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After 1000 years of iron-fisted rule, the Empress of Baclyae dies. With no clear heir, who takes the throne is under contention. The Duke of Espea, the Baroness of Sucror, and the Princess of Vapleissau all clamor for the right to rule.

Sarah and her friend, Hans, are exiles from the Imperial Palace for the crime of disobedience. They may wander the lands now, but, they will find that their fate is interwtined with that of the torn-apart nation.


Personal aside
This game is a tribute to the Suikoden series, and therefore borrows heavily from it. However, as this is a tribute, and not a fan-game, there may be a few things that are in those games that are not in this one, and visa-versa.


Also now available on rpgmakerweb! This is still very much the "home" of this game, however.

Latest Blog

The blessings of the 108 are upon this game.

As promised, the game has been updated on it's two-year anniversary. The main download should be stand-alone, with an alternative download for those who have VX Ace's RTP. I now largely consider it...

COMPLETE!





In case you missed it, I've put up a page detailing recruitment info for characters that are not recruited automatically. I'm a nice guy. Or try to be.


Probably the most difficult part of the making of this game was Unites. Some of the things I had to do for it to work at all:
checking that each member of a given Unite were in the party
each character that had a relevant Unite skill in the context of the active party could access the Unite skill
they all had to be able to act for Unite to be selectable
when the time came for the skill to be used, all members had to be able to act
selecting a Unite skill for the "skill leader" meant that other involved characters had to be skipped over when entering actions
cancelling out of a Unite skill meant that all involved characters could act normally, unless Unite was re-selected

Man, I still feel like I'm forgetting something. However, I hope I made my point to how complex this was to set up. ;_;


There were a few moments where whatever troubles I was going through to make this game was worthwhile. Obviously, seeing Unites actually work. Putting together the party-window for shops (thanks for reminding me of the window in Wyrm Warriors, Liberty!). Showing a six-person party in the main menu, and in battles. Hell, even something as simple/small as the "<Character> recruited!" window made me a little bit happier.

However, I think among the biggest moments was achieving the 108 Bonus of the game during my test-plays. I'm not going to say what that bonus is for now. I'll keep that a secret for a liiiiittle bit longer. However, it still feels like a big accomplishment, even though this game is only 2-3 hours long. Whereas a typical Suikoden game takes me around 30-ish hours to complete? Depends on which Suikoden we're talking about, I suppose.


So, what's next on my gammak plate? This is an excellent question. I don't know if I have an answer. There have been times when I've considered taking Uchioniko, and applying a new set of paint (Celianna's Modern-Day tileset), with maybe a few more touch-ups. However, my inclination to actually do anything about that game has been a solid "meh".

Posts

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Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
The latest news on bugs is that I was not able to replicate either the bug concerning the skill-window for battles, nor the shop inventory bug. This doesn't mean they can't/don't/won't happen. I just have no idea what, exactly, could tirgger them, or what the appropriate fix would be.

When it came to not recruiting absolutely everybody, I actually didn't find this that much harder? With war-battles, I may have had ally units take a lot of damage, but, none were never defeated. My party was about level 51 when I won over the last boss, which might be about right anyway.



I'm also half-considering of ways to promote this game. Not just because it's eligible for this year's Misaos and you should totes vote/nominate this for all the categories possible, but just to get this bloody thing out there.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I'm not exactly sure why this game is buzzing right now. Kinda like whenever I see Heartache on the front page, with the expectation to see this influx of notices from that game. Except there aren't any. Likewise, the buzz here must be generated from page-views? Downloads, even!? Some combination of the two!?


Either way, I cleaned that up the page's CSS so that the Downloads page has a black background for both available downloads, and generally have better readability.


Thank you so much for your support! Even if it is silent.
Zakariya
Every misdeed has its own punishment, and every good deed has its reward.
1174
Nicely done, Marrend-sama.

I shall review it...when I get some things done. XP




I'm very sorry for keeping you waiting for so long.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Okay, well, it's September, and I've still done basically nothing to promote this game. I half-considered putting up a game-thread for this game, and maybe Bunker 9, into RMW, but, I dunno. I've been inactive there since they locked Myriad Cypher. Which might have had it's own chance of winning Misaos and/or other cool recognition. I always stop myself because there just doesn't seem to be any point if I'm not engaging in that community. Does that make any sense?



Sorry, don't mean to be negative. I suppose I should be happy with this game, even if it doesn't get recognized. What is it that Honest Abe said?

"Don't worry when your game is not recognized, but strive for it to be worthy of recognition." - Lincoln

There ya go.
I'm shocked to see such a low download count???? There are other sites to post your games. You should definitely be happy with it! There must be more Suikoden fans out there.Good luck.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
In a possibly feeble attempt to garner more Misao nominations attention, I have posted this game into rpgmakerweb. There is a link in the description, but, I'll drop one here, anyway.

Happy Star-searching! No, I don't mean the 80's show with a similar name! How much did I date myself with that?
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I've been busy with other things, but, I want to at least fix up the spelling errors pointed out by aquatorrent in their review.

I'm also planning a few minor changes. Mae's gold value will not be displayed. It wasn't necessarily clear what it actually represented. Saying that, the cap on the "Double Down" feature is still 5000, though, I could see me getting rid of that feature before the next update.

I was also looking into the Rune shop, and the ability to change characters when attaching/removing Runes. I could swear the function to use PageUp or PageDown (or other virtual press of "L" or "R") to switch characters was already included. Recent tests have shown this to be true. However, maybe I should see if I can't include some help-text on that front?

I'm not 100% sure how to go about showing stat increases for boots and light hats for the shop scene. On one hand, I'm fully aware that, by default, the stat of comparison for Armor is DEF. However, I'm looking at the code I've got for drawing parameter changes...

class Window_ShopStatus < Window_Base
  def draw_actor_param_change(x, y, actor, item1)
    bitmap = Cache.system("IconSet")
    change = @item.params[param_id] - (item1 ? item1.params[param_id] : 0)
    if change > 0
      rect = Rect.new(0, 792, 24, 24)
      contents.blt(x, y, bitmap, rect)
    elsif change < 0
      rect = Rect.new(24, 792, 24, 24)
      contents.blt(x, y, bitmap, rect)
    else
      rect = Rect.new(48, 792, 24, 24)
      contents.blt(x, y, bitmap, rect)
    end
  end
end

...and wondering how, exactly, it "decides" on what parameter to compare against.

I'm still looking into Maria's non-appearance in the Palace after she's been recruited, but, it looks like I was enabling the wrong self-switch. I activated the self-switch of Map3, Event1, whereas Maria's self-switch would be Map3, Event11.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I've finished a play-through, and I'm re-thinking army battles to make them more possible to lose. There was a test I did for the taking of the Palace where I incremented each enemy unit's ATK and DEF by 10, and I lost that one with about 200HP left on the last enemy unit. Easing it back to +8 was a grind, but, I was able to come out on top with all my units still standing, though, I forget the exact HP amounts they had left. I probably should have tested what a +9 to both looked like, but, I more or less went with a broad +10 ATK and +8 DEF across the board for the remainder of the play-through.

I wanted to reduce the amount of grinding in this game by a smidgen, and increased experience and gold rewards across the board. Technique Runes, Unites, and Rush have improved damage. Magic has remained unchanged, but should still be better.

*Edit: I might want to do another play-through to test army-battles, and figure out how best to rebalance them. Once I finish that play, I'll do another update, and will probably be the last.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I might be complicating things even more than they already are, but, I'm in the process of re-balancing the army battles, and have made the probably questionable decision to give enemy units abilities.

The abilities that enemy units could have include "First Strike", "Critical", and "Rest". I refuse to include "Evade", and the other abilities, "Forsight" and "Toughness", would be irrelevant.

Suffice it to say, I'll be testing the functionality of these abilities via the test army-battle scenario for a bit.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I've uploaded the fixes and revisions. The last army-battle is still a pushover if you get the 108 Bonus of Destiny, which sound perfectly fine to me. Otherwise, the army-battles, as a general rule, should be more possible to lose, or at least have a tighter margin of victory.

*Edit: So, I did end up granting "Evade" to various enemy units. I was revising the the way abilities were checked and activated anyway. After all the bugs were stamped out (Darigaaz, THE BUGS AND CHECKS AND RECHECKS) it was actually really simple to include "Evade".

*Edit2: This now means I can turn more attention to my entry in Theme Roulette 3. Which you should totally look forward to. I'm kinda excited about it, but any thoughts/plans I might have had for an update/revision of this game has effectively died and became a mixed-up zombie.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Well, I've adjusted some numbers, and might be ready to playtest. I've not messed with Party XP yet. That might come later. Or not. I dunno. Maybe I'm just tired from playing through the MZ Trial games at the insane rather quick pace that I did. Yet, at the same time, feel like I should do something and really conk myself out of commission!

*Edit: So, I've got a team at about level 10 at Glix Heights. I decided to run a few numbers out of curiosity to see how effective the Training Regimen Unite was versus the other options I set up for the involved characters. Results are hidden below a hide-tag and I probably should have put this entire post in the blog, but, oh well.


Target: Vicious Plant

Training Regimen (Oscar, Oharu, Naora, Chris): 104, risk of Chris dying before it gets resolved

Oscar, Lion: 5, and STUNNED!
Oharu, Unicorn: 15 and STUNNED!
Naora, Minotaur: 19 and STUNNED!
Chris, Pixie: 74 and STUNNED!

Oscar, Wind of Sleep: 2
Oharu, Kindness Drops: n/a
Naora, Clay Guardian: n/a
Chris, Flaming Arrows: 25

Oscar, Attack: 4
Oharu, Attack: 10
Naora, Attack: 10
Chris, Attack: 1

For full disclosure, I set up the Pixie Rune to include the user's INT value as part of the damage calculation. I expected Chris's damage with Pixie to be higher with that tweak, but, I wasn't sure how high it would be.

The damage value for the Unite and Weapon Runes did not change, outside of Pixie's tweak. However, I did reduce the damage values of the Level 1 spells. Chris, being a Wizard, had the highest INT of the bunch, so, his damage value would/should be above average. Oscar, as a Monk, has about average INT, so his value is notable.

As far as Weapon Runes, the Attack action, and STR is concerned, Oharu and Naora should be providing us with the best numbers. Which they are! Their STR is a touch higher than Chris's INT. So, what should be the expectation in regards to Weapon Runes? If we insist on Stunning the user as part of the drawback/cost of using the Rune, I think the damage value might need to be more than three regular attacks. Or at least slightly better than two regular attacks?

That aside, the basic concept of allowing INT to affect the damage rating of the Pixie Rune is probably a good idea to make it a more viable option. However, maybe only allow a certain percentage of INT? Like, Wizards arguably should be throwing spells at people, and not abusing Pixie Runes, right?
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Update time!

This update is more of a peace of mind thing. UPRC loosing his data on Blackmoon Prophecy 3 is a damn shame, and I wish there was more I could do there than a "Man, that sucks". However, I'll be damned if I loose this progress/data! That said, here's a list of things that have been changed:

-Ethers, Mega Ethers, and MP
MP is now sub-divided into spell levels, as per the Suikoden series. As such, Ethers and Mega Ethers had to be re-worked, and now restore all mp to an ally (in Ether's case), or to all allies (in Mega Ether's case).

-Reworked Weapon Runes
The damage numbers Weapon Runes produce should be roughly equivalent to a Unite. Pixie Runes were re-worked to include a portion of the bearer's INT value, and the "Rune Mastery" Unite includes each member's INT in full. Maybe I should have used half INT there too. However, it's a very late-game Unite, and the involved members probably have other options to consider?

-Reworked Enemies, and the Sovereign Rune.
Enemy stats have been altered a bit. The spells used by the Sovereign Rune Incarnation have also been reworked. However, I admit to not having 100% tested the results of these alterations.

-Equipment Updates
There is now an equipment update in Staredale Palace after obtaining the Goddess Rune. This is to help facilitate the previous difficulty spike in Gilix Heights. The equipment update in Clafton Keep remains where it is, and the final equipment update has been moved to Paltron Citadel.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
So, there was a post on this game's RMW page about this game skipping the title screen, and spawning in the prison, as per the game's opening. The post in question was made in December, and it was at completely random that I even checked there today. I didn't notice a notification, but, whatever. That doesn't seem as important as fixing the bug that was raised.

As it happens, I do find it useful to skip the title screen for testing purposes. What probably happened is that I moved the player start position to the correct place, but forgot to disable the script that skipped the title screen.

I apologize for the inconvenience, and will update the game ASAP.

*Edit: Aaaannnddd update done!
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I happened to re-play this game today, and noticed that Clafton Keep's blacksmith inventory might not be 100% fixed. It's fine before recruiting Blake, but afterwards, it was as if the update on Nov 11th never happened. Whoops!

I'll be busy later this afternoon/evening, so the update is planned for tomorrow.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Aaaaaaaaaand, update complete! Sorry for that mix-up!
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