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Endorsements

a crazy, unchained game...and one that I would strongly recommend to anyone wanting to try something different for a change.
-ganonfrog's review

I had fun! ... The cut-scenes are very well done...I loved the humor and the quirky characters, not only the party members, but also the other people you will meet, love and hate! ... The Cerebral Symphony is a good game, not too hard and full of humor and diversions, of adequate length. ... Maybe I don't understand this game, but I sure had a lot of fun with it!
-TheRpgMakerAddict's review

Strong writing, clever system, interesting characters, and an engaging plot...this game is unreasonably good. It is probably the single cleverest thing I've played on rmn, and its ability to take itself seriously even while it's not taking itself seriously borders on the supernatural...some really phenomenal world-building and dialogue and mapping in kind of a weird package, and I think the community will dig it
-kumada (tester)

Overall I enjoyed the game because of the story. The dialogue is good, the characters are good.
-Link_2112 (tester)

LP by raikenjenova:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDOLxHMXxfE&list=PLd8tGajquAkEwoRAiZ1Po8F7YgDduApSf

Lowdown

-Begun as the side-project of a bored and depressed fifteen-year old, The Cerebral Symphony has evolved into a claustrophobic, poorly layed-out, passionately-written 2d RPG

-Chapter 1 came out in 2011, Chapter 2 in 2012, Chapter 3 in 2013, Chapter 4 in 2015, the full game came out in 2018!

-About 9 hours play time.

-Please post any feedback to this game page as I am always tweaking and updating the download. If you send me enough, I will list you as a tester.


Story

Brad, a jock, trips one day (at a party, we can only assume), accidentally plunging himself into the hallucinatory world of The Cerebral Symphony where he meets a guy called Ivan, who you might wonder is a human metaphor for repressed teenage angst.

Join the schizophrenic, multiple-personality-disorder afflicted Ivan, whose destiny (and personalities) you can steer through his individual choices as he bumbles his way through his life as a renegade thief into a big war between the underground cyborg Mafia, the omnipresent, all-seeing Corporation and the corrupt, power-crazed Government over the six elemental stones that, when gathered together, bestow ULTIMATE POWER on their holder. Mwahahaha!

On the way you will meet Liz the ADHD werewolf, Jean the insomniac minstrel, Catherine the telepath with a firey temper, Carys the delusional young stage actress, Robert the narcoleptic doctor, Zak the homeostatically-imbalanced fighter-pilot, and Bain the accident prone Gladiator. You will decide whether in the final estimation it is Ivan's more "upbeat" or his "darker" personality that will win control of his mind as they battle with his more balanced, "pensive" side.

Story-driven and choice-based, The Cerebral Symphony is a sci-fi/fantasy/drug trip 2d RPG game with an emphasis on character development and fun, non-random, side-view, Final Fantasy VI style battles, made up of 5 chapters.

Featuring the Fully Completed MULTIPLE PERSONALITY SYSTEM(TM), where Ivan's in-game choices will affect dialogue and plot, alter the screen tint and interface colours and change his battle class and music. You only gain skills in the personality in which you fight! Your choices will affect the story! Enjoy!

Latest Blog

Faenon has started writing a serial JRPGlit webnovel

Hello subscribers to TCS!

Two pieces of news. First of all, Halibabica will shortly be doing a youtube LP of TCS.

Secondly, in UK lockdown I have started uploading a serial fantasy webnovel heavily inspired by JRPGS, especially Final Fantasy IV and VI.

It has twelve heroes with distinct personalities who go on an adventure in order to carry out an epic quest, elemental magic, airships, battles, monsters, and a Cid!



People here are probably in the small subset of people who might enjoy this, so if you want to read it, go here https://www.wattpad.com/story/228098139-saga-of-the-jewels

or here https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/32469/saga-of-the-jewels

or here https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13581482/1/Saga-of-the-Jewels

or here https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3346873/1/Saga-of-the-Jewels

Peace out,
Faenon

Posts

I'm glad you're a Loreena McKennit fan, kumada!

Good call on the indicator. And with the last jump in the wind temple, as I'm sure you'll discover, you need to jump when the wind is HIGH. This'll blow you to the top of the tower. If I remember rightly, you can also jump when the wind is low to access a chest that you can't otherwise get.
Yeah, it's bugged then. Jumping when the wind is low doesn't get you the chest. Jumping at any time blows you to the top of the tower.

I was a huge Loreena McKennit fan in highschool. I haven't listened to her in ages, but it was a welcome surprise.

-BUG: you can completely walk through all but one square of the monolith at the top.

-BUG: the event at the top doesn't trigger right. It should happen as soon as you land. Instead I had to keep strolling around for a few minutes to finally get it to kick in.

-BUG: passability issue on the boulders at the top too

-Liz's quest's intro screen takes a good few seconds for the characters to appear. Feels like a bug.

-Why do multiple chests in the game give 99 Wet Fish? I don't think I've ever had someone get paralyzed, and I tried to cheese the in-game economy by selling them to buy that superpowered accessory in the hub city, but since getting the fish I haven't been able to actually go to that shop.

-Carys' "Wolf Liz" ability just says 'human' for its text and is unselectable. Bug?

-So, Dr Sergius' Inflict slow never inflicts slow, but I just had Carys use her Dr Sergius ability and it actually inflicted slow on the metal temple boss. I'm not even sure what to say here other than a long "whaaaaa..." that slowly subsides into silence.

-Metal temple boss fight felt totally reasonable. It actually lasted multiple rounds since there was no Ivan to kill it in a single blow and I found myself having to balance attacks and heals.
The battles are the least tested aspect of the game and need the most tweaking. As ever, I'm grateful for this feedback.

The 99 wet fish chests are a joke... I guess you could say they're full of red herring...

You've done the Metal Temple, which means after the Electric Temple you only have Chapter 5 to go!

I'm going to get a window of time from the 19th-23rd Feb to do some work on TCS fixing bugs and then hopefully after that I will be able to mark it as "Complete" (at least for now...though I am sure I will work on it in the future).

So if you get a chance to finish your playthrough before then, that would be sweet. But no pressure! I know this is entirely gratuitous and has to be fit around Real Life! :)
I'll mark my calendar and have it finished before the 19th. I've got a few other responsibilities vying for time, but luckily playing video games uses my "not technically working on anything, theoretically" timeslot, so it doesn't take time from the other stuff.

Worst case scenario, if chapter 5 turns out to be a long haul, I'll play through as much as I can and post feedback by the end of the 18th.
Awesome, kumada. But don't sweat it!

If any other of TCS's 55 subscribers are reading this dialogue: look forward to a game marked "Complete" soon!
More feedback!

-You can change Ivan's personality while in battle as only Catherine.

-Crash bug: tried to downshift Ivan from positive in a battle against the pikachu: "Event script referenced an item that does not exist". It doesn't close the program, just dumps you back to the main menu.

-Switching characters really messes with the color of the text boxes.

-Trio of sparks flattens Ivan before he can act. This is a battle midway up the tower. I tried equipping the dictionary for that theoretical high defense, and they still flatten him before he can act.

-Also, the switch puzzle seems broken. At the same place where the trio of unbeatable sparks is, there's a barrier that can't be lifted. I've tried all switches on Catherine's side, all switches on Ivan's side, and various combinations of both, but had no results. Maybe this is an interaction with the character switching system?

In any case, I can't proceed without advice/a patch.
It's definitely doable, though it is a bit tricky.

You might want to check out raikenjenova's LP where he goes through the Electric Temple to see how to do it:



Let me know if continues to be an obstacle.

Thanks for the catch on finding the personality switch bug in the yellow mouse battle.
Ah, okay. I was getting annihilated by the three sparks before I could get deep enough into the room to realize how that side of the switch puzzle worked.

More feedback incoming:

-FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

-When you reunite Catherine with Ivan, their combined sprite takes an immediate step to the south....which can transport you through a wall. Stranding you permanently. Inches from the save point. fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff--

-Fortunately you can switch characters, teleporting Ivan back out!

-And the switches are set weirdly enough that you can just walk north, trigger the battle, and be reuinited!

-Ivan takes ridiculous amounts of damage from everything in the electric tower. Catherine takes hardly any. I had to lame the boss fight out by using just her regular attacks and item heals.

-Completing the third quest dumps you back into the bunny screen, this time with no one there, but you can still walk around for a few seconds before the dialog kicks in. Bug?

-"Are you male or female (choose the closest match)" wait okay hang on. "Choose the closest match" makes this way more confusing. Like, it rips the top off the can of worms and then sprints away into the night.

-"What is your skin color (more ethnicity to be added in future releases)" whaaaat. This is now the surrealist thing.

-No red hair color option?

-"what is your profession" this is amazing

-Wow, the cut to finale is really abrupt.

-Weapon: Variable. Whoops. Looks like it didn't record my choice of sword.

-"Surprise attack. Catherine became enraged." It's just me on the field, dude.

-I don't think the insult choice was saved either, since the villain used "buttmunchers" and I'd changed the default to "codmonger"

-Favorite food didn't get input right either. It came out as 24. I'd input sushi.

-The statue on the right is full of passability glitches.

-I do really like this weird earthboundesque plot direction, though. I'll try to finish up the rest of this late today or early tomorrow.
You're almost there, kumada!

I do hope you can make it through the whole of Chapter 5. I have gone through multiple times so it works as far as I know, but I am the developer.
Alright, one final push to the end.

-The Outsider has no item description.

-After gaining your support characters, they stay stuck on the bottom of the screen until you get in your first battle.

-Wow, the fighter completely invalidates combat with his huge multiattack

-Carys' Zak attack summons a 'komono cat'. Kimono?

-Hoo boy. Walking right from Ivan's first room and then immediately walking left gets you stuck in a wall.

-Also, Ivan's active party is called "Luke's active party"?

-Sometimes you can change Zak's equipment from the menu and sometimes you can't. Bug? Does it have to do with his states, maybe?

-Going up from Ivan's first room and then walking one tile left or right sends you immediately back to the room you came from.

-Overcoming doesn't have an item description

-Liz's party gets prompts for personality changes.

-Having Liz use her Use Astroprojector skill from the menu to turn her back to human straight up does not work.

-...however she turns back the first time she gets hit in combat.

-Liz's equipment cannot be changed while she's a werewolf.

-No item description for Beta Blockers or Red Bull

-Final dungeon design is great, combat feels better, status effects actually hit/display, this is all good.

-One chest is already open in Liz's room with the goblins. Bug?

-From Liz's first egyptian room, using the uppermost left exit tile gets you stuck in a wall.

-No item descriptions for Siddhartha, NOTESfromUNDERGROUND, paracetemol, flaming lips, nutella, and intelligence music

-FULLHEAL "fully restores and recovers and ally's health" should be 'an ally's'

-Some chests on Liz's side reset to being full for no real reason

-Also, Liz's party is called "Naomi's party"?!

-Upper right chest in Liz's gnome room constantly refreshes

-No item description for Dragon Ball Z and Solving Problems

-Carys gets Bain skill despite Bain not being in the party

-No dialog from fighting the count and countess?

-Countess gets stuck at 0 hp for a while. Took another 10k damage or so to take her from 0 to dead.

-"Prepare to meet your maker, dark Luke." Um, dark Ivan, you mean?

-So, I chose to refuse Tabitha, but the dialog made it seem a lot like I'd chosen to accept. Not sure if there was a bug here.

-Game clear. This is definitely the most early-era rpgmaker game I've played in a while. Spriterips, midimusic, design elements that phase in and out, but by the final tower it felt like the game really had things much more together balance-wise, even if the plot kind of went on hiatus.

Were all the references to Luke because the MC was originally called Luke as a biblical reference? I couldn't quite figure out what was going on there.

Also, it was a little weird to see a message that you can only find relief from mental issues through Christ right after Ivan had just found relief from mental issues through a psionically charged katana duel.

Overall, I think this game had some really cool ideas. The personality shifting system is really neat, and I think if the game had been built more around one-character parties, it would have been able to develop and take advantage of that more.

I know Cerebral Symphony is still in the testing stages, but a lot of game balance felt nonexistant. Some characters had very, very niche uses (the doctor's 'inflict healing' as an out of combat healspam is his only redeeming feature) or were just plain not good (jean is there to funnel his MP to other people. that's it). Others were unreasonably broken. The warrior in the self-insert's party, who just instakills everything on screen in a single action, stands out, but Ivan one-shots most bosses with a single special as well.

The plot balances seriousness and nonsense much better in the first chapter, but as soon as it gets wrapped up in the elemental gem fetch quest, everyone sort of turns into a caricature, which is a shame because I really liked the development that Ivan, Liz, and the various factions were getting before then.

I don't think any of these things are worth going back and redesigning the game for, and I am eager to see whatever project you work on next.

It's also really cool to see a project with this long of a development cycle finally reach a finished version.

Thank you for making this, and I hope some of the concepts and subsystems here are an inspiration for other games.
Thank you very much kumada.

Yes, I acknowledge all of your points and will try to address them in the game with what remaining time I can afford it.

The main character did indeed have a different name before, but it wasn't a conscious allusion to the Biblical book of Luke.

And just for pedantry's sake, the author's note does talk about one way that the author has experienced relief from mental health issues, without trying to to assert that this is the only way. And the psionically charged katana duel can certainly be seen as a metaphor for that: for integration between shadow and ideal through forgiveness.

Seeing as the game was originally started in 2003, you are definitely right that it is old school rpgmaker! But I am still pleased that I finished it.

You are right too I think that the plot and development thin (in some areas, but not all) from Chapter 3 onwards. This is essentially because I went from having a bit more free time to work on TCS while studying and making Chapters 1-2, to working full-time while having a family making Chapters 3-5, so I really had to streamline and pick just the essentials I wanted in order to make the game completable.

Because of time and priorities, I doubt I will work on another rpgmaker game for a very a long time, if ever, other than occasionally coming back to TCS to patch it up and add to it. I will be working on writing projects instead and probably trying to put all the things I would put into a game if I had more time into a novels! If I ever do another rpgmaker game, it will probably be a short thing in MV, as I love the prospect of making something people can play on their phones / macs / etc and also it would be nice to make a bit of cash from it.

You are welcome, kumada. Many thanks for all your feedback, bug reports, and for playing, and I hope you enjoyed it.
Oh man, I totally misread the author's note. I thought it said something like "the only way to overcome mental issues is through Jesus Christ," and so my immediate first reaction was "only? That seems a little extreme."

The swords work totally fine as a metaphor for ideological conflict, and I wanted to ask: are there branching endings? Did primarily developing my pensive personality or telling the characters they weren't real factor into the final outcome? The ending I got felt pretty decisively canon, so I wasn't sure.

Even if it isn't for a while, I'd be happy to playtest any future projects that come out. Just let me know. And congratulations again on completing this.
There are three possible endings.

Both of those things factored into the final outcome.

However, I'm very glad you got that one because it is indeed the most canon one and the others are not very developed! They are part of what I will expand if I ever have time to revisit TCS...

And I do happen to think it is the best way, but you're right that the author's note didn't say that it's the only way ;)

Cheers kumada, your testing has been thorough and invaluable.
So what do you think? The complete version of TCS has so far had 143 downloaders. Comments? Reactions? Insults?

Let me know what you think!

And just so you know, I've just updated the download fixing a bug that I finally figured out:

Basically whenever there is a personality/class change I wrote code that keeps the same items equipped for that character. However if NO item was equipped in a slot before the change, the game gets confused and crashes. If you want to stick to your old download, the solution is just to make sure you ALWAYS have something equipped in ALL the equipment slots for the characters who can change class: Ivan, Liz and Catherine. Otherwise, I've patched the code and updated the download accordingly so the game won't crash any more in the updated version.

Less87, this should fix that problem you had with Cath's RAGE MODE ON/OFF skill.

Remember that I will probably never stop working on TCS, revising things (in fact I'm still incorporating some of the finer points of kumada's feedback) and adding in more content, like I mentioned in the "TCS is complete" blogpost, a bit like dragonheartman does with Starless Umbra, I guess...

I will post here whenever there is a major update or bugfix like the one above.
'sup subscribers.

I am revising TCS over the Summer, hope to have a version incorporating all of the testers' feedback by the end of the Summer.

Then I'm going to ask for a review or two (the current review is only of the demo, from years ago) and see if I can pick up a misao in January.

Peace out. For now.
A bit late, but the latest version of TCS is now up. This one has some more edits based on Kumada’s feedback and some significant structural changes (try it and see!).

This is the definitive complete version of TCS. I’ve now embarked on a writing mentorship with a UK literary consultancy, so I need to need to leave it alone for the moment. I probably won’t add any more updates for quite some time.

If you’ve not played TCS all the way through…now is the time!

If you’ve played TCS and liked it, please consider:

-letting me know
-posting your feedback
-posting a review (currently it still only has one review, for the DEMO, from years ago)
-nominating me for a 2018 Misao!

Thanks! Enjoy the game!

P.S. Has anyone seen raikenjenova? I’m beginning to think that he’s actually died in RL (serious), which makes me very sad :(
Hello! Long time no see! Sorry I was busy with these real life stuff and gonna get married on end of this year xD Had a lot of things and work to do and rarely getting on internet qwq
I will try to do this chapter 5's LP in a short while.

P.S : I am not dead yet! (/O_O)/ just lately I am stuck on a hardcore game called real life Q_Q which is totally hard for meeeeee

Thanks a lot! xDD
author=raikenjenova
Hello! Long time no see! Sorry I was busy with these real life stuff and gonna get married on end of this year xD Had a lot of things and work to do and rarely getting on internet qwq
I will try to do this chapter 5's LP in a short while.

P.S : I am not dead yet! (/O_O)/ just lately I am stuck on a hardcore game called real life Q_Q which is totally hard for meeeeee

Thanks a lot! xDD

Hey raiken! I'm so glad you're not dead!

Wow, congratulations on the engagement!!! Marriage is awesome, I recommend it.

No pressure about the LP, you have lots more important things going on. I just hope you can enjoy finishing TCS sometime, even if you don't LP it, as I know you've been looking forward to it ;)

Take care!
author=Faenon
author=raikenjenova
Hello! Long time no see! Sorry I was busy with these real life stuff and gonna get married on end of this year xD Had a lot of things and work to do and rarely getting on internet qwq
I will try to do this chapter 5's LP in a short while.

P.S : I am not dead yet! (/O_O)/ just lately I am stuck on a hardcore game called real life Q_Q which is totally hard for meeeeee

Thanks a lot! xDD
Hey raiken! I'm so glad you're not dead!

Wow, congratulations on the engagement!!! Marriage is awesome, I recommend it.

No pressure about the LP, you have lots more important things going on. I just hope you can enjoy finishing TCS sometime, even if you don't LP it, as I know you've looking forward to it ;)

Take care!


Thanks a lot! :DD will let you know when I finished making one! xDb