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I've stopped production on this game, so it is now, officially cancelled.

You will need the VX RTP to run this game:
http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/download/additional/run-time-packages

To install:

First, make a new folder, and call it Tristian: LoTL.
Put the compressed download into that folder as well as the Audio folder and extract like normal with WinRAR or WinZip.
Install the fonts included if you don't have them yet.

Basic Controls:

Apart from the usual arrow/directional keys:

Alt + Enter - Toggle Full Screen mode
Enter/Spacebar/Z/ - Action key
Esc/X - Main Menu/Cancel an interaction
Shift - Sprint
Left Shift + Z = Pull an object towards you ( like a crate or boulder )

















Latest Blog

out the door

13 days before I am supposed to 'celebrate' being on this site for 7 years, i've decided to leave rmn as well. having grown uncomfortable with the circle-jerkers ( aka the devs whose games get the most attention and all their friends ) and the few rotten apples here, it's simply become an unhealthy place for me to hang around.

while i won't be posting here anymore, i'd like to stay in contact with some of the members here by ways of building an e-mail list ( yes, it's a little different from the usual chatrooms like discord/skype, but i see them as massive timesinks. i never get anything done ) informing subscribers about my future projects. so... if you're interested, drop me a pm and we'll see where the road takes us. the simple gesture would mean a lot to me, because it shows that some of you still care. who knows? maybe you'll get a surprise or two.

maybe.

maybe some of you hate me for broken promises i couldn't keep, maybe some of you lost your respect for me because I couldn't keep doing what I loved to do. or maybe some people just hated on Enelysion because it became popular...

who knows? it doesn't matter anyway.
i'm going to keep on being a creative workaholic.

So long, and keep gaming
i was always too serious for this place, anyway

Luchi 'I did not spend 10,000 hours on RPGMaker to be mediocre' Chan


Posts

Thanks. Pity it's too late for the demo. But the game is unencrypted, so those with VX can probably still mess around with the common events where the scenes are stored.
Looks like that little script snippet didn't work, Louis. >< How did you guys find the demo so far? Are the battles too hard? Too easy? Should I get rid of the Press-Turn system and go for traditional turn-based? Are there any bugs that need stomping out?
LouisCyphre
can't make a bad game if you don't finish any games
4523
author=yuna21
Looks like that little script snippet didn't work, Louis.


Then I don't remember enough of vanilla VX, then. D:

I wish there was a resource online that showed me the default code for RGSS1/2. 'n'
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
I gave the demo a shot. Here are some notes I took while playing:


- Right before this http://gyazo.com/d0934c3a64c39f20e13b9149141da286 dialogue box, the audio abruptly cuts out. Perhaps have it fade out instead?

- What is the Strain? Interesting...

- Oh, so the Strain is some kind of medical condition, if I'm reading this scene right in the scene viewer.

- Looking at the Scene Viewer, and I get a small graphical bug http://gyazo.com/279bd1ab4d32e94b72a0befbdcd5f6c5 . It's the lighting from the Tairgirn Temple room that makes the transition to scenes. It doesn't seem to happen anywhere else.

- The story and characters definitely seem interesting! The relationship between Tristian and Ianna is already explored fairly well for such few lines of dialog so far.

- The forests here: http://gyazo.com/f55911e0ecb3762bf2b6eaa90b7b652c look really wonky.

- Cool an enemy! Time for a batt- I'm dead.

- Okay, I get that you want to have a challenging battle system, but I literally go into the first battle, the enemy does one attack, and Ianna dies. Game Over. http://gyazo.com/9573119fa684307ba98223a33ef5b6ee . Literally before I even had a chance to do anything. No.

- Alright, fine. I try again, and I die in TWO turns now instead of one, this time. I'm making progress! This time, I died because an enemy hit Tristian twice in one turn! I didn't see a skill name invoked, so I don't know what's going on!

- I try a third time, and now suddenly I can act before the enemy? What gives? it's the same battle, and I have the exact same stats, so I don't understand why I act first only sometimes.

- Tristian's cooldown ailment lasts outside of battle. Sure isn't fun when I start the next one.

- The ability to look at the enemy's stats and weaknesses would be great. I would feel a lot more justified in accidentally hitting them with the wrong element if I could look at their weaknesses.

- This game does not pull any punches, I see. I fought the three Ebony Knights and Ianna, again, dies in one turn before I can act because one enemy can attack twice without hitting any weakness.

- This process repeats about five times.

- Fought the three Ebon Knights again. Wow, events where I automatically use abilities?

- After Ianna died for the seventh time, I'm on the verge of giving up. Always against the Drakes when they act instead of my party. I don't save after the fight because I want to learn what I'm doing wrong and how I can avoid that!

- Wait... I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THE GAIN STATS OPTION!! I'm gonna try that again and fight one more battle.

- IT MAKES A WHOLE FREAKIN WORLD OF DIFFERENCE!!

- Boy, I feel like an absolute moron now. I need to stop playing for a bit so I can revel in my own stupidity. I'll leave the other notes up as a reminder for any potential players to use that option as well as so everyone can point and laugh at me.


Just kidding. I'm gonna try for a little bit longer.

... Or so I'd like to say, but the battle against the Ebony Captions and the Magister, Dux killed Ianna again in one hit.


Okay, I need to test this out some more, but I don't feel like I'm being given much of a chance here. I'm fine with getting killed over and over and over again, but I don't ever feel like I lost because of my lack of planning ahead. 90% of the deaths I have were because the enemy got to act before me, use an element that a party member is weak to, and instantly kill him/her before I even get to make a move. The remaining 10% is due to Ianna and her horrible DEF. If Magister Lux decided to do that dual physical attack on Ianna, it's a game over, no matter how full health she has.


Most of the problems can be fixed by ensuring that the party gets to act first. Then I can feel more justified in getting killed on the enemy's turn.


The game has a lot going for it. The story set up seems interesting, Tristian and Ianna seem like interesting characters, the atmosphere is spot on with excellent mapping and music selection. But those battles. Ugh.

Am I doing something wrong? Please tell me I'm doing something wrong.
Wow, you must have had some real bad luck with those battles, Nova. ;_;

I am seriously thinking of scrapping the whole Press-Turn based battle-system because it really does rely on luck sometimes and getting your party to act before the enemy's. This is what happens when yuney tries to do something other than the usual turn-based approach and fails as a result. >< Especially in a battle system that values the EVA stat over SPD. And the enemy evading your attack and losing a turn does seem to be a bad way to punish the poor player. It becomes more of a gamble than anything else, since SPD is a concrete value ( you know you will go before this enemy if you have so much SPD ) whereas EVA is more luck-based. Even though the character may have a 50% EVA chance, there is still another 50% chance that your frail characters ( Ianna, Darcy ) will get hit for large amounts of damage.

Guess the 'tried-and-tested' turn-based approach still seems to go. And because you had so much fun playing Enelysion, Nova ( from what I gathered from your blog posts XD ) that still seems to be the universally accepted battle system. And I should have added in that Beastiary script as well that allows the player to view stats/weaknesses etc. orz

Thankfully, the game is unencrypted, so I should be able to make a patch that changes the battle system from press turn to turn-based ( all I need to do is change a simple variable ) and add in that Beastiary script. =)

Sound good?
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Hey, I'd rather you break the mold and try something new! It's not good to rest on your laurels!

Is there really no way to ensure that the party acts first? This whole system of equipping and skill usage was designed around the Press Turn system, so simply taking it out would cause a lot of problems with balancing, from what I saw. There are a couple of suggestions just off the top of my head to circumvent this problem if it's impossible to ensure the party moves first (assuming this is possible in VX):

- Perhaps raise Tristian's target rate and lowering Ianna's?
- Perhaps give Tristian an aggro skill that makes enemies target her? This would be a bit more useful, as I find that Dante is also pretty vulnerable to one hit kills, just not as bad as Ianna.
- Have skills/ equipment that boosts evasion.
- Have skills/ equipment that nullify criticals.
- Perhaps add a hints and tips for each character somewhere on the game page?
- Just give everyone more LP in general. More LP means more room for error and more chances to adapt your strategy to accommodate for error.


Again, from my experience, the biggest offender is Ianna. I understand that you want players to keep her alive for story purposes, but because she's sooooooo easy to kill, it's a bit frustrating and requires players to save-scum their way through the game.


You read right about how much fun I had playing Enelysion. I was trying to avoid talking about it here, for fear of drawing unfair comparisons. To be honest, the Press Turn system makes the game differ a lot from Enelysion, and I'm afraid that taking it out would make the game feel like an Enelysion clone.

I would make absolutely sure there is no way to get around these problems before scrapping the Press Turn system. I must have sunk around 90 hours in Shin Megami Tensei IV, and I am in love with this system. But, again, the system punishes you for not defeating the enemies in one turn by having them do a lot of damage to you if you don't sweep them all because the party always acts first (unless you're ambushed, but that's a different story).

Hopefully those suggestions help. Again, since I want to think I'm doing something wrong, I hope someone comes up here and argues with me about why I suck and didn't equip X or Y to make Ianna harder to kill.


Aside: My posts are getting really long-winded. Hopefully I'm not putting anyone to sleep!
Lol, your posts are far from long-winded, Nova. I always appreciate your insight ( and others too ).

You could throw the Swift shield on Ianna and watch how she dodges stuff ( and watch how the foes themselves lose Press Turns XD ). She might be unable to use her tomes, but she still has her Light magic. I might boost the Evasion of that piece of armour to +50% Evade rather than its current 20% in the demo and have Tristian automatically buff Ianna's DEF stat by +10 rather than +5 when her LP drops below 50%.

I'll have a look at the script tonight, implement some changes, then put up a patch for the demo by early next week. And if players are still struggling, well... Then either the game is still too hard and needs even more fixing.

Every game dev needs a weakness, and battle balance is mine, lol.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Ianna can use the Swift shield? I didn't know that! Since she couldn't use the Thunder Shield, I didn't even try the Swift Shield. This might be what I needed. I'll give this another shot...

Not so much EDIT as it is adding to the post before I post it:


Of course NO ONE EVEN TARGETS IANNA AFTER I DO THIS! *Sigh* It's like the game is mocking me, "Oh? You finally got an idea of what to do to protect Ianna? lol I won't target her now."

Actually, now that no one wants a dead Ianna (well... as much) I'm finding this game to be a lot more manageable. I do have to point out that misses are very annoying to a player. I don't feel like they should take out all three of my press turns, especially since it's a factor out of my control. Perhaps 2? Or just not take one?

Oh, and there's nothing for me here http://gyazo.com/da500067a973cf36e2029bf4b6c542fa for some reason. Not even a text as to why I can't go in. Aw...

The description for the Healing Shrub says it only restores 20 LP. But I used it on Ianna and she went from 12 LP to 36. Might be worth looking into.

So yeah. I'll give you some more notes as I go along. Especially if I can do more thorough testing of how Ianna performs with the Swift Shield. Thanks for the tip, Yuna!

EDIT:

Okay, now I am POSITIVE this game is toying with me! I literally posted, then went right back into the game, and the Magister Dux killed Ianna with a dual attack with a CRITICAL SECOND HIT!. Swift Shield didn't do much.

I'm thinking actions that do damage twice should probably be removed. At least from the enemies.


EDIT 2:

Round three hundred shows that Magister Dux can hit Ianna with a dual attack and not kill her, provided neither attack crits.
Yeah, this game becomes real random with the PTB system in play. The enemies decided to attack Ianna with their Dark magic attacks but she absorbed it all, since she's descended from the Dark Crusader Dubhan. And Ianna recovers double LP/MP from healing items because she has the Pharmacology trait. ^^ But yeah, I'm busy buffing some skills now and I'm going to let all the Light armour in the game give a small Evasion stat buff. Likewise, heavier armours will reduce evasion.

Magister Duxes tend to dual attack because of those double-edged sabres, but I suppose I should keep gameplay and plot segregation separate. XD
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Oh yeah, Pharmacology. I forgot that was a thing.

...but I suppose I should keep gameplay and plot segregation separate. XD


That made my gut lurch a little. As someone who always advocates blending story and gameplay together, I'm ashamed that I unintentionally suggested you do the exact opposite.

Lowering the Dux's attack wouldn't work, because they already only did 8 damage to Tristian each. Though to be honest, Dante is pretty vulnerable to that attack as well. I suppose in this instance... removing the double hit miiiiight be appropriate?

Now excuse me, I'm gonna go throw up for once again suggesting that.
Haha, don't sweat it. Right now, I'm going to try and make a 'perfect demo'. No bugs, no hiccups, ideal battle-balancing etc. If you have any ideas for the PTB system Nova, then feel free to PM me. Since I haven't played any of the MegaTen games myself. XD
Just started playing. Pretty snazzy so far.

edit: hahahaha... Walking around the world map, wondering where the monsters are, then suddenly two drakeling things appear and kill Ianna. Game over XD
lol, they're pretty nasty, I have to admit.

As for the game's progress ( it doesn't warrant a blog yet ), I've finished up Chapter One so the breakdown of the game looks like this so far:

Prologue: The Fall of Genoa: 3 hours
Chapter One: Parting Ways: 6 hours ( 0_o )
Chapter Two: Against the Red Tide: 4-5 maybe?
Chapter Three: TBA


So, we're looking at around... 14 hours so far? Poor Enelysion. Laine and co. will stand no chance when this behemoth is finally released in 2015. XD
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Wow! Sounds great :DDDD
I am wondering how on earth one chapter ended up being 6 friggen' hours long. And it ends off rather dramatically. I do like my cliff hangers. >:D
Hello! I've played your demo and I honestly think that this game has alot of potential! Just wanted to let you know ahead of time that I'll be reviewing your game sometime today :)
Taking stock of Tristy #2

Game update so far:

Game initiation: August 2013 - current
No. of maps: 316 ( includes event maps, cutscenes etc. )
No. of weapons: 69 ( includes unused equipment )
No. of armours: 81
No. of sidequests: 6 (lol )
Game hours so far: 10+
No. of skills: 113 ( includes foe skill sets )
No. of game locations: 44 ( before factoring in airship travel )

Hours gone into testing: ??

No wonder I need a break. XD
I'm guessing that this game is going to be rather linear? With all the work your putting into the story, it wouldn't surprise me.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Wow! Go, Yuna, go! You're amazing :D