Bronze Soul

comment=40291
Quick question: When you guys fought Brian, did you one-shot him?

EDIT: I just realized...I haven't picked a gender for Kitty!

Yes... I one-shotted him... I don't know if that's intentional...

comment=40290

comment=40285
I bet 16 people downloaded it, that will become 17 when I remember to download the new one..

One thing I noticed is that when I changed the main download, the download count-up reset.

Yes, that's because it's a different download, so a different number of people have downloaded it. Consider the two downloads as COMPLETELY seperate games:)

This game piqued my interest for some reason, so I gave it a shot. For a first attempt, I'd have to say it's not too bad at all (it beats the crap out of my first RM game, at least). It definately need a lot of improvement, but it's a good start. Keep it up!

There were lots of little things that I really liked here; but also a lot of little things that really turned me off. The little bits of interactive environment (like the vanity in the bedroom, for example) were nice touches, but there just needs to be more of it to keep the player wanting to explore and check things out.

A few of the lines of dialog were great and made me laugh ("The school will suck out our souls! We must flee!" was my personal favorite), but at times it just didn't make sense (when Diana accuses Brian of lying about being in a hurry because he's running late for something...sounds like a perfectly good excuse to me...).

I like where you're going with the story. The shifting-realities slant, while not the most original concept, is pulled off pretty well here (and that's what counts in my book). The little scene in the school actually made me go whoa...

The mapping definately needs a LOT of work. One of my big peeves is having open edges on maps that don't go anywhere. The crossroads south of the first town should probably just not be there unless you plan on putting transitions on ALL the roads leading to different areas. There were also a few places where I encountered invisible walls, especially in Diana's house, where there seems to be a mini-maze of them on the left end of the living room. Over-all though I like the style you're going for, and it has potential. I think you just need to work on your technique (which will come with experience).

The battles were also not so great. The Daggers need to be beefed up a lot. Most of the time, I just one-hitted all of them before they were able to inflict more than 1-2 hits on my characters, and they seemed to do no damage at all to Brian. Yeah, monsters in the beginning of a game should be fairly easy to kill, but they should provide at least a little bit of a challenge to make it interesting. Because they were so easy, I was really thrown off by the monsters in the cave. I made the mistake of using the same strategy for them (mash C) and got my ass kicked, which sucked because there's no revival items/skills (unless Kitty has something...I wouldn't know because he got one-hitted on the first encounter with him in the party).

comment=40307
Cosmetic change: Should I change the Deralius' Diana's default name to something else?

No. That would be confusing, as the player might mistake the two Dianas as actually being two different characters. But that might be what you're going for...Mulholland Drive, anyone?

comment=40363
No one's made a note on the teacher's different look in Deralius Diana's vision.

I noticed that I was half expecting the event to keep happening over and over (with slight differences) something like groundhog day and the only way to break the cycle was to instead of listening to the teacher asking you sit down, you would of left the classroom instead. Thus breaking the time loop with that hooded figure recognising you. But that was just my imagination going into overdrive when the event repeated itself -o-

You know what I think this game needs? Less narration! When the game told me that I could wander around and get into fights I was baffled. Couldn't you just let me wander around and get into fights instead of telling me that I could? And what's with the game suggesting that I achieve level 3 before advancing the plot? I'm sure it has something to do with the fact the Brian starts off at Level 3, and the Daggers give so little EXP that trying to go further than Level 3 is pretty pointless. However, wouldn't it be more dynamic if the level Brian starts out as has some dependency on what Diana's level is? Just a suggestion.

There might be more invisible walls that either you or I were aware of. The house was one thing, but the town proper is probably another story altogether. Try choosing a random wall tile, and using the fill tool on Layer 3, and I think you'll understand what I mean.

On a different note, if the two Dianas are supposed to be the same person, don't even give players a name prompt. Just make "Deralius" Diana's name be the same as "Ertinal" Diana's. If they are supposed to be different, then I would suggest changing at least one of the default names to something else.

As for the dynamic suggestion, I wouldn't know how to do that.

What I do for dynamic levels is have everyone's level start at 1. If a character is supposed to be higher level than the character, then I put him or her at however many levels higher he or she is supposed to be. When the character joins the party, I store the main character's EXP or Level into a variable. I can either add the variable strait up, or I perform some operation on it (like having half the main character's EXP, or what-not). Then, to make sure he or she appears to be a fresh member, I use All Recover on that character. It's a bit of work, so if you don't care, or don't want to bother, that's probably fine.

I have no idea how to change it to where whatever you name Ertinal Diana, it changes Deralius Diana's name, too.

I tried using the Script:
It game me an error message. Strange, since that script worked when I tested it randomly in VX. I'll get back to you on this.

*Edit: Okay, that was odd! It seemed to work when I separated it. I've tested it out with an input name sequence before-hand just to see if it was working properly. It does. Hence, the Script should look like: