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Announcement
Paradise Blue's 10th Anniversary!
- Ocean
- 14 post(s)
- 08/29/2019 08:30 AM
- 4825 views
I missed the actual date, but it still has been 10 years since I released Paradise Blue!
Paradise Blue was an interesting project to work on, and possibly the biggest one I've had so far! I've thankful for all the nice reviews and comments and people who enjoyed the game.
This was a passion project made from back when I was still in university, and really enjoyed working on an old school style project. I was torn between making Azulea and this, and Paradise Blue ended up going from a small side project to the main project.
The game was initially based around FF1s Class selection system for 4 characters. Quickly, FF5s class based system was added. A fair amount of the project was making the battle system and class system work together, and a number of classes got added or removed depending on how I felt about it. Dragoon was a class I would have wanted, but I felt I didn't have enough to go with skill wise on that and the Jump command was such a pain to code that i removed it. If you go back a few blog posts in Paradise Blue, you'll see me talk about the things that I didn't get to add, and 2 "Final Classes" (Angel Knight and Phoenix Knight) were those 2. Having a party of only those 2 at the end felt less interesting to me than having them pick their own 4 classes, it's why I wasn't a fan of FF3's Ninja/Sage classes either.
Graphically, it started out directly from FF1 but I strayed from that when I saw MSX Final Fantasys graphics and started shading the classes a bit. Soon I stopped caring about color restraints and then decided to just go all out and revamp them in my style. As far as enemy designs, you can see from the start of the game to the end of the game how different the designs are. At first, it was just my own designs but I got TFT to help design a bunch of monsters and they ended up being a whole lot more creative and interesting so I based my later enemy sprites off of those.
Team member wise, I asked people if they wanted to be NPCs, and had some do different effects if you hire them. I also had Dajhail and Kaede make a few songs for me as well which I liked a lot! The song playing when you get the Ancangers with Amelia / Neil is Dajs song, and the main battle theme is Kaedes. I wanted to really have the Island sort of influence appear throughout the game.
There is the definitely inspiration/influence from Final Fantasy 1 and 5, but I also was a big Might and Magic VI fan and took ideas from it such as the hiring NPCs for an effect, killing enemies that don't respawn (they do in MM6, but only by certain triggers or after a long enough passing of time), sidequests and all. It was sort of like a mix of various games I liked, and I wish my writing back then was interesting enough to hold up.
I've had various ideas of different Paradise Blue remakes I've wanted to do. I still have it on my to do list, but I've been busy with other projects that it's actually lower priority. My friend Jihaus (who worked on Ruin Frontier 0) did class sketches for me so I made sprites for... most of them? I need to check again but here's a few!
My thoughts were: Either I could make Paradise Blue and change up stuff in the 2k3 version and then make an updated version or a sequel in VX Ace or MV. Paradise Blue is not a small game and I wouldn't want to keep it 100% the same so it would take a while to make. I figured I could focus on Cast Ashore first, then Fragments of Mind and then Paradise Blue, but it is definitely something I still want to make! I'm sorry I haven't been able to release a new Paradise Blue, but game making is still important to me and I do want to create new games and learn more!
Here, have an Amelia artwork!
Paradise Blue was an interesting project to work on, and possibly the biggest one I've had so far! I've thankful for all the nice reviews and comments and people who enjoyed the game.
This was a passion project made from back when I was still in university, and really enjoyed working on an old school style project. I was torn between making Azulea and this, and Paradise Blue ended up going from a small side project to the main project.
The game was initially based around FF1s Class selection system for 4 characters. Quickly, FF5s class based system was added. A fair amount of the project was making the battle system and class system work together, and a number of classes got added or removed depending on how I felt about it. Dragoon was a class I would have wanted, but I felt I didn't have enough to go with skill wise on that and the Jump command was such a pain to code that i removed it. If you go back a few blog posts in Paradise Blue, you'll see me talk about the things that I didn't get to add, and 2 "Final Classes" (Angel Knight and Phoenix Knight) were those 2. Having a party of only those 2 at the end felt less interesting to me than having them pick their own 4 classes, it's why I wasn't a fan of FF3's Ninja/Sage classes either.
Graphically, it started out directly from FF1 but I strayed from that when I saw MSX Final Fantasys graphics and started shading the classes a bit. Soon I stopped caring about color restraints and then decided to just go all out and revamp them in my style. As far as enemy designs, you can see from the start of the game to the end of the game how different the designs are. At first, it was just my own designs but I got TFT to help design a bunch of monsters and they ended up being a whole lot more creative and interesting so I based my later enemy sprites off of those.
Team member wise, I asked people if they wanted to be NPCs, and had some do different effects if you hire them. I also had Dajhail and Kaede make a few songs for me as well which I liked a lot! The song playing when you get the Ancangers with Amelia / Neil is Dajs song, and the main battle theme is Kaedes. I wanted to really have the Island sort of influence appear throughout the game.
There is the definitely inspiration/influence from Final Fantasy 1 and 5, but I also was a big Might and Magic VI fan and took ideas from it such as the hiring NPCs for an effect, killing enemies that don't respawn (they do in MM6, but only by certain triggers or after a long enough passing of time), sidequests and all. It was sort of like a mix of various games I liked, and I wish my writing back then was interesting enough to hold up.
I've had various ideas of different Paradise Blue remakes I've wanted to do. I still have it on my to do list, but I've been busy with other projects that it's actually lower priority. My friend Jihaus (who worked on Ruin Frontier 0) did class sketches for me so I made sprites for... most of them? I need to check again but here's a few!
My thoughts were: Either I could make Paradise Blue and change up stuff in the 2k3 version and then make an updated version or a sequel in VX Ace or MV. Paradise Blue is not a small game and I wouldn't want to keep it 100% the same so it would take a while to make. I figured I could focus on Cast Ashore first, then Fragments of Mind and then Paradise Blue, but it is definitely something I still want to make! I'm sorry I haven't been able to release a new Paradise Blue, but game making is still important to me and I do want to create new games and learn more!
Here, have an Amelia artwork!
Progress Report
Warrior / Lancer class
http://oceansdreams.tumblr.com/post/96513420367/ability-list
I have occasional updates on my tumblr on what I'm working on. I don't like to post EVERYTHING I do but I do want to get to working on a longer game this time!
If you're wondering... it's Paradise Blue, on RMVX Ace, that I'm working on now!
Miscellaneous
Things that didn't make it in Paradise Blue
Paradise Blue has been released for a while and I just thought of making a post for the things that didn't quite make it in, or things that were altered from the original ideas/plans. Sometimes it's surprisingly seeing how much made it in despite some of the cuts I've made. With the expectation that some people have already peeked into the project folder and seen some graphics and things that were never used, I'll explain what they were meant to be used for.
In no order:
> Why does Salomon have a weird wing? Well, he uses the Phoenix Knight class graphic. They were meant to have White magic, Dark skills, Dark Wave, and Triple Cut built in. It was an Ultimate class, meant for if you mastered every other class.
> Similarly, there is an Angel Knight which you see there. Opposite of the more physically focused Phoenix Knight, it has Summon, Time, Black and Blue magic commands, making it a really well rounded caster. Again, it was an ultimate class. They were both cut because I didn't really like the idea of an ultimate class, I felt it'd kill the fun of picking what classes and skills you wanted to have.
> Lancer class was planned for Paradise Blue. This actually warped into the very different Chocolatier later. Mostly because the Jump command didn't seem that different from Monks BuildUp and it was a pain to code anyway.
> Terrain Guard was probably removed or replaced. I just saw that in the list and I realized I didn't have any traps of that kind or lava for example so it was a waste of a slot to include it.
> There was a bigger group for your side. Abigail, Christina, Amelia, Salomon were in the earlier designs, but there were many more like Patrick, Kyle, Lillian, Reuben, Natalie, Mateus, Abraham and Juliana who never made it to the final group, or were renamed. Patrick was the original "Neil", but was young and naive instead of older and laidback. Most of them ended up being random townspeople instead.
> Speaking about these characters, they originally had battle purposes too. However, I didn't really get around to use this so other than a very few points (mainly with Amelia and Neil in the Ancangers), they don't battle. Christina, as a royal guard, was meant to be the most powerful character with the Illumina Spear, Triple Cut, Time, White and Black magic. Triple Cut will not work anymore for her as it's not coded to do so now if you test it.
> While we're on the subject of Ancangers, that name came about by this sentence: "maybe if an can ger NDs stuff to work for my SCSD, ill loook into". I'm still not sure what he was trying to say... And no, they're not called Arcangers. There is an Arc Ancanger however.
> I had actually intended a plot point where Amelia would take this Arc Ancanger and use it to sort of try to take over herself while you'd fight her to stop her. Here's a very work in progress sprite of it!
Had a Whale type design at first. The current ArcAncanger:
> Initially, spirits were the summons in the game. You'd find various spirits around
and have them join you as a summon. This was removed as they were used as enemies in the Spire of the Spirits when I introduced the Magitek-like Ancangers.
> Which means you miss out on this Sun Serpent. The Arc Ancanger replaced it, it had a similar summon use. There is actually an optional boss Sun Serpent in the database of the game but it was not implemented in game.
> Amelias design changed. Initially she was wearing what she has on the left side, but then i was told to keep the design that lazcht made for her. I agreed and went with that instead.
> A quest was cut out, where Amelia set fire to a house without you knowing, and your goal was to find out who was responsible for it. We already had a detective type quest in that town and I wasn't feeling up to it so this got axed.
> The game was originally done with the default NES colors like FF1. Once I started going all color happy, I decided I was just limiting myself for no real reason, then just went ahead and remade the graphics to fit the expanded palette.
> One interesting thing: Part of the soundtrack was made by me before the game existed, and in fact before I even used RPG Maker! The Forests with the big trees over the water is the area that I believe has the most recently composed song.
> There is some content that was a planned expansion. A new island with pirates around it and a side story. However, as I was too busy and the other guy who wanted to do it was away for a while. No DLC for you guys, sorry. I also intended a hireable NPC based on his character to be a reward for completing this part, which would attempt to slay all the enemies when you start the battle. Since this didn't happen, he is unhireable as an NPC even if his code works.
A lot of content did remain in the game though or hasn't changed much since i started making it. Other than working on the battle system for too long a time (I always hate spending too long on that, but it's like a necessary evil), I enjoyed working on this, and definitely hope to improve for the future! Any questions on the game or any other game I've made, feel free to ask me a question on here!
More posts on my blog here!
http://oceansdreams.tumblr.com/
I also talk about what I'm up to, reblog beautiful artwork, game progress, or any interesting game design articles/quotes I find around. Hope you enjoyed this!
In no order:
> Why does Salomon have a weird wing? Well, he uses the Phoenix Knight class graphic. They were meant to have White magic, Dark skills, Dark Wave, and Triple Cut built in. It was an Ultimate class, meant for if you mastered every other class.
> Similarly, there is an Angel Knight which you see there. Opposite of the more physically focused Phoenix Knight, it has Summon, Time, Black and Blue magic commands, making it a really well rounded caster. Again, it was an ultimate class. They were both cut because I didn't really like the idea of an ultimate class, I felt it'd kill the fun of picking what classes and skills you wanted to have.
> Lancer class was planned for Paradise Blue. This actually warped into the very different Chocolatier later. Mostly because the Jump command didn't seem that different from Monks BuildUp and it was a pain to code anyway.
> Terrain Guard was probably removed or replaced. I just saw that in the list and I realized I didn't have any traps of that kind or lava for example so it was a waste of a slot to include it.
> There was a bigger group for your side. Abigail, Christina, Amelia, Salomon were in the earlier designs, but there were many more like Patrick, Kyle, Lillian, Reuben, Natalie, Mateus, Abraham and Juliana who never made it to the final group, or were renamed. Patrick was the original "Neil", but was young and naive instead of older and laidback. Most of them ended up being random townspeople instead.
> Speaking about these characters, they originally had battle purposes too. However, I didn't really get around to use this so other than a very few points (mainly with Amelia and Neil in the Ancangers), they don't battle. Christina, as a royal guard, was meant to be the most powerful character with the Illumina Spear, Triple Cut, Time, White and Black magic. Triple Cut will not work anymore for her as it's not coded to do so now if you test it.
> While we're on the subject of Ancangers, that name came about by this sentence: "maybe if an can ger NDs stuff to work for my SCSD, ill loook into". I'm still not sure what he was trying to say... And no, they're not called Arcangers. There is an Arc Ancanger however.
> I had actually intended a plot point where Amelia would take this Arc Ancanger and use it to sort of try to take over herself while you'd fight her to stop her. Here's a very work in progress sprite of it!
Had a Whale type design at first. The current ArcAncanger:
> Initially, spirits were the summons in the game. You'd find various spirits around
and have them join you as a summon. This was removed as they were used as enemies in the Spire of the Spirits when I introduced the Magitek-like Ancangers.
> Which means you miss out on this Sun Serpent. The Arc Ancanger replaced it, it had a similar summon use. There is actually an optional boss Sun Serpent in the database of the game but it was not implemented in game.
> Amelias design changed. Initially she was wearing what she has on the left side, but then i was told to keep the design that lazcht made for her. I agreed and went with that instead.
> A quest was cut out, where Amelia set fire to a house without you knowing, and your goal was to find out who was responsible for it. We already had a detective type quest in that town and I wasn't feeling up to it so this got axed.
> The game was originally done with the default NES colors like FF1. Once I started going all color happy, I decided I was just limiting myself for no real reason, then just went ahead and remade the graphics to fit the expanded palette.
> One interesting thing: Part of the soundtrack was made by me before the game existed, and in fact before I even used RPG Maker! The Forests with the big trees over the water is the area that I believe has the most recently composed song.
> There is some content that was a planned expansion. A new island with pirates around it and a side story. However, as I was too busy and the other guy who wanted to do it was away for a while. No DLC for you guys, sorry. I also intended a hireable NPC based on his character to be a reward for completing this part, which would attempt to slay all the enemies when you start the battle. Since this didn't happen, he is unhireable as an NPC even if his code works.
A lot of content did remain in the game though or hasn't changed much since i started making it. Other than working on the battle system for too long a time (I always hate spending too long on that, but it's like a necessary evil), I enjoyed working on this, and definitely hope to improve for the future! Any questions on the game or any other game I've made, feel free to ask me a question on here!
More posts on my blog here!
http://oceansdreams.tumblr.com/
I also talk about what I'm up to, reblog beautiful artwork, game progress, or any interesting game design articles/quotes I find around. Hope you enjoyed this!
Announcement
Added new pages
A new page is added now, on Class abilities. I really should have done this earlier. The class ability page in the game itself only shows you what is the next skill you learn. I figured while I was updating my page, I'd add that too. If you have any other requests, feel free to let me know.
Got the walkthrough up too. I didn't realize I didn't have it up. It was written by IMaAK. If there's anything else I could put up that I have forgotten or that you'd want to see up, let me know!
Got the walkthrough up too. I didn't realize I didn't have it up. It was written by IMaAK. If there's anything else I could put up that I have forgotten or that you'd want to see up, let me know!
Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous
Updates
http://paradiseblue.wordpress.com/
I have made nearly every map in the game, still need 3 areas or so to put enemies in. Now, working on quests and stuff. Hopefully by summer this year I'll be done with the game, but I dunno how my schedule will be like so maybe I won't be able to work as much on it as I'd like
I have made nearly every map in the game, still need 3 areas or so to put enemies in. Now, working on quests and stuff. Hopefully by summer this year I'll be done with the game, but I dunno how my schedule will be like so maybe I won't be able to work as much on it as I'd like
Miscellaneous
The Paradise Blue site
http://paradiseblue.wordpress.com/
^
This site is where I post updates on Paradise Blue. I try to post when I get a fairly big enough update.
As for the game itself, I am still working on this, just not as much since I have other projects with a tight deadline that I need to take care of. I have added battle backgrounds, most of those are done. The Magitek style Ancangers are present in the game now. I am also fixing up the character/faceset folder, it's quite a mess so I keep forgetting which stuff I use and which ones I don't.
^
This site is where I post updates on Paradise Blue. I try to post when I get a fairly big enough update.
As for the game itself, I am still working on this, just not as much since I have other projects with a tight deadline that I need to take care of. I have added battle backgrounds, most of those are done. The Magitek style Ancangers are present in the game now. I am also fixing up the character/faceset folder, it's quite a mess so I keep forgetting which stuff I use and which ones I don't.
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