Full Games List
Featured Games
New Games
Reviews
Media
Images
Blogs
Game Updates
Images Feedback Summary
Game Design Highlights
Tutorials
Articles
Scripts
Utilities / Plugins
Resources
Engines
Engine Bulletins
What is Makerscore?
Past Events
Achievements
Misaos
Forums
Chat
New to RMN?
Full Store List
RMN Music Pack (free)
Profile
Locker
Play ListsMILENNIN'S PROFILE
Milennin
2060
Close
I create games because I enjoy gaming, telling stories, writing dialogue and drawing. Making a game is all of those things combined into one. However, my greatest passion with game making is designing battle systems that require thought and resource management within battle itself. I'm always looking into improving my skills, so if you've played one of my games, please do leave a piece of feedback on my page.
Search
Filter
All
Game Pages
User Statuses
What are your favorite and least favorite parts of gam mak?
Best parts:
-Making skill sets
-Balancing combat
-Databasing
Worst parts:
-Mapping
-Graphics
-Fucking around with plugins, only to find out it breaks something and unable to do anything about it because I know zero scripting.
-Making skill sets
-Balancing combat
-Databasing
Worst parts:
-Mapping
-Graphics
-Fucking around with plugins, only to find out it breaks something and unable to do anything about it because I know zero scripting.
RTP Review
You said even with bad combinations you can clear the game? Well can you in the way I tried, where I purposely kept fighting more ghosts in the town? Or skipping that, then purposely fighting the next bunch of enemies in the grassy areas? Because I couldn't see a way during my first four playthroughs with v3.01.
I've recorded 2 playthroughs, using the team compositions you mentioned in your post, since I figured it would be easier to show than to write down. Each playthrough clears the entire town, and then takes on some additional enemies on the field and the dungeon, before beating the boss.
In actuality, clearing all enemies is the easier path, because each victory level-ups your party, so even if you might struggle a little in the first few fights, eventually you come out stronger than if you fought the bare minimum of encounters. Beating the 3x-Ghost encounters is a matter of finding the right balance between playing aggressively and defensively, but it also might depend a lot on your party. So, to add a bit of commentary to the 2 videos I provided (no need to watch the whole thing, but you can check on a few encounters and see how I clear them):
-The first party is the basic tank 'n spank composition. Warrior sets itself up as a wall. Cleric makes sure the wall continues to stand, while the Assassin gets to take free shots at the enemy. You can play this as safe as you want to minimise risk, or go more aggressively if you get bored quickly.
-The second party is a lot more offensive-focused. Because you don't have a reliable wall to hide behind, you need to get out there and take out weakened targets fast. It struggles a bit in the beginning with survivability, but once it gets rolling, it does just as well.
The Assassin was present in both runs, and it's the class that's built around taking advantage of the situation. Target is bleeding? BAM, Opportunist for extra damage. Target is charging? BAM, Backstab for tons of damage. Once you've got his extra passive unlocked, you can use him to attack enemies and hope to get lucky to take them out in a single hit (not as reliable, but it's fun, lol).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I also would like to point out now as well, during one of my playthroughs of the game I started the game with the Warrior locked in a cell. After getting out to the cell (Liked the eventing you did there, I mean how you had to get out, it was simple but a fun idea!) next to him was the Cleric, and the narrative dialogue I was given suggested it wasn't possible to get her out. I tried and couldn't see a way, so if I'm right there it's possible to start the game with the Warrior and have it impossible to add the Cleric to party.
If the Warrior and Cleric was always meant to be a good combination, it's not exactly good game design in my opinion that the player can sometimes not pick it.
Yes, that is what I meant by taking players out of their comfort zone. So, say a player beat the game first using Warrior + Cleric combo, but in the next playthrough finds themselves without being able to use that same combo again. They're made to use something different, and in turn they learn more about the game. Maybe they find a new combo they really like. It's not like Warrior must be paired with Cleric to be functional, though he might have to be used in a different way if no support is available to keep healing him every turn.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ah, well I didn't use Retribution the first time I had a Paladin. Have now since reading your comment. I did work out and realize some classes had skills that changed into other skills, but I never thought of using the one required on the Paladin. That first skill in and of itself did not look useful to me, increasing damage by 25% when I was already losing too much damage each turn. So I didn't use it. I suppose the Paladin does have an extra combat skill then, but it requires the Paladin to have a good amount of health left for it to have use and that's not always the case, you can start a second battle against three ghosts and not have enough to cope with 25% extra damage on top if it gets hit. At least that was what it was like for me. sometimes
Right, and I'd say Paladin is probably the most difficult class to play well, because it requires knowing how far you go with her Martyr (as well as being able to deal with unlucky scenarios in which she gets focused).
The point with Paladin was to create a high-reward, high-risk character, that when used well, pays off greatly. But at the same time punishes bad planning ahead. If your Paladin is at low health, without option to heal, she can still be used to cast Wrath or to protect the party using Shelter.
In a way, it is part of choosing your own difficulty. Of course, this requires some knowledge of the game, so it's very well possible that a new player chooses some of the hardest classes to play. In the worst case, they fail and retry with another set of characters they might like more. For people familiar with the game, they can use it to decide how difficult they want their run to be. For a greater challenge, you might go with a Paladin + Berserker combo. While if you want a more laid back playthrough, Warrior + Cleric works very well.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The Mage has a strong water skill, add that with the Rock On buff and it does a good amount of damage. I don't see other combat skills here, though, and attack doesn't deal enough damage.
4. A powerful kill that kills the Berserker the next turn? How are you meant to revive him, or if not, why would the skill be good idea? Now he does have another skill that increases damage but it reduces the HP too much against the attacks it can get hit with. So again, a useful combat skill here without a disadvantage would be useful.
5. Assassin with Slice and Opportunist is good, so is Backstab. The problem is even with that combination it can possible KO a single ghost but then your stuck for a long while, as it costs 8MP to use Backstab, the other 6MP, and the first takes two turns to work as well. So you can't do much after your first KO and there are still two other enemies without Alchemist, Warrior or Mage.
6. Warlock. Bloodbath is useful, with Assassin it's great, but it's still not enough to take down the enemy. Again it's 8MP and you don't have other combat skills worth using while your waiting for MP to return.
1. Charge Shock? Yes, its main use is to stun a charging enemy, but it still deals good damage for its cost to a single target. If it lets you finish off an enemy a turn earlier, Charge Shock a pretty good option.
4. Berserker's Dragon Fury is made to be a finisher move. Either to clear the last enemy in an encounter, or as a boss slayer. With enough set up, it can one-shot a boss from full health. But this image should sum it up just fine (sorry, couldn't resist):
5. Not a guaranteed result, but in some games, you might end up with On A Roll passive on Assassin, basically halving the cost of those skills when used correctly.
6. Reaper of Rage can be a good option when followed up with Attack if you managed to steal Enrage off of an enemy.
But looking at your list, you can still name at least one combat skill you find good or useful for each class. Not every class is made to be a killing machine either (like, Cleric), but at the same time, all of them have at least one good option to contribute to dealing damage. Just not every turn.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This wasn't explained in the manual though? I think? Is it explained somewhere in the game that I've missed? It would be very useful to tell the players there second skill can be used once and then it would change into a different second skill that can heal 50% HP. There is nothing in any of the second skill descriptions that even remotely suggest that is possible right now. You could add an icon or a word next to the skill for the player to know that's a skill that can be swapped with a 50% HP one.
Yeah, this one didn't go as well as planned. When I made the game, I wanted to make something with minimum amounts of hand-holding, so I decided on not having tutorials. I thought players would figure it out on their own, but when the game was done and I saw people playing it, most didn't notice the second skill switching out for another skill that provided a self heal. At this point, I don't really know how I could make it obvious for people how to use their 2nd skill without pushing it in their face. I'll just take the lesson, and make sure to work on it better in my next project. (You'd think the manual would solve it, but most people don't even read that, lol.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Is it still meant to be 15-30 minutes if you decided to fight even a few of the other enemies in each area along the way? And what if you want to fight them all? I think both those options would make the game longer than 30 minutes.
I don't understand why not add a save option. That way anyone can pick up a game and come back to it later, even even even if it became 30 minutes I would still highly recommend a save feature.
Autosave works too, I know there used to be a plugin for it in MV but I don't think it still works on the newer version of MV. If you can't have autosave though, I would recommend save. I don't see any cons against it.
The 15-30 minutes estimate is with skipping of optional encounters in mind. Okay, so I'm not going to defend not having save, because I know it's the greatest unholy sin in gamemaking that you can commit, but I will explain why it's not there (warning: could get long):
So, before I started on this game, I made a list of things that I wanted to try out. MV was not released yet, and this game would be my learning experience with the program. At the same time, I knew I wanted to make something small and manageable. So, this about sums up what my list included:
-1 town
-1 field
-1 dungeon
-1 boss (at least per playthrough)
-9 playable classes (3 per playthrough)
-4 skills per class (switch skill excluded)
-No story
-No dialogue
-No tutorials
-No items
-No save
-No longer than 30 minutes in playtime
The only thing I was going to spend time on was making maps, some basic eventing, but for the most part working out a turn-based combat system that would have a sense of depth, and relies on player skill, rather than adding up numbers like most RPGs revolve around.
Why I went with no save is because it was ultimately to be made playable on mobile. Like, play a round while on the bus, or during break at work. If you can't finish in one go, you can turn the device on sleep and continue later. Even if you do lose progress, there is no attachment because you don't build up anything. Playthroughs don't last long, and starting over is made as painless as possible due to the lack of dialogue and cutscenes. The random nature of the game also makes restarting more fun, because every new game will feel a little different. Even if you didn't finish, you might have learned a new trick or strategy that you can use in the next attempt.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. I don't think all new players would find it easy to beat the way it is right now, depending what class combinations they end up with. And I say that from my experience.
For some, sure it could be easy if you end up with Warrior, Mage and Alchemist for example, as that can be a great help, in fact Alchemist probably is the best of them alone for it's MP ability.
I guess I can say when you have Alchemist it balances a lot better but when you don't it doesn't. So I can see a lot of players picking bad combinations at random and some of them getting game over with the game in it's current state. My opinion on that then remains the same, that it could do with more balance.
I also don't expect new players to clear the game on first time. It's not made for people who just want a one-and-done game experience. When you die in RTP, it's always to blame on the choices that you made. While luck can be a factor, it's never solely the reason why you got a game over. So, the game is made to encourage people to look at why they failed, and then think of ways they could do better next time. Maybe their party lacked synergy. Maybe they played too defensively. Maybe they only used 1 or 2 skills on their characters, but ignored the other options that they had. Maybe they did nothing to stop charging monsters from attacking.
There could be many different reasons, but you never died just out of nowhere for no reason.
I guess this game could appeal to people who like the tougher kind of games (Dark Souls as an example), that are punishing in nature, but reward learning from mistakes and finding solutions to overcome obstacles.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Ah ok. I do agree with you that just adding the items won't make the game better. But I think with little effort a few treasure chests would be fun and some items that have advantages to be used would make it more fun, definitely. It can always been fun to find items or gain them as rewards and then they can aid and help out more in some battles, making some of them a bit easier but as a result of gaining a reward. That can leave a great feeling to the player when handled right. Of course you don't want to overdo it either.
This would be such a huge change in direction, it's not feasible without upsetting the entire balance of the game in its current state. It was built up from the ground with the idea of not having items whatsoever, so putting them in now would either do more harm than good, or require huge amounts of rework to be done for a low pay-off (and that is to assume people would even like the items).
The same pretty much goes for all the other points. I absolutely do get what you're saying, and I agree that I myself would prefer some of those things as well, but they don't fit this game in my eyes. Though, it's funny that pretty much all the things you find lacking in RTP, I am adding in my new game HERO (in progress, no demo yet). Which takes pointers from RTP's battle system, but has a full story, character dialogues, much more choice, items and equipment, also tutorials on a few of the trickier mechanics, lol.
I think that was about all the points that you made. If you do decide and go back to play some more, I hope you'll have a better time with the information you've got now. :D As a final note, I don't mind most points you raised in your first review (most of them seem points of conflicting preferences, which is fine), but I don't think you are correct when you state the balance of the game is off. As you can see in my recorded footage, both parties manage really well through the entirety of the game. Every party member plays their part and gets to contribute in a meaningful way. Would I say every character is equally good? No, but perfect balance across all characters is something you'll never achieve. What matters is that each and every class has their strong points, something they are good at. Some classes even excel at certain things, but they might lack in other aspects to make up for that. Other classes might not specialise as much in a fulfilling a certain role, but they also fit in easier with different party compositions.
There is not a single class that brings nothing to the table, that needs to be carried by the rest of the team. If you find them vastly underperforming, I'd strongly urge to take a closer look at their skills and see what they can do.
If there is any other party combo you'd like me to record a playthrough of in case you're still not convinced, I'll gladly provide it, as I'm absolutely confident in the balance of my game (this is actually the only thing I'm really confident about, lol :D)
I've recorded 2 playthroughs, using the team compositions you mentioned in your post, since I figured it would be easier to show than to write down. Each playthrough clears the entire town, and then takes on some additional enemies on the field and the dungeon, before beating the boss.
In actuality, clearing all enemies is the easier path, because each victory level-ups your party, so even if you might struggle a little in the first few fights, eventually you come out stronger than if you fought the bare minimum of encounters. Beating the 3x-Ghost encounters is a matter of finding the right balance between playing aggressively and defensively, but it also might depend a lot on your party. So, to add a bit of commentary to the 2 videos I provided (no need to watch the whole thing, but you can check on a few encounters and see how I clear them):
-The first party is the basic tank 'n spank composition. Warrior sets itself up as a wall. Cleric makes sure the wall continues to stand, while the Assassin gets to take free shots at the enemy. You can play this as safe as you want to minimise risk, or go more aggressively if you get bored quickly.
-The second party is a lot more offensive-focused. Because you don't have a reliable wall to hide behind, you need to get out there and take out weakened targets fast. It struggles a bit in the beginning with survivability, but once it gets rolling, it does just as well.
The Assassin was present in both runs, and it's the class that's built around taking advantage of the situation. Target is bleeding? BAM, Opportunist for extra damage. Target is charging? BAM, Backstab for tons of damage. Once you've got his extra passive unlocked, you can use him to attack enemies and hope to get lucky to take them out in a single hit (not as reliable, but it's fun, lol).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I also would like to point out now as well, during one of my playthroughs of the game I started the game with the Warrior locked in a cell. After getting out to the cell (Liked the eventing you did there, I mean how you had to get out, it was simple but a fun idea!) next to him was the Cleric, and the narrative dialogue I was given suggested it wasn't possible to get her out. I tried and couldn't see a way, so if I'm right there it's possible to start the game with the Warrior and have it impossible to add the Cleric to party.
If the Warrior and Cleric was always meant to be a good combination, it's not exactly good game design in my opinion that the player can sometimes not pick it.
Yes, that is what I meant by taking players out of their comfort zone. So, say a player beat the game first using Warrior + Cleric combo, but in the next playthrough finds themselves without being able to use that same combo again. They're made to use something different, and in turn they learn more about the game. Maybe they find a new combo they really like. It's not like Warrior must be paired with Cleric to be functional, though he might have to be used in a different way if no support is available to keep healing him every turn.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ah, well I didn't use Retribution the first time I had a Paladin. Have now since reading your comment. I did work out and realize some classes had skills that changed into other skills, but I never thought of using the one required on the Paladin. That first skill in and of itself did not look useful to me, increasing damage by 25% when I was already losing too much damage each turn. So I didn't use it. I suppose the Paladin does have an extra combat skill then, but it requires the Paladin to have a good amount of health left for it to have use and that's not always the case, you can start a second battle against three ghosts and not have enough to cope with 25% extra damage on top if it gets hit. At least that was what it was like for me. sometimes
Right, and I'd say Paladin is probably the most difficult class to play well, because it requires knowing how far you go with her Martyr (as well as being able to deal with unlucky scenarios in which she gets focused).
The point with Paladin was to create a high-reward, high-risk character, that when used well, pays off greatly. But at the same time punishes bad planning ahead. If your Paladin is at low health, without option to heal, she can still be used to cast Wrath or to protect the party using Shelter.
In a way, it is part of choosing your own difficulty. Of course, this requires some knowledge of the game, so it's very well possible that a new player chooses some of the hardest classes to play. In the worst case, they fail and retry with another set of characters they might like more. For people familiar with the game, they can use it to decide how difficult they want their run to be. For a greater challenge, you might go with a Paladin + Berserker combo. While if you want a more laid back playthrough, Warrior + Cleric works very well.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The Mage has a strong water skill, add that with the Rock On buff and it does a good amount of damage. I don't see other combat skills here, though, and attack doesn't deal enough damage.
4. A powerful kill that kills the Berserker the next turn? How are you meant to revive him, or if not, why would the skill be good idea? Now he does have another skill that increases damage but it reduces the HP too much against the attacks it can get hit with. So again, a useful combat skill here without a disadvantage would be useful.
5. Assassin with Slice and Opportunist is good, so is Backstab. The problem is even with that combination it can possible KO a single ghost but then your stuck for a long while, as it costs 8MP to use Backstab, the other 6MP, and the first takes two turns to work as well. So you can't do much after your first KO and there are still two other enemies without Alchemist, Warrior or Mage.
6. Warlock. Bloodbath is useful, with Assassin it's great, but it's still not enough to take down the enemy. Again it's 8MP and you don't have other combat skills worth using while your waiting for MP to return.
1. Charge Shock? Yes, its main use is to stun a charging enemy, but it still deals good damage for its cost to a single target. If it lets you finish off an enemy a turn earlier, Charge Shock a pretty good option.
4. Berserker's Dragon Fury is made to be a finisher move. Either to clear the last enemy in an encounter, or as a boss slayer. With enough set up, it can one-shot a boss from full health. But this image should sum it up just fine (sorry, couldn't resist):
5. Not a guaranteed result, but in some games, you might end up with On A Roll passive on Assassin, basically halving the cost of those skills when used correctly.
6. Reaper of Rage can be a good option when followed up with Attack if you managed to steal Enrage off of an enemy.
But looking at your list, you can still name at least one combat skill you find good or useful for each class. Not every class is made to be a killing machine either (like, Cleric), but at the same time, all of them have at least one good option to contribute to dealing damage. Just not every turn.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This wasn't explained in the manual though? I think? Is it explained somewhere in the game that I've missed? It would be very useful to tell the players there second skill can be used once and then it would change into a different second skill that can heal 50% HP. There is nothing in any of the second skill descriptions that even remotely suggest that is possible right now. You could add an icon or a word next to the skill for the player to know that's a skill that can be swapped with a 50% HP one.
Yeah, this one didn't go as well as planned. When I made the game, I wanted to make something with minimum amounts of hand-holding, so I decided on not having tutorials. I thought players would figure it out on their own, but when the game was done and I saw people playing it, most didn't notice the second skill switching out for another skill that provided a self heal. At this point, I don't really know how I could make it obvious for people how to use their 2nd skill without pushing it in their face. I'll just take the lesson, and make sure to work on it better in my next project. (You'd think the manual would solve it, but most people don't even read that, lol.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Is it still meant to be 15-30 minutes if you decided to fight even a few of the other enemies in each area along the way? And what if you want to fight them all? I think both those options would make the game longer than 30 minutes.
I don't understand why not add a save option. That way anyone can pick up a game and come back to it later, even even even if it became 30 minutes I would still highly recommend a save feature.
Autosave works too, I know there used to be a plugin for it in MV but I don't think it still works on the newer version of MV. If you can't have autosave though, I would recommend save. I don't see any cons against it.
The 15-30 minutes estimate is with skipping of optional encounters in mind. Okay, so I'm not going to defend not having save, because I know it's the greatest unholy sin in gamemaking that you can commit, but I will explain why it's not there (warning: could get long):
So, before I started on this game, I made a list of things that I wanted to try out. MV was not released yet, and this game would be my learning experience with the program. At the same time, I knew I wanted to make something small and manageable. So, this about sums up what my list included:
-1 town
-1 field
-1 dungeon
-1 boss (at least per playthrough)
-9 playable classes (3 per playthrough)
-4 skills per class (switch skill excluded)
-No story
-No dialogue
-No tutorials
-No items
-No save
-No longer than 30 minutes in playtime
The only thing I was going to spend time on was making maps, some basic eventing, but for the most part working out a turn-based combat system that would have a sense of depth, and relies on player skill, rather than adding up numbers like most RPGs revolve around.
Why I went with no save is because it was ultimately to be made playable on mobile. Like, play a round while on the bus, or during break at work. If you can't finish in one go, you can turn the device on sleep and continue later. Even if you do lose progress, there is no attachment because you don't build up anything. Playthroughs don't last long, and starting over is made as painless as possible due to the lack of dialogue and cutscenes. The random nature of the game also makes restarting more fun, because every new game will feel a little different. Even if you didn't finish, you might have learned a new trick or strategy that you can use in the next attempt.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. I don't think all new players would find it easy to beat the way it is right now, depending what class combinations they end up with. And I say that from my experience.
For some, sure it could be easy if you end up with Warrior, Mage and Alchemist for example, as that can be a great help, in fact Alchemist probably is the best of them alone for it's MP ability.
I guess I can say when you have Alchemist it balances a lot better but when you don't it doesn't. So I can see a lot of players picking bad combinations at random and some of them getting game over with the game in it's current state. My opinion on that then remains the same, that it could do with more balance.
I also don't expect new players to clear the game on first time. It's not made for people who just want a one-and-done game experience. When you die in RTP, it's always to blame on the choices that you made. While luck can be a factor, it's never solely the reason why you got a game over. So, the game is made to encourage people to look at why they failed, and then think of ways they could do better next time. Maybe their party lacked synergy. Maybe they played too defensively. Maybe they only used 1 or 2 skills on their characters, but ignored the other options that they had. Maybe they did nothing to stop charging monsters from attacking.
There could be many different reasons, but you never died just out of nowhere for no reason.
I guess this game could appeal to people who like the tougher kind of games (Dark Souls as an example), that are punishing in nature, but reward learning from mistakes and finding solutions to overcome obstacles.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Ah ok. I do agree with you that just adding the items won't make the game better. But I think with little effort a few treasure chests would be fun and some items that have advantages to be used would make it more fun, definitely. It can always been fun to find items or gain them as rewards and then they can aid and help out more in some battles, making some of them a bit easier but as a result of gaining a reward. That can leave a great feeling to the player when handled right. Of course you don't want to overdo it either.
This would be such a huge change in direction, it's not feasible without upsetting the entire balance of the game in its current state. It was built up from the ground with the idea of not having items whatsoever, so putting them in now would either do more harm than good, or require huge amounts of rework to be done for a low pay-off (and that is to assume people would even like the items).
The same pretty much goes for all the other points. I absolutely do get what you're saying, and I agree that I myself would prefer some of those things as well, but they don't fit this game in my eyes. Though, it's funny that pretty much all the things you find lacking in RTP, I am adding in my new game HERO (in progress, no demo yet). Which takes pointers from RTP's battle system, but has a full story, character dialogues, much more choice, items and equipment, also tutorials on a few of the trickier mechanics, lol.
I think that was about all the points that you made. If you do decide and go back to play some more, I hope you'll have a better time with the information you've got now. :D As a final note, I don't mind most points you raised in your first review (most of them seem points of conflicting preferences, which is fine), but I don't think you are correct when you state the balance of the game is off. As you can see in my recorded footage, both parties manage really well through the entirety of the game. Every party member plays their part and gets to contribute in a meaningful way. Would I say every character is equally good? No, but perfect balance across all characters is something you'll never achieve. What matters is that each and every class has their strong points, something they are good at. Some classes even excel at certain things, but they might lack in other aspects to make up for that. Other classes might not specialise as much in a fulfilling a certain role, but they also fit in easier with different party compositions.
There is not a single class that brings nothing to the table, that needs to be carried by the rest of the team. If you find them vastly underperforming, I'd strongly urge to take a closer look at their skills and see what they can do.
If there is any other party combo you'd like me to record a playthrough of in case you're still not convinced, I'll gladly provide it, as I'm absolutely confident in the balance of my game (this is actually the only thing I'm really confident about, lol :D)
RTP Review
There's a lot here, so I'm going over some of these:
I'll start with what's good and then go into the rest. Sadly what's bad has ruined the whole experience of this game for me, and I imagine others may feel the same way if they pick a bad class combination from the get-go.
There are very few "bad class combinations", and even the worst possible combinations are able to clear the game (yes, I've tried, and no, not just in isolated playtests).
Now the ideas behind these skills are wonderful as they encourage strategy and thought in battles, yet it doesn't work well in the game because they are under-balanced a lot. The only useful combat skill in that example above is skill 4 and it costs too much MP to use it every turn. Attack deals so little damage that it's useless leaving you with a character that just isn't that good or worth having.
So, I'm going to go ahead and guess you've not used Retribution? Because not only has it the potential to hit higher than Wrath for half the MP cost, it also deals defence-ignoring damage (plus it heals the Paladin).
The other problem is, a lot more than just 1 class is like this where there combat skills are very weak.
Every class has at least 1 strong combat skill, and some have 2 or even 3, so I'd like to hear from you which classes you found having weak combat skills.
Second problem. Health doesn't restore in enough HP. Because they have low HP values 10% HP is almost nothing, it'd definitely not enough for the characters. I felt also for the Cleric that can restore 20% HP instead, even that was too low a number against 3 powerful ghost enemies.
You do know every class has a 50% self-heal on skill 2, right? (Cleric being the exception, with her skill healing the whole party for 33%HP.)
I also felt the characters HP and MP didn't heal enough per battle. I think full recovery would've work better, just that and the game would have more balance to it.
The reason there is no full recovery, because it would put the player in a repeating gameplay loop once they find out the most efficient way to open a fight. It also removes the reward of players who did well in an encounter.
The Warlock class can also summon a Minion Imp, but it can die in 2-3 turns and be very underpowered as well.
And so, using 4 MP, that minion just shielded your party for 20+HP, much more even if you utilise it's Immortality skill before it dies. It is, in fact, one of the best and most MP-efficient ways of protecting the party from damage in the game. It never was meant to last entire battles (though it certainly can if it's not getting focused on by enemies).
The Mage is a much more useful class then most, where it can charge for a turn and then dealt roughly 45%-65% damage to all the enemies at once. Somewhere between that amount.
The Mage is very easy to play, so there's that. It's a good beginner's class, but nowhere near "much more useful" than other classes.
Cleric. Angel Strike is an awesome skill idea, as they heal a lot it's naturally fits well in the game. This skill increase damage output each time the Cleric heals an actor. But at the cost of 8MP it's too limited.
It's limited, because it's their strongest skill, and not meant to be spammed every turn.
Assassin. Slice may make the foe Bleed for a few turns, but is it useful? Yes with Opportunist and the Warlock guy it can deal a good amount of damage, but against 3 foes that consumes way too much MP and then when your left with Slice alone, it deals no damage to the enemy in and of itself and the Bleed status effects it adds, the degen of it, is hardly anything.
Overall, Slice deals more damage than a regular, unboosted Attack would, plus restores Assassin's MP. When used against bosses, it gains even more effectiveness because it deals damage in percentages. For a skill that costs no MP to cast, that seems fair, no?
1. Save feature please. Let us save on the maps. If you strongly insist on it, then an autosave feature in it's play. Just let players be able to walk away from the game and come back to it later if nothing else. Even for a game that's only about an hour a 20 minutes long.
2. Most important balance. Check everything in the database to do with damage formulas and healing. It definitely could do with a lot of work.
3. Let the player choose all three classes they get, let them know what they are. Don't give them a random class each time.
4. Add items in the game, and add chests to get them in and through events by clicking on objects. Since there is a purpose to in this game it would have been fun to have had this feature as well.
5. Same as items but with equipment. Would've been fun.
6. Add character dialogue to the game, but I know it can be hard when your checking over 9 possible characters. Just a little would've been good, you wouldn't have to go to extreme measures with it.
7. Dialogue on the ghosts and bosses! Would've been fun to have it.
8. More party combination skills. For example the Warlock and Assassin skills worked well together. They could both potential cast the Bleed state and then deal more damage on enemies with that state. Perhaps have other states with similar effects for other classes as well? Of course though, without balancing it, it won't be much fun but this improvement is good in theory otherwise.
1. Actually, the game is meant to be no longer than 15-30 minutes, once you've gotten the hang of things. It was meant to not give any attachment to a current session. The only save I'd put in is a autosave, if I knew how because it's not a feature of MV. Anyway, I won't further defend of not having save.
2. I've played through my own game hundreds of times, with all possible class combinations, against all bosses. I've seen other players get through the game no problem. At this point, each class works as intended, but some are harder to use effectively than others.
3. It's meant to take players out of their comfort zone and try new things. The game was designed to remove all barriers that would keep the player from playing the game (travelling, battling). Adding in choices at the start would add one such barrier. Not to mention, new players can't make an informed decision about a game they've never played before to begin with anyway, so I don't see how this would really work in their favour. If you really do not like your starting class, you can simply hit F5 and start again (this is why there is no intro cutscene or dialogue).
4. I set out to make a game that would not have any items or treasures. It's part of the design. Adding more stuff to a game does not make it better anyhow.
5. Same as above.
6. Again, it would only increase the number of barriers. Fluff that might be fun the first two playthroughs, but gets tedious the more you play it. I considered dialogue, of course, but in the end, it didn't fit the type of game I was making.
7. Same as above.
8. A lot of classes have synergy with each other, and there are more classes capable of inflicting Bleed to combo with either Assassin or Warlock. There are many other combinations that work well, though not as directly as those (Warrior + Cleric to name a classic set up). The reason why there is not more cross-class interaction with different states is because:
-classes only have 4 skills each.
-classes need not be reliant on cross-class interaction to be effective.
-decreases chances of getting a party that can use skill effects efficiently.
The reason most synergy between classes is soft synergy is because it's not reliant on setting up certain states, but rather revolves around styles of play. This is why a class like Warrior plays well with classes that need to set up to be effective (such as Berserker), while a Mage works better in an aggressive party because she fuels MP easily (Alchemist likes her).
I just noticed a lot of your points address things that I had done intentionally, by choice of design, so I felt like I had to respond to that.
Anyway, thanks for the lengthy review. :D
I'll start with what's good and then go into the rest. Sadly what's bad has ruined the whole experience of this game for me, and I imagine others may feel the same way if they pick a bad class combination from the get-go.
There are very few "bad class combinations", and even the worst possible combinations are able to clear the game (yes, I've tried, and no, not just in isolated playtests).
Now the ideas behind these skills are wonderful as they encourage strategy and thought in battles, yet it doesn't work well in the game because they are under-balanced a lot. The only useful combat skill in that example above is skill 4 and it costs too much MP to use it every turn. Attack deals so little damage that it's useless leaving you with a character that just isn't that good or worth having.
So, I'm going to go ahead and guess you've not used Retribution? Because not only has it the potential to hit higher than Wrath for half the MP cost, it also deals defence-ignoring damage (plus it heals the Paladin).
The other problem is, a lot more than just 1 class is like this where there combat skills are very weak.
Every class has at least 1 strong combat skill, and some have 2 or even 3, so I'd like to hear from you which classes you found having weak combat skills.
Second problem. Health doesn't restore in enough HP. Because they have low HP values 10% HP is almost nothing, it'd definitely not enough for the characters. I felt also for the Cleric that can restore 20% HP instead, even that was too low a number against 3 powerful ghost enemies.
You do know every class has a 50% self-heal on skill 2, right? (Cleric being the exception, with her skill healing the whole party for 33%HP.)
I also felt the characters HP and MP didn't heal enough per battle. I think full recovery would've work better, just that and the game would have more balance to it.
The reason there is no full recovery, because it would put the player in a repeating gameplay loop once they find out the most efficient way to open a fight. It also removes the reward of players who did well in an encounter.
The Warlock class can also summon a Minion Imp, but it can die in 2-3 turns and be very underpowered as well.
And so, using 4 MP, that minion just shielded your party for 20+HP, much more even if you utilise it's Immortality skill before it dies. It is, in fact, one of the best and most MP-efficient ways of protecting the party from damage in the game. It never was meant to last entire battles (though it certainly can if it's not getting focused on by enemies).
The Mage is a much more useful class then most, where it can charge for a turn and then dealt roughly 45%-65% damage to all the enemies at once. Somewhere between that amount.
The Mage is very easy to play, so there's that. It's a good beginner's class, but nowhere near "much more useful" than other classes.
Cleric. Angel Strike is an awesome skill idea, as they heal a lot it's naturally fits well in the game. This skill increase damage output each time the Cleric heals an actor. But at the cost of 8MP it's too limited.
It's limited, because it's their strongest skill, and not meant to be spammed every turn.
Assassin. Slice may make the foe Bleed for a few turns, but is it useful? Yes with Opportunist and the Warlock guy it can deal a good amount of damage, but against 3 foes that consumes way too much MP and then when your left with Slice alone, it deals no damage to the enemy in and of itself and the Bleed status effects it adds, the degen of it, is hardly anything.
Overall, Slice deals more damage than a regular, unboosted Attack would, plus restores Assassin's MP. When used against bosses, it gains even more effectiveness because it deals damage in percentages. For a skill that costs no MP to cast, that seems fair, no?
1. Save feature please. Let us save on the maps. If you strongly insist on it, then an autosave feature in it's play. Just let players be able to walk away from the game and come back to it later if nothing else. Even for a game that's only about an hour a 20 minutes long.
2. Most important balance. Check everything in the database to do with damage formulas and healing. It definitely could do with a lot of work.
3. Let the player choose all three classes they get, let them know what they are. Don't give them a random class each time.
4. Add items in the game, and add chests to get them in and through events by clicking on objects. Since there is a purpose to in this game it would have been fun to have had this feature as well.
5. Same as items but with equipment. Would've been fun.
6. Add character dialogue to the game, but I know it can be hard when your checking over 9 possible characters. Just a little would've been good, you wouldn't have to go to extreme measures with it.
7. Dialogue on the ghosts and bosses! Would've been fun to have it.
8. More party combination skills. For example the Warlock and Assassin skills worked well together. They could both potential cast the Bleed state and then deal more damage on enemies with that state. Perhaps have other states with similar effects for other classes as well? Of course though, without balancing it, it won't be much fun but this improvement is good in theory otherwise.
1. Actually, the game is meant to be no longer than 15-30 minutes, once you've gotten the hang of things. It was meant to not give any attachment to a current session. The only save I'd put in is a autosave, if I knew how because it's not a feature of MV. Anyway, I won't further defend of not having save.
2. I've played through my own game hundreds of times, with all possible class combinations, against all bosses. I've seen other players get through the game no problem. At this point, each class works as intended, but some are harder to use effectively than others.
3. It's meant to take players out of their comfort zone and try new things. The game was designed to remove all barriers that would keep the player from playing the game (travelling, battling). Adding in choices at the start would add one such barrier. Not to mention, new players can't make an informed decision about a game they've never played before to begin with anyway, so I don't see how this would really work in their favour. If you really do not like your starting class, you can simply hit F5 and start again (this is why there is no intro cutscene or dialogue).
4. I set out to make a game that would not have any items or treasures. It's part of the design. Adding more stuff to a game does not make it better anyhow.
5. Same as above.
6. Again, it would only increase the number of barriers. Fluff that might be fun the first two playthroughs, but gets tedious the more you play it. I considered dialogue, of course, but in the end, it didn't fit the type of game I was making.
7. Same as above.
8. A lot of classes have synergy with each other, and there are more classes capable of inflicting Bleed to combo with either Assassin or Warlock. There are many other combinations that work well, though not as directly as those (Warrior + Cleric to name a classic set up). The reason why there is not more cross-class interaction with different states is because:
-classes only have 4 skills each.
-classes need not be reliant on cross-class interaction to be effective.
-decreases chances of getting a party that can use skill effects efficiently.
The reason most synergy between classes is soft synergy is because it's not reliant on setting up certain states, but rather revolves around styles of play. This is why a class like Warrior plays well with classes that need to set up to be effective (such as Berserker), while a Mage works better in an aggressive party because she fuels MP easily (Alchemist likes her).
I just noticed a lot of your points address things that I had done intentionally, by choice of design, so I felt like I had to respond to that.
Anyway, thanks for the lengthy review. :D
The Best Battle Animations You've Seen?
For me, the Golden Sun games left a huge impression on me with how cool all the spells and summons looked. Plus, it was really nice how you could skip or speed up the animation with a button press if you wanted to get on with it instead.
I think I might have played only like one or two RPG Maker games that had nice custom animations (don't remember the titles), but even the most basic attacks and spells took up so much time, it just got really annoying after a while and it made me not want to play more.
I think I might have played only like one or two RPG Maker games that had nice custom animations (don't remember the titles), but even the most basic attacks and spells took up so much time, it just got really annoying after a while and it made me not want to play more.
Games with map/level editors
[RM2K3] Skill Detection- is it a thing?
I think it can work if the skill has a different MP cost than the other skills, and use detection through variables by checking for MP spent in the battle eventing. So, if it would be the only skill that costs 7 MP, the event checks if 7 MP has been spent that turn, and then activates the switch.
Initial ideas
author=AtiyaTheSeeker
Totally seems like you're playing to your strengths, which I cannot stress enough with any creative project. I'm looking forward to this game even more, and your ambition is inspiring my own game dev spark once more. I wish you the best of luck with this project and hey, maybe I might play RTP someday too! When I finish my queue of RM games to play and review, but still!
Indeed, with limited time to work on something like this, might as well spend it on what you're best at, or at least enjoy doing the most. :D Well, if you ever get around to trying RTP, I hope you'll like it. I know it's a game not for everyone, but at least it's short, so it won't be a huge time investment.
I just figured out why you seemed vaguely familiar... I remember playing your Wolf's Labyrinth demo that is now marked as cancelled sometime ago. What happened to that?
HERO
author=dasgibtesnetThe combat system will be largely based on my previous game, RTP, but taking it up a notch with more skills per character and more unique combat mechanics for each character.
Hm.... concept sounds interesting. Subbed.
For balancing the MC, all the skill choices offer 1 skill of each role (attacking, defending, healing HP, reloading MP), and it's not really encouraged to basically go all-in on 1 role, because you'd just end up with skills that all sort of achieve the same thing but in different ways (like, you don't really need 4 defend skills on your guy, but you might pick up just 1 or 2 for use in dire situations).
Then, there are also skills that while set in 1 role can still provide part of another role, like every role gets to have access to some sort of a self-heal (then the healer version of that skill offers a party-wide heal instead). Though honestly, the goal really is to make any kind of build viable to play in some way or another. Not sure if I'll manage to achieve that, but I suppose time, and lots of playtesting will tell...
I'd say you might want to build your MC around the type of sidekick you want to bring. You want to bring a sidekick that can deal lots of damage? You build your MC to reload their MP efficiently so they can keep on blowing up enemies. Or, if you bring a healer, you might want to go for some defensive abilities so you can turtle your way through encounters (don't worry, healers and defenders still get their own ways of taking down enemies).
Later on, you get to bring a 2nd sidekick, that's where you can really go into a lot of different directions with how you want your team to function.
HERO
author=Shadonir
Seems very interesting, will be looking forward to it.
Thanks. :D It'll be quite some time until I'll get a demo up, since I don't want to rush anything - and once the demo does go up, for it to be in a good state, but I'll be putting out some blog entries to record progress made and go over the various design choices I chose to go with for this game.
What's your genre; what do you want to impress?
For my earlier games, it was all about the characters and the funny and wacky things they did or that happened to them.
With my newer games I'm more focused on delivering a solid battle experience that feels partly familiar, being classic turn-based RPG style, but also unique in its own right with how actions function in ways you don't really see much in other RPG Maker games. I want people to remember my newer games as games that were cool and different in the way the combat felt compared to many other RPG Maker titles.
With my newer games I'm more focused on delivering a solid battle experience that feels partly familiar, being classic turn-based RPG style, but also unique in its own right with how actions function in ways you don't really see much in other RPG Maker games. I want people to remember my newer games as games that were cool and different in the way the combat felt compared to many other RPG Maker titles.
Games - Tester
Games - Other
