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Synopsis
The whole story revolves around two sisters, Michiro and Miho. When they were younger, they were evacuated from their home planet, for reasons they didn't understand.

Years later, the past is forgotten, and the girls live in another world. 3 months before Michiro's birthday, she experiences a flashback "dream". As she has forgotten her past, she can't recall these events and assumes they are just dreams. On that day, Michiro wakes up, and realises she's late for a training session with her childhood friend, Yuuichi. During the training session, everything seems off. The plants are alive, the insects are bigger and the forests are darker.

What could be causing these strange events? And what is the reason behind Michiro's "dreams"?

Battle System
A personalised fusion of Tankentai Ace and Yanfly's Battle Engine Ace.
The two scripts have been edited to work with each other. Previously, there were bugs regarding "double animations".

Latest Blog

New Demo Released!

Finally, after 2 years of waiting, the new demo is finally released! Go and check it out!
  • Production
  • phlim2
  • RPG Maker VX Ace
  • RPG
  • 02/09/2013 02:16 PM
  • 09/15/2022 04:41 AM
  • N/A
  • 47843
  • 34
  • 353

Posts

Pages: 1
It's been long since this game's development has started, hasn't it? :)
Haha, yep. It's been going for 6, almost 7 years now. Not to mention that it's been hopping between 3 different RM engines. x'D

Well luckily, this hop will be the last hop. RMVXAce actually has everything I need for the game. :P
Well, tried to the end. And well? My biggest concerns are the illustrations' consistency and combat quality, although they should have some explanation.

- Is it just me or there's a notable difference of artstyle? Michiro (green-haired kid) looks chubbier than Miho (the silver haired lady). The difference is also notable at how their portraits are colored, given that Miho's portrait got more color details. The contrast is shown even more if you want to compare between the status screen and the portraits while talking. The status menu ones are only using base colors without any shadings. It's not about the quality, it's about the consistency.
- I don't think counting the milliseconds is anything necessary. It's more like giving the players a feel to rush. I don't think this game needs to give feel to rush at all times, either.
- Thankfully, option to turn of voices is available. The voice acting isn't that bad. But at times, the intonation doesn't that fit (to my imagination).
- The 8 direction movement is legit, but somehow, why did I see that Michiro can step the roofs while walking diagonally?
- Seems that Miho's voice a little too squeaky to me?
- Miho's quote... "Don't ever call me cute again, or I'll gouge your eyes out." What has happened in her life!? What kind of little girl that will say something as sadistic as that!? Which girl who will hate to be praised "cute"!? She must've been through a hell lot of problems too heavy for her age... Or... Is (s)he a boy!? (*runsawaybeforegetshot)
- Is there any reason to not be able to run in the (giraffe) forest, at the starting point?
- The Extra folder, isn't it confidential? Are you sure to let us access them?
- I sympathize Yuiichi there. While he's not a womanizer that will get a woman he'll like (bishoujo games staple), he doesn't have any portraits. It's unusual for a non-main character playable character. Wait, his portraits and such aren't completed yet, I see, since he already has his own portrait (colorless) in the menu scene. He looks far younger than I expected from his voice and sprite.
- The number fonts in battle feels squeezed, making them not that comfortable to read.
- A little strange that the battles lack any voice-overs while the dialogues bear some. The usual is the opposite.
- Sorry for much comment of anatomy... I can't stand it :P It's only about Michiro. Is she wearing a kind of skin-colored pantyhose? If not, why her belly button and (sorry) mound of venus (cleft between navel and thighs) aren't visible in her status menu portrait?
- Why can highlight the spoils if you don't need to do anything?
- Reminder of used commands in battle HUD is a pretty nice touch.
- The big tree seems to have a contrasting style between other tiles and characters.
- Battles are redundant, the usual illness. Maybe you haven't paid attention to combat yet? So redundant that I prompted to escape without any particular reason but stay away from boredom. The only variation I found was only an attack that inflicts paralysis. The bosses' strategy aren't that worth yet, either. More than that, characters (Yuiichi and Michiro) have to be hit often to activate their techniques... And as I battle, I understand your need for spriters more. Seems that the normal charsets don't do enough justice for a fully depicted (illustrations and such) characters.
- The Mode 7 is pretty cool, although I think it's a little unnecessary.
- The Journal with different writers (and even responding the earlier journals) is a very nice touch.
- The characters' personalities are fleshed sufficiently, I think.

That's all. You really need more time to polish the combat :(. Sorry if there's something wrong from what I said.
Mode 7 is as necessary as any other cosmetic script. xD So nothing wrong with using them.
- Is it just me or there's a notable difference of artstyle? Michiro (green-haired kid) looks chubbier than Miho (the silver haired lady). The difference is also notable at how their portraits are colored, given that Miho's portrait got more color details. The contrast is shown even more if you want to compare between the status screen and the portraits while talking. The status menu ones are only using base colors without any shadings. It's not about the quality, it's about the consistency.
Mmm, yeah. Michiro's artwork was done a week after I first started the RMVX version of SfM, and Miho's artwork was done a whole 4 months after. This will be why Michiro's looks chubbier.

Michiro's artwork was coloured by someone entirely different, but Miho's was done by the main artist at the time.
The new artist will be doing the sketches, I'll be lining them, and another artist will colour them.

As for the status pics, they were just base-coloured by me to show the other artists the main colours. However, when the old artist dropped out of the project (for reasons unknown), the artwork never got finished.


- I don't think counting the milliseconds is anything necessary. It's more like giving the players a feel to rush. I don't think this game needs to give feel to rush at all times, either.
The new menu system I'm working on will remove the milliseconds entirely.

- Thankfully, option to turn of voices is available. The voice acting isn't that bad. But at times, the intonation doesn't that fit (to my imagination).
Doesn't this go with most voice acting in games these days? lol...
Anyway, since I can't really converse with the VAs with a microphone, I can't help them say the lines as they're meant to be said. The best I can do at this point is say "eh, close enough".


- The 8 direction movement is legit, but somehow, why did I see that Michiro can step the roofs while walking diagonally?
I saw a script somewhere that can fix this, but I can't remember where it is.

- Seems that Miho's voice a little too squeaky to me?
Eh, she's 13. x'D

- Miho's quote... "Don't ever call me cute again, or I'll gouge your eyes out." What has happened in her life!? What kind of little girl that will say something as sadistic as that!? Which girl who will hate to be praised "cute"!? She must've been through a hell lot of problems too heavy for her age... Or... Is (s)he a boy!? (*runsawaybeforegetshot)
She just has a bad temper whenever someone calls her cute. However, her quote will be changed by the next demo. That was just a placeholder. xD

- Is there any reason to not be able to run in the (giraffe) forest, at the starting point?
(lol, I called it Kirin forest before I knew what "kirin" translated too. Funny how it translates to Giraffe! xD)
At the moment, there's a bit of trouble regarding beating Yuuichi to the bridge. This'll be fixed, as I've now got a script which fixes RMVXA's transparent event/event collision problem.


- The Extra folder, isn't it confidential? Are you sure to let us access them?
I'm working on making things accessible via save data. I've already put this to the test with a fan-made "Ib" game I've been working on, so I should be able to implement it to SfM.

- I sympathize Yuiichi there. While he's not a womanizer that will get a woman he'll like (bishoujo games staple), he doesn't have any portraits. It's unusual for a non-main character playable character. Wait, his portraits and such aren't completed yet, I see, since he already has his own portrait (colorless) in the menu scene. He looks far younger than I expected from his voice and sprite.
At the moment, the new artist for the game (not the same artist who did the artwork in the demo) has an artist's block, but will hopefully be working on it soon.

- The number fonts in battle feels squeezed, making them not that comfortable to read.
I'm still playing around with these to work out what would look good.

- A little strange that the battles lack any voice-overs while the dialogues bear some. The usual is the opposite.
Eventually, I'll be having voices in:
- Key events
- Battles (Basic Attack / Skills only)
- Cutscenes


- Sorry for much comment of anatomy... I can't stand it :P It's only about Michiro. Is she wearing a kind of skin-colored pantyhose? If not, why her belly button and (sorry) mound of venus (cleft between navel and thighs) aren't visible in her status menu portrait?
Ahahaha, I guess the line artist missed her belly button out, lol. Again, the new artist will be redoing the status pics. :)

- Why can highlight the spoils if you don't need to do anything?
Blame Yanfly for this. His aftermath system makes the item window selectable for some reason. I'll set the index to -1 and "deactivate" it, ready for the next demo. ;)

- Reminder of used commands in battle HUD is a pretty nice touch.
You mean the tutorial? If so, thanks. I thought a lot of people might have trouble getting the idea of the battle system.

- The big tree seems to have a contrasting style between other tiles and characters.
Hmm, I do kinda suck with tilesets, lol. I've been trying pretty hard to find something (or someone) that'll make it match with the tileset.

- Battles are redundant, the usual illness. Maybe you haven't paid attention to combat yet? So redundant that I prompted to escape without any particular reason but stay away from boredom. The only variation I found was only an attack that inflicts paralysis. The bosses' strategy aren't that worth yet, either. More than that, characters (Yuiichi and Michiro) have to be hit often to activate their techniques... And as I battle, I understand your need for spriters more. Seems that the normal charsets don't do enough justice for a fully depicted (illustrations and such) characters.
Yes, I noticed that the battles ARE plentiful. I shall remedy this immediately!
On top of that, I've been looking for some assistance with making monsters more balanced and worth fighting.
The forest sludge (green slime) usually causes poison upon attack, but other than that yeah, the enemies do lack a lot of status-inducing attacks at the moment.
I agree that the forest's boss does lack a lot of skills, and just requires a load of basic attacks to defeat it.


- The Mode 7 is pretty cool, although I think it's a little unnecessary.
I feel so too, but the entire RPG Maker series' airship system just looks plain to me, so I felt I should improve it with the Mode7 thing.

To anyone else who played: You may have noticed the world map was slow as hell, right? This was because of the tileset animation speedup script I added. The refresh rate made the world map run terribly. I apologise for this entirely, and it will be fixed in further releases!

- The Journal with different writers (and even responding the earlier journals) is a very nice touch.
Thanks. I've tried hard to make each entry have a personality based on their writers, lol.

- The characters' personalities are fleshed sufficiently, I think.
Mission accomplished then! xD
==============================================================================================================

In general, thanks for the HUGE feedback, wltr3565! I'll be taking on-board every thing you, and other people, say. (I've had another large feedback post to answer from another place, lol)

As mentioned in the "battle sprite" post by yourself, I do require some new sprites. Everywhere, in fact. I intend now to use a "slightly taller chibi" spriteset, and possibly find someone who can help me out for the battle sprites, someday, somehow. Maybe someone who can also make animated monster sprites too.

So far in all the comments I've received for the game, there has been no mention of the music in the game, lol.
v( o.o)v Sure, a few were snagged from RPG Maker DS and XP, but a few were composed for/by me:

- Suspicion
- Mika + Maka's Theme
- Boss Theme
- Mira Waterway
(There are more in the "Audio" folder that were composed by me/others.)

But yeah, the new menu system looks a butt-load more attractive than the demo's. I just need to get it in there. (I made it in a separate project, lol)

Anyway, thanks again. Hopefully things will be improved by next time!
author=Amaterasu
Mode 7 is as necessary as any other cosmetic script. xD So nothing wrong with using them.

It's just a shame it's unusable with the parallax script. The world map would look awesome otherwise. xD

Also, your display pic is making me laugh a lot! x'D
I'll be uploading an updated demo very soon.
It'll be the same length, but will have a few updates/fixes.
@phlim2
She just has a bad temper whenever someone calls her cute. However, her quote will be changed by the next demo. That was just a placeholder. xD
A bad temper whenever someone calls her cute... Poor little girl :( Looks like the reason for it will be revealed as we play... right? ;)

At the moment, the new artist for the game (not the same artist who did the artwork in the demo) has an artist's block, but will hopefully be working on it soon.
That feel. I know that feel...
Art blocks :(

You mean the tutorial? If so, thanks. I thought a lot of people might have trouble getting the idea of the battle system.
Er, I mean, the usual battles. It shows the commands that will be used in the turn, right? The icons in their balloons in the HUD.

Yes, I noticed that the battles ARE plentiful. I shall remedy this immediately!
On top of that, I've been looking for some assistance with making monsters more balanced and worth fighting.
The forest sludge (green slime) usually causes poison upon attack, but other than that yeah, the enemies do lack a lot of status-inducing attacks at the moment.
I agree that the forest's boss does lack a lot of skills, and just requires a load of basic attacks to defeat it.
A battle should be more than status-inducing strategies, I think. It doesn't matter how much the enemy can or how awesome-looking the battle system is, mechanics-wise or presentation-wise. What's important is to make the combat fun. One of the keys for it is to make the enemies memorable for what they do. A mere status-inflicting normal attacks isn't enough to do justice :( For an example, a boss will do a charge attack that will do 400% damage than usual. By that warning, the party still can prepare to defend themselves.

I feel so too, but the entire RPG Maker series' airship system just looks plain to me, so I felt I should improve it with the Mode7 thing.

The main reason that I call it a little unnecessary is because how you move in the map on foot. Still feel squarish, which doesn't support the feel that Mode 7 gives. It will do the best with pixel movement and 360 degrees 3D movement with Mode 7 rotation :P (*shot)

I didn't mention the soundtracks since it's not bad, but not that notable to mention about :P No offense. Forgot to mention. The Extra menu is very welcome :D Preferable if the music player locks the music when they haven't been played yet in the game. You know, for some people, hearing the theme can be a spoiler :P

And for the battle sprites, please be mindful to your spriters when your team has some? I sprite my own with my team and... Hell. It DOES worth it, but still a hell :(. Mine focuses on expression and animation so my project sacrificed the color details. You have to think further for considering how it will be, while considering the spriters' power. The art style is not merely about how it will look like, but how it will be made.

And good luck. I gotta know why Miho gets antsy when someone calls her cute ;)
Demo has been updated. Please click here to read the changes!
==============================================================================================================
Er, I mean, the usual battles. It shows the commands that will be used in the turn, right? The icons in their balloons in the HUD.

Ah right. Well that part of the script is from Yanfly's battle engine. It is pretty useful.

Also, you may have noticed the text next to the status icon box? That'll soon be replaced with emotion artwork. ;)

The Extra menu is very welcome :D Preferable if the music player locks the music when they haven't been played yet in the game. You know, for some people, hearing the theme can be a spoiler :P

To be honest, the extras should be earned. So now I've updated the demo so that extras are inaccessible. ;)
My plans are:
- Music Player (Unlocked by completing the game)
- Fan Art (Unlocked by finding special items. Activated by using them.)
- Credits (Also unlocked by completing the game)
==============================================================================================================
Well, hopefully there'll be a time when someone helps me tweak all the problems with the battles and stuff. Since I seem to be better at making / massively editing scripts, it's better to say that enemy actions aren't exactly my forte. xD
Why can't I get out of fullscreen mode? I keep pressing alt+enter to go back to windows, but it just goes back to fullscreen.
If you downloaded SFM-Demo-002.rar, you have to press F5. I've removed the "True fullscreen" feature in the update. Make sure to download that one instead. ^^

(Should be called SFM-Demo-002_5.rar)
I do like the "true fullscreen". It doesn't stretch the game like the normal fullscreening with widescreen resolution PCs. But really, giving the players notice how to window the game is important too.
for some reason the game just stops working when I'm in the opening of the forest. I can move around, but I can't run or do anything.
author=silenthilllz
for some reason the game just stops working when I'm in the opening of the forest. I can move around, but I can't run or do anything.

If by that you mean Yuuichi stops in the middle of nowhere, it's a very inexplicable bug which I later fixed.

If you walk to the right-hand side of the bridge, the cutscenes should resume as normal.
shayoko
We do not condone harassing other members by PM.
515
^some peeps need learn how to hide large sections of text lol...

random thoughts

the title screen is beautiful. even if you had all the art done it takes a bit to set this up.

i LOVE the character art! omg!

auto skipping ext is a huge no go!

the menu...the menu!...wow... :)

dev knows the importance of status screen info!

ouch why cant i save!?

no sprint!?

i think yuuchi should be higher then lvl 2 to be considered a talented swordsmen :O

no guard!?

encounter rate is a lil high would like 10-15 more steps minimally b4 a battle

no fair those 2 ??? girls went down a dead end path yet were able to keep going!

yuuichi is crazy! traveling that far every day or so to meet michiro!
his village is far as hell away!

games currently lacking interactivity.
few things respond even the sign in yuuichis village

houses should have signs outside saying who lives there

if the monsters are confined in that place it doesn't make sense why the elder would have a guard there

save should be b4 load as you rarely use load in the 1st place

why cant we sleep on yuuichis bed!?

so why was the waterway key int eh waterway and not with the elder?

karin ftw! such a epic boss!
but if your supposed to lose the fight either don't actually have it or have it end by a trigger after x amount of turns.
or give them a skill that does enough damage to kill a lvl 99 team in 1 hit

shame she or the thunder god has no avatar XD

no spots to rest!? we have to buy potions!? (besides the camp in the water temple)
he also doesn't sell something to restore magic points


General

some personal improvements aside. this is one of the BEST games let alone demos ive played in a while!
its also a EXTREMELY rare time in which i didn't have to mention any grammar,pathing or otherwise glitches!
i wish the game was finished i want more so badly
gets depressed at the thought of wondering how many years that is away

the
neko
character sealed the deal! not enough people appreciate there love and other things :D


Overall
as its a demo i cant say this is a must play by any means.
but if your fine with a unfinished game i highly recommend
trying this one out
Wow, thanks a lot for your review. Some positive and helpful comments there! Now for some responses:
Character Art
As I am aware, there is a LOT of character art missing. This is due to the game's first artist quitting for a better life with her art. Since then I have found another artist who is more eager to get the job done!


Auto-skipping Text
The reasons behind the auto-skip is due to the fact that the lines have voices, normally. But, I guess I could do a "Stop SE" after every line to fix this.


Can't Save?
Like most RPGs, there are set "Save Points" in the game, depicted as magic circles for now. Another way to tell that there's a save point is LAG. I'm using a script that autodetects save points in a map. Sometimes it acts a little weird, and makes the game run at 5-8FPS.


No Sprint
Assuming you're in the forest, I initially turned off sprint to prevent the player from overtaking Yuuichi to the bridge. After I fixed the bug from the previous demo, I forgot to enable sprint.


Higher Level Yuuichi
I agree, I shall set his base level a little higher for the final game.


No Guard!?
Oh, there's a guard alright. Press the sprint button. OuO


Encounter Rate
I find RPG Maker's encounter rate a little bizarre. How would I lower the encounter rate? Would I increase or decrease the number?


Mika and Maka's "Ghosting"
They can teleport. No, seriously, they can.


Dat Yuuichi be Craycray!
I find it easier to place a village a certain distance to help with grinding, etc.


Lack of Interactivity
Still in the early stages. Interactivity will be increased in due time.


No signs on houses
Exploration is one of my favourite things in RPGs. It's better to find out than to already know.


Useless Guard in Village?
To be honest, it's to stop idiotic kids from accidentally make their way to the waterway.


Menu - Save before Load
Another thing I shall bare in mind.


Why can't we sleep on Yuuichi's bed?
Yuuichi's house is pretty much a Work-in-Progress. Still got his parents to add in there!


Why doesn't the Elder have the Waterway Key?
Because he's a forgetful old man, and knew he would keep it safe in a chest in the Waterway.


Karin trigger kills = no-no
I guess I could add the "Immortal" state to her, and let her KO the party by just attacking, but that would annoy the player by making them think that they needed to defeat her and waste x amount of items.


No Karin or Thunder Elemental Art
As stated above, the new artist is going to be drawing the character art. However, the alternate artist for the elementals is currently in her exams, and may possibly be going into further education in Art. Not sure if she'll be able to continue yet.


No spots to rest
Forest - Where you rested before meeting the twins
Mira Village - Elder's place
Waterway - Just before the boss room

---
Thanks again for reviewing this. If you, or anyone else wants to help me in any way you can, please, feel free to drop me a message!
10 years in development and counting, but this demo is really good. I dont mind inconsistent art (as long as its good) so I thought this game was cool. The VA is cool too but it's pretty random when it happens and when it doesnt. Obviously because its still a demo. I still liked this though!
Gameplay is pretty straightforward which some people dont like (because it's too easy) but I didnt mind that either because its the beginning of the game after all. Though it doesnt make much sense, I'm glad I started out with like 10 antidotes (labeled with skull and crossbones symbols no less), probably because there's no shops at the beginning but there are poison enemies.
The mechanics are pretty straightforward too (shift to defend is pretty important but isnt shown in battle menus.)

Anyway this demo is pretty good until some point towards the end where everything got sparse due to the demo ending. Hope you get to finish this some day!

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