makes sense, but I was kind of expecting at least a few to find a special somebody. I'm not normally for shipping, but in this case it just feels wrong somehow, even if it's with somebody we've never seen from the Reconstruction considering the long expanse of time that takes place.

The only thing that really bothers me is WHERE'S XOPI? ;-; That was like...the most important thing about Dehl in the end, and...well yeah the focus is Tezkhra, and you did a really good job with him. Considering all the stuff with the Black One...there has to be something more to his story, but for what it is you did a good job writing it.

So yeah, overall great job! Those are my comments, but I really did enjoy it. :)

I'm glad you liked it.

Somewhat confused about Clappian abandoning his research, since I just...I dunno get the idea that Clappian's going to be a big name in technology down the line in the next game, considering how much technological development happens.
Oh, almost certainly. If Qualstio dies at ~50, though, Tehgonan would still be ~40, right? So he's still got 1-2 decades of invention and stuff going for him. I know it probably won't match up with canon, though, I just felt like being depressing I guess. :p

"The world I cam from was...cold?" (spelling error)
Thanks, fixed.

The only slightly odd thing is that literally nobody got married, which...for many makes sense, but I was kind of expecting at least a few to find a special somebody. I'm not normally for shipping, but in this case it just feels wrong somehow, even if it's with somebody we've never seen from the Reconstruction considering the long expanse of time that takes place.
Yeah, see, the thing is that I kind of hate shipping and the concept of romantic relationships in general, so I don't think I'm really qualified to introduce that into the story. The eulogy snippets are pretty short and open-ended, though, so you can certainly imagine that there are elements of their life that Tezkhra didn't talk about. I don't make any mention of the D'Rath kids, for example, or Xopi, as you noticed.

The only thing that really bothers me is WHERE'S XOPI? ;-;
Yeah. When I was bouncing the idea around in my head I thought of maybe Xopi tagging along with Dehl for the scene, or having an additional scene where Xopi overhears everything and talks to Dehl when he leaves, but I couldn't really think of a way to work him in. I also wouldn't really know how to handle him, since the only characterization we see of him in canon is when he's very young, so he would doubtlessly have changed a lot since then, unlike the adult characters whose personalities are probably pretty stable. I suppose I could have mentioned him somewhere, but yeah, the focus is mainly on Tezkhra, and my muse is fickle. If I stopped writing and left it overnight to edit later or something, I'd probably just claw my eyes out at how terrible and ridiculous I think it is, and then just leave it to gather dust on my hard drive (which is the current state of Deconstruction, actually...).

Anyway, thanks for reading it!