EpiQuest 2

I've been playing a lot of SMBX over the past 2+ months. I burnt myself out on that. So today, I took out Epiquest 2 and started work.

After failing to update scripts, I added some new mechanics, new enemies, new skills, new items, new weapons and a new tutorial. I’m going to talk about the two more interesting ones.

SMBX “packed in” episode is quite perfect. It gently lowers you down into everything. It’s a deep game, but it doesn’t hit you all at once. There were brief comments, one per level explaining everything over the entire game, much like Portal. With Epiquest, I tried to explain the mechanics that most aren’t familiar with in RPGs.

I spent some time today doing the same, gently lowering the player into the mechanics of the game. Taking steps for everything, but without being a tutorial or hitting you with a wall of text. It turned out really nice!

One of the new mechanics that I implemented today was a disguise and summon system. The game already had it, but it was more of a concept and didn’t really work. With Epiquest 1, you would have skills based on what you had equipped. The summon and disguise system is slightly different, where when you have a summon or disguise, you have two skillsets. Its really very nice and diverse. The thief is now a stronger class, because she can wear disguises. There is now a new summoner class to summon things.

I had a lot of fun playing and fighting in battles devoid of story. There is a story, but I’d like to rewrite it, if not scrap it entirely and replace it with a vague plotline like… Save the X, destroy the Y. That’s actually the main thought I had when I went into Epiquest. Plus, seeing as how more people are beating Epiquest 1 and no one mentions hating the lack of story that seems to be an indication to me that people just want to play a game. Such as Zelda, Final Fantasy, SaGa & Dragon Warrior were just playing.

To sum it up, I think that if I go in the no story mode, that would make Epiquest 2 a dungeon crawler. Sure there will still be NPCs, and quests, just not all roped in together.

I think I can live with that.