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What better way to spend an evening than gathered around listening to a classic tale of a brave hero saving a princess from a sinister demon lord bent on ruling the world? Sure, it may be the same story you've heard time and time again, but don't old stories get better with age?
So here we find our usual crew. A hero, a demon lord, and a princess all congregating to tell the story of the hero's triumph and the defeat of a great evil. Everyone here know their role and exactly how to carry it out. But what happens when the story doesn't go exactly as we know it? What if someone were to rewrite the story to something no one within it knows how to enact? Who's responsibility is it to put the story back on its track and find the happy ending we all know and love?
Brave Hero Yuusha is a satirical love-letter to an older, simpler time of role-playing games when one's mission was solely to rid the world of a great evil and save the land. But nobody would be content if we played such a thing straight. Instead, players can look forward to a trope-shattering romp built with visuals heavily inspired from older RPGs; namely Dragon Quest, Hydelide, and Destiny of an Emperor, with extra emphasis on the former. Arm yourselves to the teeth and face off against a rogue's gallery of monsters and strange creatures as you journey to piece this broken narrative back to the way it should be!
The full game is now available for download. You do not need the Ace RTP to play!
Credits
Scripts
CaitSith's Vehicle Passability 1.1
CaithSith
CP's Pop-ups
NeonBlack
Custom Resolution
Matt Sully aka "Gump"
FullScreen++
Zeus81
LUNA ENGINE
Programmer: Yami (Cuong Nyugen)
Enterbrain/Degica
Minimum Damage
Kread-EX
Minimum Steps
Nelderson
Mithran's Text Cache
Mithran
Victor Basic
Victor Frames
Victor Sant
Yanfly Battlebacks
Yanfly Messages
Yanfly Slippery Tiles
Yanfly
Zerbu's Text Sound
Zerbu
Credits
Lead Developer: SgtMettool
Music and Sound: SpecialAgentApe
RPG Maker VX Ace Engine- Enterbrain
CaitSith's Vehicle Passability 1.1
CaithSith
CP's Pop-ups
NeonBlack
Custom Resolution
Matt Sully aka "Gump"
FullScreen++
Zeus81
LUNA ENGINE
Programmer: Yami (Cuong Nyugen)
Enterbrain/Degica
Minimum Damage
Kread-EX
Minimum Steps
Nelderson
Mithran's Text Cache
Mithran
Victor Basic
Victor Frames
Victor Sant
Yanfly Battlebacks
Yanfly Messages
Yanfly Slippery Tiles
Yanfly
Zerbu's Text Sound
Zerbu
Credits
Lead Developer: SgtMettool
Music and Sound: SpecialAgentApe
RPG Maker VX Ace Engine- Enterbrain
Like the OST? You can listen to it HERE!
Latest Blog
Sgt M
- Completed
- Sgt M
- SpecialAgentApe (Composer)
RPG Maker VX Ace- RPG
- 09/02/2015 09:28 PM
- 09/04/2021 02:27 PM
- 09/27/2015
- 167603
- 61
- 2696
Posts 
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Closeauthor=Linkis
Why am I the only one having trouble with this part of the game?? :)
Almost done and really enjoyed this game. I like grinding so after few levels I began my quest to beat up every critter in the game :)
In the start of the last dungeon...I think. Where you slide around.
I got the chest and I think two pages.
But right about in the middle of the screen, you need to go up into the next room and I can't figure out the combination of moves to go through the opening at the top.
Can I get a little help please ? :)
I just got to that part of the game, so if you're still there, I think I can help. I'll put a screenshot with how I did it under the hide tag.
By the way, I am having an absolute blast playing this game. :DDDDDDD
@unity, thank you very much for the directions :)
Actually, Sgt. took pity on me when I sent him a message and he returned my call for help with the directions.
I've finished the game and must say, I had a good time playing.
The humor and battles, the mapping, the....EVERYTHING :) was really enjoyable.
Thank you Sgt. for a great game.
Actually, Sgt. took pity on me when I sent him a message and he returned my call for help with the directions.
I've finished the game and must say, I had a good time playing.
The humor and battles, the mapping, the....EVERYTHING :) was really enjoyable.
Thank you Sgt. for a great game.
I just finished Brave Hero Yuusha. That was a simply amazing experience! :D The old-school feel meeting the twist of the story getting rewritten was done excellently, and you can really tell a lot of time went into the custom tilesets, sprites, and enemy battlers.
This was a real treat. Thanks very much, SgtMettool :DDDDDD
This was a real treat. Thanks very much, SgtMettool :DDDDDD
I've had a couple of requests for a link to the OST, and I've included it in a quick update to the game's description.
I'm super late getting to this but thank you so much! :D :D
author=unity
I just finished Brave Hero Yuusha. That was a simply amazing experience! :D The old-school feel meeting the twist of the story getting rewritten was done excellently, and you can really tell a lot of time went into the custom tilesets, sprites, and enemy battlers.
This was a real treat. Thanks very much, SgtMettool :DDDDDD
I'm super late getting to this but thank you so much! :D :D
argh
792
I'm glad I saw this game, I really liked it! It's obvious how much love was put into this from the sheer detail and mirth in everything. I particularly enjoyed how reactive everything was and how much personality the NPCs had. I loved the music (especially the overworld theme), and the battlers were also very nice. The random encounters did get tedious after a while, though, especially since there wasn't really anything to mix up the standard jRPG formula. I would have appreciated a way to turn off random encounters towards the end -- or at least to disable them on the whale, especially since so many of the moon medals require wandering the ocean aimlessly. (There are still 4 I haven't found...)
I have mixed feelings about the plot, though.
I think it did very well when it was just being silly and mocking the cliches, but it fell kind of flat when it tried to be profound. I think this is mainly because it's not very clear how the metaphysics work -- like, Volzo said he wanted to be a hero before becoming the demon lord, but how does that make any sense? Did he have a childhood like a normal person, or did he spring into existence fully formed? If the former, why didn't he reject his role? How was he "chosen"? What does that mean? The Yuusha's attitude seems to imply that these characters have no backgrounds and were conjured spontaneously just to fit the story. I think there was a good opportunity for some very disturbing existential horror there that was missed. (Have you heard of a webcomic called NanQuest? It does something... tangentially related to all of this in its climax, you might find it interesting.) So, I don't really understand the stakes, or how things are going to work out -- are they pure constructs who will cease to exist when the story is finished, or are they actual people in a full world that will change and persist beyond the scope of the story?
I found the Yuusha's portrayal particularly weird. Is he supposed to be me, or is he supposed to be his own character? If the latter, why the dialogue options? If the former, then why are the dialogue options so limiting? I think it's safe to assume that, if I'm playing a jRPG, I do want to be a hero -- they are hero fantasies, after all. His dramatic epiphany at the end fell totally flat because it was something I had already come to earlier and I assumed he had as well. Why should I care if I was never asked to be a hero? Being a hero is all about rising to unexpected challenges and doing the right thing even if it's inconvenient. If you hand someone power and the opportunity to do good and all they do is wring their hands over if they really want it, I feel that makes them a bad person. I think a more effective deconstruction of this would be to pursue some kind of "are you really doing the right thing" angle, since the generic jRPG hero has no opinions of their own and just obediently does as they're told. I think you sort of tried to break that by having him object to everything all the time, but it ends up feeling very token when the game is, in actuality, still completely linear. Having us play as Edward with his delusional hero fantasies might have also been more effective as a deconstruction of the "hero" role, since he's the true audience stand-in.
In the end, I felt the characters fell to cliche. From the start, I knew there was basically only one way their arcs could go: they realize their roles are unfairly limiting and they want to be free. And indeed, that's exactly what happens, plus some angst and hand-wringing. They are, ironically, still walking down a pretty simple, predictable narrative, even though it's a different one.
The whole thing with Edward also makes the plot read like it was rewritten halfway through. His actions and supposed motives at the start are completely incongruous with his true motives -- if his only desire was hatred and destruction, why did he ramble so much about fun, and why did he do frivolous things that didn't actually damage the story, like delegating to his lieutenants? It's possible to read his actions in the prologue as trying to short-circuit the story by making it end as soon as it begins, which would effectively destroy it, but after that I don't understand why he doesn't take a more active role in things. Oh, and how is it possible for Jasper to be both an established character in the story and a projection created by him?
Finally... this is probably just Undertale whiplash, but I did find it a little weird that the solution is just to beat Edward to a bloody pulp, because that is quite possibly the most cliche jRPG cliche there is, at least in modern consciousness. I know that wasn't the aspect of jRPGs you were examining so it doesn't betray the story too much, but I did find it a little jarring for such a self-aware story.
Still, it was fun, serviceable, and not too long.
I also feel the need to comment on the portrayal of women in the story. I believe the portrayals were well-meaning, but still fell into common traps and cliches.
Firstly, Lorica made me cringe. She's basically a giant list of female stereotypes: she's the only member of her group, she's a squishy wizard, and she's arrogant, but that arrogance is totally unfounded because she's also the weakest. Then at the end we find out she is literally the anthropomorphic personification of Edward's pride? I know there is no way you intended it this way, but it is worryingly easy to read that as women being inherently stuck-up and arrogant. I will grant that she isn't vain or sexualized, which are the two worst traits that often befall female characters, but she still could have been handled better.
Glynn is a Strong Female Character. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it meas a female character who pays lip service to being tough and independent, but who still falls into damaging female stereotypes when it matters. Here, Glynn talks big, but she's the only character to have a hysterical meltdown over the existential themes -- Volzo just has some manly, restrained angst, and the Yuusha is just vaguely annoyed at everything all the time. There also seems to be a running gag about how hilarious it is that she bosses around all the men and that she's unreasonably whiny, which is just perpetuating the idea that women are inherently subservient to men and it's a bizarre and comically absurd occurrence when this is overturned. I appreciate that you point out the damsel in distress narrative is stupid and extremely restrictive for the princess, but I think you could have taken it a lot farther. In particular, I'm surprised that it was never pointed out how crown princesses actually have a lot of political power, which should make them figures of importance in their own right rather than just fancy trophies.
Ashlyn is another form of positive discrimination, that of the woman as moral center. She's the textbook fairytale figure: the pure maiden who is able to soothe the raging beast, or in this case, the man who has gone out of control. This is commonly seen as a, if you'll forgive the buzzword, problematic portrayal, since it places the moral burden of an intemperate man's actions on his significant other -- an "I don't need to moderate myself, my woman will keep me in check," or, "When a man marries a woman, she becomes his weakness," sort of thing. It places women on a pedestal and perpetuates a cultural narrative where women exist to help men with their problems. I think this might have worked better if Ashlyn wasn't quite so perfect -- if we saw her struggling with her own problems and personality flaws, yet she still resolved to help Edward in the end because she's a good person. That might have helped the placing-on-a-pedestal problem, at the least.
Granted, all of that is pretty advanced sociological stuff, so I don't blame you for it. The only thing that really annoyed me was the "LOL Glynn's so whiny" bit at the end of the ice cave; the rest didn't feel actively malicious and is actually pretty good compared to some other games I could name. But it's something to keep in mind.
Finally, I found a typo in the ending:
"Thanks in no small part to Ashlyn, who's unyielding devotion..."
But yeah, despite my complaints, this was a really fun and well-written game. I'm glad it got featured, because otherwise I wouldn't have seen it!
I have mixed feelings about the plot, though.
I think it did very well when it was just being silly and mocking the cliches, but it fell kind of flat when it tried to be profound. I think this is mainly because it's not very clear how the metaphysics work -- like, Volzo said he wanted to be a hero before becoming the demon lord, but how does that make any sense? Did he have a childhood like a normal person, or did he spring into existence fully formed? If the former, why didn't he reject his role? How was he "chosen"? What does that mean? The Yuusha's attitude seems to imply that these characters have no backgrounds and were conjured spontaneously just to fit the story. I think there was a good opportunity for some very disturbing existential horror there that was missed. (Have you heard of a webcomic called NanQuest? It does something... tangentially related to all of this in its climax, you might find it interesting.) So, I don't really understand the stakes, or how things are going to work out -- are they pure constructs who will cease to exist when the story is finished, or are they actual people in a full world that will change and persist beyond the scope of the story?
I found the Yuusha's portrayal particularly weird. Is he supposed to be me, or is he supposed to be his own character? If the latter, why the dialogue options? If the former, then why are the dialogue options so limiting? I think it's safe to assume that, if I'm playing a jRPG, I do want to be a hero -- they are hero fantasies, after all. His dramatic epiphany at the end fell totally flat because it was something I had already come to earlier and I assumed he had as well. Why should I care if I was never asked to be a hero? Being a hero is all about rising to unexpected challenges and doing the right thing even if it's inconvenient. If you hand someone power and the opportunity to do good and all they do is wring their hands over if they really want it, I feel that makes them a bad person. I think a more effective deconstruction of this would be to pursue some kind of "are you really doing the right thing" angle, since the generic jRPG hero has no opinions of their own and just obediently does as they're told. I think you sort of tried to break that by having him object to everything all the time, but it ends up feeling very token when the game is, in actuality, still completely linear. Having us play as Edward with his delusional hero fantasies might have also been more effective as a deconstruction of the "hero" role, since he's the true audience stand-in.
In the end, I felt the characters fell to cliche. From the start, I knew there was basically only one way their arcs could go: they realize their roles are unfairly limiting and they want to be free. And indeed, that's exactly what happens, plus some angst and hand-wringing. They are, ironically, still walking down a pretty simple, predictable narrative, even though it's a different one.
The whole thing with Edward also makes the plot read like it was rewritten halfway through. His actions and supposed motives at the start are completely incongruous with his true motives -- if his only desire was hatred and destruction, why did he ramble so much about fun, and why did he do frivolous things that didn't actually damage the story, like delegating to his lieutenants? It's possible to read his actions in the prologue as trying to short-circuit the story by making it end as soon as it begins, which would effectively destroy it, but after that I don't understand why he doesn't take a more active role in things. Oh, and how is it possible for Jasper to be both an established character in the story and a projection created by him?
Finally... this is probably just Undertale whiplash, but I did find it a little weird that the solution is just to beat Edward to a bloody pulp, because that is quite possibly the most cliche jRPG cliche there is, at least in modern consciousness. I know that wasn't the aspect of jRPGs you were examining so it doesn't betray the story too much, but I did find it a little jarring for such a self-aware story.
Still, it was fun, serviceable, and not too long.
I also feel the need to comment on the portrayal of women in the story. I believe the portrayals were well-meaning, but still fell into common traps and cliches.
Firstly, Lorica made me cringe. She's basically a giant list of female stereotypes: she's the only member of her group, she's a squishy wizard, and she's arrogant, but that arrogance is totally unfounded because she's also the weakest. Then at the end we find out she is literally the anthropomorphic personification of Edward's pride? I know there is no way you intended it this way, but it is worryingly easy to read that as women being inherently stuck-up and arrogant. I will grant that she isn't vain or sexualized, which are the two worst traits that often befall female characters, but she still could have been handled better.
Glynn is a Strong Female Character. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it meas a female character who pays lip service to being tough and independent, but who still falls into damaging female stereotypes when it matters. Here, Glynn talks big, but she's the only character to have a hysterical meltdown over the existential themes -- Volzo just has some manly, restrained angst, and the Yuusha is just vaguely annoyed at everything all the time. There also seems to be a running gag about how hilarious it is that she bosses around all the men and that she's unreasonably whiny, which is just perpetuating the idea that women are inherently subservient to men and it's a bizarre and comically absurd occurrence when this is overturned. I appreciate that you point out the damsel in distress narrative is stupid and extremely restrictive for the princess, but I think you could have taken it a lot farther. In particular, I'm surprised that it was never pointed out how crown princesses actually have a lot of political power, which should make them figures of importance in their own right rather than just fancy trophies.
Ashlyn is another form of positive discrimination, that of the woman as moral center. She's the textbook fairytale figure: the pure maiden who is able to soothe the raging beast, or in this case, the man who has gone out of control. This is commonly seen as a, if you'll forgive the buzzword, problematic portrayal, since it places the moral burden of an intemperate man's actions on his significant other -- an "I don't need to moderate myself, my woman will keep me in check," or, "When a man marries a woman, she becomes his weakness," sort of thing. It places women on a pedestal and perpetuates a cultural narrative where women exist to help men with their problems. I think this might have worked better if Ashlyn wasn't quite so perfect -- if we saw her struggling with her own problems and personality flaws, yet she still resolved to help Edward in the end because she's a good person. That might have helped the placing-on-a-pedestal problem, at the least.
Granted, all of that is pretty advanced sociological stuff, so I don't blame you for it. The only thing that really annoyed me was the "LOL Glynn's so whiny" bit at the end of the ice cave; the rest didn't feel actively malicious and is actually pretty good compared to some other games I could name. But it's something to keep in mind.
Finally, I found a typo in the ending:
"Thanks in no small part to Ashlyn, who's unyielding devotion..."
But yeah, despite my complaints, this was a really fun and well-written game. I'm glad it got featured, because otherwise I wouldn't have seen it!
Thank you for the write-up, I'm glad you had a good experience overall.
Also, thank you for your input on the concerns of how the female characters were portrayed. I never really gave those particular intricacies that level of thought. I wrote all of the characters (not just the women) to be trope-y and hammy parodies of old RPG archetypes.
But I can understand how this could be seen as irksome in some regards, so this is definitely valuable feedback for how to approach my writing in future projects. Believe me: the last thing I want to be is discriminatory.
Also, thank you for your input on the concerns of how the female characters were portrayed. I never really gave those particular intricacies that level of thought. I wrote all of the characters (not just the women) to be trope-y and hammy parodies of old RPG archetypes.
But I can understand how this could be seen as irksome in some regards, so this is definitely valuable feedback for how to approach my writing in future projects. Believe me: the last thing I want to be is discriminatory.
argh
792
Yeah, portrayal of women is kind of a minefield because there are just so many terrible tropes and stereotypes out there -- even if you try to subvert one, you'll probably end up upholding another, and even if you have the best of intentions, it's very easy to read them in a negative light because there are so many cultural narratives out there. Still, it's always good to try your best.
Edit: Ooh, I just checked out the OST and I love the outtake tracks. Chiptune is cute, but I always love high-res stuff too.
Edit: Ooh, I just checked out the OST and I love the outtake tracks. Chiptune is cute, but I always love high-res stuff too.
SpecialAgentApe
575
Hiya! I did the music for this game, so I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who had good things to say about it; I'm glad to have been a big part of the game. I love chiptunes and the project was great fun. I hope I added something and helped make a good game shine brighter.
The music for this game is phenomenal, feeling both nostalgic and yet still new and fun. ^_^ Great job!
I just started this game and only played 30 minutes, but I am already wow'd by it all.
The first thing that really makes an impact is the freaking music. It has the essence of classic nes games yet the music is its own thing. Seriously, every song so far is bursting full of heart.
Then the text box appears. The font, the beeps for every letter... I wanted to do the beeps for every letter for a while now, but never got around to actually attempting it. So yeah, I noticed that, and I think it's awesome.
The graphics are great and the enemies are extremely charming. The first dungeon was well designed and the battles were fast paced. The battle backs are really well done as well.
The dialogue is nicely written. I feel like I just bought this game somewhere and playing something a professional made.
I definitely look forward to playing more of this.
The first thing that really makes an impact is the freaking music. It has the essence of classic nes games yet the music is its own thing. Seriously, every song so far is bursting full of heart.
Then the text box appears. The font, the beeps for every letter... I wanted to do the beeps for every letter for a while now, but never got around to actually attempting it. So yeah, I noticed that, and I think it's awesome.
The graphics are great and the enemies are extremely charming. The first dungeon was well designed and the battles were fast paced. The battle backs are really well done as well.
The dialogue is nicely written. I feel like I just bought this game somewhere and playing something a professional made.
I definitely look forward to playing more of this.
author=zDS
I just started this game and only played 30 minutes, but I am already wow'd by it all.
The first thing that really makes an impact is the freaking music. It has the essence of classic nes games yet the music is its own thing. Seriously, every song so far is bursting full of heart.
Then the text box appears. The font, the beeps for every letter... I wanted to do the beeps for every letter for a while now, but never got around to actually attempting it. So yeah, I noticed that, and I think it's awesome.
The graphics are great and the enemies are extremely charming. The first dungeon was well designed and the battles were fast paced. The battle backs are really well done as well.
The dialogue is nicely written. I feel like I just bought this game somewhere and playing something a professional made.
I definitely look forward to playing more of this.
Goodness me, thank you so much! It makes me so happy to hear that the game has left that much of an impact on you :O
No problem! Also, I have a question for the composer: What music making program did you use to make the music? I love the quality of chiptune.
SpecialAgentApe
575
It's just FL Studio with NES VST, but really any DAW with NES VST will work.
With most of the songs, I followed NES limitations (I think every song other than the overworld and I think the puppeteer's theme would work on a real NES :) ) which is probably why people have been saying it sounds more authentic than most modern-made NES chiptunes. For those curious: the NES has two square waves, a triangle wave that can't change volume, and then the noise channel. A lot of faux-retro games use more than this or break the volume rule on the triangle wave.
To people that like the soundtrack: I have a few of the songs in more standard instruments in the playlist in the description, as well as one that didn't make the cut. I hope you enjoy them and maybe check out my other music and remixes, too! And thank you all so much for the nice words, this was a very fun project.
With most of the songs, I followed NES limitations (I think every song other than the overworld and I think the puppeteer's theme would work on a real NES :) ) which is probably why people have been saying it sounds more authentic than most modern-made NES chiptunes. For those curious: the NES has two square waves, a triangle wave that can't change volume, and then the noise channel. A lot of faux-retro games use more than this or break the volume rule on the triangle wave.
To people that like the soundtrack: I have a few of the songs in more standard instruments in the playlist in the description, as well as one that didn't make the cut. I hope you enjoy them and maybe check out my other music and remixes, too! And thank you all so much for the nice words, this was a very fun project.
The game has been updated to v1.03. Just a small graphics update for a few tiles that I never got around to finalizing. Nothing related to gameplay has been changed, so there's no real patch notes to speak of.
Hello there SgtMettool.
I have been playing RPGMaker games from this site for years and years, but never saw a reason to signup. I've played most of the "classics" on here and having just completed Brave Hero Yuusha, I finally decided to signup so I can start giving impressions and experiences I have with the game to the developer.
I want to say also I am a complete amateur at this and will likely be jumping from topic to topic randomly, so I apologize if it is difficult to follow along.
Right off the bat, this game is clearly inspired by Dragon Quest. I am a huge fan of Dragon Quest and have been since I was a small child. (I'm 25 by the way) The quality in the presentation was immediately apparent to me. Your menus are simple and imitate the classic games it is inspired from, without being default RPGMaker skin either. The music was catchy and looped well. Not incredibly memorable music, but it set the tone it meant to and was pleasant.
The writing is nothing spectacular, but it gets the job done. I have certainly seen much much worse. There are three instances where I noticed typos. One was early while talking to the mayor of the desert trading town (with the vital charms) the other two were in a flashback sequence towards the end of the game. Sorry I can't give you exacts, I wrapped up my playthrough last night and cannot recall. The dialogue never seems forced, cheesy or out of place. Flows well enough, but the general scenario/plot of the game doesn't lend itself to any fantastic monologues or whatnot.
The world map music reminded me of FF5. The sprites are what you would expect of this style of game. There were many mini medals hidden around the map, which is nice but I wish there would have been more worthwhile secrets. Perhaps give the player another key at the end of the game which lets you access some strong optional bosses/ ultimate equipment? A way to mitigate random encounters would have been a plus also; be it an item or a spell it doesn't matter. I would normally recommend a world map to be included in these kinds of games, but your game was short enough/ small enough world to not have needed one which may be a negative on it's own. More dungeons, more towns, more places to explore, etc is almost always a criticism I make with games so don't take it personally. I do admit the game length fits the simple narrative well enough, but I almost always thirst for more.
Regarding the battle system ... it works well enough for the most part, but it lacked the depth and challenge I personally enjoy. Most random encounters revolved around spamming attack + attack/cure us + fire all/frostall/firemostall/frostmostall ;
Most boss encounters revolved around
Hero- 1st turn Zeal, 2nd turn Fortify then either attack or use Comet/Meteor Strike if they're weak to it
Volza- Can inflict some status effects on bosses but its usually not worth it so he ends up attacking and healing in a rotation or spamming heal on the last couple bosses
Glynn- FireMost/Frostmost, occasional Dread/Siphon
I just wish the game had forced me to break out of this routine. To be fair most rpgs fall victim to this, especially commercial games.
More random notes about the game,
-You had a challenge enemy as a blue chest in one of the dungeons and it gave a nice reward, I would have LOVED to see one of these in each dungeon!
-Would have liked slightly more enemy variety, maybe an additional 2-3 enemies per zone/dungeon
-More nods to older rpgs via either in town secrets, npc dialogue, locations on the map etc would have been lovely
Overall it was a very enjoyable game. I wouldn't be commenting if it wasn't. End playtime was 5 hours 38 minutes, having left the game idol a bit and got all the medals. My main and most major criticism is the game length, variety in equips/monsters/spells/areas and more joking/4th wall breaking npcs. Sorry if it sounds like I'm a bit harsh, my life motto is to be critical to help people improve. Ass kissing does very little to help, afterall.
Thank you for the hours of fun. I hope you develop more games! Compared to games like Cthulhu Saves the World, if you expanded and made a larger game with this level of polish you could easily sell it commercially via Steam or something for $5-$10
Till next time,
Andrew
I have been playing RPGMaker games from this site for years and years, but never saw a reason to signup. I've played most of the "classics" on here and having just completed Brave Hero Yuusha, I finally decided to signup so I can start giving impressions and experiences I have with the game to the developer.
I want to say also I am a complete amateur at this and will likely be jumping from topic to topic randomly, so I apologize if it is difficult to follow along.
Right off the bat, this game is clearly inspired by Dragon Quest. I am a huge fan of Dragon Quest and have been since I was a small child. (I'm 25 by the way) The quality in the presentation was immediately apparent to me. Your menus are simple and imitate the classic games it is inspired from, without being default RPGMaker skin either. The music was catchy and looped well. Not incredibly memorable music, but it set the tone it meant to and was pleasant.
The writing is nothing spectacular, but it gets the job done. I have certainly seen much much worse. There are three instances where I noticed typos. One was early while talking to the mayor of the desert trading town (with the vital charms) the other two were in a flashback sequence towards the end of the game. Sorry I can't give you exacts, I wrapped up my playthrough last night and cannot recall. The dialogue never seems forced, cheesy or out of place. Flows well enough, but the general scenario/plot of the game doesn't lend itself to any fantastic monologues or whatnot.
The world map music reminded me of FF5. The sprites are what you would expect of this style of game. There were many mini medals hidden around the map, which is nice but I wish there would have been more worthwhile secrets. Perhaps give the player another key at the end of the game which lets you access some strong optional bosses/ ultimate equipment? A way to mitigate random encounters would have been a plus also; be it an item or a spell it doesn't matter. I would normally recommend a world map to be included in these kinds of games, but your game was short enough/ small enough world to not have needed one which may be a negative on it's own. More dungeons, more towns, more places to explore, etc is almost always a criticism I make with games so don't take it personally. I do admit the game length fits the simple narrative well enough, but I almost always thirst for more.
Regarding the battle system ... it works well enough for the most part, but it lacked the depth and challenge I personally enjoy. Most random encounters revolved around spamming attack + attack/cure us + fire all/frostall/firemostall/frostmostall ;
Most boss encounters revolved around
Hero- 1st turn Zeal, 2nd turn Fortify then either attack or use Comet/Meteor Strike if they're weak to it
Volza- Can inflict some status effects on bosses but its usually not worth it so he ends up attacking and healing in a rotation or spamming heal on the last couple bosses
Glynn- FireMost/Frostmost, occasional Dread/Siphon
I just wish the game had forced me to break out of this routine. To be fair most rpgs fall victim to this, especially commercial games.
More random notes about the game,
-You had a challenge enemy as a blue chest in one of the dungeons and it gave a nice reward, I would have LOVED to see one of these in each dungeon!
-Would have liked slightly more enemy variety, maybe an additional 2-3 enemies per zone/dungeon
-More nods to older rpgs via either in town secrets, npc dialogue, locations on the map etc would have been lovely
Overall it was a very enjoyable game. I wouldn't be commenting if it wasn't. End playtime was 5 hours 38 minutes, having left the game idol a bit and got all the medals. My main and most major criticism is the game length, variety in equips/monsters/spells/areas and more joking/4th wall breaking npcs. Sorry if it sounds like I'm a bit harsh, my life motto is to be critical to help people improve. Ass kissing does very little to help, afterall.
Thank you for the hours of fun. I hope you develop more games! Compared to games like Cthulhu Saves the World, if you expanded and made a larger game with this level of polish you could easily sell it commercially via Steam or something for $5-$10
Till next time,
Andrew
Sounds like you've enjoyed the game overall! That's very pleasing to hear!
Quite interesting to hear this, actually. It looks like you've taken a very different strategy to Volza than most others who have played the game so far. It's pretty cool to know that people made it through the game with different methods than what I had in mind!
author=Andrew_Anonymous
Volza- Can inflict some status effects on bosses but its usually not worth it so he ends up attacking and healing in a rotation or spamming heal on the last couple bosses
Quite interesting to hear this, actually. It looks like you've taken a very different strategy to Volza than most others who have played the game so far. It's pretty cool to know that people made it through the game with different methods than what I had in mind!
