FIREFLY84'S PROFILE

author=Evilmumrah
I'm trying to get in to see Virgil in Vedanta but apparently I need a password. I've been all over the city and I think I've talked to everyone so how do I get the password? Thanks.

author=Euphoniac
After having beaten "Passage of the Hollow Moon", I would like to emphasize once again that I wholly enjoyed this game, especially the intense boss battles. If you still work on this game, Kelarly, here are some improvement suggestions, based on my playthrough notes. Some things have been mentioned before, and you may have already fixed this and that.

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(Possible) bugs, mistakes etc.:

Major:

When arriving in Methuselan, the party is supposed to return to Lazzaria below. There's only an "exit arrow" to the north, but by simply going south (where there isn't an "exit arrow"), the player returns (falls) to Lazzaria Gate. By doing this, the player skips a whole dungeon, including a boss battle and a very important story scene, which makes the game impossible to complete, because the needed triggers to continue the journey can't be activated anymore (the more so as Methuselan can't be visited again: The event that teleports the player there can't be repeated, and the part of Lazzaria from which Methuselan can be reached is only available after having completed the Methuselan dungeon). A simple solution would be to activate the south exit (including an "exit arrow") as a shortcut only after the player has beaten the hardest optional boss.

It isn't very nice that the player can permanently trap himself/herself in in the upper right room of Maja Cave, but I admit that you have to do this on purpose.

Minor:

The option "Game end" in the menu isn't available.

You can enter a door, i.e. trigger the according animation, and still walk away from the door nonetheless (at least this doesn't prevent "map transition").

The descriptions don't make clear the differences between items/skills/etc. of the same kind. Concerning items see for example "revive", "super revive" and "full revive" (stronger versions for single-target use respectively). The same applies to skills (e.g. Venus: "slow" and "slowga", "haste" and "hastega" - single-target vs. multi-target, Salomon: "cure" and "cura" - stronger versions for single-target use respectively) and elemental gems (stronger versions for single-target use respectively).

Does Salomon's auto-life skill not work when the killing blow also causes a status ailment?

Some people can't be talked to, e.g. the first person in the E part of Bernharst, one man in the Willanham pub.

The item "silence fog" says "deals poison to all enemies" instead of "deals silence to all enemies".

The item "aqua tear" that is used to erase the blue barriers in Elin Forest etc. can be used - and therefore wasted (the player could at least sell it) - from the menu.

You can walk on the candle holders in the Willanham boat house, thus floating in mid-air. These candle holders seem to be passable objects in general, as can be seen e.g. in the left house in Urbazaan.

After having triggered the first story-related scene in Zuleika (and until the story quest in Zuleika has been completed), battles fought in Aeolus Forest show the Zuleika background. Moreover, there seems to be a general problem with the battle backgrounds in Aeolus Forest. While traversing it later in the game, once again a totally different battle background was loaded.

The shopkeep in Outer Zuleika conveys the impression that he's able to "duplicate" items, while he in fact never sells anything other than "revive".

The scene at the beginning of Werukas Warlands can be repeated (at least it happened to me once when I later traversed from end to beginning instead of beginning to end).

The party passes through the Rubinite Cave at a certain point even though there should be a dead end like in the prologue.

Pressing "escape" when seeing the "the end" screen opens the menu with only Venus in the party. Furthermore, it would be better if pressing "enter" lead from the "the end" screen to the "title" screen. There are several RPGs that feature additional scenes when the player waits a few minutes after seeing an ending screen that won't fade on its own or via a mouse click. Don't make the player wait for nothing.

Improvement suggestions:

Unbalanced (random) encounters: The only viable option is to run from battles and to train in front of save crystals, because you're forced to completely heal up in most areas after even one battle (the game is supposed to be challenging, but there's still too much grinding involved). Thus, the usual way doesn't work - battles don't yield enough money, items are overpriced, the party doesn't have a heal spell (in the beginning). (Un)fortunately, there's always a save crystal around because the maps (mostly at the beginning) are too small. Saving after every battle is a must anyway for the game tends to crash after battles, especially after level-ups ("Script 'level up screen' line 347: SystemStackError occurred. Stack level too deep."). I'm glad you already addressed and explained this bug. It gets better later on - except for the optional dungeons in which I wouldn't dare to fight two battles in a row without healing in between.

A few spelling errors here and there (but I've seen much worse in other RPG Maker games)

I don't like that the player has to travel with only two party members for such a long time. It's more fun to fight with three or four party members (earlier).

Venus' overdrive bar grows comparatively slow (Salomon heals the party outside of battles, Miken has multi-hit skills, Noelle has multi-target spells).

Salomon's skill "dispel" should only nullify the enemy's positive status.

Why do the experience points/level ups that I earned for Venus in the prologue in Rubinite Cave have to go waste?

Salomon should be able to equip all shields, not just a "Leather Shield"

The Zombie Dragon's attack (Urbazaan) that causes multiple status ailments at once is simply unfair (similar to Artaxerxes' ultimate skill), the more so as the only other enemy with such an attack is the hardest optional boss.

I was disappointed that the party members don't learn new skills after level 30, even though the player nonetheless has to grind until at least level 60 to beat the hardest optional boss. Especially one of those overpowered "buff up skills" that some enemies use would have been very welcome.

There should be an opportunity to "burn money" before facing the final boss and the secret bosses, e.g. for (expensive) items that permanently raise stats.

I didn't like how access to the optional content is handled ("after doing this or that, somewhere on a map the player has cleared before spawns something"). The player should have an idea where and when to search (instead of having to revisit every map multiple times). You could, for example, make the optional dungeon's entry points visible from the beginning, and then deny the player entry with a cleverly hinting message like "this portal can't be activated until the presence of the Hollow Moon has weakened".

I only make huge efforts in nitpicking when it comes to games I really like, and I hope that my suggestions can contribute to let your great game shine as brightly as possible.

author=kelarly
1. I'm going to assume you haven't been to the hidden areas yet. The last remaining 3 golden rings are at Somewhere in Space, Hollow Planet, and Lost Castle of Bharzapal. Those places are where the hidden bosses dwells.