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Kaempfer
1932
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Evoker
The walls between worlds begin to weaken, and one man seeks to bring them crashing down for good...
The walls between worlds begin to weaken, and one man seeks to bring them crashing down for good...
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Onix Rift
Alright, I played up to the crystal caves where I had to stop because the crystal enemies kept stunlocking me and then just bashing into me over and over until I was dead.
Here are my notes from my playthrough:
Here are my general notes:
The combat is pretty cool and I love the animations that are everywhere, and the custom movement is a nice touch even if it is a bit janky sometimes (around map teleports especially). The mapping is OK, but there is very little contrast in most areas so they are very monotone in general. For instance, the tops of the cliffs and the bottom of the cliffs are both green, so it's mostly just a field of green with little grey bits (the rocks and cliffs) indicating the borders. The combat felt pretty good for the most part and the guy's movement with the sword is cool and quite fluid. The game felt a bit aimless (at the least the part I played). You're in an area outside a town, and you need to get the power on, but none of this is hinted at or mentioned except by one NPC. It also doesn't seem to serve much of a plot purpose; you need to turn on the power to get the sword, so the kid won't block your way. Why not have an obstacle you can only remove with the sword, or a bridge that won't lower until the power is on, or something? Tie the gameplay with the story. Time fantasy graphics can be pretty desaturated, I actually really liked the colours on the test2 map a lot (yeah, I poked around in the project; it's pretty funny that you left the whole old project in there!). The opening cutscene was really cleverly done and looked great.
Overall I'd say you've got a pretty fun base for a game, I'm surprised at how good the movement and combat was, custom Rm2k3 systems don't usually feel so smooth. The story needs a bit of beefing up, namely how the player fits into it. If you work on making it more clear what the player is supposed to do (especially tying plot and gameplay together) and work on refining things, I think this could be a real winner.
edit: I should note I played this on the second version you uploaded
Here are my notes from my playthrough:
- It's spelled eyrie or aerie, erie is the name of a lake
- There is no indication that you're near a save point, maybe make the player glow or something? Also, add a confirm when you select "menu", because it's very easy to hit the wrong key and quit immediately
- The interior of your house is broken, it shows wonky HP values and the second time I entered I started swinging my sword over and over without any button presses
- The dog cutscene didn't trigger the first time I entered the map, I had to leave and then bump into him over and over for it to play
- The hurt animation is too slow. You just sit there for way too long every time you take even minor damage.
- The edge pan is too close to the edge of the screen. It makes it hard to see where the heck you're going
Here are my general notes:
The combat is pretty cool and I love the animations that are everywhere, and the custom movement is a nice touch even if it is a bit janky sometimes (around map teleports especially). The mapping is OK, but there is very little contrast in most areas so they are very monotone in general. For instance, the tops of the cliffs and the bottom of the cliffs are both green, so it's mostly just a field of green with little grey bits (the rocks and cliffs) indicating the borders. The combat felt pretty good for the most part and the guy's movement with the sword is cool and quite fluid. The game felt a bit aimless (at the least the part I played). You're in an area outside a town, and you need to get the power on, but none of this is hinted at or mentioned except by one NPC. It also doesn't seem to serve much of a plot purpose; you need to turn on the power to get the sword, so the kid won't block your way. Why not have an obstacle you can only remove with the sword, or a bridge that won't lower until the power is on, or something? Tie the gameplay with the story. Time fantasy graphics can be pretty desaturated, I actually really liked the colours on the test2 map a lot (yeah, I poked around in the project; it's pretty funny that you left the whole old project in there!). The opening cutscene was really cleverly done and looked great.
Overall I'd say you've got a pretty fun base for a game, I'm surprised at how good the movement and combat was, custom Rm2k3 systems don't usually feel so smooth. The story needs a bit of beefing up, namely how the player fits into it. If you work on making it more clear what the player is supposed to do (especially tying plot and gameplay together) and work on refining things, I think this could be a real winner.
edit: I should note I played this on the second version you uploaded
Things to Consider When Buying Your Baseball Equipment Bag aka Sports in Games
author=Isrieri
Basketball. You can get away with basketball but never in an RPG. Basketball for action games only. That's the rules. Like traveling, it cannot be done without the ability to jump. No one ever made a three-pointer without jumping so if you don't get the reach you don't get the peach.
How very dare you
Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden begs to differ
Onix Rift
Screenshot Survival 20XX
@Punkitt:
I love how simple the basic geometry is- just big and small circles, but how effectively it's used to make a cool looking play area.
@Giznads:
That all looks great. How long have you been working on this? Seems like just yesterday we first saw signs of this project! Also, is the guy's name supposed to be Lincoln, like the US president, or just some made up name?
@ellenor:
I always like fading effects and a lack of sudden transitions, and yours looks really good!
I love how simple the basic geometry is- just big and small circles, but how effectively it's used to make a cool looking play area.
@Giznads:
That all looks great. How long have you been working on this? Seems like just yesterday we first saw signs of this project! Also, is the guy's name supposed to be Lincoln, like the US president, or just some made up name?
@ellenor:
I always like fading effects and a lack of sudden transitions, and yours looks really good!
Shrine_Sass.png
author=KoopaKush
I love the stained glass and the lighting! It's looking amazingly great :D
Seconded on the stained glass, and I love that pipe organ.
Moonsong: First Verse
author=Ulevo
I haven't started playing, but it looks good.
Let me know what you think once you've delved in!
@Punk_Kricket:
Patience is a very good thing, heh heh
Moonsong: First Verse
author=Punk_Kricket
I have to say - after a full play-through of this, I want to say that this is a well paced game for repeat runs.
I'm very glad to hear this! I wanted to give lots of options to players, more than they could see in one playthrough, so I'm glad you find it worthwhile to play through again.
author=Punk_Kricket
There's a section in a cave sometime before or after the pirates where you can bypass the cliffs and walk on the sand, and the game begins to lag cuz of it
I'll try to track this down and fix it- if you discover exactly the spot, let me know. The lag could be a result of the caterpillar system freaking out but I'm not sure about that.
author=Punk_Kricket
Also during Khalid's opening, sometimes his name will change to that of the old soldier guys. No clue why.
I've run into this bug, too, but I can't figure out what's causing the name to change. I swear, I have all the names set correctly, but it still occurs sometimes near the start. It happened to me once (just once) in all my Leonov test runs. It'll remain a mystery, for now.
author=Punk_Kricket
Once I've run through it and see what each character has to offer, I'll be coming back for a full review
I'm looking forward to it!
author=Punk_Kricket
I'm stoked to see what the second verse and onward will be like.
That'll be awhile, but I do intend to come back to this at some point in the future! Just don't ask me when.
Touch Encounters and EXP
I learned the hard way that people tend to have more experience than you think they're going to. With touch encounters, you'll always have people who chase down enemies because they want something- money, exp, item drops, a sense of accomplishment after they clear an area. You'll also have people who don't want to avoid fights because they don't want to be underlevelled, or people who...just aren't good at dodging them.
With random encounters, they is always the issue of players who explore every nook and cranny being almost automatically overlevelled. Even in a 20x15 map, a straight line (from entrance to exit) might only be 7-8 tiles, but someone who explores might end up stepping on 15-20 tiles as they check walls and decorations for hidden items. And that grows exponentially, so a 40x30 map will result in a far higher number of encounters for the explorer. In Moonsong there is a hidden variable which reduces the encounter rate as random battles are entered to try and combat over-fighting, but even then I dramatically underestimated how much exp players would have.
A system like Liberty's where hidden encounters are used can work really well, as you can turn off encounters altogether if the player is too high a level and they'll never even know.
My standard in the future will be to scale the difficulty to be slightly on the "too hard" side, but only slightly. The player can always do a wee bit of grinding if they're struggling, but you can't take back levels you've already earned.
edit: the idea of disconnecting exp from enemy encounters altogether is an intriguing one, because like GRS said, milestones are much easier to control. It might be too radical for most projects, though.
With random encounters, they is always the issue of players who explore every nook and cranny being almost automatically overlevelled. Even in a 20x15 map, a straight line (from entrance to exit) might only be 7-8 tiles, but someone who explores might end up stepping on 15-20 tiles as they check walls and decorations for hidden items. And that grows exponentially, so a 40x30 map will result in a far higher number of encounters for the explorer. In Moonsong there is a hidden variable which reduces the encounter rate as random battles are entered to try and combat over-fighting, but even then I dramatically underestimated how much exp players would have.
A system like Liberty's where hidden encounters are used can work really well, as you can turn off encounters altogether if the player is too high a level and they'll never even know.
My standard in the future will be to scale the difficulty to be slightly on the "too hard" side, but only slightly. The player can always do a wee bit of grinding if they're struggling, but you can't take back levels you've already earned.
edit: the idea of disconnecting exp from enemy encounters altogether is an intriguing one, because like GRS said, milestones are much easier to control. It might be too radical for most projects, though.
Odicia
Just finished the demo. Here are my thoughts in no particular order of importance:
And some bugs:
Some very specific feedback about battle:
I think the rage system is missing out on a lot of potential for one simple reason: as it stands, there's no way to manually build rage. Attacking drains it, and so does defending. Half your skills drain it, too. The only way to get rage is to wait for it to build up or use magic, which is so costly that it's not a viable way to accrue it. The only time I managed to get into the rage state was the last fight; good timing, sure, but I had absolutely nothing to do with that, it was just a long fight. It seems a waste to include a system and then not let the player have any real control over it- how are you supposed to strategize with a system that penalizes 3/4 of your actions? If it was just a matter of not using rage-based actions that would be one thing, but again, you don't have enough Will for that to be viable, and with a limit of four skills you're also heavily relying on what you have equipped. A system where you spend the whole game using the two Will-based skills you have, desperately trying to avoid using any rage-related so you can build it. The same two skills, over and over. Not a great use of the system. I would suggest upping the cost of rage-based skills, but giving some means of building it other than waiting and hoping you're attacked (I know Talec can taunt, but that costs Rage to activate, so, uh...). That way, the player could build a solid plan around it. I have some ideas on how you could do this, but I don't want to throw too many unsolicited game design ideas at you all at once when it's clear you've put a lot of love into this project. DM me if you'd like to hear them, although absolutely no hard feelings if you don't care that much about the opinions of some plonker from the internet.
All in all, I'd say the demo was quite good. Gorgeous to look at, well paced, nice to listen to. The writing was solid, even if it is a bit obvious with how clearly it wears its nostalgia on its sleeve. Even though you're constrained to a small forest each map has a little bit of something new, which is a nice touch. I had no trouble finding the herbs, personally. I thought they stood out quite well, and they're sort of bonus items, anyway. The combat was extremely easy, but for a starting area that's quite alright. The demo whet my appetite for more, and I'll be watching closely!
- The graphics are gorgeous, I think that's plain to see. The plate glass in the introduction was especially sublime. A really neat graphical effect.
- There's a bit of resolution clashing in the turn order which I did not like (I am especially annoyed by resolution clashing, but it wasn't too bad tbh)
- Talec is blonde Locke. I have NO problem with the homage, and I have a feeling he is something of a guest character, but with so much artistic talent I would thought something totally original was well within your grasp.
- I noticed you give credits to a music/sound guy, but 95% of the SFX are immediately recognizable as rips. I use many of the same ones in my own RPGMaker game. This is definitely no issue if you plan on keeping the game free, as they're used well, but it might not be quite so great if you're planning on releasing a commercial version in the future.
- I love the inclusion of monster damage sprites, and I noticed their skills changed too based on their sprite (I think? Broken Knife?). Very cool.
- Guard seems a bit weak. You have to guard multiple times to get enough Will to do anything, so fighting becomes a Guard-fest sometimes.
- The glowing statues are cool, but 10MP is barely enough to cover a single skill. They should definitely do more, even if it means they're more rare.
- I don't think Field Actions (at least the ones you must use to advance) should take Will. It doesn't serve as any kind of real cost to the player to use, but it could lead to situations where the player has to get into a fight to Guard to regenerate Will just to go back and light some debris up. The cost just doesn't seem like it serves any function.
And some bugs:
- I liked the on-screen monsters, although when they respawn their pathing is often messed up. For instance, I noticed one monster trying to walk its left-right path, but it got stuck on a tree because it respawned too far to the left.
- The text got royally borked when I loaded my save (both times). Half the letters in combat were missing, and all the text on the save screen disappeared. The regular text for speech bubbles loaded fine, but the Rage numbers and skill names were really wonky.
- The lighting overlays in the torch house caused serious lag on my computer. My laptop's not very good, but it's not THAT bad.
- Some of the pots in the torch house reappeared (while I was standing in the room), and I got extra balms when I broke them.
- The targeting system stopped functioning from time to time. I couldn't change target. It happened to me only once for using a skill on the enemy, but it happened several times when I was trying to use items on my party, which almost caused me to die.
Some very specific feedback about battle:
I think the rage system is missing out on a lot of potential for one simple reason: as it stands, there's no way to manually build rage. Attacking drains it, and so does defending. Half your skills drain it, too. The only way to get rage is to wait for it to build up or use magic, which is so costly that it's not a viable way to accrue it. The only time I managed to get into the rage state was the last fight; good timing, sure, but I had absolutely nothing to do with that, it was just a long fight. It seems a waste to include a system and then not let the player have any real control over it- how are you supposed to strategize with a system that penalizes 3/4 of your actions? If it was just a matter of not using rage-based actions that would be one thing, but again, you don't have enough Will for that to be viable, and with a limit of four skills you're also heavily relying on what you have equipped. A system where you spend the whole game using the two Will-based skills you have, desperately trying to avoid using any rage-related so you can build it. The same two skills, over and over. Not a great use of the system. I would suggest upping the cost of rage-based skills, but giving some means of building it other than waiting and hoping you're attacked (I know Talec can taunt, but that costs Rage to activate, so, uh...). That way, the player could build a solid plan around it. I have some ideas on how you could do this, but I don't want to throw too many unsolicited game design ideas at you all at once when it's clear you've put a lot of love into this project. DM me if you'd like to hear them, although absolutely no hard feelings if you don't care that much about the opinions of some plonker from the internet.
All in all, I'd say the demo was quite good. Gorgeous to look at, well paced, nice to listen to. The writing was solid, even if it is a bit obvious with how clearly it wears its nostalgia on its sleeve. Even though you're constrained to a small forest each map has a little bit of something new, which is a nice touch. I had no trouble finding the herbs, personally. I thought they stood out quite well, and they're sort of bonus items, anyway. The combat was extremely easy, but for a starting area that's quite alright. The demo whet my appetite for more, and I'll be watching closely!
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