MR. Y'S PROFILE

Actually, now that I think about it, Episode 6 kinda reminds me of the Sopranos and how it ended. That comparison's kinda lame though, so let me explain my feelings better.

I appreciate the fact that LunC didn't deliberately deliver what was expected- the setting of Episode 6 as being someplace entirely separate from the rest of the episodes was really neat, although I can understand how some folks might feel that he screwed them over after they invested themselves so much in e1-5. Everybody expected the usual plot twists (lol somebody betrays the hero), nobody expected the game to go into someone's MIND.

I also felt that the series was in general wrapped up well, but there are obvious exceptions and plenty of room for another series. I didn't really appreciate this 'sequel space' placed on the end, because it keeps the series from being completely whole, but at least it was placed there deliberately.

Battles became more unbalanced as the game continued. LunC did a LOT of beta testing to address this before E6's release, but if you want to go far in E6 you pretty much need a save file from E1-5 with nearly all skill-up items done. And good luck killing the secret boss and getting that bizarre secret ending, haha.

Also, although the story is good by indie RPG standards, it's not that great, honestly. But maybe I'm being unfair, because I don't care very much about fantasy novels. It's a good story, but the greatest stories convey bigger ideas than just magical swords and the relationships of fictional characters.

Even then, it's a great indie RPG story, but not the best. I think the perceived strength of the story comes from the disjointed conclusion episode of the Way series. I would grant it that LunC created the best, most original world/atmosphere of an indie game, and he did a great job of easing the player into it while also providing surface-level padding like joke characters and character relationships. However, I just didn't find enough depth in the game's story to agree that it's the best. As a player you get the sense that it deep and totally complete, which is still a great achievement, but I'd prefer it if all loose ends were wrapped up and made sense. Different strokes for different folks though; I can understand why some people could consider it the best.

Nice article for me, since I don't recognize most of the games there and found it useful. It's interesting because I was talking to Emperor Jeramyu from Crestfallen yesterday on IRC and he complained a lot about how games can win in opposite categories like Best and Worst game (The Way 6 came somewhere close in both.) At least that didn't happen this year so much as in the past when Laxius Power games were being entered :P.

author=trance2 link=topic=87.msg1279#msg1279 date=1183142263
I need a button to be created so I can advertise RMN on my own personal website. I mean, I have QC and KC there. RMN needs a spot too.

We're too cool to have one of those affiliate buttons... ... ...

author=Gredlen link=topic=89.msg1356#msg1356 date=1183270167
I don't think you need to talk to the Count of Skingrad to finish the game. If you're at the part I'm thinking of, it just helps out a little, but it's not necessary.
So get back to Oblivion! Maybe.

Yeah... I'm just getting allies for the Oblivion gate near Bruma. The only problem is that, even if, after loading my game, I sprint out of the room and QT out of Skingrad, the game still crashes... I'm pretty sure it's the Count causing it because the game crashed before when I did the quest for making an antidote to vampirism, but I have no clue how to really fix it.

EDIT: If this is not the ATB RPG battle system that I expect, then I am screeeewed.

Need to Heal Constantly System
The "need to heal constantly" system sounds interesting because it sounds like you're going to make battles interesting. The four directions, the ways they're damaged, and how their being damaged affects play all sounds like an able substitute for regular status effects in RPGs. It also sounds like you tried to balance between the four directions so that it's close to equally important to keep them all in good shape.

If I understand right, the player needs to sing in order to fix damage to one of the four categories within the rotating disc. Singing doesn't take up the player's turn, however... so I want to know, what's the cost of status effects? For example, in a typical RPG if one of your guys is poisoned you'll waste one character's turn plus the cost of the antidote in removing the poison. The cost is sufficient enough that, if you can finish the battle quickly enough without suffering poison damage, you'll kill the bad guys quickly. Even if poison isn't automatically removed at the end of battle, you'll still limit the amount of damage suffered on your party.

What's got my confused about singing and these body-mind-spirit-voice status afflictions is that I don't see the cost. You allow the player to heal them entirely every turn, if they've got the patience, and then the player can go on to attack or do something else at full capacity. The only cost, losing a turn, is incurred when cry or roar are used to speed up the process and gain a little more power for a short period of time. Anyways, I'm probably all screwed up on my understanding; the obvious thing would be to make these damaged-direction status effects have a real cost to the player. Maybe, for example, you can only sing one song and restore only one of the four types per round, so the player needs to decide which is most important to keep up in the fight. Or maybe songs could cost a little MP or require the player to use a purchasable item.

Also, I don't understand how the arrow keys are used to direct the healing of the directions on the rotating disc. For example, if I want to heal my Body from damage, do I press the left arrow key repeatedly, or press it once and then pick the Sing command, or what? Does singing heal a damage type completely or only partially? And by the way, was there any particular reason that you decided that the Zelin song would heal two of the types instead of one type?

Finally... even if you do have a barrier to using Sing every round, it sounds like it might get a little tedious after awhile. But you probably know that! I also had another idea- what if you started the player off with four songs to heal four types of damage, and then the player could learn new songs by completing side quests spread throughout the game? Players would obviously seek out more powerful songs that heal 2 or 3 damage types at a time. There'd never need to be a 'master' song that heals all damage, since cry and roar do that already, but having combination songs would be cool. If you still wanted to tie songs to arrow keys, you could even have the player equip four songs at a time outside of battle, forcing him to plan ahead. And if you're going that far, you could even have special songs that don't heal any damage but provide positive buffs like regeneration, haste, and so on!

Weapon idea
Sounds cool! I think you balanced it well by having the pieces slide back into default position every couple minutes. Obviously it'd be a bad idea to have an 'uber' staff lock, but that whole thing could let the player experiment with all sorts of combat effects and damage types.

I think it'd be most fair if the timer to the staff reset only counts down when the action isn't paused, i.e. when the screen isn't full of attack animations or anything.

One idea for an 'uber' combination: if some of the later staff piece slides take 1 turn, create a final combination that is really difficult to assemble over several rounds. The formula can even be made available in the game, perhaps in some old dusty book the player can discover, but the true difficulty is memorizing the combination and applying it fast enough before the staff reset.