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About the game
FADE is a direct sequel to my first game, BETA. The story picks up shortly after the ending event from the first game, and continues to build on the established main characters from the first game, as well as introduce new characters later on in the game. It is not required to have played the first game, though.
FADE stands for Fun, Adventure, Danger and Excitement. These are the 4 key-words that are the basis of my game.
  • Fun - The most important aspect of my game. It's supposed to be fun, and funny as well.
  • Adventure - The game revolves around the player going on an adventure. To explore places, and to meet people within the game world.
  • Danger - There will be villains. There will be treacherous locations. There will be challenges for the player to overcome.
  • Excitement - The game must offer enough variety in action, fun, story, everything to keep the player interested.


Planned features: - (subject to change)
  • A fun story, with lighthearted dialogue
  • Several different characters to join your party over the course of the game
  • A simple, yet deep, turn-based combat system
  • Equipment changing the looks of your character sprites and facesets
  • Several dungeons to explore
  • A variety of out-of-combat minigames, challenges and puzzles
  • Signposts readable from any direction!


Even though FADE is a sequel, it is absolutely not required to have played BETA in order to enjoy, or to understand what's going on in the game.
For those who have played the first game, there'll be an option before the game starts to fill in the actions and choices you have made in the first game. Those choices will carry over to stuff that happens in the second game. Example: If you got to befriend Eldin in the first game, she will be your friend in this game.



Plot & Main characters
PLOT

After helping the people in Beta town, Roth was rewarded with a huge airship, made by the scientist. Together with his li'l bro, Thieme, and his best buddy, Rage, the three of them have set out on an adventure! Not long after departing, they pick up Eldin, a friendly girl from Beta Town. She has lived most of her life in her parent's house, and has always dreamed of going on an adventure.

Suddenly, the Prince of Darkness appears! He doesn't appreciate the group of adventurers flying around that close to his home, and launches an attack on the party and the airship. The chaos summoned by the Prince of Darkness causes heavy damage to the airship, forcing it into making a crash landing. It is there where the real adventure starts... (dun dun dun!)

ROTH - THE THUNDERGOD

Roth is the game's main character. He's the leader of the Battler trio, and a pretty relaxed guy with a witty attitude most of the time. In battle, Roth controls the powers of lightning and electricity to shock his foes.

THIEME - THE KINGPIN

Thieme is Roth's younger brother. He likes to sleep, a lot. Besides sleeping, Thieme is interested in exploring the unknown, learning new things, and meeting people from other parts of the world. In battle, Thieme uses the power of earth to do his bidding.

RAGE - THE DRAGOON

Best buddy of both Roth and Thieme. Rage is a cool guy, a hothead, and has a heart of gold. He likes to act all big and bad, but everyone knows he has a soft side too, specifically for women. In battle, Rage likes to turn up the heat, using fire and flames.

ELDIN - THE LADY

Having lived most of her life inside her parent's house, Eldin has always dreamed of going on an adventure. Her time has finally come to do so. Eldin is a friendly person, with a positive outlook on life. In battle, Eldin wields the powers of light to smite her foes and to protect her friends.

PRINCE OF DARKNESS

The Prince of Darkness lives in the Castle of Darkness, located in the Shadepeak Mountains. It is there where he plots his next evil plan. Some of the things he dislikes are RPG Adventurers, people who mispronounce his real name, and finding hairs in his soup.



The current demo for the game is around 3-4 hours long.

Credits
As the game is still in development, and subject to change, a complete list of credits will be added once the game is completely finished.

Plugins:
  • Cherry
  • Cerberus
  • Dragonheartman
  • PepsiOtaku

Latest Blog

Rage's Skillset


Aura of Fury: Grants targeted ally Attack+ for x full turns and cures Sleep. Restores 2 MP to Rage.
0MP
A powerful Aura that is especially effective on allies with the ability to attack more than once per turn. The question here is, do you spend a turn buffing up an ally's Attack for several turns, or forget about it and just bash in the enemy's face with your axe?

Burn: Deals moderate Fire damage to target foe and has a chance to inflict Burn.
12MP
Slightly less effective than the elemental versions of his friends' Skills, due to Rage's low Mystic stat, but the chance to inflict Burn still makes it a strong choice.

Magical Flame: Restores some of Rage's MP and cures Poison.
6MP
The same as Eldin's Mystical Light Skill, and essential if you plan on keeping Rage to continuously cast Spells.

Wildfire: Deals more damage to all foes when there are more foes on the battlefield, up to a maximum of 5.
15MP
Arguably the strongest multi-target spell in the main party's skillset. Should obviously be used on a field full of enemies.

Heat to Health: Doubles Rage's HP for x turns.
8MP
Rage already has the highest base HP of the main party, but clearly that's not enough for him. Doubling his health is Rage's way to survive powerful attack striking his face. Note: When sacrificing HP, the amount gets taken off by counting from Rage's base HP value, not his doubled value from Heat to Health.

Dragon Grinder: Strikes the target foe with the power of Dragons.
18MP
Simple and to the point. Rage has no need for fancy effects on his ultimate attack. Just hit the enemy with all your might and hope they die from it. Great to use as a finishing move.

For The Greater Good: Healls all allies. Cuts Rage's HP by 20%.
12MP
Rage's way to contribute to the party in a meaningful way that doesn't involve bashing in the faces of enemies. His allies will be healed for a decent amount, but Rage himself will lose 20% HP, and can potentially down him if you aren't careful. But it's all for the greater good!

No Pain No Gain: Cuts Rage's HP in half. Boosts Attack and Mystic by a huge amount for x turns. Can be cast only once per battle.
12MP
A mighty power-up that does inflict serious damage onto Rage himself, this Skill shouldn't be used without some pre-planning. The effect only lasts for several turns, so make sure to get the most out of it!

Fists of Fury: Fists of fire and flames. Can be cast only once per battle.
12MP
Rage's second Elite Skill, making you choose between this or No Pain No Gain. Much like Thieme's Blackrock Cannon Skill, this replaces the equipped weapon with a more powerful option. In Rage's case this makes his fists burn with flames of fury, making his regular attacks stronger than ever.

Rage is built to dish out large amounts of damage, but that doesn't mean it's the only thing he can do. Applying Fury buffs might arguably be even better than attacking himself in some cases, and with For the Greater Good, he can even assist Eldin in keeping the party alive. While his Elite Skills are both geared towards offensive play, one is for a big short term bursts, the other is better for long, drawn out fights.
Rage's weakness is the ability to keep himself alive. His HP is high, but he'll burn through it quickly with his mediocre Defences and when sacrificing HP for the greater good.
  • Hiatus
  • Milennin
  • RPG Tsukuru 2003
  • Adventure RPG
  • 03/08/2013 03:21 PM
  • 03/22/2024 03:30 PM
  • 01/01/2025
  • 137629
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Posts

By an FPS drop during battles I meant only meant the first seconds when a battle is initiated. Although even at 40 FPS it still runs smooth enough for me to not be bothered by it.

I can see if I can change the Level 4 and Berry notifications to auto-starts, since either of them only needs to get checked right after a battle anyway.

How did your tests go by the way? What exactly did you remove during the test if you did one?
I tried it without all three, then adding each back, one by one. It chose that time not to lag in any serious way.
Okay, I changed both notifications to auto-start events now, so hopefully it'll be better from now on.
Another thing you can do with events is permanently switch them off. Once you have the thing done, switch them on then parallel/auto Erase Event. If ever you had doubt in your mind that the event might possibly be still running, now it's not.

Anyway, I'd have to take a look at it after next update. Looks good so far. You gonna have that strobe Boss Battle thing for the tree? That was awesome.
I make them switch over to the 2nd page permanently after their activation, which is a blank Action Key event (that should be okay?)
And yeah, that boss intro will be added to the Tree battle, and a lesser version of that to mini-bosses.

Anyway, I really should get to trying out your game, especially since you've just helped me with my game, which I appreciate a lot.
Wow, It's been a while since I played this! Have you released anything beyond the first demo yet? :) If so, I'm so ready to download it again!
author=Dark_Metamorphosis
Wow, It's been a while since I played this! Have you released anything beyond the first demo yet? :) If so, I'm so ready to download it again!

Yes, I have added a complete new area after the intro part to the current demo. I have more areas done, but I'll release those in a future update (few weeks from now if I had to make a guess). If you decide to give it a try again, let me know what you think of it. Always enjoyed reading your feedback, it's very useful to me.

How is your game coming along? I haven't heard anything from you in ages.
author=Milennin
author=Dark_Metamorphosis
Wow, It's been a while since I played this! Have you released anything beyond the first demo yet? :) If so, I'm so ready to download it again!
Yes, I have added a complete new area after the intro part to the current demo. I have more areas done, but I'll release those in a future update (few weeks from now if I had to make a guess). If you decide to give it a try again, let me know what you think of it. Always enjoyed reading your feedback, it's very useful to me.

How is your game coming along? I haven't heard anything from you in ages.


I'll certainly try it out and give you some feedback again! Can't wait!

I recently uploaded my game here on rpgmaker.net, and I'm still working on it even though It's been some downtime on it. I have polished up my features and added new content to it. I recently uploaded a new demo (version 0.4) with my features properly added, and a lot of updates. I'm planning to release the full demo version the next time around, and I have 3 new areas that is done currently (after the end of the demo) :)
Sweet, I'll check on it and try out the new demo tonight then, and leave my thoughts on it on your game page. It's been ages since I last played it.
author=Milennin
Sweet, I'll check on it and try out the new demo tonight then, and leave my thoughts on it on your game page. It's been ages since I last played it.


That sounds really sweet! If you decide to try it out, could you please answer 'No' on the first event quest (With the federicum branch and the healing salve)? and share what you think about the outcome? I'm not sure if It's too much, and especially that early in the game!

Will make sure to try out yours too! :)
Downloading the game now! Looking forward to it!.. a lot! :)
author=Milennin
I make them switch over to the 2nd page permanently after their activation, which is a blank Action Key event (that should be okay?)

And yeah, that boss intro will be added to the Tree battle, and a lesser version of that to mini-bosses.

Anyway, I really should get to trying out your game, especially since you've just helped me with my game, which I appreciate a lot.

I dunno either.

Cool, I love that intro.

Which one? I now have a second, Tales From The Reaper, which is sort of (fake) horror genre. I'm hoping to get the 2 of 7 episode done soon (we go on vacation tomorrow). It's sort of mini-games rather than full-length.
And yea, Oracle of Tao is kinda hard to adjust to (really super-long and I have a strange sense of humor). You'll have to save and grind during the early game for a bit. That said, if you can get past the initial difficulty, it has pretty fast grind.
author=bulmabriefs144
Which one? I now have a second, Tales From The Reaper, which is sort of (fake) horror genre. I'm hoping to get the 2 of 7 episode done soon (we go on vacation tomorrow). It's sort of mini-games rather than full-length.


Yeah, I'll probably with Tales From the Reaper then. That sounds pretty cool.
I just finished chapter 2 (yay, uploaded).

...God, the ending to this chapter is dark. I think I'm getting the hang of horror writing.

Chapter 1 has two endings, depending on whether you give the herb as is, or convert it to a potion.
So played the new content of your demo, and I have to say that you have done an amazing job! Kudos to you!

First off, I think your mapping is really nice! It's noticable that you have taken some time with the maps, and they are presented really well. The function of the map is also really nice, but I would lie if I didn't say that it was a bit confusing at times (I had a hard time finding where to go, especially to reach the 'tree' boss), and I'm not sure if the enemies keep spawning, but I had a lot of fighting before I found the place. It's not really that much of an issue anyway, since exploring is really rewarding (Thinking about the Feather, and the cloak which was a nice reward for a bit of exploring, and the treasure with the bunny boss and the puzzle of course).

I'm also a bit unsure about the enemies hiding in the trees, since there is no way to avoid them. It's just my opinion though, but I happen to get a bit frustrated when I'm forced to go into battle. Same could be said for the actual speed of all the enemies, since It's really hard to avoid them. It might have been because
I got a bit lost for a while though, and the addition of having enemies attacking me all the time could be a factor in that.

The battles however are totally amazing! (Actually up to the point where I got a bit jealous haha, I'm sorry but I couldn't help it! xD) Having enemies that are priorities in battles are really fun (the faeries), even though I think they are a bit overpowered, and I happened to die from them several times at the start.
The sort of 'debuff' that they keep attaching to you, pretty much 1 or 2 shoted Eldin once they released it. The lack of animation for the damage was a bit confusing too at first, I was more like 'Uhm ok how did she die?'
before I realized that it didn't just heal the fearies, but also dealt damage to my party. However I don't think you should do any changes to them (more than add a clearer animation for the damage recieved when they release
the attachments). After some trial and error I managed to build up a more reasonable strategy with the skills, and using the berries way more efficiently. After that it was way easier to come out alive, which I like!

I also enjoyed how you implemented the berries, mainly the stack limit of 5. By doing that I felt like it encouraged even more exploration, and led me to find the more 'hidden' items if you can call them that (The ressurection feather, and the cloak etc).

The slimes.. oh the slimes! Absolutely brilliant. First of all it took me a while (maybe 3 to 4 turns) to understand that they changed which type of action it would block. Maybe I'm just slow but that's really what happened. I also found it very satisfying to be able to change the type of action it would block, by damaging it.
That way you could sort of regen the correct amount of mana needed for a skill, to make a sort of 'combo' to take it down in a single turn. That way It felt like you could build up a small strategy to take them down as efficient as possible. Same goes for the birds with the berries, and I really enjoyed to set up my priorites on what to kill first etc. Very nice!

Something that I didn't like however is that you only had 1 single feather at the start (2 if you found the treasure) since if I managed to die (especially from the faeries) I had no way to revive my other party member. And since I really needed that member for the boss fights, and didn't have the possibility to escape from the battle, I just let the other character die as well. Then I found out that if you reload from the checkpoint, the other character is still dead. Which ended up with having to quit to the main menu and reload the saved game again. However I do like the 'reload from checkpoint' choice, but I found it kind of weird that the
checkpoint saved after the sort of 'game over'.

The reason why I was a bit frustrated with not being able to escape once or twice from the battles as well (before I found the cloak item) might have been cause I constantly run into enemies, and they were pretty much impossible to avoid. Even though, it wasn't that much of a deal since I really enjoyed the fights, but I
couldn't help but to feel a bit frustrated during some of the fights.

So once I finally found out how to get to the 'trent boss' I more or less hit a wall. I died several times from that boss haha, even though I did fight a lot and got some levels. However, I think it was my lack of understanding the fight at the get-go and also my instant failure of selecting the wrong target. A funny thing about that though is that I didn't realize that I was targeting the trent (which had the skill type block absorbed from the slimes) and somehow it let me to believe that the fight was designed in a specific way. I then realized that
this was not the case (and it actually inspired me to design a boss around this lol).

When I found out that the boss wasn't designed as I thought it was, I killed it pretty easy (even though I still died once before that). I do think that the boss could be nerfed just a tiny bit, since it would be pretty
difficult to beat it without the skills that 'hit more depending on how many enemies that are preset' (I'm sorry I forgot the name of them). To add on that, I think those skills are really cool as well! But without them, I think the enemies would spawn in a faster rate than you can kill them (especially if you don't find the weapon for Roth, and the longer the fight progresses).

Oh! Before I forget, I think I found a potential bug as well. I'm not sure if this is intended, but if one of your characters die and the other one is inflicted by the 'paralyze' effect, it will count as a game over.

Onto the cutscenes, I think they were well done (especially when the party decides to camp around that fireplace) Like I have said before, the humour is spot on and it really feels like a sequel to BETA. Rage is still my favourite!

Another thing that I thought was really cool is the Manual book, I'm not sure if that's what it was called but still. I have been trying to add a similar book into my game, but I have no idea how you managed to do that! I think I
have a way to make it possible for my game, but I'm not sure how to add all those tabs for it. So if you feel like sharing, I would be really grateful! I also think that the design on it was really, really nice! Especially the different pictures when hovering over a new tab, like the skill picture and what not.

As a conclusion I think that the new content is very polished, and the strongest part about it is the battle system for sure (and the awesome design on the bosses and enemies). In my own opinion though, there are some points that could be improved, as I listed above, but more than that I think you have everything spot-on!

I'm looking forward to the new content, and will follow you with extreme excitement!

As a final note I want to apologize for any confusing sentences, and all the (...) that I keep doing for some darn reason (It's a habit that I have developed recently... omg really? did it again!)

I think FADE is a game that deserves a lot more attention, especially if you have played BETA. But even as a standalone game, I think It's totally spot on!

Sincerely
~Dark.
Wow, long post. Let's see if I can reply to your points while keeping it organised, lol.

Hidden enemies
They are actually visible on the map, but I agree they're very easy to miss if you don't pay attention (sometimes they scare the crap outta me when I playtest my own game and forgot their spawn LOL), and I will also admit that I placed like 2 of them in mean positions (1 in front of a berry bush, the other at the 3rd journal page). I'm kind of considering changing their graphics to something a little more easy to notice.

Enemies on the map
I did intend to make the enemies difficult to avoid in this area. Mainly because the area counts as a dungeon, which means the monsters are more aggressive towards the player. In field areas the monsters will be slower and much easier to avoid.

Fairies
The fairies were sort of designed as an anti-autoattack unit in the way that they deal damage equal to the amount of current MP on the target. It really does punish using auto-attack a lot, while possessing little threat if you keep using Magic. But I agree there's a lack of animation when the hit lands.

Revival
I see what you mean by getting stuck without a way to revive, and I can't believe I hadn't thought of that, so stupid lol. My aim was for there to be no game-over, but I see how it can mess up a party with a downed member and no revival items. I'll fix that so when you get defeated every member in your party will be revived with some health.

Escaping battles
Just a quick question, but have you used Smoke Bombs to escape from battles? I'll agree that there's quite the amount of battles in the area, but that's what I hand out Smoke Bombs for.^^

Boss battle
Hm, I didn't think the tree boss was designed to be that difficult. I've playtested it for hours with my party at level 4 and 5 (without the stronger spells), and succeeded on every try. The idea with the boss was to test the player's skill to identify threats as they randomly appeared during the fight and to take out high threats quickly, while having a breather on turns with low threat monsters around.
The enemy spawn rate is balanced around the HP of the tree, although it'll make sure to always have at least 1 monster on the field. At above 50%HP the chance of it spawning an additional monster is fairly low. Between 25-50%HP it's a moderate chance, and below 25% a high chance (to put pressure on the player the closer he gets to winning).

Game Over
Yes, that's a bug. I've tried for ages to find out how to get rid of that, but there always seems to be one situation in which it will happen.

Book of Combat
This will be a very useful item once I get to update it. It'll also make some parts in which you had trouble easier to deal with, because it'll let you read on what skills enemies posses and what exactly they do. So if you find yourself having a lot of trouble dealing with a certain enemy you can read on what it does.

I made this thing with just switches and variables, and it's complicated up to the point where I don't understand how it works anymore after having not worked on it for some months, lol. I've decided to just leave it alone for now, and completely update it again when I have all my monsters done and balanced. But to be honest I wouldn't bother making something like this unless you can find a script that lets you do something similar.

Final
I'm very glad that you liked it a lot. And also that you pointed out some important things that I'll need to look at, and some things that I'll get to fixing. That's really useful stuff for me. Exciting to hear that some parts of my game inspired you to use in your game. I don't know if I had told you before, but your game was actually a major source of inspiration for FADE before I had started working on it yet, lol - especially the combat (convinced me to want to use side-view).
author=Milennin
Wow, long post. Let's see if I can reply to your points while keeping it organised, lol.

...

Hidden enemies
Haha, I had the same reaction sometimes. I was just walking around minding my own business and then whaa, something appears out of nowhere haha!
I wouldn't change it if you feel like you want them to be like this, in fact It's just my take on it. The sort of surprise feel to them could work in your favour though :)

Enemies on the map
Ah, that makes sense. I just faulty came to the conclusion that the enemies would always act like this (which could lead to a slight irritation).

Fairies

Ah, so that's how they work! I tried to figure out how they were designed but all I could come up with was that they would deal more damage, depending on how many attachments I had on me (doh?). I never really used auto-attacks though (mostly buffed myself if I was low on MP). Something that could have had a big impact on why Eldin got one shoted so much though, might have been that I used the (god can't remember the name of it again, the spell that replenish her mana) which would end my turn with Eldin having a lot of MP. And in that case would be the reason for the high amount of damage :)

Revival
That would sort out the problem really well :)

Escaping battles
Yes, I did use one or two smoke bombs (when I found them) but since I failed a bit on finding where to go I encountered a lot of fights that I couldn't escape from. But it wasn't really an issue any way :)

Boss battle
The reason why I found this fight hard, might have been because I thought it worked in a different way. And since I didn't understand that I was wrong about it until I leveled up as much as to get the spells that I was talking about, it might have been the reason why I mentioned them. For some reason I thought that you had to kill the enemies in a specific order (The most recent one that spawned has to go down first etc.) and the longer the fight goes on, they will spawn faster and faster. So I do believe that it was a failure on my part, and that the boss wasn't as hard as I made it out to be.

Game Over
Ah I see, I hope you will find a way to get rid of it. Even though it's not that much of a big deal, in a small sense it would sort of be reasonable to have it go 'game over' there.

Book of Combat
Ye, I'll see if I can find a way to get it to work. I do have books ready that I control with switches and variables so far, but I might work it out by using the cursor and location common event that I use for my traveling system (Might work I havn't tried yet.)

Inspiration
Ah, that's cool to know! I'm glad it inspired you since it ended up as the battle system that you use now (Which is so kick ass, not just the sprites).

Haha! Your trent fight inspired me to make a boss fight where you have to kill the enemies in the order they spawn (the most recent one that spawned must be killed first, and so on) and then during the fight they will swap places, and if the player hit the wrong one they will be punished in some way. (It might be hard to set up without being frustrating, but It's certainly something that I will try).
It came to my mind when I accidentally thought that your fight was designed this way haha.

Final
It was a real blast to play, and I'm glad that my input helped you out in some ways! I'll ceratinly give feedback again when you release new content!
Oh yeah, 1 point you mentioned that I hadn't replied to; about getting lost on the map. This is kinda interesting, because the path to the tree boss is actually pretty linear, but with a bunch of smaller paths branching off, yet everyone I know who's played it has had troubles finding their way on the map. It's amusing, but at the same time not entirely what I aimed for with the map. The branching paths should be more obviously recognised as branching paths, instead of the main path. I can't believe you actually got your characters up to level 6 before the tree boss, I really expect the player to be far into level 4 or freshly on level 5 there.

By the way, what did you think of the squirrel mini-boss (you called it a bunny, lol)? Was it too easy/difficult?

1 more question; did you experience any noticeable FPS drops on the forest map?

I'm very curious what you plan on doing with the encounter inspired by my tree boss. Looking forward to playing that in your game.^^
I think you talked about the gameover. (At the library, since we're still on vacation)

As in, you have it go straight to it rather than load special gameover?

There's two ways around it. Goto conditions and turn Death to EndsAfterBattle. This gives you 1HP between battles and for the most part, this allows special endings (though it's a tad inconvenient for out-of-battle death events, since you have to special code for it. But, well, you have that anyway). Or you can make a switch event that gets turned on after the game starts (during the opening cutscenes presumably) that basically never gets shut off, and says that when the Hero is dead and/or when the Hero and everyone else is dead, revive the Hero. This allows someone to be alive so you can run any sort of cutscene you want.

If you also have a problem with revival, I'd recommend simply changing Death to EndsAfterBattle.
The thing what bothers me is not necessarily it going to the Game Over screen (although it really should not happen), but that I can't seem to find a way around preventing the game from marking a party wipe under some circumstances when immobilise (stun, paralyse) statuses are involved.
Basically the only way to 100% prevent it from happening is to not put immobilise skills on monsters at all, but that's too much of a loss to pass up considering the chances of triggering the chance of the game marking it as a game over is pretty small.

I do have a safe-guard that will disallow monsters from using immobilise skills when there's only 1 active (alive and not immobilised) party member, but the problem is that it can't activate mid-enemy turn; it only works if it's activated before the start of the enemy turn (if it activates mid-enemy turn it'll take effect on the next turn).
Example: if there are 2 active party members at the start of the turn in a battle against 2+ monsters with possible immobilise, and the 1st monster either downs or immobilises a party member, the other monsters are still able to use their immobilise skills until the end of the current monster turn, which will make the battle go Game Over if they do use the immobilise skill and if it's successfully applied.