better games

or hassle liberty to add the category of squallbutts, as this game qualifies

if you weren't aware that levi's bare ass was in this game, now you are

Hi All, I bet you're all wondering where this notif is coming from and why.

Recently I've waxed nostalgic over the game, as it's now less than six months to the game's true 10 year anniversary (2.2's upload date was Feb 2012 I think), as well as some new people coming into play the game. Although it has been 10 years, it seems Cosplay Crisis still attracts new players from time to time, even though they don't interact with the gamepage.

This brought to my attention something: the use of the word "r*tard" in the game's intro. This is a pretty serious slur, and I had entirely forgotten about its presence, but seeing it I felt a pang of guilt and disappointment in my younger self.

I obviously don't speak like that anymore, and while I could make the excuse of it being a 'different time' back then, honestly 2011-2012 it was still a pretty shit word to use. Kumo, the culprit, isn't exactly a thoughtful noodle about it either, and I have a vague recollection of putting it in to reflect the fact he can be kind of a dick, but regardless of my intentions it has no place in the game at all, and especially not one that is not countered or addressed as being shitty by the rest of the cast.

So, if you saw it and felt hurt by it, by my use of it, I apologise, deeply and sincerely. It was wrong, I was wrong to use it, and I completely understand if you choose not to forgive me for it, because there are no excuses. Please do not try to excuse me in the comments here, nor do not accept the apology if this meant nothing to you - it is not for you. I should've known better, and that's the long and short of it.

My gut tells me there are probably other examples somewhere in the game. I could very much just upload a version with those pieces of dialogue removed, but...given the state of the game, I might as well do another bug purge, fix up mapping errors, and repair any incongruities in the narrative, if I'm in a position of obligation to upload. I still remember exactly what the plot was, ten years after the fact.

So consider this a formal announcement of an Anniversary Edition/3.0, which I'll release 10 years to the day of 2.2's upload. More likely than not, I'll still have bugs. The fact the game runs is a miracle in and of itself. But it won't have frankly alarming and poor word choices which'll be nice.

I'll save any further details for later, as the first part of this is really the important bit, but feel free to ask questions (or request features?) in the comments below.

I'm sick of the dash script. Sick of the crap. Sick of the cutscenes being ruined, and I'm tired of the complaints. So...I'm going to humour you.

I just spent...4 hours? eventing a 'dash' system like FF8's. AKA, you don't have to press anything. Holding SHIFT makes you walk. The characterset returns to standstill when you're not pressing anything. It's a lot more seamless than the scripted one, shouldn't screw with my cutscenes because of how it's evented, and covers all characters who end up party leader. This wasn't possible with any scripts that are available with RMXP, most dash scripts only...make you dash when you hold a button.

If anyone likes I'll add a tutorial for it some time, but since you CAN use scripts for the same purpose in VX/A it's kind of obsolete. We'll see.

Additionally I'm adding a reference Journal in the menu with terms, encountered characters, and locations- and unlike the terminal, the data will be short, and it will cover most minor characters. The count is currently at 37.
I'm considering adding a battle sequence before the part where Kumo wakes up. It'll explain a few things, namely Miri's phonecall, but will avoid addressing too much. Also I kinda wanted to put the player in control of something a bit more awesome before the normal stuff, and additionally, I wanted to clarify that yes, there will be swords. Big ones.
I actually haven't decided on the setting of it yet. There's a few things I could do (I wouldn't mind going into the slum areas for some hoobadoodaas) but I don't know yet. Anyone got any suggestions?
/me makes it nature just so the first maps of the game are nice looking.


In case I haven't mentioned it, I have improved the town square maps. They're still big, but I have increased your overall speed anyway so that's not going to matter too much. They're a bit less unslightly and have more...stuff. I'm not good with the 'stuff' in cities. Nature maps sure, but cities ugh. Man.

Anyway, yeah. I'm going to do some more testing and try and fix up a few things. Most of the confusion with the plot can basically be narrowed down into fixing up two cutscenes- one of them when Miri tells you you're going to Tokyo, and the other one being the introduction, which will clarify the setting better.

Anyway toodles. Gotta test my dash code.

Player speed is now set to 4
Walk speed is 3
5 caused you to overshoot exits and stuff. It's too fast to be viable long-term.

I've been watching NicoB's Let's Plays of this game, and most of the issues he's having with the game are small and relatively easy to fix, so I am doing so. The issue he had on the plane and in the Forest of Despair are relatively major so I've remedied those as well as making improvements to the Town Square maps (mostly I've changed the floor tile, added some vending machines, other points of interest.)

I'm considering adding minor narration by Kumo. It's already present in a small way, but I was thinking of extending it so there's more info into the world/the roles Levi and Kumo play earlier into the story. For those who have completed the game, do you think this is necessary? The game does start to explain itself post Gold Saucer, but depending on how you play that can be 3-4 hours into it. I mean, not as long as FF13 or something, but the game's only ten hours long...

OPINIONS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED KTHNX!

CC's been out for a few weeks now and I know people have completed it (congrats guys! Just so you know, my testers didn't get past Aetas. :c )

On that note there's actually something I fretted about for a while. The final dungeon was originally going to be the secret ending, as with the final boss. In the end, with how the story panned out, I thought it'd be a better move to have that as the ending instead.

Did you feel it was appropriate? Made sense? Concluded the story? It didn't feel too out of the blue, did it? I'm really curious to player's reactions to this section of the game because I feel quite strongly about that aspect of the storyline. (One particular time, I got very emotional during the Aetas boss fight- and as the writer, that's saying something! D: )

On the note of completion, playtimes? I'd like to know if I should raise the playtime on the description (9 hours was my accumulated time.)

and all of this without any spoilers

Remember, not everyone's finished! Please put any end-game related spoilers in hide tags.