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Story
A bizarre epidemic is sweeping through the city of Melloton and nearby cities. People are falling into comatose state for no apparent reason. And you have become it’s latest victim. When you woke up, you find yourself in a fantasy world without knowledge of how you got there or even who you are. You must traverse through the lands in hopes of finding a way back.

Gameplay
Dream Drift is a classic RPG with features similar to Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and other great RPGs of that era. I wanted to keep the combat simple, but with enough features for the hardcore players to find ways to exploit the mechanics. I want to avoid needless grinding, but at the same time, I want the game to be rewarding for those who decides to fight every chance they get. I also want to avoid telling the story through narrative. I believe the point of a game is to discover the story by playing, not by reading. I also want my characters to have some depth, but at the same time, I want to keep them somewhat of a mystery so players can try to fill in the blanks.

Notable Features:
  • 8-way movement
  • On-map enemy encounters
  • Side-view, ATB combat
  • Magic learned through spell books
  • Traits System, allowing some control over character development
  • Plenty of interactive objects
  • Cooking (food crafting). Not necessary but can be helpful if the game proves to be too challenging
  • 3 slightly different endings
  • 10 playable characters, but not all are recruitable in one playthrough
  • A handful of side quests to keep the end game interesting
  • 10-15 hours of gameplay


Background
This is my first serious attempt at making an RPG. I’m a programmer by trade, so that's my strong point. Graphics, sound, and cinematics are subpar, but I tried my best to make up for that with good gameplay and story. I’ve played through this game 4 times so far, and I should have fixed all major, game-breaking bugs. Please let me know in the comments or by email if there are any bugs that you would like me to address.

Latest Blog

Version 0.32's on-going bug list.

General
- Fixed a dialog issue with Mayor Uppi of Shiverton
- Changed a "Defense Up" to "Skill Up" in Piney Canyon
- Fixed Magicite. It was giving Magic and Resistance when it shouldn't.
- Fixed all cracked wall tiles in Raven Tower.

Item Changes
- Buffed Cloak of Evasion (5% -> 15%)
- Buffed Cloak of Shadows (8% -> 25%)
- Buffed Mask of Precision (2% -> 3%)
- Buffed Ninja Slippers (8% Evade -> 15% Evade, 3% Crit -> 10% Crit)

Trait Changes
- Buffed Healing Adept (10% -> 15%)
- Buffed Healing Mastery (15% -> 25%)
- Buffed Nimble (3% -> 8%)
- Buffed Determined (3% -> 5%)
- Buffed Ready (2% -> 5%)
- Buffed Acrobatic (5% -> 12%)
- Buffed Tenacious (5% -> 8%)
- Buffed Prepared (3% -> 8%)
- Buffed Martial Artist (Cnt Rate 5% -> 8%)
- Buffed Magician (Evade 7% -> 15%)
- Buffed Ninja (Evade 7% -> 15%)
- Buffed Range (Critical 7% -> 15%)
- Buffed Illusionist (7% -> 15%, 5% -> 20%)
  • Production
  • cityshrimp
  • RPG Maker VX Ace
  • RPG
  • 12/15/2014 11:02 PM
  • 04/24/2023 02:38 PM
  • 03/01/2015
  • 101282
  • 58
  • 2288

Tags

Posts

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I like the look of this. Subscribed. :)
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
Seriously gorgeous title screen IMHO.
This game has so much content. I'm going to be busy all week going through it.


Edit:

Obal swamp is missing the fog file. For those of you who have that problem. You can just put a random picture, and call it fog, and that should give you a quick fix.


Edit2:

I got the mirror, but the sage is dead. I have no idea what to do anymore. Nothing is happening at the house.



author=Xemeth
This game has so much content. I'm going to be busy all week going through it.


Edit:

Obal swamp is missing the fog file. For those of you who have that problem. You can just put a random picture, and call it fog, and that should give you a quick fix.


Edit2:

I got the mirror, but the sage is dead. I have no idea what to do anymore. Nothing is happening at the house.




I'm not too sure what happened to the fog file. I've never had this problem before. The only possibility I can think of is that something is different when I encrypt the game files. I'll try to figure this out.

Also, just fixed the dead sage thing. Will upload new version shortly.

Edit: FYI, the sage should be alive and well now. Go to him after Obal Swamps to progress the plot.
Downloading now. I'll post some feedback once I'm done. :D
I just want to post this for a sensible chuckle.


As promised, here's my feedback:

+ Lovely title screen. Truly.
+ Nice concept of going back and forth between realities.
+ Music seems well-placed and at least the title screen music is custom.
+ Mapping is pretty solid, though some areas felt open and bare.
+ Well-detailed tutorials.
+ The fights were pretty balanced, but I never really felt like I was in any danger. I'm considering this a plus because I prefer to relax and enjoy the game without too much of a combat challenge.

- Writing. Between the poor spelling, grammatical errors, and generally poor dialogue, it was hard to stay interested in the plot and characters.
- "Save stations." I hate this idea in any game. For the love of God, please remove it. It kills immersion.

All in all, I think this is a good game. It has flaws but it's polished and kept me interested for well over an hour. I'll probably finish up to the point where I can no longer progress. If any of that time changes my feedback, I'll edit it here.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
I hate whatever tile-movement script you are using in this with every single fiber of my being. I don't mean the eight directional movement. I've seen that in games before and it doesn't bother me. But there's some kind of movement script in use here that makes just moving feel amazingly clunky. I'm kind of frustrated because I feel like I lack the words to describe this properly but the movement just FEELS wrong, like the basic process of moving from one tile to another just feels vaguely jerky like it's making the engine micro-glitch or something. I have no idea what it is and it IS pretty subtle but it is also really unpleasant, at least to me personally.

Besides that...I think the first five minutes of this game should win some kind of award for "most generic RPG intro ever". Like, seriously, it seems insane that there is a game on this site with the title of Generica and THIS IS NOT THAT GAME.

author=Carvonica
- Writing. Between the poor spelling, grammatical errors, and generally poor dialogue, it was hard to stay interested in the plot and characters.

Even the writing has somehow accomplished that "not good, not bad, it just is what it is" quality of the slightly stilted and awkward dialogue of early SNES JRPGs. In its way this is almost like a monumental achievement.

Edit: Final thought for now, as I said to someone else recently: PLEASE don't remove the "Exit Game" option from your menu. That's just annoying.
Thanks for all the feedback! It's great to get some comments from experienced RPG players. :)

English is my second language, so forgive me for all the mistakes I made in the dialogs. I will go through all the dialogs a few more times to fix whatever problem I can find.

As for the "Exit Game" option, I've had complaints from test users that they accidentally exited the game and lost their progress. IIRC, the option, by default, doesn't ask the player for confirmation. I will put the option back and try to add a confirmation before it actually exits.

I'll also try to find a solution for the save stations. I don't mind allowing players to save at any time, but I do want to limit when and where they can use "meal" to recover hp/mp. Any suggestions on this topic will be greatly appreciated.
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
If you don't have an issue with save always being on then leave it on, and to limit the meal usage make the save stations into meal stations instead which becomes the only place they can use that ability. A lot of the older RPG games used to have a tent item that worked in that way, though in that case it was out of battle and out of dungeon use only. Restrictions on abilities/items is an easy fix.

As far as the exit thing goes, either put the confirmation back in, or make sure you include the F12fix in your scripts and players can use that to exit or restart the game. Personally I prefer the exit game command, it's just neater.
Well! another fog problem, or so I thought. I did the fog quick fix for the lava mountain, but even with that I got another error. RGSS103 cache, so I'm halted there for now.


Aside from that I want to discuss my experience with the game so far. I'll separate this in 3 different ways. Story/Gameplay/Characters


Story

The story is actually quite interesting. A mixture of .Hack, Final fantasy Tactics Advance, and Chrono trigger. Aside from some of the few spelling errors. The story is quite solid.


The reality, and the dream world blend pretty well together. talking to the townspeople, and your schoolmates allow a more personal feel towards your predicament.


The dream world has a somewhat enriched background, but not enough to make me invested into the people of any of these towns. There's no real sense of urgency, so there's no real reason for me to care about their predicament. (except the rewards)


Gameplay

I'm going to be honest about this. You are a dictator of the battles. Your stats are WAY too specific, but I can see why. You chose to go the Chrono trigger route, and make people elementally specific. Which isn't bad, but it's not the most innovative.


The maps, and the puzzles are solid. I ESPECIALLY like the part where you forced me to use characters I didn't want to use. Totally not sarcasm. *cough* *cough*


All jokes aside. That was well played on your part. You made me feel like it was my fault for being unprepared, and that's pretty damn hard to do with me.


Characters

This is the part where I think you have a problem. The main character is interesting. Emily, and Thomas are interesting. Every character that joins your party as a guest are interesting. Your other permanent party members are laughably unappealing.


Battle wise. The thief has more power than anyone else. He has more speed, and his magic is only 3 points of the main character. He can attack twice before Thomas can attack once. In short. Darus is OP, but I'm sorta okay with that, since stats don't really effect battles.


Story wise. Your characters, aside from the main 3. Have nothing to add to the story except their ending goal, but I can see why it has to be that way. The way you're story has to progress has to be selective. which means all the characters that join you must have no ambition, so you got yourself very little creative room for them.


The skits was a nice way to add more to them, but it falls a little short.


General thoughts

This is one of those games that you have to play with nostalgia for the old SNES RPGs. The combat is well done, but very structured. Leveling feels unimpressive, and also controlled. Mystic quest style.


The story is there, and it's not bad for the most part. The characters themselves are debatable, but I'll have to wait to be able to finish the game, before I conclude on that.


Overall I spent 9 hours already on the game, and the game is enjoyable. If combat wasn't so structured, and the characters be more likable, or have more depth. I would definitely recommend this to be a featured game.





Hi Xemeth,

Thanks for taking the time to write up your impression of my game.

I'm still not sure why fog isn't working for you. Can you post some screenshots of the error? The only thing I can think of is that perhaps RMVXA games require some external libraries, and perhaps the ones on your computer is not the same version as the one on mine. I really want to fix this, so it would be great if you can provide additional details on what the error is.

It seems the writing in general will be my next item to tackle. Skits was my attempt to add more depth to the characters, but there are only so many things I can do with pure dialog, so even then, I am limited in how I can develop my characters. I will try to weave more dialog from the supporting cast into the main quest and perhaps even adding some random dialogs they can have with townspeople.

Regarding battle, I did want to do exactly what Chrono Trigger did. CT's combats were more enjoyable for me than any other JRPG. I realize now that a big part of it was thanks to dual/tri tech, but unfortunately I couldn't figure out a good way to implement that. That said, I'm still not very clear on what makes comat "too structured". Do you mean I should provide more flexible level progression (e.g. allow player to pick the stats they want to improve) or is there something in the battles itself that I should change?

Thanks!
Battles are almost dictated by you. You have a set amount of enemies per map, so that means you sorta have a limit to how much I can grind, but you also allow monsters to re-spawn at a certain time lapse, or by fighting other monsters.

That's not bad by any means. In fact it allows the player to feel like grinding isn't necessary, but it also means that you decide what level my characters should be, and that kind of makes me feel like I'm playing more of an interactive story than an RPG. Kind of like FF13, and Mystic Quest.

I see what you did with the ATB. You made it that even though I get stronger. I don't get any faster, unless I equip speed buff gear. Enemies have a set amount of speed, and so do your characters. I would be more of a challenge if enemies got faster, and so would your party members. That way if I go to an area, or even a boss fight, and I'm lacking in levels. I should get beat. I should feel like it's my fault that I'm unprepared. Like when you split my team in 2. That felt good.

There's so much I could discuss with you, but It doesn't do justice when I type it down bit by bit.

Thanks for the clarification!

I didn't explicitly state this in the game, but most monsters have a random re-spawn counter of 15-30 minute. They also immediately respawn when you leave/enter the dream world. There are some instances in the game where you need to revisit the same locations within a short span of time. For example, when you visit the Mountain Sage, you will have to go up the mountain, then back down. I didn't want to force the players to fight so many battles. What I can do is add a mechanism to force monsters to re-spawn immediately (for the people who love to grind). Will give this some thought.

The monsters were way harder before I made several nerfs to them. The balance I tried is achieve is for normal battles to be difficult if you are fighting the monsters for the first time. But after you figure out (either by trial and error or by scan) the monster's weaknesses and skill set, it should be fairly easy to beat them. And for boss battles, they should be challenging, but fairly simple as well if you use the right equipments and learn the right spells. I do plan on spending more time on the bosses specifically to make those fights more engaging.

==========================

Just want to add that I am really really happy that I decided to put my game up. Every single suggestion and comment has been extremely useful, and I have so many changes that I'd like to make now. Thanks everyone!

I finally beat the arena! That last guy was a frigging stun spammer, but I got his sword. (I know who it is. I just don't want to spoil it for the others.)

Level 32.

Edit.

I'm really close to beating the game, and all I got to say is. This HAS to make it as a featured game. Even with the few flaws here, and there. The game is REALLY good.

Edit 2.

There's a part in Shiverton where you have to rescue the maid. The event when you leave the building is bugged. The scene just loops.

The final dungeon is allowing me to recruit the characters that faded away. Yup I really needed these level 20 characters, when I'm level 70. xD
Hey dude I streamed this game on Twitch.

http://www.twitch.tv/huntingswan/c/5700324

Overall I liked it, see vid for full details. And if you appreciated me showcasing your game, please click the follow button on my Twitch channel. I play lots of rpg maker games so it's always interesting.
Thanks for streaming my game, HuntingSwan! I will definitely find time over the weekend to watch it.

And thanks for pointing out more bugs, Xemeth. The final dungeon should not allow you to recruit characters that faded away... that is another bug. I will fix that and the maid bug in the next version.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
As for the "Exit Game" option, I've had complaints from test users that they accidentally exited the game and lost their progress. IIRC, the option, by default, doesn't ask the player for confirmation. I will put the option back and try to add a confirmation before it actually exits.

By default (default VX Ace functionality), it totally does call up a confirmation window. With the "Luna Engine" in place, I have no idea.
I beat the game! no more! Clocking out with 17 hours.

I have a few suggestions for your supporting cast.

Why not make it that in every town your party members disbands into various locations, and have unique dialog when spoken to.

It may add a lot background to all the characters, and make more of a personal attachment to them.

I got the okay ending, but I think this game would be a good idea to add new game plus. with all the spells, and levels. That way we can go through the game, but being able to fix all the things we messed up the first play through.

I see what you did with the stats. They can't exceed 99 unless it's upped by gear. 16 if it's speed.

shayoko
We do not condone harassing other members by PM.
515
the not all characters obtainable in one playthru would be my only dislike as of this time
its one thing for them to join you and leave for story reasons but otherwise i hate it : (

that aside i have gotten to

Obal swamp where you meet a blond girl (note you can go north west towards the city instead if that matters,not sure if there was another exit)


current thoughts (hid to make smaller)

and thus far this games amazing
the mapping is good-great
some dialog is quite entertaining
the menu is beautiful
the trait system is nice
the AoE system is simple yet unique and awesome

if i were to consider a weakness which pretty much anything will have...
at this point in time id say the characters.
something that's really hard for a author to do is get the player/read to care about the characters. giving them deep characterization and backstorys while also having likeable/interesting personality's
sadly im not feeling that here but with the amount of entertainment this has outside of that this will defiantly be a good+ from me if it keeps up!


Edit
anyone else having trouble with the newest ver?
everytime i extract it says failed
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