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Legacies of Dondoran has passed 10000 downloads. Big huge thanks to those who tried this out!
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A 40-50 hour epic, featuring an extensive original musical score, and a dynamic skill tree progression system.

Basically, will keep you busy for a long time! Skill tree is HUGE and fun to explore. Lots and lots and lots of loot, the later half of the game is non-linear with a lot of side-quests.

The fan art in the screenshots section was done by Clest. Yes, Ishutal looks kinda like Rika from Phantasy Star 4! Not intentional! :)

For questions: harmonic42@gmail.com

Latest Blog

The journey of Lod -> LoD2 -> Going indie

Hello, RMN!

In response to the popularity of LoD1, and the cancellation of LoD2, this blog will try and tell a colorful tale of the journey that Legacies of Dondoran has taken in its long life. A few quick bullet points:

-Transition to the Indie realm
-Rationale for cancelling LoD2
-Spiritual successorship of Deadly Sin 1 and 2
-The humble beginnings of LoD1

Legacies Of Dondoran
LoD1 took a long time to make. It actually began in late 2000 when I first found out about rpgmaker2000. At the time, I was just a college freshman at the college of music, and had done a little composing, but once I found a way to make games easily, I decided to make one as a platform for my music, since making RPG music was a huge passion/dream at the time.

LoD1 began as the noobiest of noob games you could ever imagine. In fact, it actually used mostly RTP music, and all RTP graphics. It reeked of "Hay gize I made a gam!" As the game developed, I re-made it and re-make it until about the end of the 2nd dungeon, then let it sit for about 3 years.

Then RPGmaker2003 rolled around. The battle system (even though we all hate it now) was amazing to me, with the side view and ATB system. This motivated me to keep going. I picked the game up where it left off and retrofitted it for RM2K3, and finished the rest of the game in about one summer of super-mega-psycho sprint productivity. Once it finished, I rushed to get the thing out there, and onto Gamingw.net. For those of you old enough to remember, the game suffered from numerous bugs and other signs of being very unpolished. I distinctly remember drawing the ire of a certain someone, who commented on the fact that I over-hyped my game and it didn't deliver, but even so I was, in his words, "the darling of GW." :D

Anyway, LoD was a very ambitious first project in size and scope, and it was high profile enough at the time to draw a large amount of critique. Only since I've gone indie have I learned to take critique truly gracefully, so I earned the reputation of the classic butthurt noob that we all make fun of today. The difference was... deep down, I took the comments to heart, and worked to revamp the game and make it better. I did so, and the toughest critics seemed to acknowledge its improvement. Once GW.net basically died, and RMN was born, LoD found new life as one of the first featured games on the site.

Legacies Of Dondoran 2
There were a lot of tales left untold at the end of LoD, such as the life of Alec Tyranos, how the political situation unfolded, whether or not Garm Tyranos (the hero of LoD1) actually survived, the evolution of the holy bloodlines, among others. I decided to make LoD2 a much more mature storyline, focusing on political intrigue and personal inner struggles. By now, I had learned how to use the eventing system with a much greater proficiency than with LoD1, and the CMS of LoD2 reflected that. Only thing I was worried about was the popularity of RPGmakerXP, which had come out in the middle of LoD2's development.

Then came the explosive debut of Aveyond, an RPGmakerXP game that launched a franchise and a cult following, and make its author independently wealthy. I, like so many others in the RM community, scoffed at this game as a joke, since it seemed to use so many "default" style systems and was clearly marketed to a predominantly older and more female demographic. (Good move by the way.)

There was one prolific author among us, whose name is none other than BadLuck, who did not scoff at Aveyond's success, but rather, tried to emulate it with his own ambitious transition to the indie realm with Ara Fell: First Light. (Originally known as AFXP) BadLuck spared no expense in the creation of this project, he truly wanted a high-quality title worthy of being sold for money. Even though it appears to have died in the realm of vaporware, I was kept somewhat regularly updated on its progress, and it was turning out to be a pretty amazing game, visually anyway. It's a shame that game didn't come to fruition.

AF:FL made me feel like I was behind the curve. LoD2 was going to take a long time to finish, and it so happened that I was at sort of a natural break point in its development, with an epic moment just finishing and a new chapter starting. After much deliberation with my good friend Karsuman, (who actually recommended going full-on freelance composer rather than indie games) I decided to give LoD2 one last hurrah with an RMN-hosted event "post what game you have" or something, and it was quite well-received. I distinctly remember Craze saying "ten kinds of awesome" which made me use that phrase way too much... anyway.

And so, I decided I was going to follow in the footsteps of Aveyond/AF:FL and take the leap of faith and go indie.


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Deadly Sin 1


Everything is a learning process, Deadly Sin 1 is good evidence of that in regards to learning about the PC game market. I went into this project basically stark raving stupid about how the indie market works, and I was still in RM community mode, full-on.

For this game, I basically went with a completely new world setting and storyline. It wasn't bad in concept, but looking back, I feel it could have been better executed, especially in terms of dialogue and character development.


My crowning achievement in this game was the evented battle system. Evented from the ground up. I was frustrated with myself in that I couldn't really show it off to the RM community, who might appreciate something like a custom system using only events, but these were the sacrifices of going indie. The PC market at large *does not care* about how hard it was to make your "cool systems." :D

Another big improvement in audio-visual was my upgraded music composition studio. MASSIVELY upgraded. I spent a good 3000 bucks buying a bunch of equipment, including a Yamaha KX8 keyboard, an audio interface, some rokit 5 studio monitors, and a large amount of expensive VST software.

The sound quality difference is pretty obvious though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_Sultfg4a0

And so, Deadly Sin 1 went live on a few bigger communities and for whatever reason, did pretty well. Market timing was good, it was different but not too different, and had excellent cover art by a one-in-a-million artist that I managed to find and hire. It had a low budget (not counting all my new sound gear) and provided a nice windfall of extra money, though it would have been very stupid to quit my day job. :P


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Deadly Sin 2, The Spiritual Successor to Legacies Of Dondoran 2


The natural progression was to make a sequel. Deadly Sin 2 reflected a much wiser and more experienced me, as I was able to recruit the talents of three very special people, including RMN's own SovanJedi. Because this was a team effort with a pretty good-sized budget, the production values, custom and unique scripts, and polish were WAYYYY ahead of Deadly Sin 1, LoD1, and LoD2. I was able to get a very slick set of scripts to create the item augment system, the battle system, and the skill menu.


I call this a spiritual successor because it basically took all of the plot elements and world setting elements from LoD2 and incorporated them into the first 2 chapters of Deadly Sin 2. I also took great care to incorporate the higher quality mapping of LoD2 into this game. The game also had a custom mouse interface, a handy monster node system for dungeon crawling, and a quest system.



A lot of folks were upset that Legacies Of Dondoran 2 was cancelled. I can understand, and believe me, it was not easy to let the thing just sit around and die. It was so difficult, in fact, that I had to revive it in the form of Deadly Sin 2's plot. Ever get so sentimental about something that you're just irrational about it? That was me and LoD2. While DS2's commercial status inherently exposed it to a far different audience than the usual RM community fare, I did the best I could to make DS2 truly earn the title "Spiritual Successor." All in all, going indie was a decision I do not regret, though it has been a bumpy ride to be sure. The market is fickle, and the success or failure of games tends to rely a lot more on your advertising, your timing, and how well you target the audience you market to. Not a decision to take lightly for anyone.

Thanks for reading!

harm
  • Completed
  • harmonic
  • RPG Tsukuru 2003
  • RPG
  • 06/27/2007 01:34 AM
  • 09/26/2023 02:55 AM
  • 06/27/2007
  • 450988
  • 84
  • 16130

Tags

Posts

harmonic
It's like toothpicks against a tank
4142
author=DaCowboy
On my 2nd replay after abandoning the game for a few years I made numerous saves before going to Venom Depths.
1) I tried leaving Alma out of the party but can't get into Venom depths.

2) I went back to HQ after being forced to take Pachira and left her there but she rejoins the party automatically as soon as you exit the camp. Even teleported back to HQ outside the exit of Venom Depths but Pachira still automatically rejoins.

I know the game has been out for a long time but I would like to finish it with Alma having more the 1 AGI. Can someone please let me know how this can be done. thanks in advance.

I uploaded a fix to my locker:

https://rpgmaker.net/users/harmonic/locker/Map0408.lmu

should be added to the base game folder, not sure if it'll work though since I no longer have the original project folder. Kinda hacked my own game.

To be specific, it adds 500 AGI to Alma when you recruit her.
Can someone make a walkthrough or at least a WORLD MAP of this game? pls

I get lost every time I go out to find something because none of the locations are clear... Also, for the 2nd or 3rd Celestial Key, I'm supposed to enter the Annatarasian Mountains again (for Shinryuuu)? But how? The Dragon doesn't fly over the mountains??
author=harmonic
I uploaded a fix to my locker:

https://rpgmaker.net/users/harmonic/locker/Map0408.lmu

should be added to the base game folder, not sure if it'll work though since I no longer have the original project folder. Kinda hacked my own game.

To be specific, it adds 500 AGI to Alma when you recruit her.


Thanks harmonic. Unfortunately it doesn't work and Alma still ends up with 1 AGI after defeating Deceit. What it does is drop Alma one level, increase her HP and MP to where Pachira's was. Let me know if you want the save file just before fighting Deceit.
author=Aureolos
Can someone make a walkthrough or at least a WORLD MAP of this game? pls

I get lost every time I go out to find something because none of the locations are clear... Also, for the 2nd or 3rd Celestial Key, I'm supposed to enter the Annatarasian Mountains again (for Shinryuuu)? But how? The Dragon doesn't fly over the mountains??


The game is fairly easy to follow. There is a world map under "Use Item" in the game menu. There's a cave you enter to get you to these mountains and dragon. your dragon can land close to this cave's entrance.
harmonic
It's like toothpicks against a tank
4142
Yeah I kinda figured... I didn't think that hack would allow me to mod it...

Someone else who's better at hacking could probably figure out a way.

Thanks anyways. Wish I had downloaded the hack tool for save files for games made with RPG 2003 from that German site before it went down. Guess I'll run Venon Depths with Pachira to get all the upgrades before fighting Deceit, then do the final battle and just let Alma get killed off.
Now I remember playing this game . When I get to the part of riding the cart I could not win and stopped playing - I'm now there again - is there anyway to skip this part - Thanx - Dennis
I am really enjoying this game, but some of the bosses are hard to beat. I can't finish Lilith. Every time I get her HP down to about 55000 she hits my party with this crazy slash and completely heals. Tyranos is the only one that I can get to do any real damage to her and he is in battle stance. I am in the mid 80 levels. Any help would be great
I'm having problems completing the sword of light upgrade quest. I have all three seals and 999,999 ibra, but talking to Vormav just results in his usual dialogue and talking to the Tome Man doesn't yield anything either.
Good game...but sometimes frustrating.
I didn't finished it because of the Alma bug....but even so, there are some real
frustrating parts, like the action sequence (RPGMaker is just not for action)
or the slow walking....the last dungeon (optional) were you party sometimes gets stuck between the life sucking enemies without hope to escape.
Anyway, for a few hours it was fun.
harmonic
It's like toothpicks against a tank
4142
author=Schnuff
Good game...but sometimes frustrating.
I didn't finished it because of the Alma bug....but even so, there are some real
frustrating parts, like the action sequence (RPGMaker is just not for action)
or the slow walking....the last dungeon (optional) were you party sometimes gets stuck between the life sucking enemies without hope to escape.
Anyway, for a few hours it was fun.


Glad to see so many years later ppl still trying it out!
"The RPG Maker 2003 Runtime Package is not present or not registered." I downloaded and installed several times from https://www.rpgmakerweb.com/download/additional/run-time-packages and I still get this error when I try to open RPG_RT.exe.
(I even copy/paste-d all files from the installed RTP to the game folder and still doesn't work). I can't seem to find a version of the runtime package that's compatible and it's getting frustrating.
Harmonic, if you are reading this, pretty please upload a version of the game with all the rtp files needed.
harmonic
It's like toothpicks against a tank
4142
I'm sorry, it's been lost to time. :\
Corfaisus
"It's frustrating because - as much as Corf is otherwise an irredeemable person - his 2k/3 mapping is on point." ~ psy_wombats
7874
author=Alduran
"The RPG Maker 2003 Runtime Package is not present or not registered." I downloaded and installed several times from https://www.rpgmakerweb.com/download/additional/run-time-packages and I still get this error when I try to open RPG_RT.exe.
(I even copy/paste-d all files from the installed RTP to the game folder and still doesn't work). I can't seem to find a version of the runtime package that's compatible and it's getting frustrating.
Harmonic, if you are reading this, pretty please upload a version of the game with all the rtp files needed.

Have you tried ye olde "FullPackageFlag=1"? You can add that to the bottom of the RPG_RT.ini (Configuration settings) and it should bypass the need for a physical RTP check. If there are missing files, however, you're sort of SOL because of how the proper English version has changed file names.

EDIT: Although you could download a game like Demon Legacy using the RTP Independent Version and copy-paste the files found there into LoD. It sucks that old games like these are slowly being lost to time, but whadyagunnado?
Adding "FullPackageFlag=1" to RPG_RT.ini did indeed let me open the game. Doesn't seem like I need any RTP files either (so far anyway). Thanks you very much!
Hello I need help I'd really like to play this game but everytime I try to luanch a message appears that "launcher not registered for the user" what can should I do please help
Hi! i really want to play this game and i already installed the rpgmaker 2003 rtp but the error still says "The rpgmaker 2003 runtime package is not present or not registered." Please help me. Thanks so much!
Everytime I tried to open the game, it says 'the rpg maker 2003 runtime package is not present or not registered' even though I already installed it.
Hi, what options are the most optimal to the favoria stragedy reunion?