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The Four Spirits is my entry into the Nugget Crash Course contest. As this is my first time using RPGmaker, I'm going with a simple concept and theme, so I can focus on learning how to map properly and balance content, instead of trying to write the next best story or create the coolest combat system.

The game's core concept is travelling to various continents, searching for the four spiritual incarnations of the world's elements, in this case being Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Of course, there is something sinister going on behind the scenes, but that will be revealed throughout play.

Gameplay will mainly be focused on exploring several dungeons, and putting elemental strengths and weaknesses to good use. As a Shaman, the main character, Jacaranda, will have access to abilities from all four elements. She also will be able to equip elemental orbs to enhance her abilities in relation to the element of the orb she's equipped. The four elemental spirits, however, will be much more focused, having only abilities related to their element. In exchange, they will be more powerful when it comes to that element, both in offense and defense.

I'll be using the RTP for my music, sound effects, and graphics, as I am not very artistically inclined, and don't feel like I could churn out appropriate content in the time limit of this content. Since it's a new version, hopefully the graphics will be fresh to some people :).

New screenshots will be up in the next couple of days, once I have the time to take them.

Script credits:

Yanfly for their core engine, party system, battle engine, follow up skill script, and weapon attack replace script.

Yami for their predicted charge turn battle system and their order gauge script.

Latest Blog

Another update

Wanted to say that this is still being worked on, albeit slowly. The current upload does contain all of the story and areas I've planned to include, but it can still definitely use some balancing and some potential overhauls of several areas. I'm not quite sure when I will have the time to get it to that point, however; earliest will most likely be late May or June, as school+work are devouring most of my time these days.
  • Production
  • freykin
  • RPG Maker VX Ace
  • RPG
  • 03/21/2012 04:46 AM
  • 12/25/2018 12:22 PM
  • 04/01/2012
  • 31719
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Finished up the last of my finals today, now I can dedicate some real time to this. Should have a demo up by the end of the weekend.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Tried this game a bit. Some notes:

Among the first things I noticed was the lack of music for the title screen. I'm not sure what would be an appropriate theme for this game, but I'm thinking something should be playing there.

Looks like the description for Jacaranda been cut off. I've found that, with the default font, the size of the window the editor presents is more or less about as much that shows in-game.

I noticed that there's tile in the starting area that looks clear, but is actually impassible. After looking at it in the editor, I can see that there's an event there. Moving the event into a wall should be enough.

Talking to the King after offering to help him causes him to ask you if you want to help him again? Might want to change that!

I think I understand what you're trying to do with the external map of the Ruffian's tower, but the autotiling really doesn't work. You might be able to get the effect you want by playing with the placement of the lighter gray wall tiles. Am I seriously giving mapping advise?

The princess isn't in the throne room after I save her? Well, she "teleports" in after talking to the King, but it's still kinda weird.

Annnnd... done! Wait, am I done? There was that mountain pass... Nope, I'm done. Let's see. Outside of what I've already mentioned, the encounter rate is a mixed bag. Regenerating MP is a pretty cool idea, but fighting a battle two steps after one was just resolved can be a tad groan-inducing. Not sure if there's something you can actually do out that though, unless you want to switch to touch-based encounters?
Hey there, thanks for trying it out!

Good point on all of those, and the Ruffian Tower is one I plan to go back to later and fix up to look better.

That's too bad on her description, I'll have to make it more concise.

I ideally would like the princess to "join" your party as a temporary member, but I would want her to not participate in battle, just show up in the menu and follow caterpillar style. I'm not sure how to go about doing that though, so for now I just have it implied that she's following you back.

I've been thinking of raising the encounter rate, it's currently set to 20 steps in the map regions. Do you think going to 30, the default, might work better?

I think I know how to make a custom random encounter rate, which would allow me to have more fine tuned control over how often they happen, but not sure as I haven't tried it yet. That way I could specify a minimum # of steps along with a maximum.


Going to be working on this tonight, so most of these should be tidied up by then. Planning to upload a new version Sunday evening, which, if everything goes well, will contain quite a bit more content.

I appreciate you taking the time to give feedback, it's very helpful. I probably would never have run into the impassible event spot, since I as the creator know there is nothing useful over there.
just freed the princess..went to go to the mt..and it wont let me in??
Wraptorman, that's the end of the current demo. I forget if that version has it, but it should have an event when you head there saying as much. I should have a lengthier one uploaded by tomorrow night, just sat down to continue work on it :)

Marrend, I implemented pretty much every change I listed above. I currently have the princess joining the party, but being auto controlled, and then leaving once you return to the king. Still need to playtest it, but I think it will make it much more clear that she journeys with you back to the castle. I also tried to make the ruffian tower look a bit better, though I don't know if it looks better or if I should scrap its current design and just make it much shorter in appearance from the outside.

Current goals for the night are to give it a run through to make sure none of the changes/new content break the game, then work on adding in the next town and dungeon, which will conclude with some plot being revealed and.. a new party member! Hooray! :)
Good to see a new developer that listens to feedback! Also, subscribed!
While this is my first time developing, I've spent many, many years in Q&A/beta testing, so I completely understand just how important feedback can be :). Especially when it was provided in such a thoughtful, well written post specifying exact issues and potential fixes to them.

Thanks for the subscribe!
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I was expecting the Ruffian's Tower to look more like this. Though, with more flavor on than that mock-up, obviously.

I could be wrong on this, but I think it might be possible to save the princess before you're asked to do so? Then again, I'm not sure how much of a sequence break it would be to be able to do that.
Ah, yes, it is possible to save her before being asked to do so, but it doesn't break any switches or anything. I figured since you can easily wander to the tower first, I might as well leave it open to entry right off, in case someone found it and wants to just dungeon crawl from the get go.

I tried a bunch of different things on that tower and they all looked wrong, it never turned out quite how I wanted it to :/.

The later maps (especially after you recruit Skaldi) are pretty sparse on details, mainly because last night was the last chance I had to work on this, and wanted to try and have a completed story instead of one halfway done. To me that would be a bigger accomplishment, and if there aren't any game destroying bugs, then I've succeeded :). It may not be the greatest game, but it's a game, and I've learned so much in this past week from it all.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Seems the download count has been reset. Which probably means that there's a newer version up. I suppose I could post a review of the most recent version I played, but I do have to wonder if it's a moot point.

If it helps identify the version that I was playing, I believe I got as far as getting the Fire Spirit into the party. I half-remember getting a message that the demo was over.
The version I submitted for the contest ended up being the wrong version altogether :/. I had actually finished the entire game, but in my sleep deprived state messed it all up during uploading somehow. The version that was up here was incorrect, so it's now replaced with the proper version, which goes all the way to the end and everything.

Was frustrating to discover, was happily listening to the podcast reviews then heard "and then it ends at the volcano" and I was like "WHAAAAAT? Oh no what did I do wrong?!".

To be specific, there is 4 dungeons past that, along with you reaching a party size of 5 before the final dungeon.

It should hopefully be compatible with your last save, if you feel like giving it a try.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Like I said, my copy gave me a message that said the demo was over after getting the the Fire Spirit into the party. Saying that, I did see some maps and stuff for beyond that point in plot. I've got this nasty habit of opening games with the editor whenever I can. If this game is complete, I suppose I should keep my current notes, get the latest version, play it, and compare notes. So to speak.

As a side-note, if this is a complete game, you may want to "tag" it as such.
Yeah, I figured you got a similar version to what the judges did, though yours sounds like it was farther along possibly? I'm not certain anymore, but the version that is up here definitely goes all the way through.

It isn't quite complete yet, I need to do at the least some re-balancing of a couple fights to make them more/less hard. I'm also considering on whether to take the time to come back and make the latter bits better, as they definitely show the lack of time that I had for them (especially the last dungeon).

Unless complete means you can reach the end of the game? I'm not done working on it, but it does stand alone as a finishable product. If that's the case, I should change it; if it's referring to whether I am finished working on it, then it should stay how it is.
Standard RPG where your the avatar trying to bring elemental balance to the world. Got as far as the ice cave where I got nauseous. One of your party members is constantly in danger of getting twoshotted because of elemental weaknesses. Game can crash if you do certain things. Cookie cutter mapping and game design. Not much else to say.
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