Everlong

author=SiegfriedCalibur

author=DJC
Hey Siegfried,

I'm looking at the loot database right now, and the default drop for the Harpy enemy in Golem's Pass is a Feather Wing 15%. There are certain accessories if worn that can cause rare drops, or randomize loot. That's only for specific enemies, and I definitely don't see or think the Harpy would be on that list being an early game foe. If you received a rare item drop, that would probably be a bug. The change in the loot table is a hack patch that may not work consistently.

Thanks for clarifying, DJC!
The hilarious thing, last time I did three walkthroughs through the area and got Red Berets consistenly from Harpies. Quite and interesting bug indeed! Could it be that each time the game installation happens, it just shuffles through random loot and gives it to them, considering this time it's a Rapier?
Btw, there is a specific method I found, that can be used to get this loot from them. You need a special encounter with exactly three Harpies. Most of the time they indeed drop Feather Wings, as they should, but sometimes, this bug occurs, and they drop Red Berets or Rapiers (this time).
Anyway, back to polishing the walkthrough...

If the loot drops are bugged, it's not based on the game installation. The DynRPG plugin I used to change loot from the database values in special circumstances does so by hacking memory values, but it seems to be unreliable and sometimes the values get changed when they should not.

author=SiegfriedCalibur
Hello, I'm trying to conquer this game yet again! Thankfully, this time I have my notes nearby...

Anyway, I have a question.
In Golem Pass there is an enemy called Harpy. When I played the game earlier this year, I managed to drop some Red Berets from them, which is supposed to be a late-game equipment, yes? But this time, going through an area, they dropped only Rapiers, aside from their usual stuff.
So my question is, is there a trigger, that determines their loot pool? Or was I just unlucky this time? Or was this actually a bug?

Hey Siegfried,

I'm looking at the loot database right now, and the default drop for the Harpy enemy in Golem's Pass is a Feather Wing 15%. There are certain accessories if worn that can cause rare drops, or randomize loot. That's only for specific enemies, and I definitely don't see or think the Harpy would be on that list being an early game foe. If you received a rare item drop, that would probably be a bug. The change in the loot table is a hack patch that may not work consistently.

author=Salrith
I feel like this is a little bit of a long shot, but you seem to still be active after these years, so--
Firstly, thank you for making this! I had heaps of fun with it years ago and the whole game was one of the highlights of my RPGMaker days!
Second, I've been wondering this for years and never thought to just come and ask-- where is the music that plays in Senium Forest from?? It's possibly my favourite track in the game. Was it custom made, or did it get borrowed from another place?
Keep safe out there, and thanks!
Salrith

Hello Salrith!

I do still check my account on rpgmaker.net occasionally to see if there are any player questions, or game breaking bugs that have somehow escaped me all these years. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the game, dated as it is!

I'm trying really hard to wrack my brain and recall where the Senium Forest music is from. The midi file has been stripped of its meta data, probably from when I processed it. It's not custom made specifically for Everlong, but I don't believe it's a cover from a different game. I want to say it was part of a pack created by RPG Maker community musicians, along with dozens of other tracks, made available for public use. This is generally the case for the entire soundtrack. Sometimes there were Japanese authors, and the composer name data was horribly mangled into meaningless symbols when translated to a system using western characters. There are a few commercial game covers or rips.

I experimented with releasing an HD soundtrack version, but it was rather difficult to convert all the midi files. Some tracks only sounded reasonable with specific sound fonts. Also, most of the game music is at 2x speed, originally to save disk space, but this reduces the sample rate by half, and sounds awful. It would have been a monumental task to change every music call in the game back to normal playback.

author=ilsepants
Help! I'm finally back playing, and I can't get past the Demon Wall going back to Tyr-Anon. Any advice?

Hey islepants,

Demon Wall does have a few weaknesses you can exploit, such as Holy elemental attacks, and any weapons effective against demons or spirits.

You do have to finish this boss quickly once it gets low on HP, or it will start to repeatedly Crush party members without pausing. Physical attacks will also not be useful until it turns off its defense (11th turn). Protection against Petrify will help with Fossilize. Fire, Ice, and Bolt elemental protection helps with Delta Attack. High defense will reduce damage from Overpower. There's not much you can do about Revenge, other than prepare to take the hit.

Hope that helps! You can always gain some more levels in the Tyr-Anon Caverns, turning off auto encounter rate adjust.

Hey Trixi! Really cool to see people are still enjoying the game!

1) To initiate the Beomaust battle, I believe you need to possess the Ambrosia, have Vixen in the party, AND have defeated ALL the other Aeons.

2) To recruit Miyagi, EVERY character needs to be level 99, including Azrael and Cirus if they are recruited.

3) I'm not finding or recalling a complete guide for the Phoenix Cave. There are several player written walkthroughs, but they gloss over the exact puzzles. Somebody did record themselves doing the entire dungeon and posted it on Youtube, so that will be the greatest help.

4) To restore the artifacts of the four heroes, you return to the Tower of Auctus after getting the airship to obtain each piece in the room where Cirus is turned to stone. These artifacts must be left to recharge at the top of the White Shrine after Azrael rejoins the party. If you leave the artifacts there as soon as possible, they will be restored once you gain access to the Rift Core. If you place them later, you'll have to wait until you start a New Game+ or Continue+ to retrieve them. They are essentially extra ultimate weapons and overpowered equipment.

Let me know if you have more questions or need help!

author=Trixi
Hey DJC, I'm having some issues with the game.

So when I try to battle Beomaust, it won't let me...as far as I know I need to have the Ambrosia and be lvl 99. I still am not be able to battle him.

Mr. Miagy also will not come with me even though I have level 99.

I'm clueless in the Phoenix cave as there seems to be a dead end since the start, is there any tutorial for it?

Lastly, I can't get the heroes of the old equipment. Not sure how much more I'm supposed to wait for it to be 'energised'.

I hope you will answer, I'm really stuck. Thank you for your time and this game! It's the 4th time I'm replaying it :)

Apologies for the late reply. I've been on vacation.

author=Nighthearted
@DJC

1) In the last battle against Altair, his sprite won't spawn. This causes the battle to be immediately won. His second form spawns correctly and the battle is normal, it just happens with his human form. Earlier in the game, during the first time we face him aboard the ship, it spawns correctly.
Screenshot: https://ibb.co/F89N76K

This bug was previously reported and fixed. I never entered any information for this boss in the auto balance code, causing an adjustment to zero HP and immediate victory. I should have made the code default to 100% HP if no data was found. In any future remaster, I would not implement an auto balance for monsters. The feature was an experiment to improve challenge for high level parties, but I'm not convinced it succeeded.

2) When the party is after one of the aspects of power on the snowy mountain to the Dwarves' dwelling, a snake-woman monster may appear if we use the item Siren. Whenever it does, an "event script" error message appears and the game is immediately sent back to the title screen. She also appears in normal random battles and in the Battle Arena, but then she's always with other monsters around and this script error does not occur. Only when she spawns alone by using the Siren item this happens. Note: using Siren inside the room where we get the aspect of power in the dwarves' castle will also spawn her in a grassy battle screen. I imagine that wasn't intended. The same error occurs this way.
Screenshot: https://ibb.co/YN3cNdk

This crash is a result of copy and pasting without checking on my part. The battle event scripts were references to monsters from another troop that don't exist when fighting the single Naga Archer. I'm not sure about the grassy field background when using a Siren in the Ignis Castrum treasure hold. That battle should be against a Damphir, the code is clearly using the Calbrenda battle background, and I wasn't able to recreate any fault in this scenario.

3) One of Keen's scroll skills is called "Blink", but when checking the skill, the description points to the skill "Dispel Slash" instead.
Screenshot: https://ibb.co/sJZxgxs

This is another oversight ony my part, where Keen use to have Dispel Slash, but this was changed to Blink. I corrected the rest of the display information, but not the skill reference.

4) In the bonus dungeon, the pillars used in some puzzles sometimes would change locations after I left them in the right spot and came back to cross the way. Sometimes they would even get stuck in unreachable places, like walls. I screenshotted 2 of these occurrences. I imagine it might be on my end because my controller has a Turbo Mode I usually leave on to avoid fatigue. Maybe the engine is interpreting each trigger as a push and sending the pillars way ahead, even though it only shows visually after I leave the screen. But the only objects in which that has happened to in the entire game were these pillars.
Screenshot¹: https://ibb.co/4SYd3JW
Screenshot²: https://ibb.co/6gg3LDT

I'm in agreement with your suspicion that the turbo controller mode is the culprit here. I've otherwise never seen this behavior before, nor am able to replicate it. The engine may also be to blame for poor input detection and processing.

5) After getting some Crimson Beherits with Battle Arena points, I bought 2 packs of the Ultimate Equipments from the Knight of Skulls. I can see the set of equips called Virtuoso in my inventory just fine, but I cannot equip any of the characters with them. They simply won't show up in the equipping screen. No one mentioned any other steps to be able to equip them besides buying, so I don't know what's happening. I went to the Forge Master after acquiring them, nothing. I thought I might need a higher title to wear them and took Azrael to Mythic, but they still won't show up in the equipping screen. Do I need an even higher title or is it a bug? I want to equip them for a New Game+ to save more Valiantide troops and see what the other rewards for that are.

Another player previously found this bug, and I just haven't patched it yet. I've seen strange behavior where sometimes database values get corrupted and just don't work correctly in game. Adjusting the values and overwriting the database fixes the issue, so the game reads the items as equipment again.

Thanks to your help and that of other players, I think I'll release an updated patch with these fixes.

That's it. About the story...

I have thought about allowing the player to acquire Azrael earlier, upon first reaching the White Shrine. He is meant to be a fake-out protagonist that becomes an antagonist. Unfortunately, if a player likes this character, they'll naturally be disappointed he leaves the party for the majority of the game.

Azrael's ending would have been different if the main plot points behind Expirius' motivations weren't totally changed, but he still would not have returned with the party to the normal world, not after what he's seen and done. I actually very much dislike the current ending for all the characters. The meeting and aftermath of the battle with Entropy would have been entirely different.

Significant story changes in a new game+ aren't feasible. It becomes like making a second game, and then why not do that instead? I've also lost enthusiasm in player choices directing certain story beats. In a remaster I would remove the affection system, for example, and make writing much simplified. Players lose some replay value, but they also don't have to feel like they are missing story points, character development, or dialog because of their choices. I also find it hard to make player choices actually impactful. It's too much of a gimmick in modern games, even failing to create the illusion that player choice matters.

None of the characters have much of a development arc, because most of that content was cut, especially for Julia. It's entirely understandable that those characters are unlikeable without their backstory and actual personal growth. I intended for Dianyn to have a slightly larger role in the quest to regain Cirus, and you'd be able to fight her at the Battle Arena, but all that was cut.

The Entropy plotline and Expirius motivations are definitely incoherent at best, again due to cut content, so I tied it up together haphazardly with vague plot magic, and the result is obviously not good. Too many fantasy tropes and hand waving explanations. The story and character developments are two aspects of the game I'd really like to improve in a remaster, along with the skills themselves and world interaction and town/NPC development.

Thank you for the kind words and all the feedback. I'm glad you got so much enjoyment out of the game. I've done some preliminary work looking at RPG Maker MZ recently, and the resources/plugins necessary to attempt a remaster in that engine. It would be a massive amount of work that I might not ever have time for, but it's on my mind.