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The rivalry between Craze and LockeZ began centuries ago when the lifeless planet earth first began to spin and form the galaxy. In the sky, the very first star appeared. Neither LockeZ nor Craze was going to have any of that, and so they both jumped up to punch the universe back into eternal darkness, but they collided in mid-air. Each blamed the other, and while they were bickering, RPG Maker was invented.

They have finally decided to settle their dispute once and for all by facing off in an EPIC BOSS BATTLE.

Craze's team consists of four paladins, come to rescue Myra, a damsel in distress who was kidnapped and taken to Direvil Darkfort. LockeZ's team consists of four third-grade girls, who are really annoyed that none of the minions in their evil fortress believe that they're really darklords.

Players can play as either team, going through a different game depending on which party they play as - one game made by LockeZ and one made by Craze. The two parties will meet at the center of Direvil Darkfort and the player will fight the other team in a fantastic final boss battle.

For the first week after release, after playing both games, players were able to vote on which version they liked more. This was to establish once and for all who is the greatest game designer in the universe.

AND THE RESULTS ARE IN. CRAZE ARISES VICTORIOUS OVER THE EVIL OVERLORDS. LOCKEZ SLINKS BACK INTO A THOUSAND YEAR STASIS TO PLOT HIS REVENGE.

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  • Production
  • LockeZ
    Craze
  • RPG Maker VX Ace
  • RPG
  • 05/25/2015 12:11 PM
  • 02/03/2023 11:22 AM
  • 05/25/2015
  • 57890
  • 13
  • 304

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Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
Finished it. Both games were pretty awesome in their own way, but ultimately I decided Craze had the better game.

Both games have some flaws, though. LockeZ, I didn't encounter the permadeath issues the others have mentioned, so I was still able to keep a positive mood, but it does show a slight lack of attention to detail, and Craze's game also demonstrated a bit more passion and care with its story.

However, Craze's game is also bogged down by its incredibly pointless random encounters that give you no reward for beating them and are painfully easy to get through... Then the difficulty spikes as soon as you enter that battle against the kids. It took me numerous tries to get it right, but I kind of felt like the entire battles, and the next boss battle forward, relied too much on playing in one specific strategy to beat it rather than allowing room for variations in playstyle. That strategy is to spam Crystalgate as much as possible (you don't even need to care whether your opponent has buffs or not. It deals TONS of damage), and protect your party with Stalwart Guard so that you don't die within 3 turns.

Still, I felt like Craze's game demonstrated a bit more passion into his work and better attention to how his party dynamics work, in spite of being way harder and less forgiving than LockeZ's game. #TeamCraze for life.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
I definitely did have harder trash enemies than Craze, since when I originally had them easier you could beat them with just normal attacks. That utterly failed at the intended purpose of teaching you how to use your skills. The harder enemies obviously clashed with me forgetting to revive you after battle though.

I don't know if my boss is really "easier" than Craze's, but it's probably simpler, since Craze's game gives you more tools for survival but then expects you to use all of them. I intentionally made healing very difficult because I think that makes things more interesting, it makes it feel like both sides are being whittled down in the boss fight. In Craze's game, no matter how hurt you are, you can always fully recover in just a few rounds - so once you defeat one of the four enemies, you've basically won the battle, and the rest is just filler. If you survived that far then you can just keep doing the same thing you've been doing, except it's easier. In my boss battle, your resources and health dwindle over time, and so the whole fight is hard instad of just the first 25%. (I also sort of just like the idea that his characters play like RPG heroes and my characters play more like RPG enemies.)

That was my plan anyway. Maybe it didn't work out that way. I work way better when I have a lot more time to overthink things and can spend about half of my time test-playing the game over and over. This might be the last game I spend less than six months on.

I also admit I ran from most of the random encounters in Craze's game!
I enjoyed the greater amount of uniqueness in LockeZ's game - it was strategic the whole time instead of just buffing + bashing (Leon let me attack and heal in the same action) and also has interesting normal battles - Craze's feel like filler as there's no incentive to fight them and anything other than the kids battle is really easy.

The only real thing that bothers me about LockeZ's game is that some of the skills aren't very useful - Evil Blast is very weak, Bloodlatch didn't feel like it was doing a thing (I might just missed the healing effect) and Burn Everything is overcosted.

#TeamLockeZ
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
Is it pronounced "Dire evil" or "durr-evvel"?
author=CashmereCat
Is it pronounced "Dire evil" or "durr-evvel"?


I think it's "Die-Reevel"
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Bloodlatch totally does work. It's not a LOT of healing unless Bennet happens to heal the person you latched, but the main effect is that every time Leon uses Radiance, Anathema gets healed along with all of the enemies. This helps her store up enough HP to use Transfusion on your other party members.

Blood Suck, on the other hand, was totally bugged. Oops.

It's pronounced using the voice of the priest from Princess Bride. "Diaw Eeviw Dawk Fauwt"
author=LockeZ
Bloodlatch totally does work. It's not a LOT of healing unless Bennet happens to heal the person you latched, but the main effect is that every time Leon uses Radiance, Anathema gets healed along with all of the enemies. This helps her store up enough HP to use Transfusion on your other party members.

Blood Suck, on the other hand, was totally bugged. Oops.


I guess that's the difference between a skill that does nothing and one that only appears to do nothing. Blood Suck was alright for just the drain effect, though.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
I gave Anathema bloodlatch as a passive in my game. I'm not sure anybody noticed. XD (Any healing action or item use causes her to restore 100 HP.)

Also my boss battles were primarily influenced by Starship TsukuruNova 20003's finale, just saying.

edit: alsoalso, you only needed to use Stalwart Guard on turns (1+3x) because of the girls' rotations. Even then, you can beat the girls without it.
I finished both, and yeah, it's Craze's game all the way. Granted, LockeZ's game had better build-up towards the duel, with dialogue before & after every scripted fight vs. two easily missed examine dialogues (admittedly, pretty good ones) for Team Paladin. The forced reasons for combat eventually got rather tiring, though; it would've been a nice subversion if there were a couple more enemies that actually got the memo and stepped out of the way. The way Team Overlord goes immediately from battle to three text screens, with not even a small victory cutscene in between was also a bit underwhelming. Craze's game was much better about it, and had better music to boot.

Anyway, I'm not sure why people found LockeZ's game so difficult. Not one of the girls ever came close to dying for me, probably because I spammed Bloodsplatter nearly every turn for Anathema and promptly did the Sacrificial Pact whenever someone's health dipped below 1500 HP. Unfortunately, this was pretty much all Anathema and Mortissiga were good for: I would say about 80% of heavy lifting was ultimately done by Toxicoil and Project Freedom. It doesn't help that Lighting Strike usually does a lot more damage then far more expensive Burn Everything. For the boss battle, I ended up just having Project F attack normally after being buffed by Anathema, so that I could ignore randomness and dispatch them one-by-one.

Craze's duel, on the other hand, really did make me restart several times before I arrived at winning strategy. (For me, it was keeping Project F asleep no matter what, and if that failed, using Stalwart Guard. Once she's asleep, sedate Anathema and have everyone else bear down on Mortissiga, and essentially dispatch them from left to right.) The post-duel segment was very good, too, and I even liked the encounters there better then LockeZ's. It''s a pity that pre-duel encounters were all wiped out with Broad Sweep and Tundra before they could fight back, as they did look cool before they found eternal sleep.

author=Craze
I gave Anathema bloodlatch as a passive in my game. I'm not sure anybody noticed. XD (Any healing action or item use causes her to restore 100 HP.)


I totally did! Not that it mattered much, but still.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
I really enjoyed both games! They were very nicely set up and all the skills and battles were a ton of fun! I am seriously having a dilemma trying to pick a favorite XD

author=Craze
Also my boss battles were primarily influenced by Starship TsukuruNova 20003's finale, just saying.


Wow, really!? That's awesome! :DDDDD
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
I mean you played one game and made the other, I assume you can see the similarities in structure and enemies. my first boss just has an extra enemy because of the contest
nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
Well I finally got around to playing them both and it was a hard choice in the end, I really enjoyed the challenges of LockeZ game and I'm not a huge fan of a massive amount of random encounters that comprises part of Craze's, but I found the overall feel and progression in Craze's to be better, and that final battle really had me on my toes which made winning it all the sweeter. I did wonder for a while there if I was going to have to cast my vote for the opposing team, but in the end my overall sense of satisfaction on completion pushes it over the edge for me and it'll have to be Craze that gets the vote.
Well, I've got Let's Plays recorded for both of these games.





LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
This just in: the terrible font Craze picked out makes "badoobas" even more nonsensical than it already is
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
author=Craze
I mean you played one game and made the other, I assume you can see the similarities in structure and enemies. my first boss just has an extra enemy because of the contest


I saw them, there was just enough cool newness to them that I thought maybe the similarities were just my imagination XD

I also really enjoyed the story and humor of LockeZ's route. I could play like five more hours of that type of game at least (especially if level progression was added :P )
I also want to see more games like with LockeZ - something with gameplay similar to Impossible Bosses (which has only a character select at the start and a shop/level up screen before each boss) or Ultimate Crab Battle (where the entire gameplay consists solely of a boss fight).
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
LightningLord2
I also want to see more games like with LockeZ - something with gameplay similar to Impossible Bosses (which has only a character select at the start and a shop/level up screen before each boss) or Ultimate Crab Battle (where the entire gameplay consists solely of a boss fight).


http://rpgmaker.net/games/4526/
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
So who won?
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
The game players (and those who got to see the initial thread unfold) were the true winners.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
There are still almost three more days of voting, but currently the votes are slightly favoring Craze (by only one vote).

Craze, did you vote for yourself?