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(The game is still very much in progress, although a beta is up at the moment.)
(Please don't ask me when I'll be done. I don't know. It depends on how much time I can find to work on it)
BETA version 0.5 is up, representing the halfway point of development! Feedback on it would be really great.

Mayhem Maiden is a turn based RPG set in the shared Arum Universe (created by Fomar0153 and Indrah, see Dead Moon Night, Grumpy Knight, Etc), that asks the question "What if the damsels in distress rescued THEMSELVES for once?". It's supposed to be mostly lighthearted with a handful of more serious moments in between.

Plot:
While trying to unravel the mystery of the so-called "unreachable" Fiend's Tower, a young woman named May is taken prisoner by the Fiends within it. Teaming up with three other abducted girls, they decide to break out on their own and take on the Fiends on their own turf. In the meantime, a party led by May's Ex are trying to stage a rescue attempt on their own. Hijinx ensue on both ends.

Gameplay:
There are no towns or world map. You've got a series of dungeons, and a means of traveling between them. Like many other games in the Arum Universe, equipping "Mods" plays a huge role in gameplay.

Each character has 7 slots that can be used to equip Mods that upgrade stats, or that teach new skills or alter existing ones. Customize your party how you see fit!

Characters:
May: The Gadgeteer

Chronic thrill-seeker and self-proclaimed genius, May was on a journey to uncover the mystery of the so-called "unreachable" Fiend's Tower when she was taken prisoner. Some quick thinking later, she is now leading a group of 4 abductees attempting to break free. May takes great pride in her unconventional gadgets and inventions, although they're still not the most reliable things in the world...

Fighting style: May can dish out serious punishment with her Automatic Crossbow, relying on her Turrets and Traps to cover her and her friends while she reloads.


Shara: The Hateful Outlaw

Shara doesn't like to talk much about herself. Instead, she seems to prefer venting her hatred on whatever happens to be the current topic of conversation. About the only thing she seems to enjoy is beating her kidnappers to a pulp. If there are reasons for her irrational hatred, she's not telling.

Fighting style: Shara is a brawler who can deal great damage if her skills are used in a particular order, and who builds up "hate levels" as she fights. As her "hate level" rises, so do her chances of being attacked and taken down. However, these "hate levels" can be spent to perform a powerful combo that grows in power as her "hate" rises...


Holly: The Terrible Prodigy

An Elf with phenomenal magic power. That power, however, comes with a terrible risk. Should Holly rely too much on her magic, it will spiral violently out of her control, harming those near her. As a result, she desperately tries to avoid conflict, although her current situation makes that rather difficult. It doesn't help that the Tower's Magic is highly unstable either...

Fighting style: Holly is a support mage, although she can equip Mods that allow her to use attack spells. Use too many spells, however, and she will Overload. While Overloading, she gains tremendous magic power, but will cause Rifts to open at random that will cause harm to enemy and ally at random.


Karin: The "destroyer of Evil"

A Holy Knight on a pilgrimage from far-off Luma City. Although she seems very scatterbrained at times, she has a solid will and will gleefully slaughter anything that risks harming anyone under her protection. A spirit she refers to as her "Guardian Angel" follows her around, offering aid whenever Karin wishes.

Fighting style: Karin is a tank who tries to redirect damage away from her allies. She can call upon her Guardian Angel to perform powerful defensive techniques, although maintaining "his" presence on the battlefield for any length of time requires much effort.

Side characters:
The Fiendlord

The current master of the Tower and the Fiends within, and the one who orchestrated the kidnappings. His motives aren't completely clear, but he's not pleased with the jailbreak and isn't about to take their escape attempt lying down...

Cyrus

May's recently dumped Ex-boyfriend. While trying to decide if he still wanted to solve the mystery of the "unreachable" Fiend's Tower after the breakup, he witnessed May's Kidnapping. Now, he's gathered a party of adventurers to rescue her, although he's got serious doubts about whether it wouldn't be wiser to just turn around and go home...

Latest Blog

BETA 0.5 is up! Feedback would be appreciated!

Happy Holidays and Merry Mayhem to all!

So yeah, a new Beta/Demo for Mayhem Maiden is up, representing the halfway point of the game.

I recognize that it's been...Years...Since the last one. I'm sorry. School nearly destroyed me, and then I immediately landed a job at an indie game studio in a totally different city for a few months, which sapped all my creative energy for a while making progress extremely slow.

But at last, here's the next Beta, with many improved features! This represents the half-way point of the game, and should be the last Beta before the game is done. Hopefully it won't take me another few years to finish. :P

Stuff to look forward to are:

- 2 new dungeons!

Self explanatory. Aside from a few tweaks to older dungeons, you now also have two whole new dungeons to explore!

- Less Randomness!

Having important or dangerous mechanics operate on randomness often impeded the fun. This has been fixed.

May's Potion Launcher? Now it automatically heals the maiden with the lowest HP (by Percentage) making it much more reliable.

Holly's Overload mechanic has been overhauled. Instead of randomly damaging random people (with a slight bias towards the maidens) it now does (less) damage to everyone (friend and foe) on the field at once, and then applies random stat deubffs completely fairly among the combatants afterwards.

Holly's "Sick" status effect from her Ice spells now also makes all attempted status ailments and Binds guaranteed on the target.

Karin's Attract move now feels a lot more reliable too.

Also, not quite "random", but May's "Mayhem Ex Machina" ultimate skill no longer breaks all her gadgets. The skill is hard enough to use already without that additional handicap.

- More Battle information!

The core of what makes the game fun is the "Mwahahaha, just as planned!" moment when you unleash just the right special ability at just the right time, or when you shut down an enemy and prevent them from pulling off their evil plan.

As such, I decided that HP bars were the way to go, letting you much more easily plan out when and where to unleash those special moves for maximum "MWAHAHAHA"!

Plus, now all enemy skills that use a "body part" that you can "bind" to lock down that skill have a little visual "tell"/Animation to let you know what body part you need to Bind in order to prevent that enemy skill from being used again!

Stat booster mods are completely gone. They made the game hell to balance and honestly weren't much fun. Instead, they're replaced with a whole bunch of generalized mods that give all kinds of small passive skills instead.

Be sure to let me know what works, and what you think needs some more fine tuning in the comment section below!

Here's hoping you all enjoy it!
  • Production
  • Aegix_Drakan
  • NeverSilent
  • RPG Maker VX Ace
  • RPG
  • 07/25/2014 12:49 AM
  • 08/15/2023 03:08 PM
  • 12/01/2015
  • 70826
  • 33
  • 660

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unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Downloaded! This looks promising :D
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
I'm on it, the first batch of feedback will be coming soon. So far it's pretty amazing.
author=NeverSilent
I'm on it, the first batch of feedback will be coming soon. So far it's pretty amazing.


:D That makes me happy.
Monsters are wayyy too difficult in the first dungeon. I am playing in Vacation mode - which I am assuming is the easiest - and could not beat the first guardian, and was having difficulty with the alarm sentinels with which I was trying to level up. Not worth it since they gave very little experience. This was at level four. After the guardian defeated me and the party revived, we seemed weaker in both attack and defense. I had already cleared out the mobile foes, and only had the alarm sentinels left which keep re-spawning - which would be great to level up with if they gave substantial experience - especially considering the difficulty of those sentinels to defeat. Hate Holly's Overload. She was killing more of my party than damaging the enemy. This game needs some serious re-balancing. Until that happens, I'll not play it again.
0_o Huh. Vacation isn't easy enough? Wow, I did not see that coming. I thought nerfing enemies by 20% to all stats would be more than enough.

I guess I'll have to make it a bit easier, then.

What was your main problem with the difficulty? Were you taking too much damage from each attack, or something else?

author=horror
After the guardian defeated me and the party revived, we seemed weaker in both attack and defense.


There's nothing in the revival event that could do that. It has to be your imagination. 0_o

Hate Holly's Overload. She was killing more of my party than damaging the enemy.


Wow, EVERYONE's problem with the game is Overload. I'm going to need to look into it. I really don't get it...I almost never had a problem with it. 0_o

This game needs some serious re-balancing. Until that happens, I'll not play it again.


Well, I'll let you know when I do. Thanks for the heads up.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
I've been playing about half an hour at this point. I love all the characters and their different battle strategies! You've put a lot of work into this and it shows! The story is very interesting, too ^_^ I'll let you know when I finish the demo
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
@horror: I'm sorry, but I have a hard time understanding what you say. I played the game on "Adventure" difficulty (two difficulty levels higher than "Vacation"). I didn't even attempt to grind and managed to defeat the first Guardian on my first try, with my characters at level 2. It wasn't exactly easy, but definitely not unbalanced. Did you actually try to use some sort of strategy?

Then again, if "Vacation" mode is supposed to be a breeze, then decreasing the difficulty a bit further is probably is not an entirely bad idea.


@Aegix_Drakan: Please don't fundamentally change or remove Holly's Overload. I think it is a very cool mechanic that enhances the gameplay and can be used in many great ways (especially by granting access to those extremely strong Overload spells), it just needs some fine-tuning. If I may make a suggestion, I'd say lower the damage done by the Overload side effects ("a rift opens..."), and I mean both the damage done to allies and enemies. That way it would still be a risky mechanic, but a bit less extreme in ist consequences, both positive and negative.
author=NeverSilent
@horror: I didn't even attempt to grind and managed to defeat the first Guardian on my first try, with my characters at level 2. It wasn't exactly easy, but definitely not unbalanced. Did you actually try to use some sort of strategy?

What? I'm playing in the "journey" difficulty and I still can't beat the first guardian, with all my characters at level 4 and they are all full with mods as well.
I don't know how you did it, you are either a boss when it comes to RPGs, you were extremely lucky or maybe I just suck.
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
Hmm... maybe I really was just lucky. I'll try to fight the Guardian again and see if it's more difficult this time. It could be that he just never used his stronger skills on me or something similar.
(P.S.: I found it helps to debuff as many enemies as possible with Shara and by applying the "Pressure" status effect one of the mods enables.)

Edit: Update: I tried the fight against the Guardian again and actually got defeated this time, though it was a close call. The main difference was that this time, when Holly's Overload triggered, she kept hitting allies too often, while last time she mostly hit enemies. Also, Karin got defeated just at the point where I wanted to use her Angel powers, and when I revived her she had no EX left.
I also noticed that last time, I hit the Guardian with such an enormous barrage of attacks (Overload skills plus Shara's All In) that he didn't even have the chance to summon the Brute. This time, he actually came, which made the battle a lot more difficult.
So, I admit the Guardian could be slightly nerfed, especially the high damage his fire club deals. It is possible to win, but maybe it depends a bit too much on luck.
Well, the main things with that boss are:

a) Shara's attack debuff skill is pretty helpful to keep his damage down. Buffing her attack (and/or May's) with Holly isn't a bad idea either.

b) When holly inevitably Overloads, May and Karin should be focused on defense and healing, while Shara Should be just about ready to All In (you don't NEED to be at hate level 5 for it to be worth it!), and Holly should be trying to nuke any minions that were summoned to take them out immediately.

c) It's kinda a little secret, but...
If you hit all the switches without triggering the alarm even once, you'll get 3 free turns to beat up the boss without him being able to fight back. If you've already made the alarm go off, you can always go back to the warp room, and then return to the dungeon, which resets everything except those neat little shortcuts, meaning you can still get that little helping hand.


d) As Conway says, I REALLY hope you guys aren't equipping duplicate skill mods. Having 2 spellbooks or two "liquid Confidence"s, or two "elbow spikes" equipped doesn't make those skills any better.

There's also no way the boss didn't use his stronger attacks on you. He's on a pretty simple cycle and the ONLY move you can block is his "burp" move, which just helps him set up his next attack.
Oh, so he didn't summon the brute against you? That's the main reason I can't beat him, he's easy without him. They hit really hard and have a TON of health(for a minion that is) and if Holly goes overloads it's pretty much game over, since you can't use her to heal, and you just can't tank the attacks of all 4 enemies with just May's healing devices(which are not so good anyway).

The only way I might be able to beat him is by overloading and being lucky enough to hit the enemies all the time and use the potion thrower device and, again, be lucky enough to heal the ones that need to be healed.
And this is on the "Medium" difficulty, I can't imagine how strong he is on "Hard" mode, he needs a serious nerf in my opinion. Or at least his minions.
You....are using potions when Holly overloads, right?

And by the time the brute is up, I've usually killed all the other minions by then, if not the boss itself.
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
One tip I do have is to try and use the characters' "ultimate" powers at the right moment. If you have set up a Potion Launcher and some Dispensers, May's Mayhem Ex Machina can heal your entire party when everyone is low on HP. From hate level 3 or 4 on Shara's All In can stun enemies (including bosses). And if you use Karin as a tank, using her EX to get access to her Angel powers can turn the tide of a battle.

Edit: I tried the boss battle for the third time just for the heck of it, and this time I won with relative ease, even though the Brute did appear. What did the trick was to use Holly's Heat Blade on Karin and Shara, because it raised their resistance against the Guardian's fire club attack. Also, wait with Shara's All In until the first minions have appeared. That way, you can take them out quickly and the Brute becomes a lot less of a problem.

Isn't it funny how we're almost only talking about battle difficulty? Honestly, I like challenging battles more than easy ones, but it's obvious many people think differently.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
I've tried that boss five times now on regular difficulty and can't seem to beat him ^^;; I feel like I'm close each time, though. I'll turn the difficulty down and see if I can do it.

I, for one, love the Overload mechanic. It really makes you think about how you use Holly's magic. Though, I think its effects on the party are a little too devastating if you get unlucky. Maybe if those effects were only triggered 4 or 3 times instead of 5? 5 seems like a heck of a lot.

My favorite mechanic is Shara's rage building up; it's so satisfying to release it at level 5!

I'll keep playing this. The characters are a lot of fun and you've got some great mechanics going on here! Though, as people have said, I think the difficulty may be a tad high.
Well, I tried again and I managed to kill the boss...just to get killed by his minions. Okay, maybe I was extremely unlucky because even with the Karin's "taunt"(let's call it that way) she didn't get hit once in the entire fight until both Holly and May were dead. And yes, I used potions, the angel, shara's all in at level 2 and 3, I think I did everything okay, or at least decent.

Uff, I'm sorry I like the game's mechanichs, the characters are great and want to see how the story goes on but I just can't get pass this boss :(.
I'll try again later.
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
I'm on Journey mode and I took the guardian at level 5 so I did a bit of grinding when I lost the first time, but managed to do it on the third. Holly's Overload is a mixed bag and can do some major harm, so it some ways it's not just strategy but luck that will get you through. Though it did make getting past that boss a 'oh, yeah' moment.

I like the Overload, it can be problematic, but it also offers some great opportunities, and well I do like a strategic battle.

If you want to tone down the lowest level of gameplay then do so, but I'm not feeling hard done by on Journey, just challenged.
Hmm....Actually, yeah, maybe lowering the Rift triggers to 4 times instead of 5 and giving Holly a skill that wastes a turn but lowers her EX by 10 might be enough to ease the Overload Pain Train a bit. Especially considering some of the mods you'll be picking up.

Oh, and how many of you guys picked up the Shield Dispenser mod? Just curious.

author=urano23
Well, I tried again and I managed to kill the boss...just to get killed by his minions. Okay, maybe I was extremely unlucky because even with the Karin's "taunt"(let's call it that way) she didn't get hit once in the entire fight until both Holly and May were dead. And yes, I used potions, the angel, shara's all in at level 2 and 3, I think I did everything okay, or at least decent.


0_o Karin never got hit, even with her Taunt up? Wat. That's just...Wow, that seriously unlucky. It's a 300% increase in the Draw Rate... :(

Although you probably should kill off the minions first since they're a relatively quick-to-kill source of damage, especially if you have Overload up, or save your All In for the brute.

I'm sorry you're having so much trouble. :(
OK, my thoughts on the game. I was playing in vacation mode, at if that's vacation I'm going back to word lol. The Holly's overload does not make any sense to me. Why does it have to damage allies more that enemies? Even regular foes were tough for me in "vacation" mode.
The boss I'm not even going to talk about. This game is not for an average, everyday player.
I might try it again, if tweak the difficulty, because all other aspects of the game looks good.
author=juliab
OK, my thoughts on the game. I was playing in vacation mode, at if that's vacation I'm going back to word lol. The Holly's overload does not make any sense to me. Why does it have to damage allies more that enemies? Even regular foes were tough for me in "vacation" mode.
The boss I'm not even going to talk about. This game is not for an average, everyday player.
I might try it again, if tweak the difficulty, because all other aspects of the game looks good.


Yeah, I'm going to be adjusting those things, especially overload (Although I really want to make it something that the player needs to be worried about. I don't want players to try to overload as quickly as possible unless they're prepared to deal with the negative effects). I'll try to make battles go a bit quicker, and I'm already making Vacation much easier.
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