CELES_COLE'S PROFILE

author=LordBlueRouge
Yeah, yeah, I played the old demo last night. I can see why Xavier does what he does now. This demo is definitely an improvement from how the story was structured originally, so I'm definitely looking forward to what happens next. the 60fps from rm2k3 is gonna be killer for these cutscenes.

much much appreciated ♥.

Yeah. It makes a lot more sense for how different Xavier and Xander are.

Cutscene wise, I want to improve on the train animation by using battle animation instead of pictures, tho. I haven't tried it yet so I'm interested in how it may come out.

I decided to try creating a boss death animation today. (make sure the video is running at 60fps, cause it's kind of choppy)
The first one that plays is for whelk from ff6 as an example, the next one that plays is for Guardian within the current demo. I don't know if you'll find it useful, but I thought I'd take a stab at it anyways. I'm gonna try and turn it into a template/tutorial over the next couple of days.

Okay, not gonna lie. That looks absolutely bada*s. That might actually be something I'm interested in incorporating in the game. Job well done!

author=Noel_Kreiss

author=Celes_Cole
Currently working on a goblin sprite!

How does it look? Any thoughts?

Looks pretty nice, but perhaps it's a bit too tall? I'm kid of used to goblins being more of human child-height at most and this one seems like adult human-sized. Still, there might be some deviations within your setting from a traditional FF things so I'll be of open mind.

Besides, I played the demo and noticed a few types in that opening kind of like thing where you show different locales and characters. Like others noticed, Xavier needs more flesh out in the intro; right now he's just kind of a vengeful spirit and nothing else.

Aside of that, I found the Crystal to be a peculiar... being, for the lack of a better word. It's a crystal alright, but it's sentient and my first thought to that was: "Oh, it's like fal'Cie from Lightning Saga! I wonder how the story will continue!" and then BAM! The demo ended. ;_;

However the most flabbergasting thing is that you're remaking the game in RPG Maker... 2003. You could put in a newer engine and yet you still chose RM2k3... Personally, I'm not too fond of that engine because there's very little control over damage formulas so effectively the balance is completely out of the window, but that's just my opinion. If you'll be able to somehow make the battles not too broken it'll be miracle. Perhaps you'll planning to go with UPRC way: weapon ranks which increase damage multipliers with higher ranks so weapons are not useless when compared to skills...?

Xavier is kind of a one track mind. He gets more fleshed out a little later. I'm making a few changes to characterization.

Making Xavier not want to kill the soldiers is one of them, mainly because they were once kids who forcefully had to go through an infusion. He knows it's not their fault they are who they are.
Also, there is actually a bunch of things going on with him and reasons why he's not too bothered to save his brother right now, or any of the children really.

It's best to destroy the crystal so no more future incidents can occur. Who knows? Maybe his brother is already infused, and once that happens, they become a different person. Wedge had insiders working within Qaros so they pretty much gave them all the details they needed. Maybe I do need to put more emphasis on that.

As for using RM2k3; I'm using it mainly because I have no scripting knowledge and I kind of like the limitations. I've been working with it since I was 11-12 so I know it very well. If I had to choose an engine, though, it'd be MZ. But the lack of FF-styled plugins puts me off. No rows, back attack, not even a FF/2k3 styled battle UI. I chose XP back in the day because Atoa (victor sant) offered to help me with it. But those team members are doing something else nowadays. I don't even think victor is even working with RM anymore. But you're right about the damage formulas. I'll have to look at Blackmoon Prophecy to see how URPC did his. I've had a small look through it along with Time and Again(I pretty much stole... Steal lol... but I understand how it works.)

And I guess Essence is a lot like the XIII Saga mainly because I started working on it around that time in 2008 (no one probably remembers the old old old Essence before closedworlds did his sprite magic). I am changing things up a bit to give it its own identity. I'm a lot older and wiser. I've been through hardships and heartbreaks. I think I can make this game a little more magical than it was.

I'm so happy you enjoyed the demo ^_^!

To me, it sounds like you really want more! Well, I'm still working on it, definitely. And maybe some of your questions will be answered in the next demo (whenever that may be)

If you're interested, the RMXP demo from a billion years ago, its available right here: https://mega.nz/file/oeB0QR7R#YgTiP6sHMMIalclPzH-zfMwJPc56KZvteuu4pnlcW_0

Or you can watch it by the only person who let's played it https://youtu.be/cz7GY_8bG_E (he sounds very sarcastic, w/e. It's helping me do this remake without playing through the game completely every time. Also some of his complaints are valid.)

Just note that that version of the game and the version I'm working on differ greatly. A lot of the beginning of the game doesn't even state the raid on Eldia (Xavier and his brother are from The Republic of Eldia. Their leader Lord Kristophe sent Xavier, Biggs and Wedge on a mission to destroy the crystal). Like an NPC mentions it in the Povs but thats just about it. Xavier doesn't know whether his brother has been infused with the crystal or not. He knows what happens when one does get infused with the crystal (all memories are lost, basically become magical tanks in a sense. He really just wants to destroy the crystal first to save more lives and then try to get his brother)

As for the boss animation, sure I'll take a looksie. I would greatly appreciate it!

If UPRC ever comes out with a real remaster of Blackmoon Prophecy, you should play it. I'd even help him with graphics and lining the graphics up right if he likes. It's a great FF4 inspired fan game.

author=LordBlueRouge
Playing through this, loving it so far. I'm only at the beginning where Wedge Biggs and Xavier have to make it through the factory.

The only suggestion I have so far is that, during the scene when, (I think) Wedge is gives a briefing and a layout on the mission, before the mission actually starts, give Wedge like a small line, that says he's a Medic, and if things get hairy, he can provide back up with his <Medic> ability.

I probably wasn't paying attention, so i might have to replay it to make sure, but yeah, just give him a line that sounds natural but alerts people of this medic skill he has; cause I was playing it and just mashing attack, and it was only after losing that I realized Wedge gives out free healing XD.

The biggest problem I've found with rpgmaker games is that, there's a lot of them and people play through a lot of them, but unless you tell the player, your particular rpgmaker game plays differently, they're naturally going to assume they all play the same.

So yeah, just give like, a small line that alerts the player that Wedge is a medic and he has an ability the player can use. But other than that, this is pretty great. I love the crossbow animation you gave Wedge, it's a really neat sprite edit, I love it! XDD

But yeah, I'll post more of my thoughts as I get through the game, great work so far.
Very good work here. It just feels so cool to play something that's so brisk in it's pacing.
Great Stuff!

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed! And yeah, you're right. I think I have an idea on how to implement something like that for Wedge in-battle.

Yeah I know what you mean. I wanted to make it pretty easy. I was worried it was a little too easy honestly. OG FFEss had some really difficult bosses that were almost impossible to beat, which was my fault for not balancing it out before I released the demo. I also felt a little rushed, too.

Speaking of demo, I was thinking of releasing a small (really small) demo sometime in the next week featuring just the beginning of the game up to the end of the first dungeon, the Crystal Factory. I was thinking maybe this would attract more people to the page and maybe see if you guys like what I have so far.