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Matsumori High is like any other high school anywhere. Or is it? Not everything is at it appears, and only you can seek out the truth in this story-centric RPG!


Personal background:
This game technically started back in RPGM-2000. All I really had back then was a nebulous idea about having characters learn skills by visiting various people in the game. Kinda like the master system in Breath of Fire 3 or Breath of Fire 4. I tried to implement it, but I didn't have that integral piece of RPG's called "a story".

I started getting ideas for this game again after my first play-through of Shin Megami Tensai - Persona 4. I even had a completed project that I was mostly happy with. However, I started visiting this site, and thought that the project could use an overhaul. Not a complete start-from-scratch overhaul, but an overhaul all the same. This game is the end result of that overhaul.


Other links of interest:
This game's game-thread on RPG Maker Web.
The second game in the series (it's a prequel to this), Arbiters From Another World. Also has a game-thread on RPG Maker Web.
The third game in the series (it's a sequel to this), Konae's Investigations.

Latest Blog

Download updated!

Thanks to Malandy to the grammar/spelling fixes!

Though, with this update, I will probably not support any further changes, unless I feel inclined to pursue getting VX on my current machine. Which, given the age of my VX games in general, seems fairly slim. I know one of my favorite sayings is "It's never too late for a bug report!", but, it's time I move on to other things like getting MV, maybe.

Posts

Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
The clues on the plaques are based off of the kind of hints one might find in Might and Magic IV and/or Might and Magic V. You probably haven't played either, but it might be something to refer to to get the hang of them.

If all else fails, and you're still muddled... Well, one thing at a time.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
For what it's worth to anyone, we has the walk-true. Click here to access that monstrosity it, or click on the "Walkthrough" tab. Thanks goes to bigtime in helping me proofread it. In any event, I hope it is as fun to read as it is informative!
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
A lone man slowly pushes aside the stone blocking the entrance. He brushes away the cobwebs with his torch, smiling as he sees four years worth of activity on this page.

This is something he has been wanting to do for a long time. After learning of a game called Konae's Investigations, he wanted to play the series from the beginning. He wanted to be there as the story unfolds from day one.

As he navigates though the cold, abandoned pages, skimming over blogs, looking at images, he finally comes across his goal. The rectangular button simply labeled, "Download Now". With a rapidly-beating heart, he reached out and slowly pushed the button.

He is a man on a mission.

And that mission begins now...
author=Red_Nova
A lone man slowly pushes aside the stone blocking the entrance. He brushes away the cobwebs with his torch, smiling as he sees four years worth of activity on this page.

This is something he has been wanting to do for a long time. After learning of a game called Konae's Investigations, he wanted to play the series from the beginning. He wanted to be there as the story unfolds from day one.

As he navigates though the cold, abandoned pages, skimming over blogs, looking at images, he finally comes across his goal. The rectangular button simply labeled, "Download Now". With a rapidly-beating heart, he reached out and slowly pushed the button.

He is a man on a mission.

And that mission begins now...



Aaaand the Best Comment of the Month Year award goes to...
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Borrowing from a certain gamepage (that will remain nameless)...

My hope is that what you find here will meet your expectations.

*Edit:
author=wildwes
Aaaand the Best Comment of the Month Year award goes to...

I concur. Perhaps even worthy of a Waiso.
shayoko
We do not condone harassing other members by PM.
515
Random thoughts

MC is a male and a dick dam it all! :O

Masako is hax when it comes to insulting people,she does it in such a elegant way its hard to get offended XD

Gym entrance is bad real bad XD 2 ways out for 1 XD

auditorium as well exit on right that goes to the same place= bad XD

Goho is dense too!? dam it all! : O

i love that little extra effort to change dialog when new characters join and leave you :3

having played arbiter 1st this dream world makes a little more sense then it would otherwise

she said i could keep doing challenges and get stronger! the remaining doors are closed! rip off!

o so each character gets 1 element :3

that was a DAM GOOD set up for the prequel to bad i couldn't finish it :3

that kid did not clean that mess after 3 days!?

Shiria is a beast a demon a monster!

that ending! : O


Overall
Favorite thing about this BY FAR was Masako.
her blunt intellectual personality was just AMAZING
2nd character would be Toshi the slightly spontaneous and fun girl
the others were meh-ok
as for the plot,well there was not much of a plot if were talking about just this game
w/o having played Arbiters From Another World the prequel of this also made by sir Marrend

id say...you have little to no idea what the plot is and even then(maybe because i couldn't finish the 1st game)
the goal of "training" random high schoolers most of which have no combat experience
was really questionable
basically you need to play the previous game for the plot of this to have much of any value

the ending is open so its just another reason i hope konoe investigations is continued
as its the 3rd and final part of the story taking place in a more modern time line

honestly its hard for me to recommend this in terms of the story because the characters you play as at least up to the end of this dont seem...significant
maybe some would be in the future but i would realistically doubt it :3
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Oh, I totally agree that the ending can come off as this huge frustration! I'm not really sure what else I could have done with it, though. Particularly with the possibility of players fighting three rounds against Shirai (Which is pretty terrible.) followed by the Miyazaki siblings.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
So, I finally finished the play-through of this game that was supposed to confirm the guesstimate of play-time that's on the RMW game-thread. Along the way, I found a few things that could use a bit of fixing. Most notably, I found that it was possible to skip the fight against the Damned Spirit entirely.

Anyway, I am updating the download as I type this. Also-also...

It's never too late for a bug report!
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
So I finally finished it. *looks at my previous post* Holy crap that took a while...


It's rather difficult to critique as, if Okiku: Star Apprentice is any judge, you have gotten LOADS better at developing and most of my problems have since been addressed. I want to ask though: Is this worth a review? Or do you want my thoughts just as a post?

For now, let's settle for a bug report:



Chapter 3. If you try to go into class 3-A as Goho, you get Masako's dialog box.


Shouldn't Goho have a face here? He does every other time he talks about something.


Either Goho forgot how to brain, or that's a typo.


Odd that there's no visible stat changes. It's only after I buy the item and equip it that I notice there actually IS a difference.

Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
@Red_Nova: With the last screen, I think that could just be the default behavior of VX. It only reports the change in DEF when it comes to objects listed under "armor" tab in the database, and only reports the change in STR when it comes to objects listed under the "weapons" tab in the database. As for the other things you pointed out, well, uh damn.

*Edit:

Darigaaz, you did "Child's Play" to unlock those items. NICE! Though, now that I find I have to update this anyway, the thought has occurred to me that I could leave out the "bring the character with you" requirement, and just go off the various switches.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Well then, onto my analysis of the rest of the gameplay:

Note: Edited content is in red:


The character all fell flat to me. The biggest problem is that they were all introduced, given distinct personalities, but ultimately went nowhere. Masako stands out as the best of the crowd only by her speech pattern. Put her in, say, Okiku's game, and she would be very forgettable. Unless you blasted her with the Wand of Blasting. But now I'm getting side tracked.

In the future, I would recommend fewer characters, more development. I beat the game in about four hours, which would have been more than enough to develop a party of four people.

This game was clearly meant for those that enjoy grinding. I am not one of those people. I don't mind grinding every now and then, but if I have to spend an hour fighting the same battles just to level up, then I get annoyed quickly.

This wouldn't be too much of a problem if all the enemies weren't exactly the same. Throughout the entire game. They had spells that caused status effects, yeah. But all in all, they had physical hit one/all spells and elemental hit one/all spells. There was virtually no variety. And they all could be taken down in exactly the same way: AOE spells.

If there were more enemy types, like those that cast A MORE VARIETY Of status effects OR EVEN STAT DEBUFFS or those that buff the enemy party, then it would be more fun. There should be enemies that have more diverse range of abilities, making them a higher priority target than others.

That being said, I'm actually surprised at some of the comments I've seen from you and others regarding HOW MUCH grinding should be done. I beat chapter 1 at level 20. Chapter 2 at Level 30, and Chapter 3 at 44. Yes I did make separate save files just so I could record that.

Wanna know my secret? The magical, nearly game-breaking spell called Stun. EVERYONE falls victim to stun so easily that it really throws the game balance out of whack. If I just use Stun every other turn, bosses wouldn't even be able to TOUCH my party.

The one exception being Shirai. Good freakin god this guy. I don't like him.

I felt that having three rounds of him felt like artificial lengthening. There really was no purpose to have him last three rounds. I'd put the limit on two. But that's just me.


You had enough side quests for a game of this length. The problem is that most of them are right at the end. And you wouldn't even know it unless you backtracked to the school.

I think if the quests were spread out more across the game, the monotony of grinding the same enemies over and over again wouldn't feel as bad. Do it right, and players might forget that they're grinding at all.

If you're going to make more games in this style (grind-heavy and alternating between real worlds and alternate worlds), then I would give the players the ability to switch worlds early in the game. This way, you can lay out side quests and other optional tasks for players to focus on.

This is just off the top of my head, but here are at least two suggestions:

Maybe a student in the Drama Club needs a helmet that looks like it was made of ice in order to get into a role he's preparing for. Well, if you go the Water Trial, there will be a new enemy spawned in that will drop the helmet you're looking for, giving out lots of EXP upon death. You take it back to the real world and give it to the student and bam. Even more EXP.
Sure, it's a fetch quest, and nobody likes fetch quests. But it gives players something to focus on while they are grinding.

How about resetting the treasure chests every time you go into a dungeon? Since you're going to be revisiting the same place over and over again while you're grinding, it seems to make sense.




I'm curious, if you begin the Seeking Delinquents Sidequest, but proceed with the main story anyway, would this break the game? I didn't try it, but it could be a potential bug.



I know I made a lot of complaints. But if I could describe this game in one word, it would be... solid. The spelling and grammar was fine (with a few exceptions), the event logic was sound, and everything worked the way it was supposed to. I just wish there was MORE to it than this.

Overall, this was a good foundation for a game that never realized it's potential.

Which raises an interesting question: Is a solidly built game with unrealized potential really BETTER than a bug-ridden mess that tries to be more than it's capable of? Hm... That might be left to personal opinion, and I'm not 100% sure where I stand on this.


Side note: I got REALLY lucky in the Kojiro Duel, He guarded 13 times in a row. Ha.

Alrighty then. Time for Arbiters From Another World.

EDIT: The fact that I want to go to Arbiters From Another World should say something: I AM interested in playing the next game in the series.

For all the complaints I made about the story, I not only played it all the way to the end, but also want to move on to the next game. So there's SOMETHING that's keeping me playing.

So... great job on that SOMETHING. Now if I can just figure out what that SOMETHING is...
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
In response, to that, Sudden Spoiling...


I can't really take issue with the complaints made about the sameness of enemies in the game, or the apparent focus on grinding. Also, I guess it does not occur to me, or others, to use the status-spells?

About the the characters. Well, okay. I guess their personalities and ability-sets are also fairly copy-paste. Particularly abilities. Also, to be bluntly honest, I've barely ever played with Toshie or Kojiro in the party, outside of the plot requirement and completing "Child's Play". Maybe I should have taken that as a sign that they weren't necessary to anything, and taken them out? Though, what would that mean for the alternate Matsumori High's 2-B (where the Water Trial is) or 1-A (where the Damned Trial is)? What would be there?

Actually, let's recognize the line of thought that I was probably caught up on. I figured there would be six classrooms in the school. So, why not make six trials for each of the six main magical elements, and correlate those elements to six characters? Though, the fact that there wasn't all that much difference between the abilities didn't cross my mind as an issue.

Now that you mention it, it would story-break to start "Seeking Delinquents", and never finish it. Katai's lines will totally show up during the Shirai fight, and at the end-game, despite him supposedly missing in action. This is something I can fix for the next update.

Speaking of side-quests, Darigaaz, I probably could have split up the character-specific ones! Katai's couldn't be done until after the Door of Possibilities could be traversed at will, but the others? I guess I was pretty focused on figuring out how to do the multiple-switch check involved in the completion of "Child's Play" to really notice. Still, I'm kinda disinclined to do much about this at this juncture.


Aside: I should probably re-think my plans with Konae. That game intended to have six characters, yet, two of them are... pretty throw-away. So, if I get rid of them entirely, or have them as side-characters/NPCs that players come across, maybe...
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
I see you posted after I made my edits. I'll go ahead and post them here so you know that it happened, plus, I'll include my response to your response:


I think if the quests were spread out more across the game, the monotony of grinding the same enemies over and over again wouldn't feel as bad. Do it right, and players might forget that they're grinding at all.

If you're going to make more games in this style (grind-heavy and alternating between real worlds and alternate worlds), then I would give the players the ability to switch worlds early in the game. This way, you can lay out side quests and other optional tasks for players to focus on.

This is just off the top of my head, but here are at least two suggestions:

Maybe a student in the Drama Club needs a helmet that looks like it was made of ice in order to get into a role he's preparing for. Well, if you go the Water Trial, there will be a new enemy spawned in that will drop the helmet you're looking for, giving out lots of EXP upon death. You take it back to the real world and give it to the student and bam. Even more EXP.
Sure, it's a fetch quest, and nobody likes fetch quests. But it gives players something to focus on while they are grinding.

How about resetting the treasure chests every time you go into a dungeon? Since you're going to be revisiting the same place over and over again while you're grinding, it seems to make sense.

About your response:

I wouldn't take anyone out. I guess the beauty of having a large cast is the ability to pick and choose which elements you like. Plus, taking them out would mean re balancing the enemies that are weak to dark and water. That sounds like a real pain to me, so I wouldn't do it.

You don't have to split up the side quests. But perhaps add about two more during the school segment in chapter 2? Because at the moment, that section feels... bland. There's nothing much going on at that part. Aside from the Matsumori interview and Lab Rats quest. But perhaps some other quests that require you to get an item in the Alternate Matsumori High would make players look forward to going there?


Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781

I like the idea of inserting tasks into Chapter 2 where you'd be visiting where you'd need to be in the "other-world" section of that chapter anyway. I'm not sure about re-spawning chests, though.

Also, I'll look into reducing the Shirai battle-count to two. I'll grant that he's pretty annoying as-is. However, the worst-case scenario would be four fights in a row at the end-game, and cutting that down to three is... well, it's probably still annoying as hell. Maybe not as rage-inducing, though.

Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Download updated!

Release notes:
  • Katai's absence-bugs have been (hopefully) fixed
If you try and talk to the conductor in Chapter 3 and get the "Seeking Delinquents" side-quest, Katai will be forcibly removed from the party. This wasn't happening before. Also, his lines at the end-game should (Operative word: "should". I didn't test all possible scenarios.) be contingent on whether or not players even accepted that side-quest, or completing it, as he wouldn't be present otherwise.

  • "Child's Play" completion alteration
It used to be that you had to bring specific characters to Rasuna for her to fork over various rewards and ultimately complete "Child's Play". With this update, it should be possible to get "Child's Play" done in one visit.

  • No additional side-quests
I may, or may not, decide to insert additional side-quests later. For now, I wish to concentrate on the other games that I'm working on. Most notably Oracle of Askigaga, but also Konae's Investigations.
Okay! Beat the game at 4:40:17! At LV 44, via some lucky, or educated use, of the status spells, by spamming them to get them to work.

Onto your other games! Gonna try Investigations now! And I see it has been Tested! Cool!

Final Typo:

Goho in Alt. Matsumori after beating Shirai: "I'm (outta) here!"
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
A thousand thanks once again, Malandy! Though, do you mean "Goho", by any chance?
author=Marrend
A thousand thanks once again, Malandy! Though, do you mean "Goho", by any chance?

Yep! I guess my finger slipped when I was typing my notes. Fixed!
i quitted, sorry. game is extremely linear, all dungeons are basically the same design, and more importantly, years of grinding is pretty much mandatory. Not a fan of the steep balance changes between each dungeon. it got so bad that i had to avoid random encounters like the Ao Oni because getting caught by them was pretty much a 2 turn death sentence with zero chance of escape. Managed to cheese the water boss using stun spam and a bunch of mana potions, but the stunning the daemon was too difficult and he can kill my entire party if he gets 2 consecutive turns, all his attacks do 900–1300 on my entire party. Could not get any further than that.

Story was interesting. Inspired by persona you say? Sounds about right. Anyway if lobo or someone ever gets to this I think I will watch it just to see what happens. Alright then.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Uh, yeah, the difficulty is pretty dumb. Sorry about that! I'd like to think I've gotten better about that, but, I suspect I've simply moved from one extreme to the other.