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A curse has befallen the people of Nsala. In the past, the Great Witch Lanoa could heal those who were cursed. But she is currently pregnant and unable to perform her healing ritual without risk to her baby. So her apprentice, Rawjal, must step up and heal those who've been afflicted by the curse. The first person Rawjal heals is a mysterious woman named Nziru. The two women quickly become fond of each other. But will there relationship blossom or wither? That's for the player to decide.

Nsala Sunset is a prequel to the African fantasy game Nsala Liberation. Both games in this series have years of research put into each of them. This research informs the games' art, dialog, rituals and other aspects. These games are not meant to be exact reflections of Africa. The hope is that these games will inspire players to learn more about Africa.

GAMEPLAY

When traversing the world Rawjal will be able to manipulate fire in order to solve puzzles. Additionally, the player can effect the relationships between Rawjal and her friends through player choices during character interactions and via gifts. The amount of Affinity Points you have with each character effect Rawjal's stats.
The main gameplay comes into play when Rawjal enters the minds of others in order to heal them of a curse. To eliminate a curse you must remove the different colored curse fragments by matching colors. Rawjal can transform into 6 different colors: Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange, and Purple. If you fail to match colors, you'll be damaged. Luckily you can heal yourself as much as you want because there is no magic point consumption in this game. But, don't spend to much time healing because you only have a limited time to remove a curse.
Will you be able to heal everyone from the curse in time?

Demo Info
This game is still a demo so if you find a glitch let me know.

Latest Blog

Please Review This Game Demo

I've been sending private messages to ask for reviews for weeks to multiple people. I was sending private messages because I feel awkward asking for reviews. But you know what I have a great game demo here and I'm tired of it being under the shadow of its old reviews. But speaking of those old reviews let me quote one of them for a second.
NTC3
Such retrospection from the developer is impressive, and the people who played the original will probably note a few changes here. Still, a lot more work is required before I could reasonably see Nsala Sunset entering the pantheon of RMN's greats, which is what a game with its ambition should deserve.

Now since I'm quoting NTC3 let me just mention first that I thank him for his feedback and I thank him for leaving out the star rating since that was such an earlier build of the game. I respect him and his opinions.
Anyway, though I did not do everything he asked, you will see that I took NTC3's and kory_toombs' feedback to heart (which I do for every review, message and comment I receive.) A lot more work has now been done to Nsala Sunset and it is now much better. My two newest playtesters enjoyed their experience and I'm sure you will too.

Let me be clear, because I don't want misinterpretations. This isn't a blog calling for NTC3 to re-review (maybe I'd ask that when the entire game is done.)
No, this blog is to ask anyone to review Nsala Sunset because I'm proud of my game and it deserves a chance. It deserves more than 2 stars. If you disagree and think it is absolute dog shit let me know. I will listen to your feedback and try to make improvements. That is what I do. I care about your thoughts even the negative stuff. All I ask is you give my game a chance.

Should I have quoted Korytombs' review also? Ah well you get the point right? I've made progress on my game based on feedback. And want a fresh look at it.

Thank you for your time.

Posts

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Thanks for the feedback Red_Nova. It's always good to hear from you! I'll be sure to use this info in the next update. Edit: Sorry for the short reply it's just that typing long responses can be detrimental to my back. I'm still in physical therapy for that.
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, RedMask! I finally got the time to look into this game. I didn't know it was so short (I beat it in about 10. 20 if you count the abandoned run when I restarted on the lower difficulty). Here are my stream of consciousness notes:

- Animated title screen. Small touch, but I like it.

- I'm starting on Normal mode.

- How come I can turn around during dialogue?

- That was a very well done first curse healing! I love the color coordination pop up!

- The pop up alone made this minigame leagues better than the original. If the original didn't have the popup. I can't remember if it did.

- Those subtle jabs the characters take at each other are very welcome. They really make them feel alive.

- Okay, this game has gotten me hooked more than Liberation did.

- I got stuck here when I tried to examine a heart because Nziru blocked me: http://gyazo.com/347e39ff256052a7e41eacdd97f78cd8

- Oh, that's cool, you can swap places.

- I like this affinity system!

- Some of the conversations make no sense. I didn't know Nziru wasn't humming a fun tune and lost some affinity.

- I like that you can give them gifts.

- That's funny how Rawjal's hair moves when going into buildings. My main concern is that the entrances and exits don't match. The exit is a three tiles wide and the entrance is one tile.

- I feel like these initial puzzles may be slightly more difficult than they need to be.

- Okay, those puzzles in shrine are very, very hard.

- I would like to have found upgrades for my health and time.

- Why is it called time, anyway? I think it should be called Spirit, since that fits into the story world more.

- Healing is pointless. It doesn't heal you nearly enough and it slows you down far too much to be useful.

- I'd recommend addressing either of these issues to make it more useful. Preferably the slowing down, since you're already on a time crunch.

- Dude how is the right warrior's puzzle even possible? That initial dark background run took way too much of my time away that, even though I got all but one time boosts, still couldn't get all the spirits. That dark background needs to either be shorter or gone. I don't think it's fair for players to lose 80% of their time because of something out of their control, especially at the beginning of the game where players are still getting used to the controls. Hell, I beat Liberation and even I can't do this!

- So after 10 attempts on each puzzle, I restarted on Easy mode.

- And yeah. There are a lot of typos. Some are sorta understandable, but you don't need to be an English major to know that question marks are used for questions.

- The path to the back of the shrine was open the entire time I was helping them. I didn't see any door opening after I hit the switches, and there wasn't even a door sound effect. What was going on? What did those switches do?

- Also, I just noticed: before I heal the warriors, Clua asks me if I'm ready to go in and heal HER curse. Those are male warriors, so that should be fixed.

- Restarted a third time to get the heart to hearts.

- For such a short demo, there really should have been a conversation with Lanoa.

- I gave Clua the Baobab fruit and gave the right answer when asked about searching the area before entering the shrine, but I can't seem to get the heart to heart.

- Hm... the answer that lowers Nziru's affinity feels like a trap. I don't know her Nziru well enough to make an educated guess as to what would raise or lower her affinity. She asked why, and I answered truthfully. But since you can save an attempt the conversation again, I don't think it needs to be fixed right away.


Overall thoughts:

Since I played and beat Liberation, I can't really talk much about the story from a newcomer's perspective. I do think that the characterization (what little there was) was well done. You've done a good job giving Lanoa enough human qualities to make her feel like an actual person, not just a video game character. Rawjal still acts a bit too kooky for my tastes, but I'm chalking that up to personal preference, and not knocking the game because of that. I'd just caution you to not make her too over the top with the kooky levels. Clua is still as wise and sarcastic as ever. I definitely appreciated that.

All that being said, the demo was too short to have the characters leave a strong impression for newcomers to the world in my opinion. I knew these characters beforehand, and I think you did a good job transferring their personalities, but I doubt many newcomers will be hooked.

The biggest problem that hasn't really changed much from the original is the difficulty. Calling it Easy and Normal will be misleading to player. It should be Normal or Hard. It's fine if you want to make Normal mode as difficult as what you see in the demo, but that should not happen at the beginning of the game. Like the original, I think the biggest problem is that many of the curse fragments don't follow a set pattern. Because a good deal of them move randomly, deciphering a pattern and planning a route is next to impossible, and with limited time, clearing the puzzles is more like a test of luck than skill.
I haven't had the chance to play Grandia 1 but I played Grandia 2 that was a good game. Thanks for the compliment.

Hope you have fun with the original game Suzy!
The main game play of this game is very similar to the curse mission side quests of Nsala Liberation so if you enjoy those you'll enjoy this.
I quite like the graphics in the screenshots. The combination of the flora, colour and perspective in the purple area reminds me very much of Grandia.

I'll have to check this out after I play the original game!
I got to see the 7th episode Tyranos. It was really good!
I might make a blog about it since it shows off Umoja which is a really great area of the game. I put so much work into that city, my right hand was in pain for about a month after I finished it.

author=Bogo
looks interesting, lot of creative work. Good luck!


Thanks for the compliment Bogo! I'm always happy to hear what others think of my work.

author=Red_Nova
Somehow I missed this. I'll be sure to give it a look when I have the time!


Red_Nova do you remember when you were testing my last game you said something like: "There are so many mechanics in this game that many of them could be the basis of an entire game."? Well let's just say I took your advice. Both the curse healing and fire magic in this game are modified versions of what existed in Nsala Liberation. The curse mechanics in particular are heavily modified due to it using a completely different timing system that allows the player to regain time. There are of course completely new additions such Rawjal's unique way of healing and the affinity links between characters. I have plans for more new abilities as well, that will be introduced in a later update to this game.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Somehow I missed this. I'll be sure to give it a look when I have the time!
looks interesting, lot of creative work. Good luck!
Wow 12 different programs that's sounds complicated! Well you have my thanks for making the Let's Play. I'm enjoying what I've seen my friend. In fact, I posted episode 5 in the media section as a way of showcasing the Rock Shield spell.

I'm sure I'll enjoy your talk about Mancala. After all, a big part of Let's Plays is the commentary.
Looking forward to this. I'm currently uploading a buttload of Liberation videos since I finally encoded them without breaking them. Ah the modern age where you need 12 different programs for recording, editing, and encoding video files. Anyways Pepper that Angus for some crazy amount of Nsala Liberation uploads but I hope you watch the one where I talk about Mancala for a little bit, to me it's the coolest episode in the bunch. I tried not to derail the game and go into massive detail about the game but just so you have an idea of how much I know about that game from when I was kid here's a list of cool variants.

Bao la Kiswahili – widespread along the east coast of Africa, and an integral part of Swahili culture.

Congkak – close variants in South Asia from the Maldives to the Philippines, known by many different names (e.g. Dakon, Ohvalhu, Sungka

Kalah – a modern game played mostly in the USA (where it is simply known as "Mancala") and Europe

Oware (awalé, awélé) – close variants are played in the Caribbean, throughout western Africa, and in immigrant communities in North America and Europe

Toguz korgool or Toguz kumalak – played in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, where it is considered superior to chess.

I think playing this growing up made me as calculating as I am when I play MtG or other card games. It's an easy way to teach basic strategy to children if you look closely.
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