JUDE'S PROFILE

author=Spellbinder
your battle system is perfect, but you should not reduce the game to the battle system alone. you could spice up the maps a bit: puzzles with levers and buttons, traps, more npcs to interact with while you fight your way through the necropolis. Do you remember "Demon Crest (gargoyles quest 2)" on SNES? in addition to shopkeepers they had npcs you could play games with (gambling etc.). just some thoughts...

keep up the good work. i want to see the final result.

Thanks. Though your comments are only based on this arena map I put together very quickly for this battle system pilot (this map doesn't even exist in the game), you'd find them disappointingly relevant if you'd played the actual game. The dungeons have some slight variety to them, though unfortunately not nearly enough. That was actually the personal dissatisfaction with earlier portions of the game I had mentioned in a previous blog entry, since it gets monotonous early on but it's been something I've kept in the front of my mind while working on newer content. It will never be a puzzle-heavy experience however, because I am not clever enough to create intricate puzzle-based dungeons.

Thanks, DE, you've given me much to consider.

author=DE
- different effects for standard attacks played no part once I got a finisher or two. Since finishers are so powerful (that's good) and can only be initiated by a specific combination of basic attacks, I never had any choice in the order of those attacks - if I wanted to activate a certain finisher I had to use three specific skills in a specific order. This resulted in the basic skills' properties not having any impact whatsoever on my tactics, they were a slight bonus at best. Truth be told I have no idea how you could improve this, it seems to be an inherent flaw of the battle system.

- spells were for the most part useless. I'd love to get some offensive spells and not just crappy support spells so that those Fury points aren't wasted. I feel there should be more spells with more utility, not just "put a weak status effect on the enemy... maybe (if it's not immune)".

It's not really apparent in the arena, but as you level up you have more flexibility in which abilities to use. Each stance has two abilities that combo into each stance, with the exception of only one ability comboing into its own stance (WoodSlsh, Disarm, Headbutt). Your ability selection has more weight than it appears. It accounts for more damage (in most cases) than what your finishers are putting out. At the same time, they are the only way to generate Fury, which I know you found to be somewhat useless given the potency of the spells. It probably doesn't help matters that I heal you to full after each encounter. Around the BoneDog/Spider groups, you're supposed to only lose 30-50 health per battle if you expect to maintain forward momentum in the dungeon... Spells become more critical when you have to mitigate damage.

author=DE
- not flashy enough. I know the animations are not finished, but there was simply not enough going on visuals-wise in a battle system with just one PC. I feel it needs spicing up or it'll get boring pretty fast watching the same simple animations.

Not sure if there's much that can be done about this. Unless you level too far, the animations for what you've seen are about 90% complete. I want to keep them brief since the slow pace of combat worried me a bit even before you pointed it out. I'm not going to animate the monsters since that's an absurd amount of work.

author=DE
- not enough customization. With only one PC the player need CHOICES. I didn't get any. Equipment was bare bones at best (upgrade to current best items - job done!) and there was no way to influence/upgrade parameters and skills. I don't know how difficult it would be to change that, but in my opinion the current system is not enough to hold the player's interest for the whole game.

Well, you have roughly two options per slot, per dungeon. Usually it's a choice between stats and special effects. As for not being able to influence what abilities you get... You're given a choice at each level up to upgrade your mastery. Your character won't be much of an individual at first, since your primary mastery can't be more than double your secondary one, which in turn can't be more than double your tertiary mastery (ex, 8 Basic, 4 Finesse, 2 Power). There is also a plan for your class (which is influenced by mastery level) to impact stats and other things, but I haven't identified how it will play out yet so class is just cosmetic at the moment.

author=DE
- too many finishers. Really, it's just too many, and too many combinations of skills to pull them off to memorize to use them efficiently.

It should be considered that it takes a long time to be able to execute every finisher (mastery 4/4/4, Lv12 minimum). By that time you should have plenty of experience in what abilities and finishers work best for a given encounter. Plus, people will probably settle into using the handful that are their favorite.

author=DE
- the battle system is slow. As in VERY SLOW. Everything proceeds at a glacial pace, I really felt like I was playing Final Fantasy 1 again. There is a simple solution that I feel would make this issue mostly disappear - reduce the amount of text data displayed AND make it disappear on its own in about one second or so. If I put a status effect on the enemy, I don't need to be told so because an icon pops right up below its sprite. If the enemy's resistant to an effect, no icon appears and I immediately know it's useless to try it again - no need to tell me that it's immune. But yeah, at least make the text box close by itself quickly, there's only a small amount of text to read so no one should miss any crucial info.

This has been a concern for mine in awhile. I think I will take your advice and minimize the verbosity of status effects.

author=PepsiOtaku
I too am in love with that music. Is it from anything, or completely custom?

That track is from some Master System game called Galaxy Force. As much as I would like custom music, I currently lack the know how and will probably always lack the talent to create it. I would enlist the help of another but the jury is still out as to whether or not I'll keep my interest level high enough to complete the project... and it's pretty douchey to get somebody to make all this super cool music for an incomplete game. While the Galaxy Force track all ready had a good 8-bit feel to it, I've been running other MIDIs through a piece of software called GXSCC to get the same effect, which has really keen square wave samples and a retro drum synth.

author=Craze
I'm a big fan of the SkulMage.

Thanks. That's actually one of my least favorite sprites... The design is neat but the sprite itself is kind of sloppy. Gets the job done, though. I think the best monster sprite I've made is for the werewolf... I'll have to update the monster encyclopedia page at some point.