Lakria Legends

Thanks. Between there (possibly) being a bug and me just being unlucky, the latter one is, all in all, probably the better scenario. :)

Now that I know the exact percentage, I can finally reason with myself and move on without killing the entire Merman race.

Edit: Actually, while roaming the bottom of the sea for one last time with a completely different objective in mind, I finally got the drop, so at least it works even now.

Alright, I've played a lot more of it now (about 4 hours in) and I've more feedback.

- The weird lag is either now gone (bar when showing the name of places) or I've gotten used to it. It was a minor nitpick anyway.
- I'm still annoyed at how you do the save points and other choice commands. If you've got two choices, they will fit in the same message box as long as there's 2 lines free. Just make sure you spam the DEL button at the end of the written sentences in the message box, then add the choices. They'll show up in the box. Why do I say this? Because it's both annoying and unintuitive to have the answers not shown with the question. If you didn't read the question properly the first time and spammed to get to the answers, then you're going to have a bad time when you have to guess what you're answering to. On top of that, shops are also doing the unnecessary yes/no thing. If I'm interacting with someone who is standing behind a counter in what is obviously a shop, of course I'm going to want to go into the shop scene. Having to answer yes after choosing to talk to them before I can see the scene is beyond silly.

Same with the save points. Again, it's a very easy fix to just have the save point automatically bring up the save menu after the little animation and sound without asking yes/no. I'm talking to what is obviously a save point. I would not be doing that if I didn't want to save. It's silly. And you should again, just make the blue ones automatically heal you. It's padding to the dumbest degree - literally. It's one of the few things in this game that has pissed me off each and every time.

Look, it's fairly simple = the reason that I assume you put the choice in is so that people who accidentally clicked on it could say no and walk away, however! It is just as fast to just give us the animation and save screen, which can be very quickly cancelled out of. Add to that that there'd be no discernable time difference between just having that heal command happen without a choice and a normal save point anyway. None! It just doesn't make sense from a design stand point of view. It's silly and dumb and it just gets me riled up every time I have to save. I'm actively avoiding save points just so I don't have to click on the extra bullshit. I'd rather risk game over and redoing shit because it's dumb.

:sigh:
Okay, that rant is over, but really, the way you just brushed the whole thing off is even more aggravating. It's a valid consideration to streamline systems like this so you're in and out with no pissfarting around. Having to click heal and then click save is bothersome when...

I'm repeating myself. I'll stop. You get the idea on that at least.

Okay, where was I?
- Mapping is still a bit too crazy at times. I do understand you were going for Ara Fell-esque but you need to be a little bit better a mapper to hit that note. There's a lot of points where cliffs are weirdly done or pieces of ground are cut off or something just looks odd. Passabilities, too, at times, can be a bit weird. The reason Ara Fell is lauded is that the base components of the maps - the layouts and such - were very well grounded. The decoration on top just added to that.


Okay, it feels like I'm being really negative here, but really, I'm not. I like the game so far. I want it to be better because it has a lot of promise. I can certainly see why it got so many misaos and I agree with it being up there as a pretty great game. The soundtrack is lovely (it's very FF-like) and the story is interesting the further you go. I love the little sidequests (I'm a sucker for 'em) and the puzzles are pretty good (even if some of them could use some fore-warned hints - that dumb switch puzzle in the temple had me scratching my head for ages). The atmosphere is nice, the gameplay mechanics aren't too skewed to hard or easy (though some monsters I'd love to piledrive to oblivion) and there's a lot of small things to find and do.

So far, if I were writing a review, I'd be leaning towards a 3.5-4 star one. It's above average in some areas, a little below in others, and decent in the rest. And hell, I'm 4 hours in and still playing so make of that what you will.

I will likely write a review when I'm done with playing it (note that I didn't say finished the game - I might find something that makes me lose interest in it before the end and I'm someone who will drop games and still write reviews on them). Honestly, if some of those more annoying quirks could be worked out, I'd definitely say it's a solid 4-4.5
Depends on how the rest of it goes.

(FYI, I've just gotten to the Nature spirit.)

I second Liberty's improvement suggestion concerning the choice commands - except for his condescending tone.

author=Steinbeisser
I second Liberty's improvement suggestion concerning the choice commands - except for his condescending tone.

It's not condescension, it's frustration. So much frustration.

Anyway, I'm 8 hours in now (don't get too excited, a lot of that was me getting distracted). I'm up to the volcano area.

The story has picked up a little more. The written issues are still littered through the text which is a bit distracting but I'm enjoying the characterisation a bit more than I was. The save stuff... still annoys me but you already know about that so I won't harp.

The mapping is still an odd mix of weird. I did notice that there was a bit of inconsistency that really stood out when you used Mack characters with RTP-styled ones in the same areas. It's really jarring. I highly recommend replacing any Mack-style sprites. I know they fit the faces, but I'm pretty sure you can find some RTP-styled sprites that also fit (there's a lot of ones that fit the Mack faces that already exist).

I didn't really talk much about the gameplay last time. Battles are pretty well balanced and I'm not finding them too easy or too hard - they're quite well done in that regard. I really enjoy the little touches of having world-interactions available, though I wish you'd again streamlined the gameplay aspect by having you just use the item when you've got it instead of forcing you to find it in the messy item menu each time. The bombs and lantern do it that way so it's a bit inconsistent that you have to use from the menu with some items but not with others.

I love the idea of having a side party that has skills to help you out. I kind of wish you'd tied their skills to keys instead of items (like you did with achievements) as that would also help streamline the gameplay a bit more, or at least have a CMS with the choice of which side-party member to use when you interact with the magic stars.

(I'm wondering if you drew inspiration for this idea from Ocean's game, Paradise Blue, which had the same kind of thing except they were characters you could hire and they'd do in and out of battle stuff for you).

There's been a few graphical bugs I've noticed (like becoming full-sized again after you shrunk to worship the statue just outside of Mithral) or overlapping tiles.

I do feel a bit like there's a tad too much padding in some ways. Having to constantly go back and forth through the creek definitely reeks of this (opening shortcuts in order to get from one end to the other would be a nice touch - maybe a side party character who could activate teleportation runes back and forth, for example). I just feel that for the 6-8 hours I've played, I haven't really gotten far and it feels weird that I've only just gotten my next character, especially when I know there's six of them to get and there's still 5 elemental spirit thingies to nab.

Eh, I'm enjoying it so far so I'll just keep going I guess. XD

It's great to see how well you respond to our feedback. We can only contribute so little when it comes to making a fantastic game slightly more fantastic.

The bug I mentioned in my last post also occurs when facing south. It doesn't matter if the party faces north or south, they get slammed into the wall. Fortunately, this should be an easy fix.

Concerning the save points: I agree with Liberty, but it doesn't really bother me. What I deem odd, though, is that violet save crystal menus - in contrast to blue save crystal menus - can't be exited using Esc. Violet is inferior to blue in every way. :D

Fortunately, I saved this time beforehand. Most of the nail traps seem to be potential gamebreakers. The player is always tossed to the opposite side of the one he faces, and if there's a solid tile at the end of the nail trap section, he will get stuck. See for example Mirage Temple in the room north of the entrance hall where there are three nail traps in close succession. Being hit here while facing sideways means it's time to reload. Sure, the player is only supposed to go up and down here; he must really intend to trigger this bug in order to do so. Nevertheless, it can still happen by accident. Thus, let me warn not only the fakirs among us: Avoid these nail traps.

Finished! Congrats on your strong (and well-deserved) showing in the Misaos. I will list some (hopefully not too scattered) feedback below.



Again, I really enjoyed playing Lakria Legends, I think it was without a doubt one of the best (if not the best) RMN games of 2017. And please let me know if you have any questions for me about my playthrough / other thoughts / etc..

Loving the game so far. I am stuck in the Mirage temple. I just got the soul scepter and cant figure out where to go next. I keep hitting a dead end with a door that requires a key and have been through every room multiple times. What am I missing?