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The first demo is released on account of RSW
LoDebar- 05/04/2013 03:45 PM
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LoDebar
81
Oops, that's what I get for not including all the RTP files (of which I use none.) The link is updated, or you can download the dll file separately from http://www.rpgrevolution.com/download/harmony.dll_20.html and put it in the folder with the game.
Since you are asking so nicely ... I'll definitely post the requested feedback after I play your demo! So I'm guessing you want it here ...
Here's my feedback:
* BUGS: Didn't run into any!
* TYPOS: It might surprise you but I found only a couple of things that were obvious, so good job! I forget who exactly, but I think it was either the guildmaster in the first town or the queen, said something with will contracted after a pronoun (perhaps I'll or we'll) which was missing the second "l". The other one was after beating the final boss in the demo in the second cave, one of the party members said something along the lines of "at/in any event/rate": "at" should be replaced with "in" or vice versa. Hopefully I provided you enough info for you to track them down to fix them. Sorry, but I usually take notes ...
* DIFFICULTY: In general, the only area where the spike might a little too high is in the forest before ending the demo. Generally speaking, in most dungeons, I felt the change in difficulty in battles when I first entered them (note that for the most part, I didn't grind to purchase the best equipment in the nearest shops or continue fighting to level up in the dungeons I had completed. One thing, though, is that by the second cave I found myself relying on the Nina's multiple hit fire spell since the normal melee damages of the other characters didn't do that much damage by comparison. The bosses can be beaten by using the right strategy (especially in the later ones, having the party members with the right skills helps a lot). One thing that I noted in battles was that the critical rate of both my party members and the enemies seemed to be unusually high. I also wanted to ask whether you intended or not to have the Blind status not disappear after fights because I was caught off guard with not that many Eye Drops in inventory. Finally, I found the choice of not having world map fights interesting.
* MAPPING: I personally prefer the mapping in the first forest a little bit more since the paths led to unique places. In the cave, it didn't make that much of a difference taking one or the other stairwell in the same floor going in the same direction (either up or down). I'm no expert, but I didn't find any particular thing that bothered me about mapping in the demo. I did particularly like the hidden "invisible" path in the second cave just before reaching the final boss.
* LENGTH & PACING - It probably took me just over two hours to finish the demo. Regarding the pacing of events, I kind of wish that early in the game the story got underway sooner (probably those fetch quests are at fault). If anything, except for getting more party members very quickly and learning about the Ryu's dragon background, I don't feel that much happened in the demo.
* STORYTELLING - Probably the only time I was confused about where to go was after beating the final boss, but going to the forest was a process of elimination since it was the only new place I hadn't been to that was accessible. Other than that I felt that the game did guide me well on how to proceed. I felt some connection with Cybil (she's damn smart!) and Debora (she's funny!) but not that much with the other party members since I didn't feel I knew much about their past or personalities. Perhaps some flashbacks or cutscenes between them or with NPCs can remedy that (even though Ryu is the main character I didn't learn much about him in the demo!).
* TRIBUTE: I am not that familiar with BoF series, although one of my first RPGMaker games I played was a fanmade tribute. So, no, can't help you here.
A couple of other observations:
- I LOVED your 8 bit retro style graphics. Also, the melee attack animations (especially Debora's). Perhaps you can do some nice animations for the magical attacks including the one that Ryu learns after the last boss.
- For the items you have to find in the forest for the quests, you should give them more appropriate names, for example, X's key.
- The sprite in the main menu for Nina is slightly different than the others, since it doesn't have the black outline for her hair.
- Made justice to the phrase "Good things comes in small packages"
* BUGS: Didn't run into any!
* TYPOS: It might surprise you but I found only a couple of things that were obvious, so good job! I forget who exactly, but I think it was either the guildmaster in the first town or the queen, said something with will contracted after a pronoun (perhaps I'll or we'll) which was missing the second "l". The other one was after beating the final boss in the demo in the second cave, one of the party members said something along the lines of "at/in any event/rate": "at" should be replaced with "in" or vice versa. Hopefully I provided you enough info for you to track them down to fix them. Sorry, but I usually take notes ...
* DIFFICULTY: In general, the only area where the spike might a little too high is in the forest before ending the demo. Generally speaking, in most dungeons, I felt the change in difficulty in battles when I first entered them (note that for the most part, I didn't grind to purchase the best equipment in the nearest shops or continue fighting to level up in the dungeons I had completed. One thing, though, is that by the second cave I found myself relying on the Nina's multiple hit fire spell since the normal melee damages of the other characters didn't do that much damage by comparison. The bosses can be beaten by using the right strategy (especially in the later ones, having the party members with the right skills helps a lot). One thing that I noted in battles was that the critical rate of both my party members and the enemies seemed to be unusually high. I also wanted to ask whether you intended or not to have the Blind status not disappear after fights because I was caught off guard with not that many Eye Drops in inventory. Finally, I found the choice of not having world map fights interesting.
* MAPPING: I personally prefer the mapping in the first forest a little bit more since the paths led to unique places. In the cave, it didn't make that much of a difference taking one or the other stairwell in the same floor going in the same direction (either up or down). I'm no expert, but I didn't find any particular thing that bothered me about mapping in the demo. I did particularly like the hidden "invisible" path in the second cave just before reaching the final boss.
* LENGTH & PACING - It probably took me just over two hours to finish the demo. Regarding the pacing of events, I kind of wish that early in the game the story got underway sooner (probably those fetch quests are at fault). If anything, except for getting more party members very quickly and learning about the Ryu's dragon background, I don't feel that much happened in the demo.
* STORYTELLING - Probably the only time I was confused about where to go was after beating the final boss, but going to the forest was a process of elimination since it was the only new place I hadn't been to that was accessible. Other than that I felt that the game did guide me well on how to proceed. I felt some connection with Cybil (she's damn smart!) and Debora (she's funny!) but not that much with the other party members since I didn't feel I knew much about their past or personalities. Perhaps some flashbacks or cutscenes between them or with NPCs can remedy that (even though Ryu is the main character I didn't learn much about him in the demo!).
* TRIBUTE: I am not that familiar with BoF series, although one of my first RPGMaker games I played was a fanmade tribute. So, no, can't help you here.
A couple of other observations:
- I LOVED your 8 bit retro style graphics. Also, the melee attack animations (especially Debora's). Perhaps you can do some nice animations for the magical attacks including the one that Ryu learns after the last boss.
- For the items you have to find in the forest for the quests, you should give them more appropriate names, for example, X's key.
- The sprite in the main menu for Nina is slightly different than the others, since it doesn't have the black outline for her hair.
- Made justice to the phrase "Good things comes in small packages"
LoDebar
81
Thank you very much for the comprehensive feedback! I'm glad it wasn't utter misery for you to slog through :)
The wrong choice of word after the Tuntar cave has been fixed, but I haven't located the problematic contraction. Guess I'll play the game myself and keep an eye open.
My desired difficulty level is that you shouldn't have to buy the strongest weapons and armor in every new area since they're probably too expensive anyway, but the second strongest will make things adequate.
A few monsters (Devil Kid, Biruburu) have a higher critical hit rate, but most monsters and all party members except Morton have a crit rate of 5%. It doesn't sound like it'd be too much, but I guess RM2k favors those odds.
Yes, blindness should persist after battle to make Eye Drops useful. Status effects in random encounters really wouldn't matter if they all went away after battle, though it makes sense that the sleep status wears off.
More character development is coming up very shortly after where the demo ended. I've been reluctant to write in a lot of party dialog since most NES games had all-mute parties, but it wouldn't be a Breath of Fire without a well-defined cast.
The wrong choice of word after the Tuntar cave has been fixed, but I haven't located the problematic contraction. Guess I'll play the game myself and keep an eye open.
My desired difficulty level is that you shouldn't have to buy the strongest weapons and armor in every new area since they're probably too expensive anyway, but the second strongest will make things adequate.
A few monsters (Devil Kid, Biruburu) have a higher critical hit rate, but most monsters and all party members except Morton have a crit rate of 5%. It doesn't sound like it'd be too much, but I guess RM2k favors those odds.
Yes, blindness should persist after battle to make Eye Drops useful. Status effects in random encounters really wouldn't matter if they all went away after battle, though it makes sense that the sleep status wears off.
More character development is coming up very shortly after where the demo ended. I've been reluctant to write in a lot of party dialog since most NES games had all-mute parties, but it wouldn't be a Breath of Fire without a well-defined cast.
I'm glad that my feedback is helpful. I understand the difficulty issue. I agree that money is hard to come by in the game. In spite of that, I found myself finding equipment in chests that I already had very often.
Also, I am aware that in NES RPGs (if Dragon Warrior/Quest games are a good example) dialog serves mostly an utilitarian role in advancing the story (mostly telling the party what to do next!) and is not geared towards character development. It would be nice to understand, at least, where all those characters are coming from.
One thing that left me intrigued is that locked door in the first cave in the eastern part of the second forest ...
Also, I am aware that in NES RPGs (if Dragon Warrior/Quest games are a good example) dialog serves mostly an utilitarian role in advancing the story (mostly telling the party what to do next!) and is not geared towards character development. It would be nice to understand, at least, where all those characters are coming from.
One thing that left me intrigued is that locked door in the first cave in the eastern part of the second forest ...
Deividdo
1056
I played your demo for RSW and here are my comments.
* BUGS - I don't recall any bugs.
* TYPOS - I don't recall any typos.
* DIFFICULTY - I played up to the cave after you get Nina. I found the encounter rate to be far too high and I became frustrated. I do think that the high encounter rate is just as an old school game like this would have been, but it removes a lot of the enjoyment from a game for me. So, I suppose there is a difficult choice between an authentically old school game and a game that is more playable. If the encounter rate were lower, I wouldn't have shut the game off. I might play more later. I do want to see more of where the game is going, but that all depends on how much I can withstand all of the battles.
* MAPPING - Mapping seemed faithful to the genre. I did get lost in the caves, but that is more my fault.
* LENGTH & PACING - I'm not sure how long I played because, true to the original BoFs on SNES, there is no game clock.
* STORYTELLING - The only time I was lost was in the beginning when I had neglected to talk to the guild leader to get my quests. That was my own fault though. I didn't feel connected to the story, but I wouldn't expect to in a game like this. I adore the original Breath of Fire, but I never felt connected to its story either. It was also probably too early to get very invested.
* TRIBUTE - The game definitely had the feel of what an NES Breath of Fire might have been.
One little silly thing I noticed is that in Breath of Fire games, when one searches for an item it will say something like "Anything here?". Then it will give you the item. I didn't see your game doing that. It's a minor thing, and I always thought it was odd that Breath of Fire games did that. It might make the game a tad more akin the the series though if you threw that in.
From everything that I have seen so far, I think you've done a very good job in making an NES-style Breath of Fire fan game. It's always nice to see Breath of Fire getting some love. Keep up the good work.
* BUGS - I don't recall any bugs.
* TYPOS - I don't recall any typos.
* DIFFICULTY - I played up to the cave after you get Nina. I found the encounter rate to be far too high and I became frustrated. I do think that the high encounter rate is just as an old school game like this would have been, but it removes a lot of the enjoyment from a game for me. So, I suppose there is a difficult choice between an authentically old school game and a game that is more playable. If the encounter rate were lower, I wouldn't have shut the game off. I might play more later. I do want to see more of where the game is going, but that all depends on how much I can withstand all of the battles.
* MAPPING - Mapping seemed faithful to the genre. I did get lost in the caves, but that is more my fault.
* LENGTH & PACING - I'm not sure how long I played because, true to the original BoFs on SNES, there is no game clock.
* STORYTELLING - The only time I was lost was in the beginning when I had neglected to talk to the guild leader to get my quests. That was my own fault though. I didn't feel connected to the story, but I wouldn't expect to in a game like this. I adore the original Breath of Fire, but I never felt connected to its story either. It was also probably too early to get very invested.
* TRIBUTE - The game definitely had the feel of what an NES Breath of Fire might have been.
One little silly thing I noticed is that in Breath of Fire games, when one searches for an item it will say something like "Anything here?". Then it will give you the item. I didn't see your game doing that. It's a minor thing, and I always thought it was odd that Breath of Fire games did that. It might make the game a tad more akin the the series though if you threw that in.
From everything that I have seen so far, I think you've done a very good job in making an NES-style Breath of Fire fan game. It's always nice to see Breath of Fire getting some love. Keep up the good work.
LoDebar
81
Thank you for taking the time to play and write the feedback!
Regarding the encounter rate, I originally had it set to 35 steps. But I had a friend playtest and he got through two entire rooms of the first forest, clearing the first quest, without getting a single encounter. That's a sign of too low an encounter rate.
So in this demo it's at 30 steps. I could maybe decrease it to 32 or 33, no more than that. Any lower and it wouldn't have that authentic oldschool difficulty and quality. Then again, RM2k random encounters are truly random. Sometimes you take two steps, sometimes twenty before the next battle.
I could definitely add some text for when you search through pots and drawers. Good suggestion.
Regarding the encounter rate, I originally had it set to 35 steps. But I had a friend playtest and he got through two entire rooms of the first forest, clearing the first quest, without getting a single encounter. That's a sign of too low an encounter rate.
So in this demo it's at 30 steps. I could maybe decrease it to 32 or 33, no more than that. Any lower and it wouldn't have that authentic oldschool difficulty and quality. Then again, RM2k random encounters are truly random. Sometimes you take two steps, sometimes twenty before the next battle.
I could definitely add some text for when you search through pots and drawers. Good suggestion.
LoDebar
81
Apparently I've forgotten to give dialog to the frogs in the houses in SimaFort, or the pink ones that have some filler text is entirely wrong. Oops. A few cases of words getting cut off have also been found, missing letters, all that good stuff. My brother is very thorough.
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