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The rope winds from the clouds like the long-dried trail of a giant's tear. It whips in the arid wind, down the birdless sky, and into the open mouth of the ravine that splits the dead land. Down and down it goes, the sky darkening to a pinpoint of light above it. This is the sky that Ivy knows.

Ivy and her sister, Mint, peer further into the ravine. It has been one day since their father stopped moving. A dandelion sprouts from the parched earth like hands clasped together in prayer. It is the only living thing they've seen in this dead world. A growl echoes off the cliff walls. Maybe not the only thing.

Sometimes Ivy dreams of a sky that covers everything. When she awakes, she hates herself for still having the dreams of a child. She's fourteen, now, her sister twelve. The rope stretches up above them, up, up, up, further than young eyes can see.

Features:
-Character-centric storyline
-50+ hours of gameplay
-Challenging boss battles
-Original music
-Different equipment sets that modify the ways characters play
-A crafting system featuring over 100 pieces of unique equipment
-LOTS of side quests
-Puzzles that spice up dungeon design
-Recruit an odd assortment of townspeople and pass legislation to develop your own village
-Raise a pig to compete in the Pig Arena and win prizes
-New game+ feature that includes multiple bonus endings--a mechanic I blatantly stole from Chrono Trigger

Latest Blog

Major Update

I've been hinting here and there about wanting to update A Very Long Rope, and I finally got off my ass and did it. I made quite a few changes, and I'll list them below, but I want to talk about the most major one in depth. When I made A Very Long Rope, my goal was to make a game with a strong story, and a lot of the other aspects got brushed aside. This was going to be my way to segue into the community and hopefully find some other people interested in working together. Since then, I've shifted my perspective and focused more on things like design and aesthetics, which this game doesn't really care much about, unfortunately.

So, the update. The chief annoyance I've been hearing about A Very Long Rope is the dungeon design--mainly, levels are way too big, and the random encounters serve to make things worse. So, this update adds an item to your inventory that toggles enemy encounters. This item was available in the game before, but the only way to get it was to beat the game (players who have done this know I'm talking about the saecelium shield). Now, this item is given to the player at the very beginning, meaning you don't have to fight a single random encounter anymore.

Of course, since bosses exist, you'll still need to gain experience. In order to incentivize getting a good amount of experience before each boss, I've made several treasure chests need a currency called "victory points" in order to open them. Basically, you get a single victory point for every enemy you defeat in a battle (other than bosses). Victory points are dependent based on the dungeon, so the ones you earn in the first dungeon will only work in that dungeon. The cost of opening chests is higher depending on what's inside the chest, so you might need to spend between 2-6 points in order to open each of these special chests.

I've also doubled the experience, gold, and item drops from monsters. The net effect here is that if you open every single locked chest, you'll end up fighting about half of the encounters that you would have if you just left random encounters on. I did a full playthrough and felt that these locked chests provided short-term goals that kept me more interested while exploring; I hope they do that for you, too!

Here's the full list of changes:

-Reduced crit damage from triple to double
-Stat cap increased to 9999 (will mainly affect buff stacking)
-Berserk no longer sucks
-One-touch Sprint
-First agricultural upgrade requires three people instead of five.
-Escape rate now a flat 60%
-Added a way to get out of the Goddess Tower if you don't have a portable transceiver
-Fixed a few typos/graphical glitches/small things I don't remember
-Rare drop rates have been increased significantly
-Gold/XP/Drop Rates doubled
-Findable equipment that could be used in recipes is now sold as recipes in your town along with the regular recipes.
-Saecelium Shield now added at the beginning of the game. Players can use their old data and find a Saeclium Shield in a number of places within a blue chest (such as the entrance to your town, on the world map, or next to the save point in Old Town); the blue chests will disappear upon opening one.
-Most chests are now "locked." Gain Victory Points from defeating random mobs in a dungeon to open locked chests. Victory Points are specific to each dungeon.
-Locked chests are weighted based on how good the item is. 2 VP is a potion, 3 VP is gold, a good potion, or monster mats, 4 VP are great potions and large sums of gold, 5 VP are stat-boosting items or rare monster mats, 6 VP are equipment.
-Chests that aren't near easy grinding spots (e.g. chests in certain puzzles, chests in towns) will never be locked. Several other random chests in dungeons will also not be locked.
-Arena fights now give experience
-Can now use saecelium shield during soul tear scenes
-Only need to find the wolf four times instead of nine (what was I thinking?!) in Marina's soul tear scene.


That's it! Oh, and make sure to subscribe to my new project: Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass.
  • Completed
  • Housekeeping
  • RPG Maker VX
  • RPG
  • 11/26/2013 04:56 PM
  • 05/29/2023 03:05 PM
  • 12/01/2013
  • 525444
  • 48
  • 5071

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Hey, Miz, sorry I missed that edit:

That area's a secret dungeon that's basically the hardest level in the game. It's probably a good idea to actually beat the game first before you try it, but if you really want to go there, the hint to solve the puzzle is written on the tablet in the middle of that room. Here's the quick solution:

East, northeast, southwest, northwest, southeast, west.
np, and thanks.
so what will happen after you solved it? it'll unlock a room for new adventure or what?
Yeah, it just unlocks the door in that room which opens up a couple of new areas. The enemies there are the hardest in the game, and there are three boss battles and the usual slew of treasure.
perfect for an 'after story episode' xD
Hey, I'm really enjoying your game. I've played about 40 hours and it has some of the most interesting characters I've seen in a long time.

Also, any tips for the...
Shapeshifter boss in the green vein?
It keeps using its "eerie whistle" to put every status effect on all my characters and I can't find a way to counter it.
@xyotaka, use 'anti-confuse/paralysis rings' to your characters and keep gainer using 'aura'. this may help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyhe2IO9H40
@Mizushimi
Thanks! That wasn't so hard. I was always having Gainer use snipe and EMP generator, and now I feel like an idiot.
@xyotaka
Looks like Miz beat me to the punch, but I'm glad you're enjoying the game so far! People tend to discount Gainer and Ivy's magic skills and Yvette's physical skills, but if you dedicate your equipment to them, they're all pretty viable.
^helping and spreading my videos at the same time :D .hey, housekeeping. about the skill: throat slit. is it had an ability to 1-hit k.o. an enemy or it is just to make the description epic?
It does indeed have a chance to one-hit KO things. It doesn't work on bosses, though.
lmao at do your own production team for helios and terra xD
Haha, that was a lot of fun to write.
housekeeping:
if i defeated raccoon, the game will end? and whats the name of the huge teleporter of attis?
Nope! After you beat the game, you're taken to an area that will let you restart your game with all of your skills, level, and equipment (plus a few extra goodies found in some blue treasures) or resume your current game. Too, this area can be returned to at any time through your town.

I'm not sure which teleporter you're talking about. If you're talking about the one with three crystals--I don't think I gave that a name.
Great game so far. I had posted about having trouble locating the mayor. How I missed the yellow roof of the city hall, I'll never know. but I finished my problem of how to get the blue bear and it's all good now. It's true that the mapping isn't the best, but the story is awesome. And I love the original music. I can't count the number of times I've gone to play games that used music that I've either heard a million times before or music from commercial games without permission. The soundtrack of one game I played was entirely made up of songs from an old Japanese visual novel.
i see... obviously i'll pick the resume and continue to do some extra things in the game
Hey, Kagome, glad you're liking it! I know mapping isn't my strong suit, but, yeah, I feel like story and music are the two aspects of game-making that I bring to the table, and it seems like they don't get much focus around these parts; most of the time I see stuff with great visuals and/or cool design. Hopefully my next game will come out more well-rounded, and, fingers crossed, maybe I can find some other people who make up for my weaknesses and we can make something really great.
Visuals are definitely not everything. I think you're right abut one thing I remember you posting on one of the pages this game is at: the story is key to a good game. Like the sound novels Higurashi no naku koro ni and Umineko no naku koro ni by Ryukishi07. His art isn't fancy or great. but the story, sound effects, and music make the game. it doesn't matter if you have all the visual effects and masterful art skills in the world. If you can't create a good plot and environment (sounds) for those visuals, it's no good. If the story or characters become boring, it'd a dud in my opinion. By the way I also love the title of this game. it's actually why I decided to check out the thread I saw for this over at the rpgmakervx forums. I've seen places that say it's unnecessarily long, but I think it fits well and has a nice rhythm to it.